KevinL
Flashlight Enthusiast
<font color="red">See the disastrous ending as for my reasons why it's not recommended. </font>
I got 4 of the unprotected R123s from s2k today, and these are my first impressions.
If you are planning to buy them, please read item #60 in the MicroFAQ about lithium ion safety. Remember: stay safe. Handle these cells with respect and they will deliver the performance you want. Nobody but yourself is responsible for your own actions.
First off, the quality of the construction is really impressive. I wasn't expecting it, but the cells have a really solid feel to them, and they look great. No kinked/slanted cells, no creased shrinkwrap, these cells are well built indeed. They're normal height, same as the CR123s we're all used to, and their build quality is outstanding.
That's not the only thing. The charger feels great, too. Instead of one big wallwart and a charger, the electronics are fully self-contained - no wallwart, everything is packaged into the charger. Electrical contacts are solid as well, in fact it takes a little bit of pressure to insert cells into the charger. You can tell these will last. No tweaking of the contacts needed.
This charger is a two-channel, two-bay platform. In plain english, you can charge one cell at a time, or two at a time, whichever you prefer. Charging current is 300mA with automatic charge control and termination. When powered on, the single LED turns green. When the cells are charging, the LED turns red, when both bays are fully charged, the LED turns green again. Simple and intuitive. The cells get barely warm during charging, and most of the time you are unlikely to even notice. According to the packaging, the charger runs at 110-240V, so you can take it with you when you travel. Since I live in the Rest of the World, I run the charger on 220VAC, but I definitely appreciate the autoranging feature - same deal with my laptop, it works wherever my work takes me.
Did I mention its small size helps a lot when you travel, too?
s2k informed me that the cells, fresh out of the package, hold a charge and can be used immediately. I bought 4 cells, so I put 2 in the charger, and wondered why the LED didn't turn red.. in other words, the cells were already FULLY charged - fresh from the factory. I'm guessing that it means they are very new stock, because they haven't had time to self-discharge very much. Either that, or their self-discharge rate is extremely low, which is a Good Thing.
The only issue is that the open-circuit voltage is 4.0V (confirmed by DMM), and this results in a charge cutoff of 3.8V, thus the cells do not reach full capacity. s2k has informed me that all you need to do is adjust a potentiometer inside the charger with a screwdriver while measuring open circuit voltage with the DMM to tweak it to 4.2V. I will get to this later when he posts instructions on how to do it. This is also why I haven't done runtime tests - it wouldn't be fair to do them on cells that are not fully charged.
As you can see, my initial set of tests was done with two Surefire KL1s (one stock, one boosted to 500mA) running on both 1 and 2-cell bodies. Both work fine. However, you must take *EXTRA* care not to deep-discharge the cells, because the KL1s are so efficient at sucking power from batteries that they will very easily kill these. When I tried it on mine, one cell came out at 1.98V, the other one at 2.3V. The danger mark is 2.5V - these two cells.. well, guess I might just be buying more cells soon if I don't ease up, but someone's gotta do the testing.
Of more interest is the Surefire C2 and the 6P, equipped with P90 and P91 lamps respectively. Project C2-90 (in my sig) has been documented well, and performs equally well whether using protected or unprotected cells. However, this is the first time I'm operating a P91 lamp using these R123s - the protected cells cannot withstand the current draw of a P91. The 6P is running on 2xR123 and WOW - the P91 sure is bright. I used to run the P91 with 3 cells and an A19 adapter, and I can definitely say it is just as bright when running on R123s.
Hpwever, those batteries sure go quick when you're playing around. The worst part that I was wandering around in the dark at home with just the 6P-91, and the light gave me about 30 seconds of warning before brightness dropped to nearly nothing. This is almost as bad as the protected cells, but the unprotected's give you more warning time. The protected ones simply cut off.
Of course I had to stumble around in the dark to retrieve another light. Not a good thing to happen to a flashaholic /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
A quick check with the DMM found I'd nearly killed the cell too, it was measuring around 2.3V!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif the cell seems to be a lot better now that it's recovering in the charger, but with unprotecteds you really have to be careful. The MOMENT you can detect any dimming, douse the light and switch to your backup light. Having a DMM around to measure the voltage of the R123s goes a long way to teaching you how far you can push them.
Do not however attempt to measure 'flash amps' by setting the DMM to 10A scale and shorting the R123s. I tried this (you should not) VERY briefly, just brushing the tip of the probe against the cell, and it was already enough to strike sparks. I usually get sparks when current hits around 7-10A, so believe me, these cells can, and will sink a huge amount of current into a dead short - so ensure that they never get shorted. A Surefire SC1 or appropriate cell carrier will go a long way towards helping you carry them safely.
I figure the moral of the story is that whenever you are dealing with rechargeable lights, you MUST carry a secondary backup light that is preferably running on primary cells. R123s are great stuff, whether protected or unprotected, but have a nasty tendency to leave you in the dark when you need it most, whereas the slow steady dimming of lithium 123s gives you a LOT more time to react. This is also the reason why my EDC rig is based on an E1e+KL1 running exclusively on primary cells (in fact, ONLY Surefire cells), plus Project C2-90.
Conclusion - highly recommended as long as strict handling precautions are followed. I'm definitely looking forward to using these in Project Rice Rocket, which will involve adding an A19 cell extender, Turbohead, and MN60/61 to the 6P.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I got 4 of the unprotected R123s from s2k today, and these are my first impressions.
If you are planning to buy them, please read item #60 in the MicroFAQ about lithium ion safety. Remember: stay safe. Handle these cells with respect and they will deliver the performance you want. Nobody but yourself is responsible for your own actions.
First off, the quality of the construction is really impressive. I wasn't expecting it, but the cells have a really solid feel to them, and they look great. No kinked/slanted cells, no creased shrinkwrap, these cells are well built indeed. They're normal height, same as the CR123s we're all used to, and their build quality is outstanding.
That's not the only thing. The charger feels great, too. Instead of one big wallwart and a charger, the electronics are fully self-contained - no wallwart, everything is packaged into the charger. Electrical contacts are solid as well, in fact it takes a little bit of pressure to insert cells into the charger. You can tell these will last. No tweaking of the contacts needed.
This charger is a two-channel, two-bay platform. In plain english, you can charge one cell at a time, or two at a time, whichever you prefer. Charging current is 300mA with automatic charge control and termination. When powered on, the single LED turns green. When the cells are charging, the LED turns red, when both bays are fully charged, the LED turns green again. Simple and intuitive. The cells get barely warm during charging, and most of the time you are unlikely to even notice. According to the packaging, the charger runs at 110-240V, so you can take it with you when you travel. Since I live in the Rest of the World, I run the charger on 220VAC, but I definitely appreciate the autoranging feature - same deal with my laptop, it works wherever my work takes me.
Did I mention its small size helps a lot when you travel, too?
s2k informed me that the cells, fresh out of the package, hold a charge and can be used immediately. I bought 4 cells, so I put 2 in the charger, and wondered why the LED didn't turn red.. in other words, the cells were already FULLY charged - fresh from the factory. I'm guessing that it means they are very new stock, because they haven't had time to self-discharge very much. Either that, or their self-discharge rate is extremely low, which is a Good Thing.
The only issue is that the open-circuit voltage is 4.0V (confirmed by DMM), and this results in a charge cutoff of 3.8V, thus the cells do not reach full capacity. s2k has informed me that all you need to do is adjust a potentiometer inside the charger with a screwdriver while measuring open circuit voltage with the DMM to tweak it to 4.2V. I will get to this later when he posts instructions on how to do it. This is also why I haven't done runtime tests - it wouldn't be fair to do them on cells that are not fully charged.
As you can see, my initial set of tests was done with two Surefire KL1s (one stock, one boosted to 500mA) running on both 1 and 2-cell bodies. Both work fine. However, you must take *EXTRA* care not to deep-discharge the cells, because the KL1s are so efficient at sucking power from batteries that they will very easily kill these. When I tried it on mine, one cell came out at 1.98V, the other one at 2.3V. The danger mark is 2.5V - these two cells.. well, guess I might just be buying more cells soon if I don't ease up, but someone's gotta do the testing.
Of more interest is the Surefire C2 and the 6P, equipped with P90 and P91 lamps respectively. Project C2-90 (in my sig) has been documented well, and performs equally well whether using protected or unprotected cells. However, this is the first time I'm operating a P91 lamp using these R123s - the protected cells cannot withstand the current draw of a P91. The 6P is running on 2xR123 and WOW - the P91 sure is bright. I used to run the P91 with 3 cells and an A19 adapter, and I can definitely say it is just as bright when running on R123s.
Hpwever, those batteries sure go quick when you're playing around. The worst part that I was wandering around in the dark at home with just the 6P-91, and the light gave me about 30 seconds of warning before brightness dropped to nearly nothing. This is almost as bad as the protected cells, but the unprotected's give you more warning time. The protected ones simply cut off.
Of course I had to stumble around in the dark to retrieve another light. Not a good thing to happen to a flashaholic /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
A quick check with the DMM found I'd nearly killed the cell too, it was measuring around 2.3V!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif the cell seems to be a lot better now that it's recovering in the charger, but with unprotecteds you really have to be careful. The MOMENT you can detect any dimming, douse the light and switch to your backup light. Having a DMM around to measure the voltage of the R123s goes a long way to teaching you how far you can push them.
Do not however attempt to measure 'flash amps' by setting the DMM to 10A scale and shorting the R123s. I tried this (you should not) VERY briefly, just brushing the tip of the probe against the cell, and it was already enough to strike sparks. I usually get sparks when current hits around 7-10A, so believe me, these cells can, and will sink a huge amount of current into a dead short - so ensure that they never get shorted. A Surefire SC1 or appropriate cell carrier will go a long way towards helping you carry them safely.
I figure the moral of the story is that whenever you are dealing with rechargeable lights, you MUST carry a secondary backup light that is preferably running on primary cells. R123s are great stuff, whether protected or unprotected, but have a nasty tendency to leave you in the dark when you need it most, whereas the slow steady dimming of lithium 123s gives you a LOT more time to react. This is also the reason why my EDC rig is based on an E1e+KL1 running exclusively on primary cells (in fact, ONLY Surefire cells), plus Project C2-90.
Conclusion - highly recommended as long as strict handling precautions are followed. I'm definitely looking forward to using these in Project Rice Rocket, which will involve adding an A19 cell extender, Turbohead, and MN60/61 to the 6P.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
