I've got a fairly-old (probably 8/9 years I suppose) C and B Seen light, which I used for the first time in a long time last night, and the battery light was flashing red after barely an hour, and I'd not even had it on full beans for all of that time.
I suspect that the batteries have deteriorated with age/lack of use. Where's the best place to get some replacements? It's a 7.6v, 4400mah Li-On set (4 x 18650s I think). Happy to get a larger capacity, but it would be good to be able to use the existing charger.
I got fed up with my Exposure Equinox 🙄 running out of battery so quickly, so I bought a 4 cell support from mtbbatteries. He put the exposure piggyback lead thing on it so it charges via the normal exposure charger.
I'm not sure if I've ever exhausted the battery on a single ride, and I tend to do quite long rides.
info@mtbbatteries.co.uk
Cool, I'll have a look there
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MTB Batteries.
I got sick of replacing the spot welded battery packs, so I bought one of these:
They are also available as a four cell pack. You'll need a bit of electrical experience to work out the voltages you need for your current set up. Note that the above link shows a pack with built in cell protection - or at least that's what it says on the side of the holder 😄. I then picked up a couple of junk Makita batteries, stripped them down and rescued the good cells.
Sorted and I only ever need to buy replacement batteries.
Another vote for Smudge @ MTB Batteries. Great service when I needed to replace the battery pack for my Gloworm X2.
Mtb batteries for me too, both repaired my gloworm x2 but also helped me diagnose the issue with my battery and then eventually built me a new one with authentic parts.
Well recommended
I got sick of replacing the spot welded battery packs, so I bought one of these:
Battery holder
They are also available as a four cell pack.
I've just done similar with one of the original Solarstorm x2s. After reading the concerns around the chargers burning peoples houses down, I bought a 4 cell version of the above, a Nitecore smart charger and 4x protected 18650 cells from a reputable supplier.
Which reputable supplier?
The cells (for which I was most concerned about poor quality / fakes etc) came from 18650.uk
Nitecore charger and the battery box from Amazon.
RS or Farnell would be good sources of decent cells or fully assembled and protected packs. You'll pay a little more but only a few quid on a 4 cell pack compared to some no name. RS' own brand are good.
Those battery holders above are ok. I repaired one for a mate last year. Note that the contacts might start corroding. Nothing that can't be easily sorted with scothbrite or a scouring pad though.
It's probably also of interest that the Nitecore charger I got estimates the cell capacity based on charging current and time.
I stripped the original solar storm pack apart into individual cells to charge it, and the capacity was estimated at a bit over 500mAh, which would run the light at full blast for approx an hour. Good quality cells are well over 2000mAh.
Just go to mtbbatteries, he'll make sure the new pack works properly and ensure the cells are good rather than from a possible slightly dodgy source, he could also supply a pack for a longer run time if that's what you wanted.
