Zebralight SC600 Mk II L2 Battery Question

Hello,

First time poster here. I got this flashlight yesterday to use as my bike light. I typically ride at 5:30am and need some good lighting this time of year. I usually ride for about 2 hours. I was excited when I found this light, it looked perfect for my needs. I am using Panasonic NCR 18650PF Protected 2900mAh batteries that I got from mountain electronics. The batteries were fully charged, but I only got an hour on high from the first battery that I used. It completely shut off by itself and I loaded my second battery in to finish my ride.

I have a few questions...

What battery do you recommend for a longer run time? Will I get a lot more time out of a 3400mAh battery?

Do I have to use protected cells with this flashlight?

How easily can I program the light to something slightly less than the highest setting to get longer run time? I would gladly knock the 1100 lumens down to 1000 or 900 if it meant I could get significantly longer battery life.

Thanks for the help - I love the light so far!
[h=1][/h]

I am surprised you were able to fit a protected battery in there. The manufacturer recommends protected, but sometimes hard to find them that fit. The light has protection against low battery anyway, so a lot of us run unprotected. 3400mah will get you a little more run-time, but it will step down from high as soon as the heat builds up. Double click in high mode will bring it down, and you can program that level. Read the instructions if all else fails...

edwardmatt83 said:

Hello,

First time poster here. I got this flashlight yesterday to use as my bike light. I typically ride at 5:30am and need some good lighting this time of year. I usually ride for about 2 hours. I was excited when I found this light, it looked perfect for my needs. I am using Panasonic NCR 18650PF Protected 2900mAh batteries that I got from mountain electronics. The batteries were fully charged, but I only got an hour on high from the first battery that I used. It completely shut off by itself and I loaded my second battery in to finish my ride.

I have a few questions...

What battery do you recommend for a longer run time? Will I get a lot more time out of a 3400mAh battery?

Do I have to use protected cells with this flashlight?

How easily can I program the light to something slightly less than the highest setting to get longer run time? I would gladly knock the 1100 lumens down to 1000 or 900 if it meant I could get significantly longer battery life.

Thanks for the help - I love the light so far!

Click to expand...

Sounds like you are using on the H1 mode. Perhaps the light is trying to give you a lot of light but the batteries can't give the proper discharge when they get used for an hour. You have 4 sub-modes you can program you high setting to.

• Advanced Operation and Configuration
  • Press and hold to cycle from Low, Medium and High, release at the desired level to set. When press and hold, the light always cycle from Low to High regardless which level you are currently in.
  • Double click to toggle and select between the two sub-levels for that main level. Sub-level selections for the 3 main levels are memorized after the light is turned off and through battery changes.
    
  • The second sub-level (H2, M2 and L2) of each main levels can be further programmed to different brightness levels. At a main level, double-click 6 times to start configuration. On subsequent double-clicks the light will cycle through different brightness levels. Short click to turn off the light when finishing configurations. The selections for the second sub-levels are memorized after the light is turned off and through battery changes.
  • This light uses the main LED (flashing 1 to 4 times) to indicate the estimated remaining capacity of the battery. To start the battery indicator, (from Off) short-click 4 times without pause.
  • Beacon-strobe mode can be accessed from 3 short-clicks when the light is Off. Once in the beacon-strobe mode, you can double-click to cycle through different types of beacons and strobes. Beacon-strobe settings are memorized when the light is turned off and through battery changes.

Click to expand...

You may also go to YouTube for the programming of this light, which for me has the best UI. You will never go wrong with ZL. For the battery, I suggest you use the unprotected Panasonic 3400 mAh battery. If I'm not mistaken its the NCR 18650BE. Just google it. HTH

using a 3400mah cell will net you up to 20% more run time. That being said just use a lower setting.

Watch selfbuilt's excellent video review on the ZL SC600 MKII. He does show the way to program the light:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbfaw0EM0Zo

Thank you for the help! I have the H2 setting a little brighter and I'll try it out tomorrow morning. I'll order a couple of unprotected 3400mAh cells too.

I was able to program the light to a slightly dimmer setting than the H1 for my H2 setting. Went for a ride this morning and got 90 minutes on 1 battery. I think 3 hours of light with a spare battery is going to be plenty for me. The light shut off after 90 minutes and I put the battery into the charger and it read 3.1volts. Is that a normal level to discharge to?

edwardmatt83 said:

I was able to program the light to a slightly dimmer setting than the H1 for my H2 setting. Went for a ride this morning and got 90 minutes on 1 battery. I think 3 hours of light with a spare battery is going to be plenty for me. The light shut off after 90 minutes and I put the battery into the charger and it read 3.1volts. Is that a normal level to discharge to?

Click to expand...

I forget if it is 2.5 or 2.8v is the minimum, so I would say you are still in the green. But that is pretty low for just 90 minutes of use, defiantly try a different battery. Something isn't right, also, what charger are you using, that could be a suspect, saying it is fully charged but it really isn't even close.

insanefred said:

I forget if it is 2.5 or 2.8v is the minimum, so I would say you are still in the green. But that is pretty low for just 90 minutes of use, defiantly try a different battery. Something isn't right, also, what charger are you using, that could be a suspect, saying it is fully charged but it really isn't even close.

Click to expand...

I'm using a Nitecore D2 charger.

edwardmatt83 said:

I'm using a Nitecore D2 charger.

Click to expand...

Do you have a multi-meter? Try double checking the voltage as soon as the charger says it is complete. I know my D2 says 4.2v but my flucke meters says 3.14v.

Another thing to consider since this light is thermally regulated is that during normal usage, it throttles back the output to keep the light from getting too hot, hence giving you longer run times. When using it on your bicycle, you are cooling the flashlight, eliminating the thermal regulation and allowing the flashlight to run wide open, hence less run times.


The one thing that does sounds out of place is when you mentioned that the light goes from on to off suddenly. Completely separate from the thermal regulation, the light should have low voltage step down. As the battery capacity decreases, so does the voltage and the light is unable to produce the higher output levels. The light steps down to a lower level and continues stepping down as the voltage decreases. None of my Zebralights have ever went completely dark.

fnsooner said:

Another thing to consider since this light is thermally regulated is that during normal usage, it throttles back the output to keep the light from getting too hot, hence giving you longer run times. When using it on your bicycle, you are cooling the flashlight, eliminating the thermal regulation and allowing the flashlight to run wide open, hence less run times.


The one thing that does sounds out of place is when you mentioned that the light goes from on to off suddenly. Completely separate from the thermal regulation, the light should have low voltage step down. As the battery capacity decreases, so does the voltage and the light is unable to produce the higher output levels. The light steps down to a lower level and continues stepping down as the voltage decreases. None of my Zebralights have ever went completely dark.

Click to expand...

What do you think the issue is? The batteries? The light will turn off and I can turn it back on again for a few seconds before it shuts off again. The second battery works just fine. My ride was about an hour long and I kept the light on in the house to see how long it would keep going. It was pretty hot when it shut off. I have ordered some 3400mAh cells to see how much more I get out of them.

edwardmatt83 said:

What do you think the issue is? The batteries? The light will turn off and I can turn it back on again for a few seconds before it shuts off again. The second battery works just fine. My ride was about an hour long and I kept the light on in the house to see how long it would keep going. It was pretty hot when it shut off. I have ordered some 3400mAh cells to see how much more I get out of them.

Click to expand...

At this point, I would say it is battery related. See what happens when the new batteries arrive. Be sure to keep us posted.

edwardmatt83 said:

I was able to program the light to a slightly dimmer setting than the H1 for my H2 setting. Went for a ride this morning and got 90 minutes on 1 battery. I think 3 hours of light with a spare battery is going to be plenty for me. The light shut off after 90 minutes and I put the battery into the charger and it read 3.1volts. Is that a normal level to discharge to?

Click to expand...

3.1 volts is nearly empty for the NCR18650PF cells. On my ZL around 3.3 volts is when it won't run on the highest settings with the PF. I'd say it's time to replace and recharge at around 3.3. See discharge graphs here

I contacted zebralight and they said an hour on the highest output was about right for a 2900 mAh cell. They said because I was using it on my bike, it stays on the max output due to cooling from the wind. I'll stick with the slightly lower setting that I programmed and try out the 3400mAh cells. Hoping to get about 2 hours from a single battery. That would be ideal for me.