Review of Ebay: 1800 Lumen CREE XML T6 LED Bicycle HeadLight Lamp

[Gav888]

Just to add to the review.

I have just done a battery test on high from fully charged (8.34v) to the light turning off and the battery at 0v it lasted 4hrs 22min!! I didn't change the settings or anything I just turned it on high and left it running next to an open window to keep it cool.

Temp wise, it didn't get too warm that I couldn't hold it and the battery stayed cold the whole time.

[GraXXoR]

Just to add to the review.

I have just done a battery test on high from fully charged (8.34v) to the light turning off and the battery at 0v it lasted 4hrs 22min!! I didn't change the settings or anything I just turned it on high and left it running next to an open window to keep it cool.

Temp wise, it didn't get too warm that I couldn't hold it and the battery stayed cold the whole time.

When you say 0v, I hope you meant "until cut off" because I'm sure you are aware that running a Lithium based battery down to 0v would be catastrophic. O_o

[Gav888]

Sorry, until the light went off that should have been, rather than 0v. Just curious but what would happen if it went to 0v, say I dont use the lights for months over summer, will the batterys be knackered?

[Action LED Lights]

Sorry, until the light went off that should have been, rather than 0v. Just curious but what would happen if it went to 0v, say I dont use the lights for months over summer, will the batterys be knackered?

If the battery is like most protected packs, it would disable itself. If a Li-ion battery is to go to 0 volts there is a high probability that it will form internal shorts that could lead to a runaway reaction when it's charged. (read that as fire) The best condition to store a battery in is with a 60-70% charge and in a cool, dry place. You can even keep it in your refrigerator if you won't catch to much hell from your spouse. Then check it every few months to be sure it still has a reasonable amount of charge in it. If the light you have has a fuel gauge in like the MJ-808, then it should light up blue or yellow. If it's red give it a 1 hour charge.
For a more complete explanation see Battery Care

Jim Harger
Action LED Lights

[OpenLight]

A good quality Li-ion battery also has a self discharge rate of less than 10% per year so unless you store it with a short in the system you should be ok (but it is a good idea to check it periodically). Heat causes the battery to oxidize reducing its capacity, that is why it is recommended that you store it in a cool place when it is going to be a while between uses.

Josh
Open Light Systems

[Der Juicen]

i just received this light in the mail today.

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices


great fit and finish, the charcoal/grey color of the body and the anno red match perfect with colors on my bike, the smooth reflector is quite a tight spot so i started playing with the OP reflector and wide angle lens that i got from Action as well.

well the OP reflector has a lif on it keeping it from sitting inside the housing far enough and it created a wider significantly wider hot spot, but it had way too many artifacts to leave it alone. so... i took the OP reflector to the belt sander and sanded off the lip to get it farther into the housing and now there are no artifacts. in all the excitement i forgot to take before pictures of the reflector.

anyways, the smooth reflector with wide angle lens just widens the spot, dont think it would be good at night, but with the OP and the wide angle i can see it being pretty awesome for my bar light. first night ride with my own light will be wed.

when it gets dark and i have a chance i will take pics of beam shots with all the different lens/reflector combos.

[Gav888]

Wide angle lens arrived today, will try and get out soon to test it

Also does anyone have a guide or any tips on making these waterproof?

Ive already wrapped electric tape round the exposed ends of the battery pack as it was cardboard by the looks of it so they are now sorted, but need to do the rest....

[Cat-man-do]

Wide angle lens arrived today, will try and get out soon to test it

Also does anyone have a guide or any tips on making these waterproof?

Ive already wrapped electric tape round the exposed ends of the battery pack as it was cardboard by the looks of it so they are now sorted, but need to do the rest....

Don't know if you can make these waterproof but you can sure help it out some by using some good bike grease on the threads where the front screws on. Maybe a dab too on the screw that holds the mount ( bottom ). I would also cover the button switch 3/4 of the way with electrical tape. Just enough to repel water yet allow a little of the indicator light to be seen.

[Der Juicen]

I Would actually use a bit os clear silicone around the edge of the with, electrical tape wouldnt do much in that location. Also sme silicone around where the wire goes into the housing then grease on the mount screw threads and bezel threads might help along with the orings that are already there. If you want to grease the orings use a silicone based grease not petroleum so they dont swell.

[Der Juicen]

so i went for my first ride with my light tonight and... WOW!!! this thing kicks ass!
the first couple night rides a friend let me use one of his magic shine lights, i believe it has the P7.
i had it mounted on the bars and it got me through the ride.
with this new XML light w/ OP reflector and the Action wide angle lens it blew that light out of the water! when shining the light at a wall you see some artifacts from the ridges in the lens but you dont even notice them when riding. lights up the trail plenty for this regular wed night ride.

the only time i felt like i would have LIKED more throw was on a long steep descent, otherwise even some of the faster flowy stuff the throw was fine. also once we got into some tight twisty stuff i would have liked a light on my helmet for looking around.

I will definitely be adding more to my setup, one on my helmet with just the OP reflector, and then maybe the same thing added to the bars for the throw.

as for battery... it was a 2 hour ride and at the "check points" for other riders to catch up (average ride group of 15) i would turn the light off, and when we were climbing the low setting was plenty.
maybe when i add another light i will do a full ride with it on high and see how it does.

I am super stoked on this light!

no time for beam shots tonight, but soon...

[Gav888]

Finally got myself out in the forest for a ride (having only done road rides recently) and with the wide angle lens on the bars and a spot on the helmet its plenty of light for my rides, this includes technical and fast sections

A word of causion though, the standard o ring bracket attached to the light isn't very strong, I broke mine in 2 last night over some rough terrain on the bar mounted light! I had the small o ring on a std size bar, so fitted ok and seemed tight enough....

[Cat-man-do]

Finally got myself out in the forest for a ride (having only done road rides recently) and with the wide angle lens on the bars and a spot on the helmet its plenty of light for my rides, this includes technical and fast sections

A word of causion though, the standard o ring bracket attached to the light isn't very strong, I broke mine in 2 last night over some rough terrain on the bar mounted light! I had the small o ring on a std size bar, so fitted ok and seemed tight enough....

....I'm very sorry to hear about your misfortune but admittedly, your story did make me laugh.
Please forgive me. It's just that no one has ever complained about the mount itself breaking. That is a first. Hopefully you still have the pieces and perhaps some good glue might fix the problem....

Anyway, I believe some of the vendors here sell those plastic O-ring brackets. I know that BikerayUSA does, maybe Action LED Lights as well. Should just be a couple bucks.

[Gav888]

....I'm very sorry to hear about your misfortune but admittedly, your story did make me laugh.
Please forgive me. It's just that no one has ever complained about the mount itself breaking. That is a first. Hopefully you still have the pieces and perhaps some good glue might fix the problem....

Anyway, I believe some of the vendors here sell those plastic O-ring brackets. I know that BikerayUSA does, maybe Action LED Lights as well. Should just be a couple bucks.

LOL thats ok, made me laugh as well. I'm not having much luck with these lights, not able to glue it as the other half is in the mud somewhere...

Still, it's only a £30 light so things like this I can live with, if it was a £200 light it would be a different matter!

I was showing off the beam to some of the regular night riders I was out with, they have lights like MJ7872, Hope Vision 4 etc etc, they were all impressed with the beam combination I use, and only £60!!

For the money you could get 4 and still be quids in!

Tempted to get this mount - Action-LED-Lights — Bar Mount, Clamp-on instead but I will see what is in the garage first, might be able to make something up that is stronger...

Also found this - Lupine Lamp Unit Handlebar Mount - From £11.99 - Rutland Cycling but at £12 I would rather by another light!

And this post looks interesting - BikeRadar.com • View topic - Modifed Magicshine P7

[Action LED Lights]

Tempted to get this mount - Action-LED-Lights — Bar Mount, Clamp-on instead but I will see what is in the garage first, might be able to make something up that is stronger...

Not that I wouldn't mind selling it to you but for you EU readers the clamp-on quick release mount is also available from Magiclight-UK as is our wide angle lens

[Gav888]

Cheers Jim, already got your wide angle lens, but forgot the website to get the bracket

[spartacus001]

Hey Gav,

Glad to see your lights working out for you
Any chance for some beam shots of your set-up?

[Enduramil]

Same light and died about a week and half ago. Though ggrainy you can see the melting of the connectors.

[scar]

Pretty tough to see what is going on in that picture. Can't pick out the melting or the connectors. Can you try another picture?


***

[Enduramil]

Pretty tough to see what is going on in that picture. Can't pick out the melting or the connectors. Can you try another picture?


***

Noticed this when I pulled it apart. Looks like to connectors melted. But without another unit hard to confirm,



Other side of the area in question.

[BertoManfred]

how long is the battery cable and light cable combined?

[climberevan]

I also bought this light from one of the more-or-less random/equivalent ebay sellers.

Initially I was blown away by the brightness & apparent build quality, as well as value. $50 seems cheap for such a torch.

It lasted about 10 minutes into a night ride & died. The battery had full voltage, and the indicator led was still lit green. I contacted the seller, who offered to refund my money after I returned the light to China. At $15 shipping, minimum, I opted to just keep the thing and mod it instead. Lesson learned.

Anyway, I tore it apart completely, replaced the driver board with a $6 ~1000mA 3.7V one from KD, and it works again. Some modding of the heatsink was required, since my new board is smaller diameter than the original one. I also tore open the battery pack & re-wired it to be parallel to produce the required output. It was my first mod attempt, and I'm now motivated to do more. I can confirm that the battery pack has some sort of circuitry between the end of the wire & the batteries, but I'm not enough of an engineer to know what it is.

The wire on my unit was cheap--very easy to break the insulation on the inner wires after stripping the outer sheath. Overall I now see why these lights cost only $50. If it were not fun to mod them, or if I just wanted a working light, I'd be bummed about the experience.

[Cat-man-do]

Yep, undoubtedly the cheap generic Chinese stuff has poor quality control. Only goes to show that you get what you pay for. Still, for the price sometimes it's worth taking the chance.

Last night I was doing some major web surfing and ended up looking at a couple items on ebay. For the most part I don't do the ebay thing. I have to admit though, there is so much stuff at rock-bottom pricing it is tempting. A while back I said I wouldn't buy on ebay. Now I might have to eat those words. Last night I saw a cheap XM-L bike light with 2-cell battery for about $24. No, I'm not going to buy it but is an example of the kind of deals that you see. At that price you can buy two. If one goes up you send it back but you still have one. This is the same strategy I use when I buy cheap torches. If it turns out both work fine you can almost always sell one to a friend. If it lasts a year you got your money's worth.

[TiGeo]

I would be interested to see what someone would say if their cheap-o light died in the middle of a ride. Seriously, spend a whopping ~$30 more and get a Magicshine that has a good track record. I am not saying that MSs are as nice as say a Baja, but come on, why even mess with this eBay crap?

[MTBeing]

Get a Camelbak Rogue. Camelbak Rogue 70 oz. Hydration Pack - 2011 Model

Top zipper pocket is perfect for holding the battery pack for your helmet light.

Second that! It's exactly where I keep mine. Love this light!

[Cat-man-do]

I would be interested to see what someone would say if their cheap-o light died in the middle of a ride. Seriously, spend a whopping ~$30 more and get a Magicshine that has a good track record. I am not saying that MSs are as nice as say a Baja, but common, why even mess with this eBay crap?

Well, yeah...I have to agree for the most part. Buying from a reliable vendor is "So" much smarter. But like I said before, If you have more than one and one fails you still come out on top. Personally I always ride with at least two lights. Basically it's the smart thing to do. Add to that I always carry an emergency torch which could also function as a bike light if somehow both bike lights malfunctioned on the same ride ( although not likely to happen ). If you ride night on a regular basis you learn to be prepared.