Originally Posted by
christo930
That was where I measured the voltage, right at the battery pack. I do think the one cell was bad.
Then measure each cell individually, especially while the light is on. They should all be about the same.
The Amazon light looks tempting, but there are a LOT of bad reviews all revolving around the batteries. I looked up the batteries and they run around 10 bucks for a 2200 cell, that's $40 worth of batteries in a $28 light.
Nah, the cells can be had for $4 each from DX (but don't get the more expensive, higher capacity cells -- they're the ones with bad reviews). Though I probably wouldn't suggest making your own pack from these cells -- just buy a premade one. And note that the average review was still four stars. And that said, you could also just make your own pack with six NiMH AA cells if your battery failed. It wouldn't perform quite as good as the stock pack, but it would get pretty close, especially if you avoided high mode and stuck to medium or low. (And even medium mode would be better than most lesser bike lights.)
one of the complaints in the review is that this item can come from a number of different sellers, some of whom are giving really bad customer service, some of whom are giving good cs
Well, that's easy -- Amazon will let you see the overall customer satisfaction rating for each vendor, so you pick one that's higher rather than lower. You're still playing the odds, but you're at least making an informed decision.