Does anyone sell 3.6V 123 PROTECTED Cells?

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FlashCrazy

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
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I can't seem to find any. There's plenty of 3.6/3.7 unprotected rechargeable cells, but no protected ones. I did find several 3.0V rechargeable 123 protected cells, but I need the 3.6/3.7 volt versions. Thanks for any help!
 
Batterystation.com
3.6 Volt 900mAh Protected.
They work great, good runtimes.
I use them in my flashlights both
single and double battery lights.
 
Qualitychinagoods.com sells them too. Batterstations are probably your best bet though.
 
What makes a certain battery a 3.0V rechargeable? I thought all LiIons were 3.7 at nominal charge...
 
Dunno, but the 3.0V version reach 3.6V when fully charged...the 3.7V version reach about 4.2V fully charged.
 
zeeexsixare - the addition of a voltage control circuit to the protection PCB which lowers the voltage under load.

FlashCrazy - That's incorrect, a voltage protected cell will read 3.0-3.2V UNDER load. a DMM does not induce a load so it cannot measure the voltage properly.
 
Like I posted in their creation thread yesterday, QCG does not offer those protected cells anymore, not individually anywhere on the site anyway. I don't know if they're still included with that combo.
 
QCG does offer Protected 3.6V R123A cells. They stopped for a while due to a change in the cell's design. The new ones (which were intro'd about 6 months ago(?)) are slimmer and can fit most lights now.

I've had good experiences with Dae (qualitychinagoods), Mark (e-lectronics.net), and AW for service and quality/performance of their cells.
 
Last edited:
MattK said:
zeeexsixare - the addition of a voltage control circuit to the protection PCB which lowers the voltage under load.

FlashCrazy - That's incorrect, a voltage protected cell will read 3.0-3.2V UNDER load. a DMM does not induce a load so it cannot measure the voltage properly.
Click to expand...


Yeah I know...all I was saying is that a 3.0v battery just off the charger will show 3.6v or so, and a 3.7v will show 4.1 or so when topped off. These are voltages when not under load, I know under load they'll be less.

I guess the question posed earlier is what's the difference between the two versions of 123 rechargeables? (The 3.0v version and the 3.6v version). I guess they're slightly different chemistries?
 
No, as I posted above the 3.0 cells have an additional circuit on their PCB (printed circuit board) that lowers the voltage of the cell under load. The chemistries are identical for most - lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) which is what most of the 'lithium ion' batteries you guys are using are made of lately.
 
FlashCrazy said:
Yeah I know...all I was saying is that a 3.0v battery just off the charger will show 3.6v or so, and a 3.7v will show 4.1 or so when topped off. These are voltages when not under load, I know under load they'll be less.

I guess the question posed earlier is what's the difference between the two versions of 123 rechargeables? (The 3.0v version and the 3.6v version). I guess they're slightly different chemistries?
Click to expand...

You can get differences of .3V or more measuring the unloaded voltages of "3.0 V" RCR123 that use internal circuitry.

If I hold the leads, I get about 3.7 V on a freshly charged "AW 3.0 V" RCR123 from Lighthound as my body resistance causes the voltage dropping diode to conduct current and lower the voltage. If I measure it with a 10 M ohm input meter without holding the leads, I get 4.05 V. The lower loading apparently is enough for the reverse leakage current of the charge diode to become significant.

A cheapo Harbor Freight DMM reads about 3.75 V because it has a lower input impedance which loads the cell a bit.

Some one opened up a 3.0 V RCR123 and measured the internal cell voltage at .26 V below the charger voltage. That will probably vary a bit depending on whether the charger uses CC/CV and cuts off charging or is just voltage clamped.

AW's new 3.0 V cells based on Saphion chemistry don't have internal circuitry and will show actual cell voltage.

Mike
 
MattK said:
No, as I posted above the 3.0 cells have an additional circuit on their PCB (printed circuit board) that lowers the voltage of the cell under load. The chemistries are identical for most - lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) which is what most of the 'lithium ion' batteries you guys are using are made of lately.
Click to expand...

Oh ok...I didn't know that the protection circuit itself actually lowered the voltage. Any unprotected lithium battery will also show a lower voltage under load...the more the load, the more the voltage drop...that's why I was confused. I always thought the protection was just designed to cut-off the battery at a prescribed low voltage so that the battery wouldn't get damaged. Same for the upper voltage threshold, to prevent over-charging. I know the protection is also for over-current. So the 3.0v protected batts actually are 3.7v batteries, and the circuit kicks down the voltage?...that's just confusing to me, seems like a waste of capacity. But I guess if you can only use 3.0v batts in a certain application that's the way to go.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to argue...just trying to learn!
 
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