[OpenLight]

Here at Open Light Systems we recently received our first shipment of the MyTinySun Sport 2700X Lighting Systems. Because this is a relatively new system and we have received many emails and phone calls with questions about the system, we thought that we would take a closer look at the system and share our experiences with the rest of the world. I understand that a full review by the great folks of mtbr is coming soon, so this is not intended to replace that.

In the interest of full disclosure, Open Light Systems' German parent company is a close partner with MyTinySun and we have produced all of the battery packs for their lighting systems for several years. This is the first time that I have handled the Sport 2700X and I will try to provide as objective a review as I can.

The lighting system comes in a nice plastic case with an informational sticker on each side (one side in German, the other in English). The case seems adequate to protect the lighting system and closes securely by way of two latches on the top.

Once we open the case we find all of the components of the lighting system neatly tucked away and well protected by foam insulation. Removing the adhesive pad from on top of the light system itself provides a better view of the system.

Here are the full contents of the case. Included we find the light head, a charger, 3 mounting O rings, 2 pieces of adhesive rubber for mounting the light, an extension cable, a helmet mount, 3 pieces of double sided Velcro, the 14.4V - 2.9Ah battery and a cordura nylon battery case. In short most of the accessories that will be needed with this light.

 

[willem001]

hmmm that looks nice you musttake some beam shots and show us...congrats

 

[OpenLight]

Part 2

All of the connections use the Lupine style molex connectors to provide a solid connection that is protected from the elements. The light head is only compatible with the 14.4 Volt batteries which is available in both a 4s1p and a 4s2p configuration.

When the light is first plugged in, there is a very quick flash of the light and then the indicator button on the back glows red until the light is turned on. This indicator can also be turned off if you prefer to leave your light head connected to the battery until you get home from your trip and are ready to recharge the battery. The battery charger unit also has an indicator led that displays the charge status of the battery.

Once the light is turned on, the indicator light in the button changes colors to first indicate the program that the light is running (the lighting system has 7 total but we just stuck with the default program for our test with high-2700Lumens, Medium-1100Lumens and a low beam setting). When the light is turned on it starts in the medium brightness setting and a second push of the button will cycle back and forth between the medium and high settings. In medium, we experienced a runtime of about 3.5 hours and at high the run time was 1 hour and 20 minutes, not bad considering the claimed times of 3:47 and 1:23 respectively.

After about 5 seconds the light in the button changes color again to indicate the charge status of the light and cycles from green to blue to orange to red as the battery runs down.

The other feature that we enjoyed was the latch that is used to keep the O-ring in place, this made mounting the light significantly easier and seemed like a very solid solution for easily securing the light to our handle bars or the included helmet mount.

 

[OpenLight]

Part 3

Our next step was to take the light outside to see how it performed in the wild. We have been fortunate enough to have a warm Montana night (28 degrees F on February 1st in Bozeman is a warm night) to test it out and one clear trail left to ride that has not been overtaken by monster snow drifts yet.

As you can see from these two shots the light does put out quite a bit of light. These were using the high beam and were taken on a bare straight section of the trail. It is a little hard to judge distance in the pictures but when riding I could see the trail easily 25-50 yards ahead.

This is a better picture of the trail with trees to show some more depth. The white spot on the trail is our American Eskimo and he is about 50 yards ahead of me on the trail. All in all the light performed very well and I was impressed by both the throw and the breadth of the light, I skipped my usual helmet mounted light to get a better feel for this light by itself and only found myself wishing I had the second light on a couple of tight switch backs that were in the neighborhood of 160 degree turns in a 6-7 foot radius.

 

[OpenLight]

Technical Note

As far as actual Lumen output the system has a nominal Lumen output of 2700 Lumens, however in practical application the SPORT 2700X emits a guaranteed 1850 lumens, measured 60 seconds after the light is switched on, at room temperature and without additional cooling.

For comparison an independent and certified laboratory measured the Lupine Betty 2600 XML at 2212 lumens, 60 seconds after the light was switched on, at room temperature and without additional cooling.

That means in practice that the Lupine is effective 362 lumens brighter as the SPORT 2700X.

So, if you find this talk of Nominal and Effective Lumens to be confusing here is the breakdown: nearly all manufacturers, we know of only Lupine as the exception, specify the light output based on so called "datasheet" values. These values are theoretical for the led chipset and show higher output than our "nominal lumens" and a much higher output than measured "effective lumens".

From the marketing aspect it is important to show the nominal lumens because they are roughly comparable with most of the lights on the market, but because we are a serious manufacturer we inform our customer additionally about the real and effective lumens and provide a guarantee that we reach these values.

But in contrast to Lupine we measured our effective lumens after 60 seconds, which means that we test the light working at its' normal working temperature, Lupine measures the value 1 second after switching on the light providing a real value that is normally not seen in most applications as Leds emit less light as they heat up!

Sorry about the shameless promotion of a product that we are selling

 

[Magicshine Australia]

What is the runtime/burntime of the 14.4V - 2.9Ah battery with this light unit?

The anodizing looks really good:thumbsup:

 

[OpenLight]

user manual

1 hour 20 minutes on high and 3:30 minutes on the medium setting. There is more information available at Open Light Systems or on MyTinySun if you speak german including the full pdf owners manual that covers the 7 user modes and the run times and lumen output at each setting.

 

[Magicshine Australia]

if you speak german

Nien, I don't. Have been corresponding with Jens in English - great guy.

We're still doing burntime test with 2 OLS 17,400mAh batteries for all our lights. Will take time since the test are done overnight in pairs. The test start at midnight. The MJ-868 for instance went for 16 hours 32 mins. Great stuff!

 

[indebt]

Coming in at a close third overall MTBR lux measurment behind the NR Pro3000/Betty,the MyTinySun did catch my eye. Looks to be a very promising product and if anything like the Lupine quality, will pay dividends. Thanx for the photo's, they show a well ballanced smooth looking beam pattern with a surprising amount of throw coming from XM-L emitters. (Are they T-6's???) I'm asking as the beam shots don't show the usual warm greenish color rendition most products using T-6's have. My only concern on a $500+product is the battery capacity. Is that a misprint,(2900Ah)??? That would be a deal breaker for me if there wasn't an option on the original order for a higher capacity battery. Within a year or so, or in colder weather,you would be lucky to get an hour of run time on the high setting as these battery's degrade right from the start. Will there be an option to order this product with a higher capacity battery (without having to purchase the 2900Ah??) Other than that issue, for me this looks to be a product to keep an eye on in the ultra high end systems.

 

[OpenLight]

Good questions indebt.

The light head is using three of the XM-L T6 LEDs with special tempered and coated optics.

The 2.9Ah battery is on the small side, but it is a 4 cell battery running in a 4s1p configuration. As P=IV doubling the Voltage of the battery allows us to use a lower current draw on the battery. The light draws 29W on high beam which results in the lower run times but that would be similar to the results if the light were designed with a 7.4V battery and a 5.8Ah battery. On low beam the light runs off of the 2.9Ah battery for 14 hours. Our next shipment from Germany will likely include some additional 5.8Ah (8 cell - 4s2p) and 8.7Ah (12 cell - 4s3p) batteries in the 14.8V configuration as upgrade options but I do not have a estimated date for those yet.

Leonard - I am glad that you like the Magicshine batteries, the Magicshine upgrade battery packs are probably our best seller right now!

 

[Vancbiker]

Convert battery capacity to W/h to get a comparison between batteries of different voltages and A/h

 

[indebt]

Good to hear!!! For me having a little extra battery capacity is something i've gotten used to as most areas around here aren't friendly when running out of light as you are many miles away from the nearest house or building.'I'm wondering if it's the coating on your optics giving the whiter looking color rendition. Do those photo's accuratley depict what your eye's see in terms of output, beam spread and range as well as color rendition?? To me, your 2700X's color rendition looks very similar to my XPG Betty's, which is a good thing as thats what i prefer. For example, i reciently purchased two 4-Sevens torches one was a R-5 rated at 205lumens, the other an XM-L T-6 rated at 210lumens. The R-5 appered much whiter and brighter to my eyes and had a lot more throw as you would expect with a smaller die led in the same reflector. The XM-L was almost olive in color rendition and been that warm clearly for me gave the impression of having much less output.

Gemini Industreis have done a good job with their Xera's color rendition as i see no greenish hue to any of the Xera's beams that i have, and i believe their also using T-6's. Maybe they are using a coated optic as well. Or maybe not all T6's are created equal?

Anyway, clearly looks like an awesome product you have there, and i hope it turns out to be a real winner for you guys. Cheers!!!

 

[pethelman]

Holy thermal shock Batman!

Good questions indebt.

The light draws 29W on high beam which results in the lower run times but that would be similar to the results if the light were designed with a 7.4V battery and a 5.8Ah battery.

OK, ok.... I know we've been down this road before, but this is getting ridiculous. Just because you "can" drive the LEDs that hard, does it mean that you "should" from a design and reliability standpoint?

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, but I'm betting if you can run this light on high for more than about 60 seconds with no airflow WITHOUT a serious automatic cut-back in the drive current, those LEDs will be getting mighty toasty. Maybe not enough to destroy, but certainly enough to stress.

We have a 43mm diameter case that's 50mm deep (I'm not going to include the front or rear faces as cooling area). Let's assume that the finned portion of the back of the housing is roughly 1.5" long, with about an average fin depth of 0.25".

This works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 to 23 sq. inches of cooling surface area. Driving 29 watts inside this housing is going to be pushing the limits of any reasonable design. One square inch per watt is even pushing it.

By comparison, though, dropping to the next power level down (13W and 1550 nominal lumens) is completely reasonable for this type of housing. Although it looks great on paper, what's really gained from a real-world useability perspective by including the 29W mode? Ride for 30 minutes at night with the light on 29W. Then take a break and do the same ride again with the light at 13W, and you'll be amazed at how your eyes and brain adapt. You'd be hard pressed to notice a difference under those conditions. Now, if you just want to have a light with an "instant" wow-factor effect, that's fine. But it just doesn't seem to justify the potential strain on the electronics. As there are a number of manufacturer's now using this same basic triple XML arrangement, I just have to wonder if this was an effort to stand out from the crowd? Not that there's anything wrong with that... Hey, if you can harness the 29W in flashmode, then there you go. THAT would make one heck of a daytime flasher without being over the top on heat management.

As always, TOTALLY my opinion and your mileage may vary...

 

[Rakuman]

OK, ok.... I know we've been down this road before, but this is getting ridiculous. Just because you "can" drive the LEDs that hard, does it mean that you "should" from a design and reliability standpoint?

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, but I'm betting if you can run this light on high for more than about 60 seconds with no airflow WITHOUT a serious automatic cut-back in the drive current, those LEDs will be getting mighty toasty. Maybe not enough to destroy, but certainly enough to stress.

We have a 43mm diameter case that's 50mm deep (I'm not going to include the front or rear faces as cooling area). Let's assume that the finned portion of the back of the housing is roughly 1.5" long, with about an average fin depth of 0.25".

This works out to somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 to 23 sq. inches of cooling surface area. Driving 29 watts inside this housing is going to be pushing the limits of any reasonable design. One square inch per watt is even pushing it.

By comparison, though, dropping to the next power level down (13W and 1550 nominal lumens) is completely reasonable for this type of housing. Although it looks great on paper, what's really gained from a real-world useability perspective by including the 29W mode? Ride for 30 minutes at night with the light on 29W. Then take a break and do the same ride again with the light at 13W, and you'll be amazed at how your eyes and brain adapt. You'd be hard pressed to notice a difference under those conditions. Now, if you just want to have a light with an "instant" wow-factor effect, that's fine. But it just doesn't seem to justify the potential strain on the electronics. As there are a number of manufacturer's now using this same basic triple XML arrangement, I just have to wonder if this was an effort to stand out from the crowd? Not that there's anything wrong with that... Hey, if you can harness the 29W in flashmode, then there you go. THAT would make one heck of a daytime flasher without being over the top on heat management.

As always, TOTALLY my opinion and your mileage may vary...

Thanks Pethelman:thumbsup:
Thanks for bringing some Sanity and Reality to these new light systems that are hitting the market nowadays, I cannot wait to here some real life users test these lights and the new Olympia triple XM-Ls and how they handle the HEAT

 

[Cat-man-do]

Last night when I was looking at this thread I really wanted to comment about some things but basically I was too tired. I just figured I'd wait till tomorrow to see what others had to say, now I'm glad I did.

I spent a lot of time last night looking at the beam shot ( yard shot ) comparisons on the MTBR shoot-out. I don't doubt that the 2700X is bright but in my opinion the 20° optic spreads the light out too much. Like with the Gloworm X2 using a flood optic the 2700X puts a lot of light right down in front of your eyes. With that much light reflecting back out you it can't help but hurt your over all night vision.

Not that a light like this doesn't have it's place though. If you live in a place with a very moist climate where trails are wet most of the time a light like this could be very useful. For someone like me though it simply wouldn't work. Not unless I could get a more narrow beam pattern. Maybe somewhere around 12-15° and perhaps with a more milder neutral white tint.

Now about the price..........Need I even say?

Oh and BTW, on a side note....The three beam patterns that I was most impressed with from the shoot out:
Serfas True 1500
Baja Designs Double Stryk
and last but not least Pethelman"s own DS-1300

Those three I thought had very good beam patterns that were very useful without too much over kill. There are of course brighter lights in the shoot out but as I have said many times, "Brighter does not always mean better".

 

[OpenLight]

@ Indebt - Thanks, the light color in the pictures is pretty true to life although I used the standard settings on my cannon camera and not the accepted mtbr settings to take the picture. I have not noticed any greenish blue tint with any of the units that we have received.

@ Pethelman on our test ride it was about 25 degrees and starting to snow, you are right that in medium mode (which I used on my way up the mountain) heat did not seem to be any sort of an issue. At the top I switched to high to take the pictures and after taking the shots I did noticed that the lamp head had warmed up considerably even with the conditions. I left it on high on the way down and the air flow did a good job keeping the housing cool to the touch.

On a second test ride, I forgot at the top to switch it to high for the ride back down and did not have any problem seeing where I was going. We did come across some deer on the trail and then used the light to get a better look at them and switched it back to high for that. I agree with the assessment that brighter is not always better. Great discussion and feedback guys!

 

[Magicshine Australia]

Or maybe not all T6's are created equal?

From our beamshots and constant pre-delivery inspection we've noticed T6 and even XP-Gs have different tints. We can have 10 lights lit up in a row, we're still hard pressed to get 2 exact matching tints on the white wall.

Not sure if it cost more to ensure uniformed color temperature.

 

[indebt]

Not sure either. What i do know though, is all the XPG Lupine's i have, and have had in my hands to my eyes seem to have the same color rendition on all serfaces including wall shots. Could be the reasons you mentioned, or there are to small of differences for me to notice. I think i would find it a bit distracting having two different tints between my helmet/bar set ups,at least now i would. As it is for me, one blends in perfectly with the other making one large bright beam when looking in the same direction as the bar lamp. It's a beautiful thing.:thumbsup:

 

[karlhungus1]

I bought and quickly returned this light. While I had issues with the light, I would do business with Open Light Systems again.

The package arrived quickly and packaged well. They accept Paypal. My emails were returned promptly and the return was simple. My only issue (which has been resolved) was they implied the burn time on high was more than what the included manual specified.

With these pictures you can get a pretty good idea of the quality of construction. I was going of the grainy shots on their website, and considering the whole "Made in Germany" thing, expecting more. The programs are insanely complex and the translated instructions are vague. I couldn't imagine trying to sort through all the modes on an unlit trail.

The light is bright, but only moderately more than my Serfas 1500. The major problem was heat. Trying to do a comparison in my basement the light was untouchable. I would have gotten my oven mitts, but I already knew it was going back.

On a plus side, they are coming out with a 3600 lumen model that hopefully will address some of these issues.

 

[mattthemuppet]

interesting. It's more than a little worrying that the light didn't throttle down when it got hot. I thought even Magicshines did that now?

OpenLightSystems - you do have a MTBR ad, right? This forum is starting to turn into a "manufacturer's free advertising forum" and getting considerably less interesting as a result.