Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

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

343K views 419 replies 109 participants last post by  spartacus001 
#1 · (Edited)
My first light review:

Advertised Specs:
Emitter Type: XML T6 LED Output 1800 lumens
Modes: High / Low / Strobe (high) with no memory
Run Time: 180 minutes on High
Battery pack: 1 x 8.4v Li-Ion 6400mAh Battery Pack
Battery Charger: 115v with LED indication for Charging (Red) / Full charge (Green)
Power Warning: Red Low Power behind tail click
Helmet Strap: O-ring mount
Head dimension: Light 43mm DIA
Weight: 118g (lamp head) 200gm battery pack : Total 318gm

My lighting needs for city commuting at night has always been adequate using a cheap handlebar mounted light. However due to a change in my route I now ride about 10km on paved trials where there is no lighting whatsoever. Ebay offered many of options ranging from cheap flashers to a high end NiteRider Pro kit. I needed robust and bright enough for commuting that wasn't going to cost me a arm and a leg. So I decided to try out one of the Chinese vendors who offered a hard-to-believe 1800 Lumen kit for under $60. I believe this light is a version of the popular Magic Shine lighting system.

I knew that an output of 1800 Lumen was impossible with the XML T6 with the advertised setup. Still, I figured if the output was half it was still worth $60. After I ordering the light I was expecting it to take at least 4 weeks to arrive from China but I was pleasantly surprised to find it in my mailbox after 7 working days. Apparently the particular vendor operated out of Hong Kong so the shipping time was cut by 1/3rd.

Kit Contents


The kit came in a small box which contained the lamp, battery/charge, 2-Orings, Helmet strap/adapter, battery holder. At first sight the body was machined well with matt black anodizing. I was actually surprised with the quality of the workmanship. No burs, machine marks nor blotchy finishing. The threads were smooth and fitting was tight. The Aluminium reflector had a smooth finish instead of the Orange peel texture that was pictured in the ad. The LED was mounted on the board with a large heat-sink which threaded into the body. There was plenty of room in the housing for heat dissipation. The crowned Bezel has 6-points with a nice satin brushed finish. Under the glass lens there is a GITD (Glow in the Dark) silicon O-ring and silicon rubber tail cap. The tailcap switch is a reverse clicky with a LED battery indicator behind it.




There were no markings on the board that indicated that the emmitter was actually the newest T6 but based on the pattern of the emitter (7-bar grid pattern) and the production date of 20110901 I'm pretty certain it's a XML. I was happy to see a nice blob of thermal paste for heat transfer. On the board all the the solder joints were clean.


The battery pack appears to be 4 x18650 linked in series and bundled in heat shrink. It's hard to tell if these are protected cells and I didn't want to take off the heat shrink. The cable and connectors pushed together snugly but they lack weather sealed caps which would have been nice. When I plugged in the light I was surprised to find the the batteries already charged. I put it on a volt meter and it measured 7.9V on the 3rd charge. Not the advertised 8.4V. Maybe it needs a break in time <?>

** Update **
Burn Time
On the 4th full charge the battery reached 8.27V in just over 6hrs. The charger was warm but the battery remained cool the entire time.

High: 185 mins.
A full 3+ hours exceeded my expectations. But the lamp got hot after running for 10mins. It was hot enough that I couldn't hold on to it for more then 30seconds. The battery was at normal indoor temperature (22 degrees). I ended up placing the lamp head in between an aluminium sliding door frame to help dissipate the heat.
The backlit switch remained green the entire time with no low battery warning light.
** There definitely is a Red Led but I must have missed it in the final 5 mins juice.

Low: testing in progress
Strobe: in progress

Beam Shots
The beam was very bright but I don't have a light meter to measure it. The beam is very bright with a hot center with wide spillage. There are some small artifacts in the spot but not very noticable. It has excellent throw qualities but this is not ideal for a bike light. Comparing the beam side-by-side with my EagleTac P20A2 (which pumps out about 220Lm) this light seemed at least twice as bright.

LEFT: Comparion to an EagleTac P20A2 with Sanyo Eneloops AAs. Spot lens on High.

Wide Angle Lens
Definitely a wider flood pattern is need for commuting. I decided to replace the stock lens with an aftermarket wide angle lens from Ebay. The Action Light lens was shipped out very quickly. Thanks Jim. It converted the 10 degree spot beam to a 10 degree high by 30 degree wide flood light. The beam pattern is rectangular in shape.



Light comparions: Wall light is a CFL 40W Equivalent. The Garage light is a CFL 100 W Equivalent Compared to car headlights it is easily on par with BMW or Lexus HIDs
I like the volume of light but would have much prefered a warmer light. I find the warmer temperatures giving an more accurate depth perception i.e. better CRI (Color rendering index)

This might be a DIY project for later (if I find the time to learn how to replace it with a Warmer T5 Emitter).


You can see the difference between the standard and wide angle pattern.
Road beam Pattern on High: Spot vs Wide angle


Trail beam Pattern on High: Spot vs Wide angle

Mount
I didn't even bother with the standard mount. A single O-ring didn't seem like very secure system and it doesn't lend itself for quick mounting and removal. So I discarded the mount and replaced it with one from my old Cateye H-24. An spacer plate was needed so I fabricated one from a piece of plexiglass. I drilled two holes for screws and made a channel for the wire. Then I modified the body by drilling/tapping 2 holes 8-32 to which the spacer is bolted on to. I add clear silicone to all holes and gaps to ensure good water resistance.



Conclusion

Good: Overall I'm happy with the light. The construction is solid with more then enough output for city communting needs. It reached a full burn time of 3hrs on High. The design and construction is simple which is attractive to tinkerers who plan to modify the light. An excellent value light.

Bad: The spot light isn't ideal for a bike light so I'd recommend a wide angle lens especially for off trail. It is falsely advertised as 1800 Lm. At best it's probably in the range of 450-550 Lm. The low battery warning is hardly a warning. The red warning goes on for maybe 5 mins and then the light dies. The O-ring friction mount seemed like an after thought. It definitely needs a better mounting system. There was no low battery warning indicator. The battery pouch is adequate but the strap is too long. It could use a second strap so to give a little more support. The option of a warmer T5 would make it almost perfect.

Time will tell how many cycles the batter pack will last. When it dies I plan to build my own pack.

At the time of this review the Ebay seller had 12614 feedback and 99.6% +ve
I'll update this thread with the Low burn time after I log more hours.
Enjoy
 
See less See more
10
#71 ·
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.
 
#72 ·
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.
 
#73 · (Edited)
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?
 
#75 ·
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.
 
#80 ·
I understand. I have a couple Dinotte 200L AA lamps. Not sure how you broke the carrier as the plastic is pretty tough. I don't use mine anymore but if I did I would have to get rid of the stupid nine volt type battery connectors. Those used to give me fits. An easy fix actually. Just solder some better connectors to the carrier terminals and to the lamp.

The spare batteries I was referring to was for the P-7 torch. For that a back-up 18650 cell is a must.
 
#82 · (Edited)
I was hoping this lamp would problem free a little longer but since my original review I've run into some issues.

I switched on the light during a night ride and it ran for about a minute then it shut off. It seems like the battery just ran out of juice.
I plugged it into the charger and the LED indicator light was out. So I left it over night but it didn't charge the battery. I put a meter on it and the charger has died.

I've order a replacement charger.
This time I'm trying out a 8.4v 1.5A AC/DC charger for a Sony Camera.
I'll update this thread as soon as I get recieve the charger and test the battery.
 
#83 · (Edited)
I recieved a Sony laptop charger @ 8.4V 1.5A. Pretty close to the specs. of the original charger. I spliced the jack from the broken adapter, soldered and heat shrunk the splice.
Put the battery in a metal tray and plugged in the charger. I monitored the temperature the entire time. The adapter was slightly warm and the batteries showed no signs of heat. After 5hrs it was done. The adapter was cold.
Plugged in the light. Bingo! Back to night riding.



The old adapter just died. Other then no LED there was no other warning. No burning smell, no excessive heat. Probably a bad transformer or capacitor.
 
#91 ·
Wide angle lens Cree XML T6

Hi I bought one of these CREE XML T6 LED 1800LM a month ago and absolutely love. I use it for both bike and running and have nothing but good to say about it.

However i keep reading that you can get a wide angle lens for them and i am obviously missing something as i cannot find them on ebay. can someone please point me in the right direction?

I am not in the USA

Thnx
 
#93 ·
Hi I bought one of these CREE XML T6 LED 1800LM a month ago and absolutely love. I use it for both bike and running and have nothing but good to say about it.

However i keep reading that you can get a wide angle lens for them and i am obviously missing something as i cannot find them on ebay. can someone please point me in the right direction?

I am not in the USA

Thnx
They are available here. WIDE ANGLE LENS
 
#95 ·
It was either a Magicshine or Gloworm but I went with this cheaper option. It cost me at an auction of $34 it was soo cheap then its a matter of waiting from Asia shipping which took about 2.5 weeks. Before this I had those HID & ay-up LED which cost me about $300-400 and this copied magicshine light is bright enough and value for money. I just ordered another light for the helmet too. I took that risk and so far soo good for 2 x 1800 cree LED at $70.....bargain!
 
#96 ·
I run the light static on the tile floor and was on for 3.5hrs but I had to turn it off as I had to go to bed, next time will do an all out test. The battery took 4hrs to charge from 3.5hrs of use. This light went well and better than I expected, really surprised, wow.

anyway I'm that excited I'm buying 2 more for my commute bike (front & rear) and use y cable with single battery and use the other battery as spare ;) For the rear light I will have to find a red lense ;)
 
#98 ·
I like the beam pattern shot with the big dark artifact in it.
If you want to try and fix that you might try a Magicshine orange peel reflector available here and/or a wide angle lens
Also be aware that the power connector on most of these is not the same as a MS.

Be for-warned, I have a wholesale customer who uses lights for an off the bike purpose and thought he would save some money and bought 100 of these. Within 6 months over half of his batteries had died and he was SOL.
What's the longest anyone has had one of these in use and how are they doing?
 
#99 ·
I bought a $43 close last September and it's still going good. Almost full run time, etc but I'm sure when it gets cold the battery will run far less.

However, I say this knowing my group has 6 MS's and a couple of clones. Most have either had bad batteries after 6-12 months or defective heads, several and splitting cables at the connectors.

We all have at least 1 good light set of a quality brand. Mine are Dinotte.

They are cheap and if you figure a year and are happy w/ that, then go for it but never ride w/ just one of those lights by yourself.

By the way, my Dinotte XML-3 dual kicks butt. Use these on the bars as the beam is wide. Use the clone on the helmet as the beam is very narrow but that's ok w/ me on the helmet.

I'd buy another for sure b/c they are so affordable but would never go out w/o the Dinotte's.
 
#100 ·
spartacus001,
Hi.
I would like to buy the same flashlight, but capacity of battery is not so high for me.
In my country that batteries are expensive and hard to purchase.
How do you think, is this available to change the original power source?
I can not find the same voltage batteries.
 
#108 ·
Hi there

Anyone knows where to find spare battery packs for the light reviewed? Are the connectors the same as for the MagicShine? Or if the T6 Water Resistant XML-T6 3-Mode 930-Lumen White LED Bike Light, from DX - Hong Kong, has the same connectors as the light reviewed?

Thanks
 
#109 ·
II ordered 2 battery packs @$18.99/ea on fleabay from .cn, they're in SF customs now, will report...

I cant' post links yet but if you search for "Battery Pack for CREE XM-L" you will find it.

My MS and my 3 knockoffs all have the same connector.

Anyone knows where to find spare battery packs for the light reviewed? Are the connectors the same as for the MagicShine? Or if the T6 Water Resistant XML-T6 3-Mode 930-Lumen White LED Bike Light, from DX - Hong Kong, has the same connectors as the light reviewed?

Thanks
 
#114 ·
Yep, they're using the lab numbers of the LED dies, with an air fan blowing cooling air over them (the lumens being better when the die is running at 25C than at 85C)... not real world enclosed in a aluminium housing and ridden on a hot summer night when the lowest temperature of the die might be 30-35C.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top