things have progressed bike lights

JamesM":5xruha3b said:

3 sets, plus you are going to order some more. You can get a Hope R4 for £170 if you shop around. I have one and they are very nice indeed.

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I use them twice a day in the winter .

I think they lasted very well for the money . I will only order batteries .

xerxes":3q98esw1 said:

If you open up the battery pack, you'll find inside 4 standard size 3.7v li-ion batteries, something like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3872.m570.l1313&_nkw=Li-ion+Rechargeable+Battery&_sacat=0

If you're handy with a soldering iron and get hold of some heat shrink tube, you can make you're own battery packs for a fraction of what the bike light people sell them for. You could probably repair the switch and the bit that's rusted as well.

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I was under the impression that those batteries need overcharge/shortcircuit protection.
If you make up your own surely you need to source a protection circuit too, which ain't easy to find.
2 of my batteries died due to rain and the short circuit board blew a component both times - batteries themselves are fine but I can't find a new board. Glad it didn't blow the batteries though and a replacement pack with the board is only £12.

I was under the impression that those batteries need overcharge/shortcircuit protection.
If you make up your own surely you need to source a protection circuit too, which ain't easy to find.
2 of my batteries died due to rain and the short circuit board blew a component both times - batteries themselves are fine but I can't find a new board. Glad it didn't blow the batteries though and a replacement pack with the board is only £12.

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The overcharge/shortcircuit protection will probably in the battery pack and I was thinking that you'd be able to re-use that with the new batteries. However, if that has failed or been damaged, then obviously things are more complicated. :?

When you look at the price of the batteries at around £2 each, you realise that the battery packs at £50 and up are something of a rip-off. I'm fairly certain that the circuit protection board, cable and shrink wrap that constitutes the rest of the battery pack would cost no more than a fiver.

Having said all that, I wonder if there really is any circuit protection in the battery pack itself. It seems that this may actually be built into the battery: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4x-UltraF...rElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item336fcf6b60

And any overcharge protection will likely be built into the charger.

I wouldn't mind betting that most of the battery packs are simply four 18650 batteries with a suitable cable attached in a heatshrink or waterproof case:

http://www.open-light.co.uk/open-li...-compatible-battery.php?it=271&ca=72&p=1&so=0

The two cheap packs I have had have both had protection boards built in and you would be crazy to omit them, short circuiting a li-ion could end up burning your house/shed down, not worth the risk in my opinion.

You do get them built into individual cells, not sure if you can permanently stack them like that as I would have thought charging would be affected, possibly not though.

in that example you show you can see the wires are connected to the overcharge/short board

xerxes":y9cggf77 said:

When you look at the price of the batteries at around £2 each, you realise that the battery packs at £50 and up are something of a rip-off. I'm fairly certain that the circuit protection board, cable and shrink wrap that constitutes the rest of the battery pack would cost no more than a fiver.

Having said all that, I wonder if there really is any circuit protection in the battery pack itself. It seems that this may actually be built into the battery: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4x-UltraF...rElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item336fcf6b60

And any overcharge protection will likely be built into the charger.

I wouldn't mind betting that most of the battery packs are simply four 18650 batteries with a suitable cable attached in a heatshrink or waterproof case:

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Decent cells cost alot more than £2, but as you said have the protection built in. Its not hard to see why they cost so much money, £50 is cheap for a good 4 cell pack. 4 of these in a waterproof hard plastic case with a good quality connector:

http://www.flashaholics.co.uk/batteries ... -3100.html

Decent cells cost alot more than £2

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I think it's just an expensive shop, they sell Sanyo Eneloop for about 40% more than they are available elsewhere. :?

There's a lot of marking-up going on with this sort of stuff, much of it is made in the same factories and re-badged. There may be small variances in quality/capacity, but I think you sometimes pay a significant premium for some brands, beyond any real increase in quality.

I think it's a bit of a minefield these days, many brands charge what they can get away with and it's nothing to do with actual cost of production.

Look at this torch: http://www.flashaholics.co.uk/surefire/surefire-e2l-aa-outdoorsman.html.

I'm sure it's very good quality, but £200.00, really? :shock: So, it's more expensive to produce than a television, a washing machine, a bicycle! Is it 15 times better than the similar torch I bought for £15.00, of course not.

Thats alot of money for a torch.

This one is much more reasonable:

http://www.flashaholics.co.uk/eagletac/ ... mark2.html

You can get 8% off if you put CPF in the voucher box at the checkout so it only has to last 3 times longer than yours

As for the cells, the one I posted a link too was the most expensive highest capacity one on the site. There were others for £12 ish. Maybe that site is a bit steep but I was just trying show that it's only the cheapo direct from china cells that cost £2. Lithium-ion rechargeables can be a dangerous so it's not somewhere you should skimp. You want good cells with protection and a smart charger that will manage the cells during the charging process. Ironic that those cheap batteries are called Ultrafire

all the lights you need for £23 :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230825016348#ht_5783wt_1271

For 10 hours

cchris2lou":19fqr57u said:

all the lights you need for £23 :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230825016348#ht_5783wt_1271

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1800lm's will keep your head warm too