Demo/mini review of 20W "1800LM" 12V-80V 0.5A bike light

I893469365902345609348566

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 20, 2021
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Just in case anyone else was interested in using this 20W 12V-80V 0.5A "1800LM" (alleged) light on their bike, here is a quite boring video demo of the high, low and terrifying flashing modes of this 1800LM (alleged brightness) bike light I got off ebay for £19.99. It can be bought on Aliexpress for less than half that. If you want one, just search ebay for 20W 80V 18000LM bike light, there are many sellers. If you switch it off and on, you'll cycle through the three modes. There is no switch on the light, but you can connect a suitable motorbike switch, sold separately. The light is wired to my ebike battery via an inline miniblade fuse (3A) and a waterproof motorbike switch on the handlebar. This first video is of my going through high, low and flashing (which I find instantly, highly nauseating) modes over and over again while struggling home uphill on low battery. I'm sure the terrifying flashing mode would cause nearby cars to crash. As you can see, my light is directed down towards the road. What I really like: it makes me very visible to cars, shines a bright and clear light on potholes, and allows me to see where I am going on dark roads. There are a couple of small extra brightish spots within the beam - those are two 1.5W Junstar lights, one on the handlebar, one in the fork. As a cyclist, one can't look too conspicuous IMHO! You're safer seen! This footage is unaltered in terms of brightness or colour, pretty much as-is from the camera, but quality reduced by Youtube, as usual. Mind you, it was terrible quality video anyway. The spread of light appears a little narrower because my awful camera lacks dynamic range, but to the human eye, the beam isn't quite as narrow as it looks. That being said, the beam isn't very wide. The beam doesn't look hexagonal to human eyes. The only thing I don't like, is how hot this light's aluminium casing gets, seems to be damaging the cable sheathing leading out of it. Oh well, if it cracks and splits, I'll replace it with heat resistant cable. On the plus side, the casing could be handy as a handy hand warmer. It's waterproofing hasn't been tested in anger as yet. The clamp is sturdy, secured by hex bolts, but no rubber strip is provided to prevent handlebar scratching. Luckily I had one left over from the other badger collision breakage lol. The light might look a little dimmer in the first video, because I was running very low on battery, and the ebike battery was powering the bike uphill too. Video #2 features high beam throughout. There are better battery powered bike lights available I'm sure, but I hate having to remember to charge umpteen devices before a bike ride... I always forget at least two! This is the new minimum brightness I will accept from a bike light, makes me feel much safer cycling at night. I'll probably keep it switched on during dreary dark winter days. This light is well worth buying at £19.99 or less... if you like this sort of entity and object illuminating object, which drivers haven't objected to yet.



 
Last edited:

Andy-Mat

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 26, 2018
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Just in case anyone else was interested in using this 12V-80V 0.5A "1800LM" (alleged) light on their bike, here is a quite boring video demo of the high, low and terrifying flashing modes of this 1800LM (alleged brightness) bike light I got off ebay for £19.99. It can be bought on Aliexpress for less than half that. If you want one, just search ebay for 20W 80V 18000LM bike light, there are many sellers. If you switch it off and on, you'll cycle through the three modes. There is no switch on the light, but you can connect a suitable motorbike switch, sold separately. The light is wired to my ebike battery via an inline miniblade fuse (3A) and a waterproof motorbike switch on the handlebar. This first video is of my going through high, low and flashing (which I find instantly, highly nauseating) modes over and over again while struggling home uphill on low battery. I'm sure the terrifying flashing mode would cause nearby cars to crash. As you can see, my light is directed down towards the road. What I really like: it makes me very visible to cars, shines a bright and clear light on potholes, and allows me to see where I am going on dark roads. There are a couple of small extra brightish spots within the beam - those are two 1.5W Junstar lights, one on the handlebar, one in the fork. As a cyclist, one can't look too conspicuous IMHO! You're safer seen! This footage is unaltered in terms of brightness or colour, pretty much as-is from the camera, but quality reduced by Youtube, as usual. Mind you, it was terrible quality video anyway. The spread of light appears a little narrower because my awful camera lacks dynamic range, but to the human eye, the beam isn't quite as narrow as it looks. That being said, the beam isn't very wide. The beam doesn't look hexagonal to human eyes. The only thing I don't like, is how hot this light's aluminium casing gets, seems to be damaging the cable sheathing leading out of it. Oh well, if it cracks and splits, I'll replace it with heat resistant cable. On the plus side, the casing could be handy as a handy hand warmer. It's waterproofing hasn't been tested in anger as yet. The clamp is sturdy, secured by hex bolts, but no rubber strip is provided to prevent handlebar scratching. Luckily I had one left over from the other badger collision breakage lol. The light might look a little dimmer in the first video, because I was running very low on battery, and the ebike battery was powering the bike uphill too. Video #2 features high beam throughout. There are better battery powered bike lights available I'm sure, but I hate having to remember to charge umpteen devices before a bike ride... I always forget at least two! This is the new minimum brightness I will accept from a bike light, makes me feel much safer cycling at night. I'll probably keep it switched on during dreary dark winter days. This light is well worth buying at £19.99 or less... if you like this sort of entity and object illuminating object, which drivers haven't objected to yet.



I like a good post about better lighting especially for us cyclists, thanks.

Your post prompted me to look around on ebay, and its remarkable just how many sellers are claiming even 100,000 Lumens for their flashlight (Torches UK).
See here for example. (Note, I have not yet tested any of these offerings, nor do I know if their claims are even accurate and/or valid):-


If anyone here has bought and used such units, I am sure many others would be interested in all of your thoughts and comments.
regards
Andy
 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
10,413
3,027
I like a good post about better lighting especially for us cyclists, thanks.

Your post prompted me to look around on ebay, and its remarkable just how many sellers are claiming even 100,000 Lumens for their flashlight (Torches UK).
See here for example. (Note, I have not yet tested any of these offerings, nor do I know if their claims are even accurate and/or valid):-


If anyone here has bought and used such units, I am sure many others would be interested in all of your thoughts and comments.
regards
Andy

Some ads even claim 200,000LM for the same torch. FF to about 4 minutes 25 seconds:


 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
10,413
3,027
Just in case anyone else was interested in using this 12V-80V 0.5A "1800LM" (alleged) light on their bike, here is a quite boring video demo of the high, low and terrifying flashing modes of this 1800LM (alleged brightness) bike light I got off ebay for £19.99. It can be bought on Aliexpress for less than half that. If you want one, just search ebay for 20W 80V 18000LM bike light, there are many sellers. If you switch it off and on, you'll cycle through the three modes. There is no switch on the light, but you can connect a suitable motorbike switch, sold separately. The light is wired to my ebike battery via an inline miniblade fuse (3A) and a waterproof motorbike switch on the handlebar. This first video is of my going through high, low and flashing (which I find instantly, highly nauseating) modes over and over again while struggling home uphill on low battery. I'm sure the terrifying flashing mode would cause nearby cars to crash. As you can see, my light is directed down towards the road. What I really like: it makes me very visible to cars, shines a bright and clear light on potholes, and allows me to see where I am going on dark roads. There are a couple of small extra brightish spots within the beam - those are two 1.5W Junstar lights, one on the handlebar, one in the fork. As a cyclist, one can't look too conspicuous IMHO! You're safer seen! This footage is unaltered in terms of brightness or colour, pretty much as-is from the camera, but quality reduced by Youtube, as usual. Mind you, it was terrible quality video anyway. The spread of light appears a little narrower because my awful camera lacks dynamic range, but to the human eye, the beam isn't quite as narrow as it looks. That being said, the beam isn't very wide. The beam doesn't look hexagonal to human eyes. The only thing I don't like, is how hot this light's aluminium casing gets, seems to be damaging the cable sheathing leading out of it. Oh well, if it cracks and splits, I'll replace it with heat resistant cable. On the plus side, the casing could be handy as a handy hand warmer. It's waterproofing hasn't been tested in anger as yet. The clamp is sturdy, secured by hex bolts, but no rubber strip is provided to prevent handlebar scratching. Luckily I had one left over from the other badger collision breakage lol. The light might look a little dimmer in the first video, because I was running very low on battery, and the ebike battery was powering the bike uphill too. Video #2 features high beam throughout. There are better battery powered bike lights available I'm sure, but I hate having to remember to charge umpteen devices before a bike ride... I always forget at least two! This is the new minimum brightness I will accept from a bike light, makes me feel much safer cycling at night. I'll probably keep it switched on during dreary dark winter days. This light is well worth buying at £19.99 or less... if you like this sort of entity and object illuminating object, which drivers haven't objected to yet.



I've got the exactly the same headlight, mine was from Ali and cost less than a tenner. I measured it's brightness using a Luxmeter app on my phone: 4000LUX at 2m, the same as sunlight outside on a sunny-ish winter day.
 

I893469365902345609348566

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 20, 2021
534
129
I forgot to include a photo


45590
 

matthewslack

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 26, 2021
1,644
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I like a good post about better lighting especially for us cyclists, thanks.

Your post prompted me to look around on ebay, and its remarkable just how many sellers are claiming even 100,000 Lumens for their flashlight (Torches UK).
See here for example. (Note, I have not yet tested any of these offerings, nor do I know if their claims are even accurate and/or valid):-


If anyone here has bought and used such units, I am sure many others would be interested in all of your thoughts and comments.
regards
Andy
As a simple sense check, good LED lamps produce about 100 lumens per watt. So that 100,000 lumen claim would need a 1000W LED, clear nonsense.
 

Andy-Mat

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 26, 2018
2,214
562
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As a simple sense check, good LED lamps produce about 100 lumens per watt. So that 100,000 lumen claim would need a 1000W LED, clear nonsense.
Good one.
I try always to remember never to believe what salespeople say and post! Mostly fiction!
I am rarely disappointed, sadly!
regards
Andy
 

soundwave

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 23, 2015
16,399
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to get the max output and voltage the led will need a heat sink with a fan on it so any of these leds in bike lights wont be any where near full output or even half becouse of the heat generated.

you can get a 100.000lm flash light but it will only do this few a few mins at best and cut power to stop the leds melting.
 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
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to get the max output and voltage the led will need a heat sink with a fan on it so any of these leds in bike lights wont be any where near full output or even half becouse of the heat generated.

you can get a 100.000lm flash light but it will only do this few a few mins at best and cut power to stop the leds melting.

Those wires would be very chunky indeed at 12V, there can't be many (if any) 100,000LM LED flashlights: 1000W at 12V = 83.3A, and at 80V = 12.5A

 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
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As a simple sense check, good LED lamps produce about 100 lumens per watt. So that 100,000 lumen claim would need a 1000W LED, clear nonsense.
100LM X 20W = 2000LM for this light, which isn't a million miles away from the claimed 1800LM, so I won't bother measuring this light. If I did want to measure - because it's a lensed light, and if I wanted to measure it's brightness in lumens, I'd have to measure lux as lumens using a circular cross section of it's cone of light, measuring 1m squared in surface area. For radius r in metres, given area as A, r = √(A/(4π)) or r = √(1/(4π)) = 0.282m


 

soundwave

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May 23, 2015
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he is the flash light guy and loads of reviews but some of these things cost 5-600 quid and at full power the batts will be dead in just a few mins of constant use so not much use for bikes.

my 8000lm light has a 6 cell batt and at full power can only do about 60 mins and even less if it gets warm as it is just a giant heat sink with 8 leds on the front.
 
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guerney

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he is the flash light guy and loads of reviews but some of these things cost 5-600 quid and at full power the batts will be dead in just a few mins of constant use so not much use for bikes.

my 8000lm light has a 6 cell batt and at full power can only do about 60 mins and even less if it gets warm as it is just a giant heat sink with 8 leds on the front.
You want to get a Bafang HD, and solder your 8000LM light to the huge fsckoff bike battery via a fuse and buck converter! ;)
 

soundwave

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May 23, 2015
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my light has a custom 4 pin connector as it has a led on top and Bluetooth remote so doubt it will work with just power as no way to control it without the led display.

they dont even sell the batts anymore and no way you could recell it either. :rolleyes:
 

guerney

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Sep 7, 2021
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my light has a custom 4 pin connector as it has a led on top and Bluetooth remote so doubt it will work with just power as no way to control it without the led display.

they dont even sell the batts anymore and no way you could recell it either. :rolleyes:
The right to repair laws should apply to more than just white goods!
 

guerney

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Sep 7, 2021
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my light has a custom 4 pin connector as it has a led on top and Bluetooth remote so doubt it will work with just power as no way to control it without the led display.

they dont even sell the batts anymore and no way you could recell it either. :rolleyes:
Do they contain weird custom cells, gelpack cells or cells made of Unobtainium? Or is hostile to repair, like your Bosch batteries?
 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
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my light has a custom 4 pin connector as it has a led on top and Bluetooth remote so doubt it will work with just power as no way to control it without the led display.

they dont even sell the batts anymore and no way you could recell it either. :rolleyes:
These cost a fortune:

 

soundwave

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you would have to destroy the housing to get to the cells and bms out as glued together.

45595

6 Panasonic 18650s 3400mah each.
 

guerney

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you would have to destroy the housing to get to the cells and bms out as glued together.

View attachment 45595

6 Panasonic 18650s 3400mah each.
At that price - if it stopped working, I'd go at it with a dremel! Ziptie and hot glue it together afterwards? Liquid metal? Fibreglass strips and epoxy? Alternative case?
 

soundwave

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May 23, 2015
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i have a 6 cell 18650 pack that you can remove the cells from id just need the bms and cable and can keep it going.

there new lights dumped the lcd so the batts just have a 2 pin connector for power only.