I'm a 4th year EE student, give me more credit than that:) Yes those are all protected batteries and the whole thing is going to be wrapped in insulation so there will be minimal short circuit risk:thumb: Also it's only being charged with me beside it so if anything happens I'll be there.

My second P7 came in and the roads are dry tonight so I'll get some on-road shots. I'm jealous of iamstuff getting 4 P7s, haha thats over the top.

I have to disagree with that, having used both flooders and throwers :) For road riding, excessive flood right in front of the bike, with dim light in the distance, is not my ideal, at any rate. ;) My eyes adapt to the bright area right in front of me, and then I can't see the dimly-illuminated stuff 4-6 seconds out. Like driving a car at high speed with just the fog lights?

I guess I should just be glad that people are getting serious lights of any sort, instead of throwing $50 away on silly plastic bike lights like Cateye et al :D Anyway, a mix of the two, like jsigone is setting up, is one way to get the best of both worlds. What my mix looks like:

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...chBgon/035.jpg

BTW nice JetBeam, jsigone :)

Ok, just making sure :) Anyone who is using unprotected cells, especially in a high-drain light, get some protected ones.

4 P7's is really over the top, none of them are going throw any farther unless you got 4 completely different brands of P7's.....a $200 setup can be spent more evenly to optimize the beams for riding. Changing 4 batteries every hour would get old pretty darn fast.....and having to carry enough spares for a 3hr ride would suck.

mechBgon, what thrower are you using?

Agreed. When I read that, my first thought was "great, all the problems of excess foreground flood, multiplied by four." Well, she'll definitely be visible to motorists, anyway! :)

Dereelight DBS V2, with the 1S R2 pill at 1.2 amps on 18650. I prefer it with the OP reflector. Even with OP, the DBS still dominates even my Seca 700 by a factor of about 2 to 1 for effective range, on-road or off. I can handle it as a helmet light, but I think it's heavier than most people would prefer in that role. I also have an Olight M20 Warrior R2 similar in size to your JetBeam, if I want something with lower weight for a helmet light.

Are you running the smooth or textured reflector on your JetBeam?

2x P7 will cover a lot of ground. one on medium or low pointed short and one on high pointed far will be more than enough.

I read all these threads on lighting and my eyes glaze over and my head starts to spin and I feel dizzy.
Protected, unprotected;AW; 2200mAh;2400mAh;

Mebbe that is why we waste our money on more expensive lights.

I am not a EE4th year (wish I were) and thus none of the abbreviations make any sense to me........

I did get the protected and unprotected-not sure what makes it protected but I guess it won't start fires.

Also, the flashlight needs some protection (sounds like condoms are in order :-))

Hopefully I purchased the correct items.

I purchased only one P7 (regulated I believe) and then hopefully got two protected batteries, a cheapo flashlight holder and a charger-what do I need for this........

Any tutorials out there for the EE challenged?

I got the OP reflector, the primary used the the JB3 is for a helmet mount on the MTB ride. I didn't want to see the cree rings to gain the 4-5% increase in throw when the JB3 already has good throw.

The JB3 I got was the normal "Pro" at 115grams (about 50grams lighter then my MTE P7), they have the new ST (slim tube) which is a whopping 65 grams and 1/4" shorter. If I got that one, I'd get it with the smooth reflector because on paper the throw wasn't as good as the basic "Pro" so it would need that extra margin factor. I may end up getting that one too :twitchy:

The user interface is pretty simple and easy to setup. My ride lasty night was only to get beamshots, I havn't done a speed test yet and can't ride my MTB because I crashed it on Tuesday and the derailler hanger snapped:eek: nice hike a bike back to the cars. I hope to get some beamshots on the trails next week or so when my hanger comes in the mail.

Join the club. :)

I'm just along for the ride trying to take advantage of all these smart guys.

My second P7 came in, sorry no beamshots yet. I gotta say, one P7 aimed real close and one aimed midrange and my L2D on the helmet is just beautiful. I"m gonna be using my bike alot more at night now:) I got one of my lights modded for use with my battery pack and it works great, tomorrow I'll mod the other one and get the whole rig done and ready to go. A run test of both lights on high off the battery pack will be fun too. I'm hoping for around 2.5-3 hours.

I'm probably not going to use all four on a single bike, but at least I'll have some to experiment with. Even with just two, I wouldn't need to run both on high, so the batteries should last longer than an hour. I only ordered four because I intended to use them for two different bikes.

sorry I thought all four were going on the same bike, that would be lil over kill LOL and to both the road and one coming cars.

My P7 finally came today! I have the Trustfire Rapid Charger. According to their site here:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1251

At the very bottom it says charging time for an 18650 is 2-4 hours. Is this true? I've been told 8-10 hours? Correct me if I am wrong :)

It's rated for 400mA charging rate so I'd estimate actual charge time to be about 6 hours from completely drained for a 2500mAh battery.

Hmmm. It states on the back of the charger packaging (18650: 2-4 hours). But I've seen people say everything from 2 to 10 lol.... I guess it doesn't matter since the lights will go green when finished anyway..

My guess is exactly between 2 and 10, therefore the best possible answer:)

We were both wrong!! lol. I put it in the charger at approximately 9:15. By 10:45 the red LED's changed to green LED's. And WOW this sucker is blindingly bright. I love it! I need to order a few more.

Good stuff, I think the batteries come partially charged though:)

Agreed :-D

I also just noticed that this light has an "SOS" mode too. I wasn't aware of that before ordering. It's medium, low, high, rapid blind, SOS blink. Kinda cool idea. (I now see where it says that on the site lol)

i just placed my order recently. i couldnt decide between the SSC P7 or the Cree MCE so i bought both! P7 for flood and MCE for less flood, and helmet mounted Q5 for spot. now to make sure i dont blind people on the trail and the street...

my 8 modes just arrived, and it was shipped out last weekend

that was super fast delivery.

can't wait for the night to fall, and try them out in the open woods
:D

My two 8 modes just arrived today as well. Order was placed the end of Sept. when they were back ordered. Waiting for the batteries to fully charge now. :thumb:

Just got my 5 mode from DE today; 8 days from order to delivery. I've only had cheap-o Cateyes and such in the past so I'm looking forward to not blind-siding any more potholes. I came to this forum looking for a way not to spend $200+ for a decent light. Thanks for the input, P7 fans!

I got mine (5 mode) and charger, bike holder and batteries. Put the battery in and the light is bright!!!
Can't wait to try it on a rainy night commute. I actually secured the flashlight to my helmet with an old inner tube (this is the third tool in my triad repair arsenal of duct tape, WD-40 -I am aware of the debate about this, and inner tubes)

Coupla questions:
1. should I run down the batteries BEFORE the first charge or doesn't it matter?
2. Can I charge the new batteries right out of the package.
3. The light looks like window with four panes-why?
5. Does DX make the same light with a red bulb/lense? would be great for the rear

Coupla thing noticed.
1. No waste with DX-no slips inside and no directions
2. Flashlight battery combo seem bomb proof-no rattling whatsoever

Certainly cheaper than Dinotte

Batteries charged in just under 4hrs. :thumb: I think I was checking them every 15mins. Not because I thought they would explode but because I couldn't wait to play with the new lights. Measured 4.20V when I took them out of the charger.

Wow, I can't believe how super bright these things are... I've never had white LEDs and the only flashlights in the house are D-cell Maglites. These little P7s put those larger incandescent lights to shame. You don't notice how yellow the regular bulbs are until you see them next to a the white/bluish light of the P7s. Definitely can't let my 4yr old play with it though or he'll blind himself or his little brother. We did read a bedtime stories with one of low though. :lol:

I think the 8 modes are a little to much. :rolleyes: Took a minute to figure out the clicky pattern and how long between clicks to advance the modes/turn off. No big deal there though. Hey, it's a flashlight... I didn't expect an instruction booklet.

I notice they are a little floody but a few quick tests outside look like they'll put the light down the road a bit. Have to reserve final judgement until a real night ride takes place. Don't even know if I'll like riding at night but I figured I'm in for under a $100 with the lights and charger so even if I don't ride I'll have some kick ***** flashlights in the end.

Answers:
1. Doesn't matter.
2. Yes.
3. The LED actually consists of four seperate emitters.
4. The consensus around here is that filters are too inefficient to be worth it. I'm not sure about red LED flashlights. I use a Planet Bike Superflash.

You can secure flashlights to your helmet with Twofish Lockblocks.

I took my first ride with mine tonight-it's a super light. I can't imagine needing more than one (well, maybe for mtb'ing). I can't imagine needing a brighter light. I went 90 minutes on high with one battery, it faded to about the same as low by the end. A $70 purchase (light, 2 batteries, 2 holders, charger) that makes me this happy is a good thing. That little $2 holder works well too.

i just use velcro for my helmet and my 2nd P7

the MTE P7 case design makes it safe to just velcro the center part, without worrying it to slide out or anything like that.

i too took the plunge to buy one of these. my q5 doesn't have the flood for the road right infront of me that i want. i'll still use it as a throw either on helmet or on bars.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12060

what kind of battery should i use? DX says 1x 18650 , but it has a picture with 2 cr123s. i realize that two cr123 would put it at a much higher voltage, dunno if its safe. i would figure that two cr123 would last longer than 1 18650because it has more combined mah. its a bit confusing to me

Use protected 18650.