[kbryant]

I've been doing some research on HID lights and stumbled across www.batteryspace.com they are a battery specialist company that seems to have some great HID packages. However, I'm wondering if anyone else has tried any of their systems? Check it out tell me what you all think. Here is the link to the system I think is their best value 4 $

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2784

 

[Low_Rider]

Hi kbryant,

I would strongly advise against purchasing a lighting system from Battery Space. Do a search here on MTBR for the keywords "battery space" and "trail tech" for more information, there are plenty of threads that make my point.

The Trail Tech systems really are great lights, but I would only buy them directly from Trail Tech. :thumbsup:

Cheers, Dave.

 

[kbryant]

Thanks Low Rider,
Good call with the warning. Now I'm also a fellow Aussie, and I'm after a 10-13w HID setup with a lithium ion battery that will last for 6 hours. Any ideas? Trail tech seemed to have some great bulbs but not great battery set ups.

 

[Low_Rider]

The Trail Tech is a great light, please don't let me put you off!

If I remember correctly there are a number of QLD boys who purchased Trail Tech lights a while back now, and apart from Battery Space related battery and charger issues they seem to have had a good run with them. It might be worth giving TR a PM to see if he's in you area.

The main issues with Battery Space are in relation to their batteries and chargers, in both terms of quality and matching wrong cell types with the Trail Tech lights. Their lack of technical knowledge and poor customer service doesn't help much either. Buy directly from Trail Tech and you will be fine. Please note that the Trail Tech systems are best run with NiMh packs, Lithium Ion packs are not recommended.

You mention that you would prefer Lithium Ion packs, is that just because of the lower weight? There really aren't too many cheaper HID systems available with Lithium Ion Packs, but there are now quite a few on the market at a reasonable price with NiMh packs.

As far as local offerings, I'm assuming Vicious lights may be a little expensive, but if you can put up with the "home made" look, the light made by HID Technologies might be an option? Out of Australia there are a number of great HID systems at reasonable prices (Jet Blast, Light and Motion ARC and others), but many only feature burn times around three hours. A budget priced HID system with a six hour burn time is going to be a hard find, unless you buy a secondary pack, or look at more expensive systems.

I'm not much of a HID guru to be honest, so I'm running out of ideas a bit! Perhaps some other members may be able to think of a better solution. I have a thread of lighting manufacturer links here that may be worth having a look through too. Just out of interest, what do you currently ride with, and have you considered a high powered LED based system at all? There are now a number of reasonably priced LED systems with extremely low system weights, long burn times and reasonable light output. It might be worth considering?

Dave.

 

[kbryant]

Dave,
This will be my first real MTB light, I'm a trail rider, mainly technical single track, I usually top out at 50kms, and that would be on wider firetrails. However I do occasional "epic adventures" where I'll ride between towns on dirt roads and little-known tracks. These can be 80kms-120kms, so I'd love to do these at night, (to save my skin, red head in QLD). I'd also like to start going in some 12-24 hour races (in a team). So basically my weekly rides are 2-4hrs with an epic in there now and again. I just wanted a light that was bright enough so I don't have to slow down on technical stuff. So Lithium ion seemed to be the choice for a small and powerful battery and HID seemed to be the good stuff. Unfortunately I did stumble across Battery space, and they were so cheap and it sounded so good. I've emailed Trail tech and asked them about issues with Lithium on their MR11 HID. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

 

[heatstroke]

just get a Nimh battery to go with the tt HID and you;ll be fine.
I've been running mine for over 1 year with the li-ion from bspace. You need to muck around with the batts to sort out the tripping problems.
The easiest solution is to stick to nimh - but the heaviest
The next option is to get the lion from TT but $$$
The alternative is to try capacitor fixes on teh Bspace li ion but not guaranteed to work.
The other which I do not recommend unless you know li ion and have a very good charger (something the RC fly boys use like the Multiplex LN 5014) is to take out all protection circuits from the li ion. Then the batt cant trip but unless you are extremely carefull on the chrge you can burn down your house.

 

[chrism]

Dave,
This will be my first real MTB light, I'm a trail rider, mainly technical single track, I usually top out at 50kms, and that would be on wider firetrails. However I do occasional "epic adventures" where I'll ride between towns on dirt roads and little-known tracks. These can be 80kms-120kms, so I'd love to do these at night, (to save my skin, red head in QLD). I'd also like to start going in some 12-24 hour races (in a team). So basically my weekly rides are 2-4hrs with an epic in there now and again.

If those are your criteria, then I think you may be better looking at LED rather than HID. Ideally if you are up DIYing there are plenty of plans on here and you can make something with Cree XR-E LEDs which gets close to an HID in performance, but will allow you much longer run times (or much lighter batteries if you look at it that way).

 

[Low_Rider]

The next option is to get the lion from TT but $$$

As I mentioned, using any Lithium Ion packs with the Trail Tech systems is not a good idea! There have been a number of different controllers released with the Trail Tech systems, but the latest ones do not like these cells and the higher voltages. This is the primary reason why there are so many issues with the Battery Space released lights. The poor quality circuit protection is just yet another separate issue with the Battery Space Lithium Ion packs. I have also never seen Trail Tech endorse, let alone sell Lithium Ion Packs!

Even if you think you know what you're doing, I do not recommend removing the protection circuit from any Lithium Ion pack! The protection circuit prevents (or should prevent&#8230 overcharge, over discharge, too higher current draw and protect the pack from dead shorts. If Lithium Ion packs are subjected to these conditions without a quality protection circuit it is likely that the cells will go into an irreversible condition called thermal runaway, where the cells basically heat up until they explode or catch on fire. This cannot be stopped!

Another reason is that the Trail Tech low voltage cut out is extremely low, and if the battery protection circuit is poor or non existent, then your pack will be damaged.

The capacitor fix is for a slightly different issue, where the protection circuit in the Battery Space packs actually does its job properly, preventing over current draw when the light is first started. The "fix" simply tricks the circuit protection by helping smooth the current draw when the light is first fired.

Anyway back on track and on to LED systems, if you don't feel comfortable with a home made system I would consider a triple emitter light of some description. Again the 6 hour burn time limits choice and cost a little, but here goes:

I really recommend that you have a look at the Night Lightning Endurenz, it's available in a number of configurations, and can be purchased as either a ready to ride system or a DIY kit. Depending on the capacity of the Lithium Ion pack you select, you could see runtimes anywhere between 4 and 11 hours. They're nice and bright, lightweight, feature great runtimes and are awesome to deal with. :thumbsup:

It would also be worth considering the Princeton Tec Switchback 3, or DiNotte Dual systems. From there you would be looking at the Cat Eye Triple Shot (lacking in runtime), and then down to less bright twin emitter lights which have been covered quite substantially here on MTBR. I really think you need to stick to a triple emitter light or a pair of double / single emitter lights for the riding you describe.

A little more for you to think about and consider anyway!

Dave.

 

[leggatt]

I purchased the TrailTech light package from BatterySpace and I have only had one issue with the light and it was a bad plug that TT covered under warranty. TrailTech has great service and they stand behing their product.

The only issue that you'll find with BatterySpace is the Lion packs. Get the NiMh pack and you're gold. I get a solid 4 hrs of run time on mine.

 

[heatstroke]

TT used to sell li ion packs, but no longer. I am sure if you hunt through the archives here you will find references to their li ion batteries. Taking the pcb out is not recommened as this is only workable with the right cutoff voltages. The earlier versions of the switch had a cutoff voltage of 11.2V, which corresponds to 2.8V per cell - which is an acceptable discharge voltage for each cell. The newer versions have a cutoff of something like 8.X volts which is too low for li ions. If you have a balancer and install some taps on to the cells then you can make sure you do not run the risk of over charging /discharging a particular.

Agree it is not a good idea if you do not know what you are doing and dont have the right equipment. But remember, most of the RC fly boys run Lipo without any protection circuits, I've been running lipos/ lions for a couple of years now on lights and rc stuff. You need to know what you're doing and be aware of the risks as you've mentioned..

I've also run lipos on the light, been using older packs which are getting a bit tired from running the heli.