bike 18650 light

I have an akoray 106 and 2 14500s. Bike mount is coming in a about a week or two.

Anyways, I opened up a dying laptop and found to my surprise, 8 18650s. :naughty:

Because I only get about 40-50 minutes on a 14500, I figured I should put at least one or two of these guys to work.

budget is around $15-20 and I'm hoping for +200 lumens

what i found so far:
TrustFire TR-801 (sku.13095)
UltraFire WF-501B (sku.16241)
UltraFire WF-502B (sku.16179)

comments/suggestions?

Threads of this kind always end with each one suggesting their own favourite lights. That being said...

Don't have first-hand experience with the ones you listed, but from what I gather, those cheap DX lights are like lottery. Poor QC. You end up getting what you pay for. But you could get lucky.

On a budget, the Solarforce L2 seems more consistent and better quality (body-wise). But ultimately, light intensity and runtime will depend on the specific dropin you choose, but most would give you the 200+ lumens you seek.

Have you considered the MG lights from ShiningBeam? Much more reliable, solid construction, some models have great runtime. Most would be double your budget, though...

Another thought: in what state are the batteries you salvaged? You didn't say what runtime you expect/need.

Pretty happy with my TR801, but agree with that other poster, reliability is not guaranteed. The beam has a good blend of flood and spot that is excellent for biking though. I don't think you'll be able to do better for that price. For more $$ the Solarforce are alot better but also heavier and will need a more serious mount.

I STRONGLY suggest you get an L-mini II. It may be in the $40 range, but it is much higher quality than the DX lights. Additionally, it has overdischarge protection integrated into the driver circuit, so you don't accidentally overdischarge your unprotected laptop cells (which would be very easy to do in a bike ride). Otherwise, you will have to stop every 10 minutes and get out the volt meter, or risk ruining the cells. The L-mini II also has virtually flat regulation, so you won't get any dimming during a ride (until the very end of the battery life, when the light automatically switches to low).

I have an ultrafire 502b, and the quality is simply abysmal. The crenellations on the head aren't all cut the same way, and the screws for the clip go all the way through the body (so I can't remove the clip without compromising water resistance, if it even had any to begin with). Interestingly enough, with some of my cells from laptops (with large, flat negative terminals the cover the the entire back of the battery), the screw that pokes through the anodized interior causes the circuit to be closed even when the switch is disengaged, since the screw comes in contact with both the aluminum body and the negative side of the battery.

Also, the beam quality is horrible, with a lopsided large hotspot, and a large ring surrounding it.

Forgot about that, those cells with be unprotected. A light with a protection circuit would be a real plus. If not, you'll need to be careful otherwise you could overdischarge and ruin the cells.

I'm not entirely sure of their quality, but I'm guessing that they're around 1-1.5 amps. This should be enough for at least an hour of runtime. It was 7 year old laptop that stayed plugged into the wall almost all the time.

That said, I really don't have the highest expectations for them. Also, I have unprotected 14500s too. I'm kinda used to having to recharge them all the time.

I was thinking about getting one that ran off 4 AAAs before, so I figured this would probably be a better compromise anyways. I wanted something I could leave on there and not worry about. Personally I think 18650s are large to edc, but thats me.

@wiggle
I take it that the tr801 lacks battery protection? Kinda want to try modding one. I'd need to replace it with a driver+protection circuit right?

Seeing as I was going to order some other random stuff like a new ipod battery from DX, I think I'll pick up an 801.