Help me choose battery and charger for Convoy S3

Blackinfinity

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I make this thread cause I need to put an order as fast as possible since I need it in my work, it feels since I am not that experienced I will google on stuff forever to be sure what to buy. I have already spent a week deciding the Convoy S3 is the best choice (No I dont care about modding so I dont want the S2+ since the S3 gets less hot with the same light output because of greater body design so I prioritize heat cooling instead of mod compatibility )

I am planning to buy Convoy S3 [FONT=Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, SimSun, 宋体]([/FONT]XML2 T4-7A 3000-3200K & 7135*8 output current 2800mA)



I want between 3400-3500 mAH battery since I want as long runtime as possible. Protected battery is probably a more wise choice.
is high drain battery a good choice ? Simon at Convoy did ignore to answer detailed battery questions, its too bad he just dont bundle his flashlights with batteries would make it a lot easier for newbies like me.

Also I need to keep the total amount of cost down to the minimum but I still want as much quality as possible for the money. Main reason is I bought a manker likght and I pretty much wasted money on it since it turned out to be defective. The only reason I choose the convoy S3 is cause I bought the Manker E14 II which turned out to be a big mistake, I will not get into deeper the problems it has more then to say that it was defective and I have no energy to send it back to china and pay 20 dollars for shipping and hope he will send something back total process would take a long time too maybe up to 3-4 months.
I will stay away from Manker brand in the future even though I like their designs... since they have no quality control. the E14 II I was satisfied with the light output I did like the nicha 4000K output, I am eager to see if the 3000K on the S3 is even more nice since I work mostly at night I need something comfortable for my eyes and that makes my working environment less "creepy".

Problem

1.Since I will choose 7135*8 for the Convoy S3 does the "8" indicate I need 8A battery to get full performance ?


2. How do I know if a battery is a high drain battery and is it recommended for the Convoy S3 (again simon at convoy did answer me on this question either)
3. There is a lot of cheap batteries out there, but where can I buy original and genuie batteries that are both cheap and I can trust they are not fake ? and that have free shipping (since I will order the convoy S3 from china shipping time is not a big problem since the flashlight will probably take a month or so to arrive)
4. At last What battery do you recommend ? Its probably not worth to pay extra for 3500 mAH since very little difference in % but probably a lot more expensive.
5. What battery charger do you recommend that is very cheap ?
Convoy sell this one that seem good, and cheap only bad thing is in long term I might be a need of a charger with 2 or 4 cells but I like the design of it.

Thank you and happy new years
 
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scout24

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Hello and welcome. I approved your post with it's questions, but removed your product links and a hotlinked image. The amount of spam for advertising that we get here is absurd, and hotlinking images are a no-no. You'll get plenty of recommendations without those in your post, don't worry... :)
 

Blackinfinity

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Hello and welcome. I approved your post with it's questions, but removed your product links and a hotlinked image. The amount of spam for advertising that we get here is absurd, and hotlinking images are a no-no. You'll get plenty of recommendations without those in your post, don't worry... :)

Thank you for accepting my thread, yeah sorry for the hotlinking.

In case some people wonder what charger I was talking about it was the LiitoKala Lii-100.

As I said this charger is probably very good if you only need 1 battery charger, in long term I might need a bigger charger so I dont know if I should buy a nitecore charger maybe instead.. Is the LiitoKala a good brand when talking about chargers ?
 

ChrisGarrett

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Feb 2, 2012
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Miami, Florida
Thank you for accepting my thread, yeah sorry for the hotlinking.

In case some people wonder what charger I was talking about it was the LiitoKala Lii-100.

As I said this charger is probably very good if you only need 1 battery charger, in long term I might need a bigger charger so I dont know if I should buy a nitecore charger maybe instead.. Is the LiitoKala a good brand when talking about chargers ?

I don't have an S3, but I do have 3 S2+ Convoys (and the M1, M2, C8, S2, S2+ custom) that all run the 8*7135 driver boards and you don't need a high drain cell to begin with. Anything like the Panasonic NCR18650B and above will easily handle ~3A of current.

I don't run protected cells, because the drivers all have low voltage warnings and I'm personally in the habit of checking/charging my cells up.

Something like the Sanyo-Panasonic NCR18650GA 10A cell will be more than adequate and that cell can be used in higher current lights, if you get some down the road.

I have two Liitokala 100s and two Liitokala 202s and they're decent and extremely flexible chargers for not a lot of scratch. Can't really go wrong there. The 202s are twin bays.

You don't have to sweat cells in your S3, as 3A is now rather benign, as far as loads go.

Heat will be your biggest problem on High, since there's just not enough mass to soak it up, but they're nifty lights for cheap.

Happy New Year.

Chris
 

Blackinfinity

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Jan 1, 2019
Messages
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I don't have an S3, but I do have 3 S2+ Convoys (and the M1, M2, C8, S2, S2+ custom) that all run the 8*7135 driver boards and you don't need a high drain cell to begin with. Anything like the Panasonic NCR18650B and above will easily handle ~3A of current.

I don't run protected cells, because the drivers all have low voltage warnings and I'm personally in the habit of checking/charging my cells up.

Something like the Sanyo-Panasonic NCR18650GA 10A cell will be more than adequate and that cell can be used in higher current lights, if you get some down the road.

I have two Liitokala 100s and two Liitokala 202s and they're decent and extremely flexible chargers for not a lot of scratch. Can't really go wrong there. The 202s are twin bays.

You don't have to sweat cells in your S3, as 3A is now rather benign, as far as loads go.

Heat will be your biggest problem on High, since there's just not enough mass to soak it up, but they're nifty lights for cheap.

Happy New Year.

Chris

Thanks during fast look it seem Sanyo have high reputation, the question is where can I know for sure where I an buy genuine batteries that are not fake ? On aliexpress its very hard to know or trust if the battery is really original or some cheap crap that will put on fire. I have seen some good sites in EU and US with good reputation but the shipping rates are kind of insane,so I have figured the only way is to find a place that ship from china with free shipping otherwise the shipping will be more expensive then the batteries itself

I have looked around a little bit it seem Liitokalaa have a pretty good reputation and the price is very attractive and their latest designs looks very appealing and still half of the price of the nitecores, or the Folomov A4

I am also now little bit intersted in the Emisar DS4 with SST20 3000K 95CRI.
I have never heard about
SST20 3000K 95CRI before but seem this emiiter is very powerful also compared to the XM-L2 U2-1 , never heard about SST before so I will also see what other flashlights that is out there with SST20 it seem to deliver superior lumen output with 3000K compared to the XML2U2

EDIT :After seeing the runtime of Emisar D4 Its not longer and option the runtime of 3 minutes on turbo is very bad.
 
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Blackinfinity

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Jan 1, 2019
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I have decided to buy the Acebeam E65 (CRI version) to begin with, one big benifit is bigger battery and also included usb charger so I dont need to buy a charger.. 4000K will be enough to begin with.. I might also buy the Sofirn SF36W afterwards.
 
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