new bike light

[voicecoils]

That's a lot of light. You may want to put "eyelids" on them to prevent the spill from blinding oncoming traffic. (I did that with the MR16 LEDs. )

I'll see how I go, I plan to angle it down quite a bit. I don't wish to bind anyone. I also don't like riding along and having every SUV's headlights right at my eye level, but no one's put eyelinds on their BMW X5 for my benefit that I've seen so far... :?

 

[voicecoils]

Please every one be cautious with this light, I was one of the first testers before it came out, & on the early models QC was very bad,, swaf in the light, no thermal grease to be found & poorly mated thermal junctions, fake o-ring on clamp & under rated components on the main driver.
I know that some of the problems have now been fixed, but this is depending on the vintage of run...may still have the cheap driver, mine failed pretty quick so if it lasts 10 hours you may be right...

K

I'm sure it hasn't been built perfectly. I have a friend who's been riding with one for a few months now with no problems though. I have 2 bare P7 from DealExtreme but haven't even had the chance to play around with them yet, months later. With this light it's all set straight out of the box.

My NiteRider MiNewt has much nicer build quality but cost the same amount and is only 110 lumens.

What do you mean by 'fake o-ring clamp'? My NiteRider uses the same style of mounting system and I've never had any problems.

 

[ngocthach1130]

Hopefully one day they'll understand that some of us have more than 1 bike and we would like to buy spare headlight assembly and still use the same battery pack from the full light package for our other bike. Hehe I am just daydreaming but it doesn't hurt to dream.

 

[ambroseliao]

You can buy the light by itself from geomangear.com

http://www.geomangear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_41&products_id=143

The price is $48.

They also sell the complete MagicShine HA III P7 light for $90 shipped, however, he's currently out of stock. They are selling like hotcakes! The big advantage of buying from geomangear is that they can replace defective units very quickly as opposed to buying them from overseas.

Ambrose

 

[ktronik]

Please every one be cautious with this light, I was one of the first testers before it came out, & on the early models QC was very bad,, swaf in the light, no thermal grease to be found & poorly mated thermal junctions, fake o-ring on clamp & under rated components on the main driver.
I know that some of the problems have now been fixed, but this is depending on the vintage of run...may still have the cheap driver, mine failed pretty quick so if it lasts 10 hours you may be right...

K

I'm sure it hasn't been built perfectly. I have a friend who's been riding with one for a few months now with no problems though. I have 2 bare P7 from DealExtreme but haven't even had the chance to play around with them yet, months later. With this light it's all set straight out of the box.

My NiteRider MiNewt has much nicer build quality but cost the same amount and is only 110 lumens.

What do you mean by 'fake o-ring clamp'? My NiteRider uses the same style of mounting system and I've never had any problems.

Sorry, not the o-ring that clamps the light to the bar, I mean the o-ring that is ment to 'seal' the power cable entry, is fake & does not seal anything & water can still enter the clamp bolt hole...

you can see my mods to make it all better on the middle link I posted, I just put the thermal goo in the right place, replaced the driver with one that does not fail, changed the cable entry so that its sealed & stippled the reflector for a smoother beam pattern...

BTW more like 700lm rather than 900lm....

if people are after a good small, very well made light with low cost, then check out the K-light after the 25 sept it will be shipped as 1000lm & has a fully programmable MCU led driver

K

 

[ambroseliao]

Hi ktronik,

That K-light you mention is $258 USD! It also doesn't include a battery. Shipping from Australia to the US would be expensive as well. There are lots of competitors In that price range. You could buy 3 of the Magicshines with batteries for the price of one K-light!

My Magicshine is on it's way from China! I should have it in about a week.

Ambrose

 

[ktronik]

Hi ktronik,

That K-light you mention is $258 USD! It also doesn't include a battery. Shipping from Australia to the US would be expensive as well. There are lots of competitors In that price range. You could buy 3 of the Magicshines with batteries for the price of one K-light!

My Magicshine is on it's way from China! I should have it in about a week.

Ambrose

You are free in this world to buy what you want, but if what you are saying here is you can buy 3 cheap Chinese products for less than one light, made in Australia, using superior design, electronics, LEDs & workmanship, then you would be correct. ...for me when I am in the middle of the bush, I really depend on my light, with my life...I am happy to pay the price of 'piece of mind'... after all my Magicshine died right away...

K

 

[ambroseliao]

Are you the owner of the company or an employee of the company that created the K-light?

Ambrose

 

[ktronik]

Double post

 

[ktronik]

Are you the owner of the company or an employee of the company that created the K-light?

Ambrose

I am the designer. my job is to make sure the LEDs are very well cooled for max lumen per watt & that the electronics won't blow up when used...

have a look @ what happens to your light when your LED heats up...the DX version of the MShine has 3 thermal junctions & poorly matted ones at that...a 12w LED light could loss over 100lm easily just by adding more thermal junctions to the light case...

The more thermal junctions the less efficient heat transfer is, the hotter the LED junction becomes over time, the more light lost as heat...the less light you have...

its is great value for the price, but for me I like to have a driver & batterys that have been proven to work / last before I go off into the bush in the dark...I am sure many people will be happy with this light as it is...so I say go for it & buy buy buy...you can't go wrong at that price. But, I say buy off GEOMAN, as he has had his changed, closer to the spec I would be happy with, & has done so with feedback from user like me...

For me, I have modded mine...Thermal paste under the MCPCB, can lip, retainer & retainer thread, I used a IP68 cable gland, sealed the old cable hole, swapped out the untested driver to a tested AMC7135 in a 2.8A config, using 4 parallel wired 18650's, I have also 'stippled' the reflector for a smoother beam pattern & now I am happy, I love reflectors for the great beam they give ...for me this is a simple & reliable system with little to go wrong, that will get me home again...this is just MHO, people are free to make up thier own mind, as are you...

the DX version would have to be fully re-built to last any length of time just on the thermal side of things...let alone an un-tested driver & cheap batts...good for a cheapo modder to tinker...

good luck & enjoy

Ktronik

 

[voicecoils]

Sorry, not the o-ring that clamps the light to the bar, I mean the o-ring that is ment to 'seal' the power cable entry, is fake & does not seal anything & water can still enter the clamp bolt hole...

Ah yes, I'm with you now. I did notice that. I don't know that I'd call it fake, but it sure would be more effective if half of it actually went inside the light housing to provide a seal. Point taken.

you can see my mods to make it all better on the middle link I posted, I just put the thermal goo in the right place, replaced the driver with one that does not fail, changed the cable entry so that its sealed & stippled the reflector for a smoother beam pattern...

BTW more like 700lm rather than 900lm....

From your invesitgation of the driver, do you know what the voltage and current limitations of it are? I'm planning on making a power pack for mine with 3.2v10Ah lifepo4 Headway cells for long run times and want to know how high I can push the voltage before the driver *pops*.

if people are after a good small, very well made light with low cost, then check out the K-light after the 25 sept it will be shipped as 1000lm & has a fully programmable MCU led driver
K

Your lights look very nice, and should be well received by light nerds and the highend MTB market. A locally made product appeals to me too, but for a lighting newb it's still to expensive to be an impulse purchase.

 

[voicecoils]

...for me when I am in the middle of the bush, I really depend on my light, with my life...I am happy to pay the price of 'piece of mind'...

Interestingly, when I was talking to the friend of mine who borrowed one of the MagicShine's from me, he said one of the 24hr MTB race requirements was that they carry two light systems, in case one fails.

His backup is a DIY halogen + SLA battery setup

Do you carry a complete system for redundancy as well?

 

[ktronik]

Sorry, not the o-ring that clamps the light to the bar, I mean the o-ring that is ment to 'seal' the power cable entry, is fake & does not seal anything & water can still enter the clamp bolt hole...

Ah yes, I'm with you now. I did notice that. I don't know that I'd call it fake, but it sure would be more effective if half of it actually went inside the light housing to provide a seal. Point taken.

you can see my mods to make it all better on the middle link I posted, I just put the thermal goo in the right place, replaced the driver with one that does not fail, changed the cable entry so that its sealed & stippled the reflector for a smoother beam pattern...

BTW more like 700lm rather than 900lm....

From your invesitgation of the driver, do you know what the voltage and current limitations of it are? I'm planning on making a power pack for mine with 3.2v10Ah lifepo4 Headway cells for long run times and want to know how high I can push the voltage before the driver *pops*.

if people are after a good small, very well made light with low cost, then check out the K-light after the 25 sept it will be shipped as 1000lm & has a fully programmable MCU led driver
K

Your lights look very nice, and should be well received by light nerds and the highend MTB market. A locally made product appeals to me too, but for a lighting newb it's still to expensive to be an impulse purchase.[/quote]


Its a 2 cell pack you would need, don't think the driver would handle 3 lipo/ion cells...output 2.8A to LED (@3.6v) on high (maybe 1.4-1.8A drain on the 7.2v pack)...but if you swapped out the driver you could have different battery voltage options


Yep it not a fake o-ring.. just in the wrong place so does nothing...

 

[ktronik]

...for me when I am in the middle of the bush, I really depend on my light, with my life...I am happy to pay the price of 'piece of mind'...

Interestingly, when I was talking to the friend of mine who borrowed one of the MagicShine's from me, he said one of the 24hr MTB race requirements was that they carry two light systems, in case one fails.

His backup is a DIY halogen + SLA battery setup

Do you carry a complete system for redundancy as well?

I carry 3 lights with me...one on the bike, (for 24hr racing I use the k-light, dynamo powered) one more on the head, the k-light mini, battery powered & carry a backup headtorch just in case...

I love the dynamo version the most...if you can pedal you have light...

K

 

[heathyoung]

LED's are getting bright, this may convince me to replace my power hungry 35W HID (Honda Accord Euro Luxury headlamp insides) - its brighter than any halogen car headlamp

 

[RPA]

Today I got two NiteFLUX Commuter 4 lights from they're website. They use extremely fast shipping! Ordered them on Sunday and they arrived Wednesday all the way from Australia with free shipping. I was very impressed with that. Haven't had a chance to mount them on the bike yet but they put out a good amount of light so far in the house. Plus they can be used as a flashlight. I'll take some pics when I get them both mounted.

 

[ngocthach1130]

I bought the magicshine from geomangear and it arrived in 2 days. Sweet. Bought only the headlight no battery. This thing look nice. Smaller than what i imagined but good packaging. I wonder what is the max voltage i can run these at. Assuming the lithium battery that usually come with this will be 9v fresh off the charger, i wonder if i can run this with a 9v 1.6A switching power supply. They're cheap on ebay. So far i've tested with an old pack of 8.4V Nickel Metal Hyride battery and they look good except it's so old it won't hold the 8.4V it's suppose too. One thing i don't like is the button which turn the light on is constantly glowing red. This indicating a low battery. This also mean the light is drawing some current even when not in use.

Oh that and they didn't send me any mounting hardware for the light. Not even the clip which hold the light to the handle bar.

 

[morph999]

what do you guys use for the back light? I need a good red back light. I want it to be visible during the day because I usually only ride during the day.

 

[ktronik]

what do you guys use for the back light? I need a good red back light. I want it to be visible during the day because I usually only ride during the day.

I made a light I call 'the blinder'. it uses 3 red high power LEDs (from DX)

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1776

driven by a AMC7135 16 mode driver, with all 3 LEDs wired in parallel. total drive current 1050ma to led string from battery around 500ma with a 50% duty cycle of flash...

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7612

powered by one li/ion cell.

no optics or reflectors, so it has a 70 deg viewing angle. Its so crazy bright I can not bear to look @ it...

very cheap & cheerfull, that can be made bigger or smaller without much effort...totally visible in the day....& absolutely blinding @ night....

I can provide pics if needed.

K

 

[Grinhill]

I can provide pics if needed.

That would be great, thanks K.

LED's are getting bright, this may convince me to replace my power hungry 35W HID (Honda Accord Euro Luxury headlamp insides) - its brighter than any halogen car headlamp

Apparrently the Cree XP-G will be available in a few weeks, I've been checking the Cutter website.

 

[ktronik]

I can provide pics if needed.

That would be great, thanks K.

LED's are getting bright, this may convince me to replace my power hungry 35W HID (Honda Accord Euro Luxury headlamp insides) - its brighter than any halogen car headlamp

Apparrently the Cree XP-G will be available in a few weeks, I've been checking the Cutter website.

Bring 0n the XPG!!! I have a huge back order for XPG...

That will make my K-light & k-light mini 1000lm!!! all from a 20mm light engine...

the housing is from my cheapo range, see link... that same housing, with alloy sides & extra heatsinks will take 2 triple XPG for 2000lm output...

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=194266

K

 

[ambroseliao]

Hi Ktronik,

It would be great if you started a new topic on your red tail light. I would love to know more and to see pictures of it!

Thanks for sharing this.

Ambrose

 

[ambroseliao]

Hi Ktronik,

I ordered the parts for "the Blinder" so once I put it together, I'll post some photos. I opted for 2 red emitters instead of 3.

Thanks for the putting up the links for the parts.

Ambrose

 

[ktronik]

Hi Ktronik,

I ordered the parts for "the Blinder" so once I put it together, I'll post some photos. I opted for 2 red emitters instead of 3.

Thanks for the putting up the links for the parts.

Ambrose

Hey cool, if you need help wiring, PM me...

so if you use 2 LEDs you will be sharing the 1050mA across them both...not as eff running same power into 2 rather than 3... so you would not be saving any power doing this...

as the flash mode is always @ driver full power, & if you wanted to use less power, then you could cut the trace to one of the ACM7135 regulator (3 on board), just cut the + power trace, that would be common to all 3 reg's (driven in parallel on the board)

OR you could run 2 rear red & one white front...

all good fun...

K

 

[ambroseliao]

Hi ktronik,

If the driver has 3 regulators, I may as well get a 3rd LED. Price is certainly right. Which white LED would you recommend for a front white one?

Ambrose
(PS, I really appreciate your knowledge and help!)