Read ‘Poorly made in China’ by Paul Midler. It’s an enjoyable, eye-opening account of his business as a middle man ‘fixer’ in China. It’s nicely objective and he does conclude with something along the lines of ‘if we’re so desperate for our stuff to be so cheap what do you expect?’ Which I guess is fair enough.

Would something that’s been alright for years pose a threat?

Why not crack it open and have a peek?

should I expect the earth to be connected in a UK 3 pin charger?

Not in this case, the shell is all plastic.

I’m guessing I should probably check that the soldering inside the charger looks OK as well?

Check that no soldering is shorting at any point.

check it has a fuse at the point where the wires from the socket meet the board, then you should be OK if there is a fuse

Yes, I would put no faith in the resistor fuse.

Is there anything inherently dodgy about Li-ion batteries that are supplied with Chinese lights, or is it more to do with the act of charging them?

Well lithium is very reactive and when it combusts is does so in a very fierce manner which is hard to put out without CO2 or sand. The charge controller and protective circuit in the blue anonymous battery back is responsible for ensuring that the batteries do not over charge causing fire (or undercharge, reducing the batteries’ life). You are basically putting faith in this circuit board and the quality of the batteries themselves.

Although I buy looads of stuff from China every year and have done so since I was a kid, I would not let one of these shink wrapped things into my home personally.

a le crueset sauce pan

I’d go for it, that thing would survive a direct hit. Would you feel comfortable taking a small screwdriver, unscrewing the two screws and opening it up? You would be looking for a small glass tube.
(sorry if that comes across as condescending!)

Was just thinking the same thing. I was charging three at a time the other day, but figure that the fuse on the power bar would blow before anything too spectacular happens

I believe the fuse on the power bar would only blow if the plugs were drawing more that the amperage of the fuse rating. eg if it was a 13Amp fuse it would only trip at 3120 watts no?

Report it to trading standards, risk of killing someone by the sound of it!

While I agree with you completely, unfortunately I believe it was from a chinese seller.

I also think anyone with this sort of plug should unplug it, wait for a few mins then open it to check for a fuse. The fuse Should be exactly where the wire connects from the plug pins and look like this

I really hope you guys are ok!! That sounds very scary! Poor dog :(. The innards of yours look different to mine :/ Not sure if i should be worried.
Edit: Just took mine apart for another look. Mine is fused. I can’t believe they gave you an unfused power plug!! WTF! :o

Cheers, cr500dom! I’ll get that out tomorrow. If you’re after a good wall charger i would ask/look on budget light forum, there’s a lot of into there. Everyone who sent me paypal yesterday have had their boxes sent off this morning first class. Sorry about that Dukeduvet! it fits into mine perfectly as you saw :/ Maybe they used two different screw gauges? I wish china was more consistent!!

The ones I have are all crystal clear, i probably wouldn’t worry too much if it doesn’t affect your beam.
EDIT: are the screws on yours philips? Not seen that before if they are

Payment received, that was very kind of you to ask Z1ppy. I’m not going to bother emailing anyone payment confirmation I’ll just post them out.
Cheers, Ollie

Hey Z1ppy, I have more coming tomorrow because quite a few people expressed interest so don’t worry also definitely as goods otherwise you’re not protected in case I’m a scammer :p

Sorry sorry sorry for being so slow with emails guys! I’ll send them now. I have an essay due on Friday and my time management is terrible! So without further ado here are the measurements and all pics. If you want one just paypal me ollyboyd@hotmail.co.uk £12 (sent as goods) with your address in the paypal address bit and I’ll send them out the next day (email me for combined postage). I have more on their way arriving tomorrow so there are enough to go round.
If you want one with Panasonic batteries I’m afraid you’ll have to wait :(

Album is here -> http://imgur.com/a/z6rH9

More details of fit and finish are in my previous post.

Dimensions
With nylon case
53mm depth
56.5mm width
118mm height

Bare box
Height 109mm
Depth (including strap loop) 50.6mm
Width 49.1mm

Cable thickness 4.19mm

Width of the tunnely hole thing on the side you could use for webbing: 18.4mm
Max thickness of webbing you could use: 3mm

Max width of battery that would fit 18.60mm
Max battery height with springs fully compressed=total height of compartment-(height of compressed springs+height of the lid’s protruded battery contacts)
=72.51mm-(1.60+1.11)=69.8mm

I’ve repeated the battery length measurement many times so Panasonics will fit JUST. Of course the lid has 7.87mm over overlap with the case body so the fit isn’t crucial but it would be nice to get the lid fully tightened.

I have destroyed my case in the name of testing to get pics of the circuit board at the bottom. It is stuck to the bottom with those sponge sticky pads. You would need to heat it with a hairdryer to remove it without damaging your case.

The length of cable from tip to base is 52cm.
I can also confirm that the box does support the use of just two batteries in series.

I would describe the soldering as robust :p

The box’s connector fits the X2s perfectly.

Cheers, Ollie

Hey, sorry this has taken so long. Had to use a combination of my parents’ decade old iMac and my android to upload the pics which was painful. I’ll put more up tomorrow when I’m back in Dundee and email everyone who has emailed me previously.

Disclosure :I have some of these for sale. This is an objective review but just so you know.

So the case is nice quality, it’s seriously strong, I think it would be impossible to break it even by stamping on it. Whatever plastic they used is good for the job. The manufacturing tolerances are very good. The lid and body come together tightly. The lid is lined with rubber which you can see in the photo to seal it against the body. There is an o-ring between the tightening knob and the lid to prevent water ingress. I don’t know what the ‘loop’ of plastic on the side is for, you could pass webbing through it but I don’t know why you might want to.

The connector is threaded for the X2’s barrel nut.

The springs are nice quality and are firm.

There is no protection circuit so protected batteries or batteries charged in a separate charger must be used.

Panasonic protected cells will fit but it will be a tight squeeze.

It will take flat top batteries.

The cable looks like it could be fairly easily replaced by another of the same gauge.

All in all I’m really happy with it. Just need some decent batteries now.

MEASUREMENTS TO COME TOMORROW.

Cheers, Ollie

http://imgur.com/MaXCo35
http://imgur.com/jOwCK1u
http://imgur.com/qE4VtQu
http://imgur.com/4DHOhyx
http://imgur.com/zAwS0mn
http://imgur.com/VNBoj4z
http://imgur.com/lOVbZj8

View post on imgur.com

Hey guys, battery boxes are here!! :D I’m going to be doing a full objective review tonight including all measurements, teardown and pics. I have one soaking in the bath just now :) I’ll email those who asked me to put one asside for them later tonight. All I’ll say now is that they are really nice quality and match the quality of the head unit.

Until later, Ollie

Nicely done! I was thinking getting the Solarstorm factory to send some of their waterproof connectors as long as they’re dirt cheap for similar DIY projects. Like these
Do you think a bit of water/dirt ingress makes any difference? Did you cannibalise something else for the sealed bolts?

hi guys, did anyone have a link for a UK seller who sold the head unit without the battery and charger? What with all the concern over it, i’d planned to buy a better battery, but i don’t really want to have to have 2!

Hey Spudly1979, I have some sets coming, someone else wants the charger out of one of them so you’re welcome to the head unit and I’m sure I can find a home for the waterproof battery box.

Ollie

Next noddy question Anyone ever built a battery using 26650 cells? found some 4000mAh, 3.7V – 26650 for a reasonable price…

Should be an interesting build, I’d go for it. Will you cut the connector off your existing pack?

I’ve a Solarstorm head unit on order – does anyone know what connector’s on it? I’ve also ordered this battery which looks like the one sold by C and B. Please tell me it’s going to fit…

Hey jruk that pack looks like it may just about fit at a push although it doesn’t have the waterproof screw attachment. You may also find the runtimes are a bit disappointing.

Ollie

Right guys I’m off to bed, I’ll reply to any more emails from you night owls in the morning! :D

ivnickkate I’ve sent you an email.

Hey guys,
Sorry there were a couple of emails in spam from yesterday. I’ll keep checking it.
Ollie

Hey Nealy, they’re U2s I’ll test them before I send them out so you don’t get any dodgy emitter patterns!
Ollie

Hey guys, some of you may have seen my post on mtbr and emailed me already, I just found this thread from Google. I must admit that my real love is touring so sorry if I’m a bit of an imposter here!! Just in case anyone’s interested I have some of the Solarstorm waterproof battery boxes on their way to the UK, they should be here by the end of the week or by the beginning of next week, I also have a few sets of the Solarstorm X2 with battery boxes (instead of the cheapo battery boxes) with a UK plug I also ordered some high quality, Panasonic batteries. The batteries will be a wee bit later because of the current problems with getting Lithium batteries through HK customs but SHOULd be here by the end of next week

If you want me to put one aside for you or you have any questions my email is ollyboyd[at]hot mail.co.uk If you live in Edinburgh or Dundee you’re welcome to pick them up, I can’t give you the price of the sets until they pass through customs but they’ll be very competetive. I’ll send you one of the Solar storm boxes for £12.00 delivered.

Cheers, Ollie