Protected 14500 fits inside minimag?

[electronics4life]

Hi,

I got in on the group buy for one of the minimag hotwire kits. Specifically I purchased a TL3 kit which should work with protected 14500 batteries. My problem is my protected 14500 batteries barely fit into a minimag. I have to literally push them in and out. I got the batteries from e-lectronics.net. Does AW's protected 14500 batteries fit inside a minimag easily?

Thanks for the help!

 

[lazee]

i use unprotected 14500 in my minimaglite and theres no problem. maybe the extra circuitry for the protected one is taking up extra space?

 

[Icarus]

I just checked it; AW's protected 14500 cells fit without any problem.

 

[speederino]

I just received some li-ions from e-lectronics.net this weekend. They were just a little too tight fitting to be comfortable. The blue plastic along the seam was thicker and causing the fit problems. I wore down the plastic using some 600 grit sandpaper and all was well.

From what I read, AW's li-ion cells are top notch. I know where I will be buying my next set of cells.

 

[WhiteHot]

Not all minimags are created equal. I have some that barely fit AW's protected cells, some that are so close that they take a little work to get out, and some that slide right in and out. My newer minimags seems to all take the cells very well. They are all the colored ones (red and pewter). Wonder if that matters?

 

[VWTim]

FWIW my HA3'd minimag takes AW cells fine with plenty of room to spare.

 

[greenLED]

Considering the potential hazards of Li-ion battery mishandling, I would not attempt altering their width! Instead, I'd try to enlarge the MM tube. A bit of sandpaper, a dowel, and some elbow grease will do the trick; it doesn't sound like you need to eliminate a lot of material.

 

[electronics4life]

Thank you for all of the replies! The minimag I am trying to use is brand new and has considerbly more battery clearance than more older minimags.

First, I started out trying to sand one of the batteries. This ended up running the batteries insulation. Next, I used sand paper on a pencil to sand the battery tube. After about two hours, the batteries now fit.

Moral of the story, buy your protected 14500's from AW if you want them to easily fit into a minimag.

 

[greenLED]

First, I started out trying to sand one of the batteries. This ended up running the batteries insulation. Next, I used sand paper on a pencil to sand the battery tube. After about two hours, the batteries now fit.

I'm gonna sound like a broken record here, but please be careful with those uninsulated li-ion cells...

 

[rikvee]

I bought the AW protected 14500's for the Auroralite MM TL-3 kit, they fit fine, amazing output, a 'stealth' light if ever I saw one!

BUT, I also tried these (longer) batteries in my cut-down 1AA MiniMags, and with the current thickness of Sandwich shoppe Luxeon pills, these protected 14500's are TOO LONG for that purpose....
Cutting down the tailcap spring was not very succesful, so I'm back using the unprotected version in my 1AA MiniMini-or-MicroMags.

 

[WhiteHot]

I'm gonna sound like a broken record here, but please be careful with those uninsulated li-ion cells...

yup

 

[teststrips]

I have AW's, in a ~2 year old minimag - they are tight, but do slide. To get them out I have to use centrifucal force by swinging the light with a wrist flick. I will have to consider a new minimag next time I'm in walmart.

 

[greenLED]

I just tried 4 14500's I got from Markcm:

They all fit with no problems in a newer minimag (bought it in the last year), but they don't in 3 of my older minimags (one bought in 1992, the other 2 around 1998 or so). I'm only half-bummed since the minimag where they fit is the one I intend to run AuroraLite's hotwire mod. Unfortunately, one of the lights I tried these cells in is a cut-down minimag (by Ledean), which means I can't run a NG500 sammie in there as I had planned. I guess I have some sanding to do... :green:

On a sligtly OT note, these cells also fit inside an ArcAA body I have. It's a slightly imperfect body, in the sense that it has a tiny "step" inside the tube and the batteries stop there. A light push will get them past this point, and 1-2 taps makes them slide out. I guess some light sanding is in order also... :green: If my ArcAA body didn't have this "step" I wouldn't expect any problems using these cells (which is what I plan to do, with a FluPIC sammie from goldserve - an overdue mod that'll take a bit more work to make it work ).

 

[hank]

Mind if I bump this thread up? I'm hoping for info about currently available 14500-size rechargeable cells fitting (especially if there are 3v cells available that fit)

 

[cernobila]

Have a read through this, could be helpful.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/auroralite_hotwire.htm