Battery powered front light

[quixoticgeek]

Frank9755 has given a pretty convincing argument for battery powered lighting for the TCR. It's got me thinking. If I was to replace my Edelux ii dynamo powered front light, what would be a good option to replace it with?

A light needs to have:

- CE approval (ideally German approval)
- USB charging
- 10h of battery life on a single charge.
- Weatherproof
- Fork crown mounting

What sort of lights do people recommend? What would be my options here?

J

[Kim]

Can you run the Edelux II on DC?

*googles*

Battery-powered use of the Edelux II is not recommended. Voltage higher than 7.2 V – even for a very short time – may damage electronics and LED. Though voltage lower than 6.5 V is uncritical, it reduces brightness.

Sounds like it's probably a bad idea.  I was wondering if you could convince a power bank equipped with QC3 to output the relevant voltage with a bit of microcontroller-fu.  (I got about 1/4 of the way through thinking this through when I discovered that my eBay special MTB light will run on 5V.)

I've got an original Cyo running happily on regulated^[1] 7.5VDC (because e-assist), but B&M seemed a bit more enthusiastic about the idea in those days.  This was before e-bike versions of the lights, with a wide DC voltage range, became an option.


_{[1] And it has to be properly regulated to stay in spec without compromising the brightness.  But I'm stepping down from 48V so that's no problem.}

[Jakob W]

Isn't there an e-bike version of the IQ-X? Would that be amenable to a bit of wizardry and black magic electrical engineering?

[bludger]

My favourite light for audax and deliveroo is my Moon vortex. It has held up to bad weather very well, I rely on it during the worst winter weather when I'm delivering. I can't account for an exact burn time but it's certainly the longest lasting of my lights, the spec sheet says it can do 11 hours http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/f704c8_3afedaa2c70648e1bc616f4b9fb477a0.pdf . When I did the London orbital last year I ended up going on the front of a small mob for the last few hours because it was the best seeing light we had with us.

When I was doing my 400 in Belgium the old sweat organiser was very approving of it, I think moon is a highly rated brand among some.

It has USB charging and even better, you can swap out the internal 18650 battery and stick another one in if you just need to keep going for a bit longer. It is sold from Evans (though I bought mine from Go Outdoors) so I'm sure it fits all the relevant UK quality control stuff. The mount that it comes with has a handy feature in that the light can be slid in and out without fully dismounting it from its in situ fixing.

It doesn't have a native fork crown mounting, but looking at the bracket that came with your dynamo light I think it could be made to work with enough electrical tape and zip ties.

£50 in Evans, so £45 with a British cycling membership. https://www.evanscycles.com/moon-vortex-front-light-600-lumen-EV308275

There are 'models up' which appear to be glitzier but tbh I'd just save the dough and get a spare 1850 or two, as it's been perfect for me. Presumably premium lithium ion 18650 batteries would provide a better burn time but I wouldn't pretend to be an expert.

Some alternative mounts that work with the moon system are available here https://www.highonbikes.com/accessories-spares/lights/light-spares.html?manufacturer=144

Ha, turns out there is also a Moon-made USB on/off switch you could have with it. The accessory you didn't know you needed! https://www.highonbikes.com/accessories-spares/lights/light-spares/moon-usb-remote-switch-cable-laa211.html

edit: found the ce mark

[BeMoreMike]

you can swap out the internal 18650 battery and stick another one in if you just need to keep going for a bit longer.

Agreed, a good quality light at a great price.

But the battery in mine isn't a standard 18650; it's a single ended variation which i've only seen made by Moon (and about 5x the cost of the cheapest standard 18650)

I tried converting a standard 18650 with some success...and nearly catastrophic failure by gluing on a thin ribbon wire to mimic the single ended original. It worked for a while but came dislodged, shorted out, destroyed the battery and nearly melted the light !! (i salvaged the light, cleaned the slightly charred terminals and it still works fine)

[JohnL]

- CE approval (ideally German approval)

CE approval is NOT the same as being ‘legal’, if that’s your concern.

CE just means it won’t blow up (probably) it won’t suddenly choke a small child and (I think) it does what it says it does, eg attach to a bike and emit light. It doesn’t mean it is approved...

As for the light. Possibly a BM IQ Speed? Not sure about USB charging thobut, and you’ll need some kind of adapter for fork mounting, but there are a few options on that front which allow a handlebar mount to fit on the crown.

[quixoticgeek]

- CE approval (ideally German approval)

CE approval is NOT the same as being ‘legal’, if that’s your concern.

CE just means it won’t blow up (probably) it won’t suddenly choke a small child and (I think) it does what it says it does, eg attach to a bike and emit light. It doesn’t mean it is approved...

As for the light. Possibly a BM IQ Speed? Not sure about USB charging thobut, and you’ll need some kind of adapter for fork mounting, but there are a few options on that front which allow a handlebar mount to fit on the crown.

It needs to comply with the following:

"Two independent* white front lights available for use (i.e. attached to the bicycle or carried) at
all times. The light must conform to current EC regulations."

I now realise tho it says EC, regulations. So I'm not sure what they actually mean by that, I may email them and ask...

My favourite light for audax and deliveroo is my Moon vortex. It has held up to bad weather very well, I rely on it during the worst winter weather when I'm delivering. I can't account for an exact burn time but it's certainly the longest lasting of my lights, the spec sheet says it can do 11 hours http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/f704c8_3afedaa2c70648e1bc616f4b9fb477a0.pdf . When I did the London orbital last year I ended up going on the front of a small mob for the last few hours because it was the best seeing light we had with us.

When I was doing my 400 in Belgium the old sweat organiser was very approving of it, I think moon is a highly rated brand among some.

It says 2 hours on max power, and 3 hours on next setting down. On the Belgian 400, which mode did you mostly use?

It has USB charging and even better, you can swap out the internal 18650 battery and stick another one in if you just need to keep going for a bit longer. It is sold from Evans (though I bought mine from Go Outdoors) so I'm sure it fits all the relevant UK quality control stuff. The mount that it comes with has a handy feature in that the light can be slid in and out without fully dismounting it from its in situ fixing.

Is the beam shape such that it would work upside down? Does the bracket work if you wanted to mount it 90 degrees to the bar it's attached to (I'm thinking on the aero bars)

It doesn't have a native fork crown mounting, but looking at the bracket that came with your dynamo light I think it could be made to work with enough electrical tape and zip ties.

£50 in Evans, so £45 with a British cycling membership. https://www.evanscycles.com/moon-vortex-front-light-600-lumen-EV308275

There are 'models up' which appear to be glitzier but tbh I'd just save the dough and get a spare 1850 or two, as it's been perfect for me. Presumably premium lithium ion 18650 batteries would provide a better burn time but I wouldn't pretend to be an expert.

Have you tried it with an after market 3rd party 18650 battery? Could you share a photo of the battery it came with?

Some alternative mounts that work with the moon system are available here https://www.highonbikes.com/accessories-spares/lights/light-spares.html?manufacturer=144

Ha, turns out there is also a Moon-made USB on/off switch you could have with it. The accessory you didn't know you needed! https://www.highonbikes.com/accessories-spares/lights/light-spares/moon-usb-remote-switch-cable-laa211.html

I wonder what the water proofness is like with the usb on/off switch...

J

[Somnolent]

£50 in Evans, so £45 with a British cycling membership. https://www.evanscycles.com/moon-vortex-front-light-600-lumen-EV308275

£40 for the 900 lumen version @ Merlin  https://www.merlincycles.com/moon-vortex-pro-rechargeable-front-bike-light-103430.html

Not that I've got one.  I've been quite happy with my dyno setup for a number of years, but read the other thread with interest (although boggled at the number of devices that some find the need to carry)

[grams]

But the battery in mine isn't a standard 18650; it's a single ended variation which i've only seen made by Moon (and about 5x the cost of the cheapest standard 18650)

I'm a big fan of 18650 torches but the circular beam pattern on the standard ones is gets annoying. This Moon thing is *so* *close* to being what I want!

[JohnL]

I assume you’re aware of these mounts to fit any (most) handlebar lights to your fork crown: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/accessories/mwave-fork-accessory-bracket/

[grams]

Sounds like it's probably a bad idea.  I was wondering if you could convince a power bank equipped with QC3 to output the relevant voltage with a bit of microcontroller-fu.

Power banks with a variable voltage DC output exist, but are pretty rare. You can also buy these things which have a tiny boost convertor in the plug. IIRC the voltage is set with a few resistors, so completely hackable.

But not the kind of thing you'd want to rely on for TCR.

I discovered that my eBay special MTB light will run on 5V

They're available with a USB plug on the end, which seems an interesting choice if you're carrying big power banks anyway. Circular beam pattern problem though.

[bludger]

Hi, I've just tested it with an 18650 that came with an old e cigarette. It works no probs - the battery was flat after so long but I popped it in the light and USB charged it for a few minutes and it's fine. Maybe BMM has a different model to me?



For the 400 I was just using it on zone 3 as I had a load of other lights with me and the terrain was paved roads on open Flandrien terrain.

I have used it upside down before - it was no problem. However the problem with using it sideways is that there is no lateral adjustment - it goes up and down, but not side to side, so depending on the angles of your aero bars it mayn't work very well.

Photos of the battery: https://imgur.com/a/NVqZpwI

I wonder what the water proofness is like with the usb on/off switch...

I think it'd actually be quite good. The USB port is designed around a cable which forms a seal around the light itself. I've included a photo in the album of how it seems to work. I would be wary of it during Hurricane Katrina particularly upside down but I think it could be relied on in drizzle.

That looks like a pretty good deal posted by somnolent 

[grams]

Hi, I've just tested it with an 18650 that came with an old e cigarette. It works no probs - the battery was flat after so long but I popped it in the light and USB charged it for a few minutes and it's fine. Maybe BMM has a different model to me?

Odd... All of the photos I can find show the Moon battery as having both contacts on the top and none on the bottom, and the light has no obvious conductive parts on the battery cover.

Any chance you could post a photo of the top of the other 18650 cell you tried?

[bludger]

Sure https://imgur.com/a/SOMVc08

[Kim]

Isn't there an e-bike version of the IQ-X? Would that be amenable to a bit of wizardry and black magic electrical engineering?

Sure, there's also an e-bike version of the Edelux II.  But that would mean buying a new light.

[frankly frankie]

... boggled at the number of devices that some find the need to carry)

Incredible 

[simonp]

B&M Ixon IQ Speed Premium, light only. Don't use the NiMH battery (sold as a bundle with charger with a full light). Instead put it together with one of these:

https://www.rapidonline.com/Ansmann-2447-3049-01-Battery-Pack-Li-ion-2S2P-7-4V-5-2Ah-Block-18-4123?IncVat=1&pdg=pla-337652239609:kwd-337652239609:cmp-757438067:adg-44804851896:crv-207912323492:pid-18-4123:dev-c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1J2o4tXF4gIVzud3Ch1hZwIbEAQYASABEgL2yvD_BwE

I used the IQ speed on PBP 2015, mainly running on full power (officially 10h runtime with the nimh). Low power was 50h. I took two batteries (300g each) with me, but only used one.

The Ansmann battery is ~200g, and I estimate 75h on low power, or 15h on high.

https://twitter.com/simonproven/status/1124303370934734848

I'll be taking the dynamo along with me but it will be the back-up solution rather than the main on the next PBP.

[Ivan]

For TCR, I'm splitting the need to be EC compliant with having decent/backup lights. For the front along with my IQ2, got a Fenix BC25R as the backup, and then also going to get a GVolt 20 to be compliant - that can run off standard AA as a backup-backup-backup.

Going more off topic, for the rear, along with my Secula got a couple of cateye x2 for flashing, and getting the TL-AU 100 G, again to be compliant and have a 3x backup.

[Cudzoziemiec]

- CE approval (ideally German approval)

CE approval is NOT the same as being ‘legal’, if that’s your concern.

CE just means it won’t blow up (probably) it won’t suddenly choke a small child and (I think) it does what it says it does, eg attach to a bike and emit light. It doesn’t mean it is approved...

As for the light. Possibly a BM IQ Speed? Not sure about USB charging thobut, and you’ll need some kind of adapter for fork mounting, but there are a few options on that front which allow a handlebar mount to fit on the crown.

Just to get ultranerdy on the CE mark, the photo on Bludger's Moon light doesn't even look like a CE mark. On a CE mark the letters from the lefthand halves of two touching but not overlapping circles. When the letters are closer together, it's possibly a China Export mark – though there's disagreement over whether China Export is a real marking or it's just a faked CE mark.

None of which means the Moon light is no good or unsafe (and CE marks are in any case self-certified... ).

[bludger]

misread your post. I think it's from a bad photo, the CE mark is rendered on an uneven surface.

checking again, you're right, it's definitely not 'two circles' 

Maybe the mark was different on the packaging?

[simonp]

Strictly the circles overlap. The inner radius of each curve would touch the outer radius of the other - so they would overlap.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ce+mark+circles&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB761GB762&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=Quw_Y7WXo35qZM%253A%252CRsKjuqDe9wGzpM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kR6FHmn-RRTgz2usGe8_QGUCHSxvQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNjtKNhcbiAhXDL1AKHe29A1IQ9QEwDXoECAAQBA&cshid=1559315198336903#imgrc=Quw_Y7WXo35qZM:

No other form is legal. That's not a CE mark.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Yes, Simon has expressed more precisely what I meant by "touching but not overlapping". I thought I'd included a link to an example, but evidently not. FWIW, I reckon the "wrong" CE mark is at least as common if not more so than the correct version. But as JohnL said, actual conformity with lighting regulations is something else entirely.

[Ivan]

For TCR, the only way I could find of getting lights that 'conform to current EC regulations' was to get StVZO approved ones, got bored of trying to locate any that are BS 6102-3 marked.

[Kim]

For TCR, the only way I could find of getting lights that 'conform to current EC regulations' was to get StVZO approved ones, got bored of trying to locate any that are BS 6102-3 marked.

That's how I'd interpret "conform to current EC regulations", too.  On the basis that the people organising a bike race are probably more interested in road safety than electromagnetic compatibility.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Are there any other national regs used in practice? Never hear of any.