Test/Review of Fenix 18650 ARB-L2 2600mAh (Black)
- Thread starter HKJ
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LEDAdd1ct
Flashlight Enthusiast
Only time and user experience will tell.
tobrien
Flashlight Enthusiast
what?
Blackbeard
Enlightened
will these work in all their 18650 lights including the older ones? Or might you need to put a magnet on the flat top?
HKJ
Flashaholic
Look at the plus connection in then light, if it has a spring or a small bump it will work with flat top batteries.
more precisely,
Fenix ARB-L2 = BAK C18650CC (2600mAh) max discharge: 5.2A
Sanyo UR18650FM, 2600mAh (Unprotected) vs BAK C18650CC, 2600mAh (Unprotected)
discharge until 3V with 2A
Sanyo: 2480mAh
BAK: 2503mAh
3A
Sanyo: 2473mAh
BAK: 2552mAh
5A
Sanyo: 2432mAh
BAK: 2465mAh
Source: Dampfakkus
Fenix ARB-L2 = BAK C18650CC (2600mAh) max discharge: 5.2A
Sanyo UR18650FM, 2600mAh (Unprotected) vs BAK C18650CC, 2600mAh (Unprotected)
discharge until 3V with 2A
Sanyo: 2480mAh
BAK: 2503mAh
3A
Sanyo: 2473mAh
BAK: 2552mAh
5A
Sanyo: 2432mAh
BAK: 2465mAh
Source: Dampfakkus
degarb
Flashlight Enthusiast
From: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalciti.../Countries/us/ba_bakli-ion2.6ah_us_eng_v1.pdf
Shenzhen is behind this? They made the leds for the 2011-2012 cheap biglots and home depot headlamps. Bought a few from both sources; Most made it only a few hours before burnout, and none still work. My guess is that they were a cool 50 lpw led, driven at 1 watt, and no heatsink.
Have they made it to 3100 mah yet?
Shenzhen is behind this? They made the leds for the 2011-2012 cheap biglots and home depot headlamps. Bought a few from both sources; Most made it only a few hours before burnout, and none still work. My guess is that they were a cool 50 lpw led, driven at 1 watt, and no heatsink.
Have they made it to 3100 mah yet?
Labrador72
Flashlight Enthusiast
Sorry, are you referring to the Fenix 18650 batteries? According to previous posts they are produced by a Chinese manufacturer.
What do you mean by "Shenzhen is behind this?"? Shenzhen is a city or are you referring to a company that goes by the same name?
What do you mean by "Shenzhen is behind this?"? Shenzhen is a city or are you referring to a company that goes by the same name?
degarb
Flashlight Enthusiast
There is a common led, looking like a cheap Luxeon Rebel ripoff, that is sold in many cheap lights (for last 3 or 4 years) in stores with this Shenzhen stamped on it. The biggest problem is color, weak efficiency, and very short led life (which may be fault of heatsinking or low maximum current ability).
Then, you may be right, random companies stamping a city name on the led star (white circle really).
I am guessing the important thing is the secondary addition of safety measures in the BAK cells and the test performances of the cell (where even if they measure to stated capacity, this is a huge step forward from most generic 18650s). The emphasis on redundancy and creating damage proof protection circuits (and damage proof wrapper), is a big selling point. I have been pondering wrapping my new Panasonic 3400s in thin, wide clear 3m tape, since this tape is very tough. Maybe plasti dip or bombproofing bed liner spray to make them tougher.
Then, you may be right, random companies stamping a city name on the led star (white circle really).
I am guessing the important thing is the secondary addition of safety measures in the BAK cells and the test performances of the cell (where even if they measure to stated capacity, this is a huge step forward from most generic 18650s). The emphasis on redundancy and creating damage proof protection circuits (and damage proof wrapper), is a big selling point. I have been pondering wrapping my new Panasonic 3400s in thin, wide clear 3m tape, since this tape is very tough. Maybe plasti dip or bombproofing bed liner spray to make them tougher.
tobrien
Flashlight Enthusiast
donjoe
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
- Messages
- 25
I think I just killed one of these with my Olight S20-L2. I had been using it on its first charge for so long I had forgotten than the S20's button LED was supposed to turn red to signal that the battery was close to empty, so I kept using it even after seeing the red light. What finally drew my attention was the fact that the flashlight ended up refusing to go into any of the higher modes beyond Moonlight and Low. At that point I figured it was time to charge, so I stuck the battery in my Chinese no-name single-unit 3.7 18650 charger, only to see the charger's LED stay green continuously, as if there was no need to charge the battery. Then I thought maybe it wasn't discharged enough 
so I stuck it back in the flashlight and ran it down until the light turned completely off. Back to the charger, same story: green light, no charging whatsoever.
Then I came to the forum and found out about the protection circuit and how it needed to be reset etc., so I measured the open-circuit voltage (indeed 0 at this point) and then I connected the battery in parallel to a USB port's VCC and GND pins and to a small resistor I had around the house for a few seconds. Sure enough the protection circuit reset and the next voltage I read across the battery was approximately 3V, so it seemed all set for a recharge. Except it wasn't: even now if I stick it in the charger the LED will still stay green and there will be no charging going on no matter how long I leave it in there.
I'm looking at 2 possibilities now:
- The battery is fine but I need a better charger
- The battery is really damaged and will no longer charge with any charger, which means that Fenix' protection circuit sucks (didn't kick in when it should have).
Since the last (Ultrafire) 18650 I had went through multiple cycles with this charger and didn't have any problems, I have to assume the second variant is true and I'll just have to order a new (and different) battery.
so I stuck it back in the flashlight and ran it down until the light turned completely off. Back to the charger, same story: green light, no charging whatsoever.Then I came to the forum and found out about the protection circuit and how it needed to be reset etc., so I measured the open-circuit voltage (indeed 0 at this point) and then I connected the battery in parallel to a USB port's VCC and GND pins and to a small resistor I had around the house for a few seconds. Sure enough the protection circuit reset and the next voltage I read across the battery was approximately 3V, so it seemed all set for a recharge. Except it wasn't: even now if I stick it in the charger the LED will still stay green and there will be no charging going on no matter how long I leave it in there.
I'm looking at 2 possibilities now:
- The battery is fine but I need a better charger
- The battery is really damaged and will no longer charge with any charger, which means that Fenix' protection circuit sucks (didn't kick in when it should have).
Since the last (Ultrafire) 18650 I had went through multiple cycles with this charger and didn't have any problems, I have to assume the second variant is true and I'll just have to order a new (and different) battery.
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HKJ
Flashaholic
My guess would be to get another charger.
donjoe
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
- Messages
- 25
Haha, thanks for that! Your reply made me go back to try one last time and as I did that it occurred to me to try to connect the charger to the mains and just measure the voltage between its terminals with no battery: 0 V.
Turns out one of its terminals was a piece of metal soldered directly onto the little circuit board inside and its soldering point had snapped due to the stress it always had to deal with due to this elastic design:
After moving the terminal back into place and putting some more solder on there I got 3.7 V between its terminals and now with the battery in I'm finally seeing a red LED. Looks like Fenix' protection circuit did well after all.
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HKJ
Flashaholic
I do not have any plans for it.
My queue of 2800mAh+ batteries are empty (You can see my lap setup here) and I was planning to get a few unprotected brand name (LG, Samsung etc.) cells to test, I am missing some of them.
After that I do not have any plans for that test station and Fenix is a possibility.
