# 6,000 lumen 5 x Cree XM-L T6-LED cheap eBay light questions



## spunkmtb (Jun 22, 2009)

So I picked this light up on eBay.

6000 Lumens 5X CREE XM L T6 LED Bicycle Torch Light 10000mAh Battery Pack | eBay

Has a 1x8.4V 10,000 Mah battery pack

Okay. So I know close to nothing about lights. Except I need more at night. I have an injury and the left side of my face is partially paralyzed. I run a Serfas 1500 Lumen on my helmet and two 1000 lumen Serfas lights on my bar. I need more light on my bars. I figured for the price that it couldn't hurt to try this.

I know that this is a knock off of the Magic Shine light. I am not even sure of what my questions are. I guess I just want opinions about the equipment quality. Battery pack, can I trust this light. Is it good parts. How can I improve them?

I have been all over the DIY forums and the info is good but it is way over my head.

The manufacturer estates about 3.5hr burn time on high. Is it possible to make a better/larger battery pack for longer burn times? Add a battery level indicator?

And generally any feedback will be appreciated. I am going to try to get some photos of beam patterns later this week. I am in the process of building a better clamping mechanism by using a night rider adapter.

This light is incredibly bright. I don't know if its 6,000 lumens. But it's incredibly bright out in the alley. I will try to get some calm
Arisen shots of it with my Serfas set-up.


----------



## spunkmtb (Jun 22, 2009)

Jesus. And I just dropped the glass lens and it shattered. Those comparison shots may be delayed.


----------



## Vancbiker (May 25, 2005)

As is typical of the cheapo Chinese lights, none of the specifications add up. 

Look at a few numbers here.....

For 5 XMLs to generate 6000 lumens you have to drive them in excess of 3A. That's over 51 Watts. An 8.4V 10,000mAh battery is 84 Watt/h. That would give 1.6 hours run time. 

For an 8.4V 10,000mAh battery to drive a light 3.5 hours the light must only draw 24Watts. For 5 XMLs that means driving them at ~1.5A. 5 XMLs at 1.5A is about 2750 lumens. A lot of light for sure but far from the 6000 advertised.

Conclusion: Not possible to have 6000 lumen with 3.5 hour run time with that battery. BTW the above calculations neglect losses in the driver. Those only make the numbers worse.

Be glad that it is not really 6000 lumens. The housing does not have enough surface area to get rid of the heat generated by a 6000 lumen light. 

To improve the reliability of the light......

Glue the inductor (donut ring with copper wires wrapped around it) to the driver board with a few dabs of epoxy or silicone. 
Add a layer of thermal paste (heatsink compound) between the LED slug and the housing.
Inspect all solder joints and re-solder as needed.
Improve strain relief of power cable entry into housing.


----------



## spunkmtb (Jun 22, 2009)

Vancbiker said:


> As is typical of the cheapo Chinese lights, none of the specifications add up.
> 
> Look at a few numbers here.....
> 
> ...


So what do you think the Lumens are? It is god awful bright.


----------



## Aaron1100us (Feb 12, 2014)

Non of those ebay lights give the correct lumen output. And stay away from Trusfire and Ultrafire batteries, horrible cheap batteries that can vwf and never have the rated mah. 

Sent from my SCH-R760 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Vancbiker (May 25, 2005)

spunkmtb said:


> So what do you think the Lumens are? It is god awful bright.


One would need additional accurate data to estimate the output. Don't worry about how many lumens it outputs as long as it is bright enough for your needs.

Most important is to do the things I advised to improve reliability. It's a light designed to be able to sell at the lowest possible price point. It's a light put together by people that only care about how many they can assemble in a day. It's a light sold by a company that outright lies about the specifications. They don't care if it fails when you need it most. You do.


----------



## spunkmtb (Jun 22, 2009)

Vancbiker said:


> One would need additional accurate data to estimate the output. Don't worry about how many lumens it outputs as long as it is bright enough for your needs.
> 
> Most important is to do the things I advised to improve reliability. It's a light designed to be able to sell at the lowest possible price point. It's a light put together by people that only care about how many they can assemble in a day. It's a light sold by a company that outright lies about the specifications. They don't care if it fails when you need it most. You do.


Your reply put a smile on my face. This purchase was more out of sheer curiosity than Anyang else. As soon as I received the package and saw the quality plus the handlebar mounting system I knew I was going to stick with my Serfas lights.

Speaking of the Handlebar mount. How can Magicshine use the same system. It appears to be sheer garbage and for where I ride (Very steep, loose, rocky, rutted, baby head riddled, braking bump, drops) and the speeds that I hit at night I don't see how it would ever stay in place. As it is I have to clamp the serfas units down extremely tight just to stay in place on my bar.

I do not have any experience with Magicshine lights. But these appear to be direct clones of them. Does anyone know what the difference is between these cheap knock offs and their lights?

Back to this Chinese light. I am still intrigued by it. It is so incredibly freakin bright. It's unreal. I think it might make a very nice helmet light at some point & time f I can figure out how to improve it to make it safe and reliable. But I think I Need to go through it and make it trail worthy. I just hope that by the time I do make it trail worthy the cost of everything doesn't equal a new set of lights. Also after reading through this DIY forum I am very worried about the quality, safety, & reliability of the batteries.


----------



## Vancbiker (May 25, 2005)

spunkmtb said:


> Speaking of the Handlebar mount. How can Magicshine use the same system. It appears to be sheer garbage and for where I ride (Very steep, loose, rocky, rutted, baby head riddled, braking bump, drops) and the speeds that I hit at night I don't see how it would ever stay in place. As it is I have to clamp the serfas units down extremely tight just to stay in place on my bar.


Most people find that a wrap of grip tape of a strip of innertube glued to the bars greatly improves the holding power of the o-ring style mounts.



spunkmtb said:


> I do not have any experience with Magicshine lights. But these appear to be direct clones of them. Does anyone know what the difference is between these cheap knock offs and their lights?


A better battery for one. The LEDs might actually be the bin (T6) advertised. Last time I checked there was an 86 cent difference in price between T5 and T6 XMLs. You can't convince me that the clone builder is not using a lower bin to save $4.30 when there is no way for the end user to tell the difference.



spunkmtb said:


> Back to this Chinese light. I am still intrigued by it. It is so incredibly freakin bright. It's unreal. I think it might make a very nice helmet light at some point & time f I can figure out how to improve it to make it safe and reliable. But I think I Need to go through it and make it trail worthy. I just hope that by the time I do make it trail worthy the cost of everything doesn't equal a new set of lights. Also after reading through this DIY forum I am very worried about the quality, safety, & reliability of the batteries.


Once you have gone through the light and battery and corrected any poor workmanship, set it up in front of a fan and do some rundown tests. That will give you a good idea of what length of rides you can do. I recommend this for any light regardless of it's origins.


----------



## Aaron1100us (Feb 12, 2014)

Magicshine lights seem to be pretty good. I just got the 880L. Two Cree XM L2 leds driven off a battery pack that has 6 18650 bateries. Claimed lumens of 2,400. Seems pretty accurate as it is a little dimmer than my 3,000 lumen Solarforce with a de domed and modded MT-G2 led.

I rode it to work last week, I work 3rd shift. I had it on low the whole ride, plenty bright. It seems to stay in place pretty well too.

For those ligts with extremely high lumen claims, you havr to look at the leds, what amps they are driven at and what bateries they use. I have a Skyray 2x18650 light that says 4,000 lumens. It has three xm-l2 leds that are not driven hard at all. Output is closer to 1,200 lumens.










The light glows green for a little while afyer you shut it off to let you know the battery is still plugged in.









Sent from my SCH-R760 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## roseawebs (Apr 5, 2016)

I was searching cheap but high lumens best tactical flashlight. At last get an useful tactical light review. I like this kind information.


----------

