Zebralight SC600w Mk III HI am I the only one having a bad experience?

jwill911

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Hi, Somewhat of a newbie to the forum, been lurking and reading reviews mostly. I purchased the Zebralight SC600w Mk III HI about a month ago. I'm a cyclist and bought it for a bright headlight when dark and strobe to be seen the remainder of the time. So far this light has been nothing but a disappointment.:shakehead I'm not sure the source of the problem. Trying to get support from Zebralight's support request system is painful and frustrating.
I purchased the light with two un-protected batteries, which it requires, the build quality of the light is excellent IMO. But I expected a superior run time and for whatever reason even in strobe it lasts less then 30 minutes. I have three other LED lights two 18650 and one CR123 lights which last hours in strobe, which is my primary mode of operation. I like to be seen riding a bike on the road with distracted drivers.
I purchased the light based on "Selfbuilt's" review. I'm hoping to get some words of encouragement from others using this light. Maybe the batteries are defective. I can't substitute batteries as all of mine are protected, too big to fit. I charged my two new un-protected batteries overnight and measured this morning with my Fluke DVM and was surprised to get a reading of barely 2.8v. My charger "UltraFire Rapid Charger For 3.7v Lithium batteries" is the same one I use successfully with my other protected 18650 and CR123 that charge fully.

Appreciate feedback, thanks.
John
 

LED Monkey

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2.8v is pretty much all drained, it sounds like there is something going on with your charger. And I'm a little leary of stuff with the "UltraFire" branding on it. I believe I've read that the sc600wMKIII can also take a Panasonic NCR18650B (protected) cell but not run at peak performance.
 

twistedraven

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How much lumens are your other lights putting out at their strobe levels? The MK3 HI outputs its max brightness with all strobe modes except the low-mode beacon. In other words, that strobe mode is going to be a very fast on-off 1200 lumen strobe. Under normal conditions, a heavily driven 18650 is only going to last about half an hour of that amount of constant output. Since the strobe is on-off functionality, it won't drain the battery quite as fast, but also keep in the on-off also means it will take a lot longer before the PID kicks in. 30 minutes might be a little low of a runtime, but at the same time I wouldn't expect anything that would last for hours.

I also have to ask why you're using the Strobe features for cycling on the HI to begin with. IMO they're moreso tactical strobes meant to disorientate rather than something like a bike strobe, which is much more subtle. You should perhaps get a light with a bike strobe or a light that uses strobe at lower outputs.

You could also run the HI at its H2 setting at 320ish lumens, which will get you 4 hours of constant output.

And also 2.8v is pretty much drained for an 18650, I would use a reputable charger and reputable batteries.
 

scs

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If you're willing to plunk down this much cash for this ZL, why not get a decent charger, Xtar VP2 or VC4.
Agree with the raven. The 2.2 hr runtime advertised is achieved via PID substantially reducing the output below the advertised 1126 lumens. On your handle bars, the light probably gets enough cooling that its PID doesn't kick in. Less than 30 mins sounds low, but likely not over or not much over an hour at 4Hz or 19Hz in the first place.
 

jwill911

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Thanks for the replies. I purchased a new charger "Opus BT-C3100 V2.2" and will hopefully get better operation with a fully charged battery. Initially I wasn't even measuring the battery, just trusting my old charger to "charge" the batteries. I've been using the same charger for several years and all my protected 18650 batteries seems to be working so I didn't consider the charger.
Once I have the light working correctly I'll fiddle with the programming to see if I can get a strobe at a lower intensity otherwise just run it on continuous medium. I like the strobe while cycling as it can be touchy riding a 20 pound bike in a 3000 pound car world.
Thanks,
John
 

Rhinny2012

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If you are just looking for daytime strobe while cycling, pick up something like a Niterider Lumina Micro 350 for less than $40.00. I have one that I use for daytime cycling in strobe mode and I get about 6 hours out of a charge. And it's simple usb rechargeable. If you also want to use it as a light for night riding, I recommend the Lumina 750 which works great for riding at night, but I think the 750 lumen strobe is too bright for daytime. So I have both and they even use the same mount so you can easily swap them.
 

CelticCross74

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OP what unprotected cells are you using? The unprotected Sanyo 3500mah 10amp NCR18650GA ZL sells on their site is the best cell currently available for it gives you the most capacity. Do NOT put any protected cell in this light. The light is in no way designed to take any protected cell youre just going to mess up the light. Also yes Xtar VC2 or VC4 toss the Ultrafire garbage and stay away from anything with "fire" in the name reason being they are all counterfeits of something else.

On a bike with air flowing over the light the thermal regulation will not kick in and it will go full blast until the cell depletes enough for the lights low voltage protection to kick in. The MkIII HI is one of the best lights I have ever bought in 20 years of collecting. I wouldnt use it as a bike light the Fenix BC30 is purposely meant for bikes and would be a much better choice. Also that full blast strobe would blind the heck out of me and I am more than certain oncoming traffic gets pretty distracted by it.

So...yes the MkIII HI really is THAT good of a general use and tactical light...but not for bikes especially bike rides over 30 min...
 

eightbitpotion

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I use the same charger as you, which I'm surely going to upgrade soon, but I have absolutely no issues with it at all. There's a switch on the side of your charger...are you sure it's set to 3.7? I accidentally set it to the lower volt a few moths ago, and I was fairly disappointed for about a week until I figured it out.
 

wolfgaze

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The Zebralight strobe is extremely disorienting... Makes me nauseous just looking at the flicker and that's when I'm pointing it away from me...

Are you sure you're using the strobe (rapid flashing), or are you using the beacon mode (slower flashing)? If it's the strobe, please stop using that on your bike rides immediately... You are going to distract and/or disorient the drivers on the road and you don't want to do that...

Find some lights designed specifically for your need/activity... I see many bikers with the red flashing lights on their bikes at night...

Welcome to the forum, btw...
 
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oKtosiTe

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It would really help to mention which unprotected cells you are using. If they are also of a *fire "brand", that would probably be the cause of it.
Make sure you are using either the Sanyo NCR18650GA or the LG INR18650-MJ1. Most other cells will either be a poor fit, or simply not be able to deliver enough current.

Either way, get rid of any Ultrafire/Trustfire chargers and cells you have. They're not just almost certainly of poor quality. They may very well be a fire hazard or an accident waiting to happen.
 
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markr6

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Just chiming in to echo all the comments about not using this strobe while cycling. There's a point where trying to be safe and stand out becomes more danger than no light at all. Distractions between other drivers, between them and you, etc...
 

PeterRamish

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...Maybe the batteries are defective. I can't substitute batteries as all of mine are protected, too big to fit. I charged my two new un-protected batteries overnight and measured this morning with my Fluke DVM and was surprised to get a reading of barely 2.8v. My charger "UltraFire Rapid Charger For 3.7v Lithium batteries" is the same one I use successfully with my other protected 18650 and CR123 that charge fully.


Appreciate feedback, thanks.
John


You need to spend a spend a few hours reading about batteries and chargers for your new light. Get some good background information here:

Batteries and chargers: http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers UK.html

Battery test reviews: http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650Summary UK.html


And, I know everyone has already beat you to death on this but: If I drove by you and you strobed me with a MKIII, I would probably call the Highway Patrol and report the incident, which could be very dangerous !
 
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jwill911

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Wow! This site has a lot of active users willing to help. And flog idiots for doing stupid sh*t.
I think the source of my problem other than being uninformed was my charger. I should receive the one I ordered today (Opus BT-C3100 v2.2) that's capable of charging the Sanyo NCR18650GA 3500mAh batteries.
I won't use my ZebraLight on strobe when cycling I'll use it for other purposes.
And thanks for the various more appropriate recommendations for cycling. I will check them out.

John
 

jwill911

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Once I get my batteries properly charged I'll be able to play with the light's programming and then I'll know the answer; strobe/flash.
 

sidecross

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And, I know everyone has already beat you to death on this but: If I drove by you and you strobed me with a MKIII, I would probably call the Highway Patrol and report the incident, which could be very dangerous !

I have seen bicyclists using a strobe similar to the one found on the ZebraLight SC600 Mklll which is NOT troublesome to view and in fact makes the rider very visible. It is one of ZebraLights best features to have a strobe which is NOT disorientating.:thumbsup:
 

twistedraven

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How much lux was that light putting out though? The MK3 HI is a 1200 lumen light tuned for throw. The only reasonable situation I would see it being ok is if the beam was pointed directly down in front of you and they just caught a glimpse of the spill. In which case you'll proabably be the one blinding yourself.
 
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