boink Posted May 24, 2013 Share Hey Hubbers I have one of the older Magic light setups, the one with the black battery in a pouch.Maybe what is referred to as the 808 model? Bought it second hand over a year ago and it was working fine up till a few weeks ago. Symptom I have is that when I connect the charger to the battery the LED on the charger shows green instead of red and no matter how long I leave it connected the head unit button shows red as soon as I connect the battery. It obviously dies shortly after. Does this mean I have:1. A battery issue?2. A charger issue? In either case where could I get 1 or 2? Thanks for any help. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted May 24, 2013 Share Sounds like a dead cell in the battery pack. If you're willing to cover postage I'll check it for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boink Posted May 24, 2013 Share Sounds fair to me, where are you based? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sampie Posted May 24, 2013 Share Sounds like a dead cell in the battery pack. If you're willing to cover postage I'll check it for free. Do you still build lights? I miss the DIY light projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flowspeed Posted May 24, 2013 Share Had the same problem. Also have one of those older lights. The connectors/conductors in the cell pack rusted through and disconnected.The problem is now: is it worth fixing it, or just buy a new battery pack.The second problem is: the Magiclight and the (newer) Magicshine lights do not have the exact same male-female cable connectors, where the light connects to the battery pack. It does fit, but only just (sometimes disconnects in the ride..pitch black all around). Still wondering what to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted May 24, 2013 Share Do you still build lights? I miss the DIY light projects. I have not built any lights recently but I did some maintenance on some of my lights around. All the lights I built are still working faithfully and many of them are 6 years old. While these China lights are good value in the current market, it's baffling to see that the 6 year old 3x Cree XR-E at 700 lumens is barely dimmer than these 1000 lumen China lights on the trail, simply because of the optical reflector design and primary beam angle of the LED - 90 deg vs 120 deg with a XM-L. I've had a 3D model ready for CNC machining since early last year already but I'm working on bigger light projects for the Aerospace industry and decided to wait a bit with a new the bike light. I think one reaches optimum efficiency at 10 watts. If you do proper thermal analysis the amount of material in a light housing needs to be too much once you work with a 3x XM-L setup, 35 watt's a lot to keep cool. Think of it... 700 lumens for 6 hours on a 480g battery... 6 years ago... wonderful times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candy Posted May 24, 2013 Share I have the exact same problem and have been told by everyone that its the battery that needs to be replaced.... started looking around as I'll need a new battery before TB in Aug - found decent deals on deal extreme... http://dx.com/p/rechargeable-8-4v-4400mah-18650-battery-pack-for-bike-light-black-174289 - looks like free shipping to SA too... haven't ordered yet so don't know what deal extreme is like. They also have amazing deals on lights... http://dx.com/p/t6-waterproof-xml-t6-3-mode-1200-lumen-white-led-bike-light-with-battery-pack-set-82510 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted May 24, 2013 Share My magic lightfailed to charge after abouy 1 week of use. I sent the entire thing back to EasyBike (who I purchased it from), within a week I had it all sorted (they replaced the battery and charger). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paarlmtb Posted May 24, 2013 Share Speak to Hannes at extremelights Hey Hubbers I have one of the older Magic light setups, the one with the black battery in a pouch.Maybe what is referred to as the 808 model? Bought it second hand over a year ago and it was working fine up till a few weeks ago. Symptom I have is that when I connect the charger to the battery the LED on the charger shows green instead of red and no matter how long I leave it connected the head unit button shows red as soon as I connect the battery. It obviously dies shortly after. Does this mean I have:1. A battery issue?2. A charger issue? In either case where could I get 1 or 2? Thanks for any help. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted May 24, 2013 Share Built in SA. 2 year warranty. Sony Japan cells. The reason all these china light sellers only give a 3 month warranty on their batteries is that that know it's rubbish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mortimer Posted May 24, 2013 Share Where can we get these? I have a MJ880? (the 2000 lumen light) and the battery has also died and would love to get a properly made one instead of just buying the same battery (which are available). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted May 24, 2013 Share Where can we get these? I have a MJ880? (the 2000 lumen light) and the battery has also died and would love to get a properly made one instead of just buying the same battery (which are available). I build them. 6 cell is R9008 cell is R1200 Let me check what I have in stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paarlmtb Posted May 24, 2013 Share I am not an expert in batteries or led lights, but think I can lay claim on 'expert user', and would like to share my experience. Many moons back I bought a kick ass LED light for around R3500 on a Special, it outshone anything else on the trail and battery runtime was second to none. However the run time after a year of use was not nearly what it was and had to get a replacement under warranty, again this battery lasted for a season. Cost of replacement R 900 bucks. Other negatives were that the light unit was bulky and top heavy so needed to be clamped with bolts to the handlebar. Everything was top quality and well machined no plastic to be seen anywhere. Customer service also way above average. Then decided to buy Chinese light through deal extreme three years ago, landed cost R 560. Batteries also last a season and runtime of 3 hrs plenty enough for any training ride. Light not nearly as powerful as 'non Chinese' but perfectly adequate for anything except singletrack maybe. Really easy to mount both light unit and battery. So I guess what I am saying is that for me the cheap Chinese model is a better option. I have had outstanding service from Hannes at Extreme lights and appreciate the advice he gives. I think he qualifies as an expert and the last hard shell battery unit I bought from him seems to be really robust. I am still using the light unit I bought cheaply off Dealextreme.com, oh and also the charger. Not bad for poor quality cheap Chinese Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brighter-Lights Posted May 25, 2013 Share The topic is about users who already went the cheap China light route and who are now stuck with non working products. You can reason that one could buy 3 China batteries for the price of one of mine, but you never know when one is going to leave you in the dark, and do you really want to ride with an extra battery in your pocket just incase...? If you look at Light and Motion or Lupine's batteries using the same Sony or Panasonic Li-Ion cells, they're priced at over $300 a battery - that's a more realistic price for this kind of battery technology. While it may seem expensive, the batteries above are at cost. Those Sony cells are over R100 each + cable, + laser cut end caps + protection PCB + 2 layer heatshrink. They are very reliable and have been tested over time, hence the 2 year guaranty - They'll easily last 4 years if you store them correctly in summer. I have been approached to develop a light for aircraft use and that's what I'm busy with at the moment, definitely needs extreme reliability in that field Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bike Mob Posted May 25, 2013 Share I found that my battery was effectively turning the green LED on the charger on as the power can run both ways, 1st check the charger is firmly in the plug socket, normally that solves it for me. I had a few faulty chargers, but then the LED flickers red. Best thing to do is borrow a mates battery and charger and swap test to isolate which object is buggered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paarlmtb Posted May 27, 2013 Share The topic is about users who already went the cheap China light route and who are now stuck with non working products. You can reason that one could buy 3 China batteries for the price of one of mine, but you never know when one is going to leave you in the dark, and do you really want to ride with an extra battery in your pocket just incase...? If you look at Light and Motion or Lupine's batteries using the same Sony or Panasonic Li-Ion cells, they're priced at over $300 a battery - that's a more realistic price for this kind of battery technology. While it may seem expensive, the batteries above are at cost. Those Sony cells are over R100 each + cable, + laser cut end caps + protection PCB + 2 layer heatshrink. They are very reliable and have been tested over time, hence the 2 year guaranty - They'll easily last 4 years if you store them correctly in summer. I have been approached to develop a light for aircraft use and that's what I'm busy with at the moment, definitely needs extreme reliability in that field Good for you, hope it goes well!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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