Had a new Keeppower battery die while using it. Reads 0 volts. What happened?

I bought a pair of Keeppower 18650 batteries (3100 mha) from the doingoutdoor ebay seller - these batteries and this seller were recommended to me here. I've used them maybe 2 times each...and was using one tonight when the flashlight suddenly went off. I had to replace the battery. Back home I check and it read 0 volts! I guess it died? Or maybe it is the pcb on it? Is there anything I can do?

you probably triggered the over discharge protection.
You can first try to put the battery in the charger, maybe it can reset the protection.
If the charger fails to reset protection, do this with a working battery, for 1 second:

HKJ said:

you probably triggered the over discharge protection.
You can first try to put the battery in the charger, maybe it can reset the protection.
If the charger fails to reset protection, do this with a working battery, for 1 second:

Click to expand...

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HK , please examine your instructional picture .......

Have you got a couple of Pluses and Minuses in the wrong place ?


and Remember .......... NEWbies are watching .

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TooManyGizmos said:

HK , please examine your instructional picture .......

Have you got a couple of Pluses and Minuses in the wrong place ?

and Remember .......... NEWbies are watching .

Click to expand...

Everything is correct, the cells are connected in parallel, i.e. + to + and - to -, that is the correct way to reset a protection.

Just a hypothetical, could you do that reset with a 18650 and 16340 or 16340 and 14500 or whatever protected li-on to li-on?

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Those AW cells both have the *Red band* on the right , in the Pic.

Your polarity symbols don't match... or the labels are reversed.

( is a *Loop* circuit series or parallel ? )

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TooManyGizmos said:

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HK , please examine your instructional picture .......

Have you got a couple of Pluses and Minuses in the wrong place ?


and Remember .......... NEWbies are watching .

~

Click to expand...

Cell on the left is from Intl-Outdoor and the right is AW. The red band on the AW can be confusing sometime.

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sbbsga , you must be right about that .... upon closer inspection.


But I'm sorry , that looks like a reverse polarity SHORT .. to me.

The cells are not placed parallel to one-another .

Are'nt 3 cells placed end-to-end said to be in series with each other ?

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AFearlessBirdOfParadise said:

Just a hypothetical, could you do that reset with a 18650 and 16340 or 16340 and 14500 or whatever protected li-on to li-on?

Click to expand...

Yes, no problem with that.

TooManyGizmos said:

Those AW cells both have the *Red band* on the right , in the Pic.

Your polarity symbols don't match... or the labels are reversed.

Click to expand...

A closer look shows more clearly where the + symbol is on the batteries:

TooManyGizmos said:

( is a *Loop* circuit series or parallel ? )

Click to expand...

It can be made either way, but series is a bad idea for batteries.

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HK , OK .......... I see now .

It looked confusing to me at first.

I just needed you to explain it more .

Thanks

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Thank you HKJ! I put it in the charger and it appears to be taking a charge. I appreciate you taking the time to educate me. I didn't know the PCB did this.

I was using this battery in an Ultrafire W502b "5W" infrared flashlight. I only ran it about 1 hour but I guess this unit drains fast. I had adequate illumination through my night camera so did not know it was running low. It will make it hard to monitor. Is it bad to let the PCB protection kick in and shut it off? Or should I replace the battery sooner next time?

So it didnt keep power.

wahoowad said:

Is it bad to let the PCB protection kick in and shut it off? Or should I replace the battery sooner next time?

Click to expand...

If you run the light at high power, it is no problem that the PCB protection kicks in, but on low brightness it will be hard on the battery.

HKJ said:

If you run the light at high power, it is no problem that the PCB protection kicks in, but on low brightness it will be hard on the battery.

Click to expand...

In my case this IR flashlight only has one mode. I assume it is high power, especially since it drained so fast. I almost always use my other lights on low power though so have newer seen how long a 18650 will last on high power.