Gave in to the mighty 18650!!, recommendations?

[kramer5150]

A little long... so grab your coffee and kick back a little

I have not really been a huge proponent of 18650 cells, preferring RCR123 and primaries. My main reasoning.... Backup cells are a little big and heavy to pack carry, they take a long time to charge. I tend to be a clutz and drop everything, the added mass of the cell on a hard fall is more likely to damage the protection circuit. The biggest reason though is my Surefire lights wont fit them....:twothumbs Yeah!! for my wallet.

That all changed recently (for the better) my brother in law gave me his laptop battery which was barely a month old, of sporadic use and has never seen a deep-discharge. I busted out my knife and carefully pulled the 18650s out. I have been cycling them the past fewdays and they seem to be doing just fine, and hold a charge very well (more time will tell). Woohoo!!! full steam ahead!! Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone so I ordered a couple more pairs from DX:twothumbs:twothumbs:twothumbs

To my surprise they fit in MOST of my 3xAAA lights!!! (EDIT: Its been noted below that direct driving off an 18650 without a current limiting resistor or DC-DC board will kill the emitter(s). Hence an 18650 is considerably more than just a drop-in upgrade) They just drop right in, with some rolled paper to fill the tube gap. Those direct drive showerhead LED lights:sick2: really ZING now... easily 2-3-4 times the brightness, runtime, with flatter regulation. FYI to you all... you can breathe new life into those junk-box lights with an 18650 or 18500 cell. Color tint is still :green::sick2: though.

Its like a clean slate, new horizon of possibilities and adventure lay ahead.

So... I ask you all this... whats your favorite 18650 light and if you could post 2 cheers and 2 jeers for it... Help me get into 18650 lights!!!

 

[JasonH]

Dereelight cl1h, hands down my favorite.

 

[metlarules]

I'm using a Surefire 6p right now with 17670 batteries. If I was to go the 18650 route I would assemble a Fivemega or Leef 18650 body with 6p head and tail.A inexpensive alternative would be the Solarforce 18650 light at Lighthound.Just drop in your bulb or led drop in and shine away.

 

[Fallingwater]

To my surprise they fit in MOST of my 3xAAA lights!!! They just drop right in, with some rolled paper to fill the tube gap. Those direct drive showerhead LED lights:sick2: really ZING now... easily 2-3-4 times the brightness, runtime, with flatter regulation. FYI to you all... you can breathe new life into those junk-box lights with an 18650 or 18500 cell. Color tint is still green: sick2: though.

Well, the color tint problem is going to solve itself pretty soon, since those lights won't be outputting any tint in a very short while.

Direct-drive 3xAAA lights get extremely overdriven when ran with a LiIon and no other hardware inbetween it and the LED(s). I ran for a brief moment one of these on a 18500 (18650 wouldn't fit), and the current draw shot up to almost 100mA per LED. At that current draw, LEDs will start dying in minutes.

My suggestion: either put a resistor inline to keep the draw to about 40mA per LED, or install a driver in the light. For a 9-LED light one of these with two of the three AMC7135 chips unsoldered would work, giving you a driving current of 350mA total (and a low mode to boot). I intend to do this mod to one of my 9-LEDs as soon as I get the drivers I ordered.
If you don't care for the low mode, one of these would work just fine (and you wouldn't need to unsolder anything), but I haven't found single boards on sale anywhere. Then again, if you have many 3xAAA lights you might like a 20-pack.

So... I ask you all this... whats your favorite 18650 light and if you could post 2 cheers and 2 jeers for it

My Shiningbeam L-Mini, but I wouldn't want to use one in stock form as it's very throw-happy, and I have little use for throw in a EDC light. If you have the patience and ability to swap the LED with a SSC, though, its usefulness increases markedly. It's not currently on sale, but you can find the TR-801 on DX, which is similar.

 

[bluecrow76]

I have been using 18650 since I caught the bug. As I'm in the technology industry I get to rip apart "bad" laptop battery packs all the time. I've collected a very large supply of these cells and have three chargers to care for charging duties.

I have two Novatac 120P's with 17670 tubes and use Hogo's trick that allows us to use an 18650 in a 17670 tube.

My most recent 18650 light purchase was a Jetbeam III PRO IBS... love the light, although being used to the Novatac and Liteflux LF3XT I wish the UI had MORE features or at least more user control (instead of the light ramping itself and you turning it off when you like what its doing). I am currently looking at acquiring a Jetbeam III PRO IBS ST as I think it will have a nice EDC footprint in a holster. I used to EDC a Fenix P3D-RB100 and I miss the form factor. The ST isn't too much larger. I also like the Jet's because if all I have are RCR123 or CR123 cells I can drop one in along with a dummy cell and still operate.

 

[Fallingwater]

I have been using 18650 since I caught the bug. As I'm in the technology industry I get to rip apart "bad" laptop battery packs all the time. I've collected a very large supply of these cells and have three chargers to care for charging duties.

I envy you. I only got two "bad" packs to disassemble, and one of them was actually bad - all the cells were a loss.

I have two Novatac 120P's with 17670 tubes and use Hogo's trick that allows us to use an 18650 in a 17670 tube.

What's that?

 

[bluecrow76]

I envy you. I only got two "bad" packs to disassemble, and one of them was actually bad - all the cells were a loss.

Interesting... most of the packs I've taken apart have only had one bad cell. There was only one pack I came across so far (since Hurricane Katrina) that had mostly dead batteries and it was OLD! I have yet to come across a pack that was made of 17670 cells... I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!

What's that?

Convert HDS/Novatac 2X123 to 18650 for $1

 

[kramer5150]

Direct-drive 3xAAA lights get extremely overdriven when ran with a LiIon and no other hardware inbetween it and the LED(s). I ran for a brief moment one of these on a 18500 (18650 wouldn't fit), and the current draw shot up to almost 100mA per LED. At that current draw, LEDs will start dying in minutes.

I hadn't thought about that.
I'll go ahead and use a DX 7882 board with this one.... http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0298798

I will have to adjust the peak current down to a tolerable level though.

:thumbsup:

 

[MarNav1]

6P bored with a Malkoff M60 and a Z59 w Neko tailguard. Plenty bright for me. Also a modded by Wquiles C Mag, 2 x 18650 w bFlex and Seoul, great light. Personally I like having the extra capacity all in one cell, would be nice if they had a bit more "button" on the top though. I like 17670's as well.

 

[nohcho]

Isn't M60 a little dim on single 18650?

 

[metlarules]

On a single lithium ion I would choose the M-30 instead.

 

[gunga]

Get a Sgt Burkett and mod away!

 

[nohcho]

 

[MarNav1]

Isn't M60 a little dim on single 18650?

Mine puts spots in my eyes, pretty bright to me. I don't run it for long periods either, I should runtime test it once. I have compared it to 2 x 123 and the difference wasn't visible, at least not for me. :tinfoil:

 

[nohcho]

Mine puts spots in my eyes, pretty bright to me. I don't run it for long periods either, I should runtime test it once. I have compared it to 2 x 123 and the difference wasn't visible, at least not for me. :tinfoil:

That is good to know, cause i am torn between M30 and M60, i have some rcr 123's as well to run with M60.

 

[brighterisbetter]

nohcho, you may want to resize your image to less than 800x800 pixels

If you post an image in your post, please downsize the image to no larger than 800 x 800 pixels.

 

[Wattnot]

The world is open to you now. I consider the single 18650 flashlight formfactor to be THE BEST overall. Runtime is incredible and in the last year some great lights have come out.

I have the CL1H and agree that's one of the best.

I have the JetBeam III IBS and that's a great one too.

I also have a Sniper P7 - awesome!

There's the Fenix TK10 and TK11 - I don't have either but lots of good press on those.

You can always buy an 18650 host and drop a Malkoff M30 in it . . . You'll love that (the M30 is the M60 but made for a single lion cell).

There's the Dereelight DBS and the Tiablo and many, many more. There are so many great lights built around that battery! Coming from the RCR123 you'll be completely blown away by the runtime as it will at LEAST quadruple.

Have fun shopping!!

 

[nohcho]

I don't know about M30 and what not , but P60L runs forever on 18650

 

[bigchelis]

The M30 in a single cell cr123 3V primary give you plenty of lumens for extended periods or if you prefer drop in a 3.7v cr123 and get 45minutes w/ 230 lumens. You essentially get the M30 and the M30L with the same Drop-in. I used it in a 3P, E1e w/6P bezel, and Pentagon light, and for kicks in a 6P bored to accept the 18650's. The problem is I like them all, but now that the P7 Malkoff drop-ins are available it's time to upgrade.

The 18650's are my favorate cell. They only take about 2 to 3 hours to charge and make youre LED's run for a very long time.

Good to see you changed over to the 18650's. gfog.

 

[Fallingwater]

Interesting... most of the packs I've taken apart have only had one bad cell. There was only one pack I came across so far (since Hurricane Katrina) that had mostly dead batteries and it was OLD! I have yet to come across a pack that was made of 17670 cells... I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!

Heh, actually one of the two packs was completely dead (there were only three cells of the eight that were above 2.5V, and even they had stupidly fast self-discharge), and the other, strangely enough, had half of the cells in the parallel packs gone, and the other half working. To clarify: there were four parallel-connected pairs of cells, which were then connected in series. In ALL FOUR pairs, one cell was good, the other was dead. I have no idea how this can have happened.

I'll go ahead and use a DX 7882 board with this one.... http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0298798

You want a 3-AMC 1050mA driver for that one.

I consider the single 18650 flashlight formfactor to be THE BEST overall.

I wholeheartedly agree.