Name's dubluv....I've been trolling on/off this forum reading reviews and searching for different things for awhile now. I finally decided to try my hand at the LED Flashlight/18650 world.
I was at my local Princess Auto(I'm sure it's a sister company to Harbour Freight), when i stumbled upon this..
5W LED Aluminum Flashlight
At $14.99, I couldn't resist. So I brought it home and threw it on the supplied charger. After the 4 hours it said to charge on the package I pulled the battery(noticing that the charged was still blinking RED for still charging) Inserted into flashlight, and tested. I was impressed at the light output this thing threw out!
That being said, I was still a bit disappointed as the reviews I have seeing/reading for a CREE 5W LED seemed to put out more light.
Out comes the multimeter and sure enough the 18650 was sitting at 3.83V. BOOOO
So now I have to get this batt replaced? as well as the charger.
On my way home I stopped at a Home Depot and found an 18V Ryobi battery pack in the recycle bin. Took it home and after a little disecction I have 10 Sanyo cells( I'll check that again tonight for specs.) 8 of the cells were at 4.06v, and 2 were at 4.05v.
Charged all the cells with my Accucell-6 individually to 4.1V (Li-Ion settings) and now the light output is MUCH better. Each cell took anywhere between 40-140mah before my charger cut them off.
Here's my question to the experienced one on CPF....Should I run the charge/discharge test on all the cells to see if they are still good?
I also have a set of E-moli 18650 cells i scavenged from a cable/modem/router/telephone conversion box. I'm going to try those as well.
Sooooooooooo that's it for now, I'll take pics of the crazy temp-hacked-together-charging-madness as well as the cells for info....and the flashlight as well..hope to hear some insight from the many members!
P.S. Pics to come tonight of the flashlight....so comeback and reply!
Do not link directly to sales sites- Norm
I was at my local Princess Auto(I'm sure it's a sister company to Harbour Freight), when i stumbled upon this..
5W LED Aluminum Flashlight
At $14.99, I couldn't resist. So I brought it home and threw it on the supplied charger. After the 4 hours it said to charge on the package I pulled the battery(noticing that the charged was still blinking RED for still charging) Inserted into flashlight, and tested. I was impressed at the light output this thing threw out!
That being said, I was still a bit disappointed as the reviews I have seeing/reading for a CREE 5W LED seemed to put out more light.
Out comes the multimeter and sure enough the 18650 was sitting at 3.83V. BOOOO
So now I have to get this batt replaced? as well as the charger.
On my way home I stopped at a Home Depot and found an 18V Ryobi battery pack in the recycle bin. Took it home and after a little disecction I have 10 Sanyo cells( I'll check that again tonight for specs.) 8 of the cells were at 4.06v, and 2 were at 4.05v.
Charged all the cells with my Accucell-6 individually to 4.1V (Li-Ion settings) and now the light output is MUCH better. Each cell took anywhere between 40-140mah before my charger cut them off.
Here's my question to the experienced one on CPF....Should I run the charge/discharge test on all the cells to see if they are still good?
I also have a set of E-moli 18650 cells i scavenged from a cable/modem/router/telephone conversion box. I'm going to try those as well.
Sooooooooooo that's it for now, I'll take pics of the crazy temp-hacked-together-charging-madness as well as the cells for info....and the flashlight as well..hope to hear some insight from the many members!
P.S. Pics to come tonight of the flashlight....so comeback and reply!
Do not link directly to sales sites- Norm
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