Opus BT-C3100 2.2-Comparison-New and Exchanged.

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!



CLOSING IN ON 5K POSTS!

MR. OPUS AND MR. FENIX ARE GOING TO GET ALONG FINE.IF I FIND IT NECESSARY TO HAVE A 4.20V CHARGE AFTER IT COMES OFF OF THE OPUS[4.15V], I WILL JUST PUT IT IN MY FENIX FOR 3 TO 5 MINUTES!

 

[swan]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

Like Chris said the opus tends to read a little high but i think your ncr cells are holding up remarkably well considering the charge count.

Only a 75 mah difference from highest to lowest on these four-impressive and shows how good these panasonic cells are.

I agree with you that charging at 3.5v or there abouts probably has contributed to their longevity. I do the same and my oldest jetbeam 2300 cells which are almost 6 years old still show around 2000 mah.

Actually i have never had a 18650 cell go bad yet over almost 6 yrs of use.

Capolini i like how you give your lights and cells hard real world use which helps a lot of readers , 5000 posts thanks for your valuable contribution..

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

^^^^^

Thank you swan!


I am your average Joe when it comes to knowledge. I do like to give a lot of numbers and statistics so people have an idea of of how I use my cells and lights! I have always liked numbers! In 4th grade I was the Times table champion,REWARD: Get a drink of water[leave class] anytime I want!!:laughing:

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

I am going to post numerous discharge/capacity test results along the way.

Posted like this: Battery/Purchase date/Cycles/mAh[capacity]

With the exception of LGHG2/#1, All other batteries were discharged @ 3.0V and tested @ 1Amp

VTC6 #1/8.22.2016/43CYCLES/3038mAh -HKJ GOT 2976mAh @ 1AMP

VTC6 #2/8.22.2016/24 CYCLES/3047mAh

LGHG2 #1/6.17.2015/151 CYCLES/2235mAh-This one was only discharged to 3.35V??

LGHG2-#2/1.5.2016/58 CYCLES/3008mAh- ​HKJ GOT 2804 @ 1AMP.


#2 LGHG2 works fine, not sure why it was only discharged @ 3.35v? It definitely affected the mAh but still seems low for .3V LESS of a discharge! I will test again.

 

[hahoo]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

that opus is second to the mc3000
its a great lil unit
ive tried them all, and it was the best till i got the mc 3000
you should get a mc3000
its so much more flexible than anything out there right now
beauty is you can set your cut off voltage to what ever you want
ive got mine set at 4,23, and they will rest at 4.21 after an hour or so of coming off
you can charge up to 3 amps , for ALL 4 CHANNELS if you need to, not just 1 amp
youll find out how much fun battery charging can be if you get it

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

^^^^

Thanks for the suggestion. I just got this charger yesterday and I am ENJOYING it!

I have too many to begin with!

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

ENLOOP AAA 750mAH - HR-4UTBG-PURCHASED ON 11.25.2013-

NOT SURE OF CHARGE CYCLES! USED IN 1 LIGHT AND 4 BATTERIES!

AT THE MOMENT I have TWO AAA LIGHTS.I USE IMR 10440 IN MY ULTRATAC K18 SS.I USE THESE IN MY OLIGHT i3S-CU.

That is impressive. 3.5 years old.Even if those are 75mAh off! :thumbsup:

 

[Gauss163]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

[...] They may have been charged to 4.20v BUT they were NEVER discharged[until now!] below 3.5V, Rarely under 3.6v and mostly 3.6V to 3.8v,,,,,,I believe that is a BIGGER key to their longevity than NOT charging them to 4.20v!

Not true. Doing all your discharges in the highest possible voltage range and unbalanced around 50% SOC is not good. In fact it is the worst possible management strategy when it comes to maximizing health (esp. cycle life). For example if instead you balanced your capacity use around 50% by using capacity only in the range 75%-25% (vs. 100%-50%) then studies show that you may gain close to 50% cycle life, e.g. you might get 600 equivalent full cycles instead of 400 cycles before your cells degrade to 80% of their original capacity. For details see my post here, esp. the final graph.

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

^^^^

Guess what Gauss163. I am not as technical as you!! I enjoy my hobby!

According to you, for "having the worst possible management strategy" they sure have lasted long and are still doing well.

80% of my lights are MODDED. When the batteries start getting weaker, for whatever reason, I am not worried about a few extra cycles,,,,,,,I just buy new batteries which are not that much these days!

It is quite apparent that you like challenging people,,,even HKJ!

I do not claim to have all this knowledge and am NOT interested in getting every spec out of a battery. I enjoy my hobby and am not going to let someone like you take the joy out of it!

 

[Tachead]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

Not true. Doing all your discharges in the highest possible voltage range and unbalanced around 50% SOC is not good. In fact it is the worst possible management strategy when it comes to maximizing health (esp. cycle life). For example if instead you balanced your capacity use around 50% by using capacity only in the range 75%-25% (vs. 100%-50%) then studies show that you may gain close to 50% cycle life, e.g. you might get 600 equivalent full cycles instead of 400 cycles before your cells degrade to 80% of their original capacity. For details see my post here, esp. the final graph.

Worst possible strategy or not, look at the life he has got out of the cells. Over 4 years and 400+ cycles and only around a 5% drop in capacity. This is what I was trying to tell you in the other thread Gauss. Imo it would be a waste of time and energy to try and use the 75-25% range even if it is "optimum". How much more life do you really need out of a $3 cell? For most users, I would suspect that the cells will die from old age before they could ever wear them out. These cells are very resilient and unless your hobby is playing with batteries or you have extreme OCD, there is no need to get fancy. Just charge them up fully, don't discharge them too low, store them anywhere in the 3.6-3.9V range and enjoy using your lights. Then, in 5 or ten years when they start getting tired, recycle them and grab a new batch of the latest cells.

 

[Gauss163]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

@Capolini I presumed from your remark about longevity that you might be interested in the studies. If not then, as you note, often you can still get reasonable life even without paying any attention to such.

When, as above, I supply links to the literature, they are not meant to be "challenging" but, rather, informative. There is much misinformation on the web about Li-ion technology, and part of the reason that I volunteer here and elsewhere is to help guide readers to more accurate information. Of course I do realize that not everyone is interested in more technical matters, but many of us do enjoy such - not only for optimizing Li-ion life etc, but also due to genuine curiosity about the underlying science (which can be quite enjoyable)

 

[Tachead]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

^^^^

Guess what Gauss163. I am not as technical as you!! I enjoy my hobby!

According to you, for "having the worst possible management strategy" they sure have lasted long and are still doing well.

80% of my lights are MODDED. When the batteries start getting weaker, for whatever reason, I am not worried about a few extra cycles,,,,,,,I just buy new batteries which are not that much these days!

It is quite apparent that you like challenging people,,,even HKJ!

I do not claim to have all this knowledge and am NOT interested in getting every spec out of a battery. I enjoy my hobby and am not going to let someone like you take the joy out of it!

Yep, he sure likes challenging people and trying to sound like an expert. Don't let him stress you out Cap.

Thanks for publishing your test results by the way Capolini, I appreciate your efforts:thumbsup:.

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

Cells and batteries are cheap and considered consumables. While I don't want to trash them sooner than I might, they don't cost a lot of money in the long run.

It's like people cutting down a beer can and licking out the last few drops.

Life's too short to be analyzing over some of this stuff, IMO.

Chris

 

[Gauss163]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

Worst possible strategy or not, look at the life he has got out of the cells. Over 4 years and 400+ cycles and only around a 5% drop in capacity. [...]

It is impossible that they lost only 5% capacity in 400+ cycles over 4 years.

In any case, as I remarked above, even if you ignore optimizations you can still get halfway-decent cycle/calendar life. Whether or not that suffices will be a very subjective decision - highly dependent on context (a matter orthogonal to my reply above).

Though it appears that you are not interested in optimizations that could yield 50% increases in lifetime, many hobbyists do have an interest in such matters. Moreover, learning about the underlying science helps one to understand not only these matters but also diverse aspects of Li-ion batteries (e.g. safety issues), so it is quite a worthwhile endeavor.

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

Yep, he sure likes challenging people and trying to sound like an expert. Don't let him stress you out Cap.

Thanks for publishing your test results by the way Capolini, I appreciate your efforts:thumbsup:.

My pleasure Tachead,,,,here are a few more simple minded tests for POST #5000!

SOME OF MY 18350 IMR FROM OLDEST TO NEWEST:

ALL WERE DISCHARGED @ 500mAh

AW IMR 18350/5.1.2015/179 CYCLES/622mAh -Rated 800mAh

EFEST IMR 18350/5.22.2015/#1-167 CYCLES-589mAh, #2-181 CYCLES-560mAh -Rated 700mAh -HKJ GOT 710mAh @500mAh

KEEPPOWER IMR 18350/2.10.2017/#1-7 CYCLES -726mAh, #2-7 CYCLES-739mAh- Rated 750mAh-​HKJ GOT 711mAh @500mAh

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

Cells and batteries are cheap and considered consumables. While I don't want to trash them sooner than I might, they don't cost a lot of money in the long run.

It's like people cutting down a beer can and licking out the last few drops.

Life's too short to be analyzing over some of this stuff, IMO.

Chris

+1

 

[Tachead]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

My pleasure Tachead,,,,here are a few more simple minded tests for POST #5000!

SOME OF MY 18350 IMR FROM OLDEST TO NEWEST:

ALL WERE DISCHARGED @ 500mAh

AW IMR 18350/5.1.2015/179 CYCLES/622mAh -Rated 800mAh

EFEST IMR 18350/5.22.2015/#1-167 CYCLES-589mAh, #2-181 CYCLES-560mAh -Rated 700mAh

KEEPPOWER IMR 18350/2.10.2017/#1-7 CYCLES -726mAh, #2-7 CYCLES-739mAh- Rated 750mAh

Thanks:thumbsup:

 

[Tachead]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

+1

+2

 

[Capolini]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

VTC5-6.7.2015-127 CYCLES-2598mAh :thumbsup: TESTED AT 1 AMP. HKJ GOT 2575 @1 AMP .....almost identical readings!

THIS SIMPLETON TESTING IS FUN!! LOL!

 

[swan]

Re: BACK TO BASICS-SIMPLE,EFFICIENT AND DURABLE!

VTC5-6.7.2015-127 CYCLES-2598mAh :thumbsup:

THIS SIMPLETON TESTING IS FUN!! LOL!

Thanks Capolini for posting real user tests

Notice everything posted from Gauss163 is not from personal experience but a Cut and Paste.