Help about 18650 battery

[TAIGERSX]

I just bought a 18650 battery for my DBS V3. Do I need to charge it before using or it's already fully charged. I ask this question because my DSD charger is flickering periodically between red and green so I'm not sure what's going on.

Thanks folks.

 

[Benson]

I just bought a 18650 battery for my DBS V3. Do I need to charge it before using or it's already fully charged. I ask this question because my DSD charger is flickering periodically between red and green so I'm not sure what's going on.

Thanks folks.

They typically arrive half-charged or so -- you should be able to light up a light, but you will want to charge them soon.

My DSD charger flashes rapidly red/green whenever there's no battery, and switches to red when charging, green when it's done charging. (And the light goes out when I put a cell in backwards. Don't do that.) When it's charging the green light is partially on, or on part of the time, or something, but it's definitely red overall.

Could you describe in more detail the flickering you're getting?

 

[TAIGERSX]

They typically arrive half-charged or so -- you should be able to light up a light, but you will want to charge them soon.

My DSD charger flashes rapidly red/green whenever there's no battery, and switches to red when charging, green when it's done charging. (And the light goes out when I put a cell in backwards. Don't do that.) When it's charging the green light is partially on, or on part of the time, or something, but it's definitely red overall.

Could you describe in more detail the flickering you're getting?

It's flickering between red and green but the red seems to be dominating in term of frequency. When I used my finger to touch the battery it becomes completely green with no flickering.

So I just leave it like that until it turns completely green (fully chareged) ?

 

[mdocod]

If you press on the battery and the light turns green, the the battery is obviously not making continuous contact. Stretch the contacts of the charger out a bit to make good contact.

If it's turning solid green when you install the cell, then the charger is recognizing that the cell is close to full charge and will not begin charging.

Sometimes cells come charged as high as ~4V new. The DSD in my experience will not initiate a charge unless it is unplugged and plugged back in on any cell up around 4V or higher.

 

[TAIGERSX]

If you press on the battery and the light turns green, the the battery is obviously not making continuous contact. Stretch the contacts of the charger out a bit to make good contact.

If it's turning solid green when you install the cell, then the charger is recognizing that the cell is close to full charge and will not begin charging.

Sometimes cells come charged as high as ~4V new. The DSD in my experience will not initiate a charge unless it is unplugged and plugged back in on any cell up around 4V or higher.

So after 5 hours of charging I took the battery out even though the light is still flickering red/green and measure the voltage of the battery. It read 4.19 V . Is it supposed to be around 4.2 V, I heard ?

 

[mdocod]

4.19V is fully charged, I'm curious now as to why the light is flickering with the cell in place. Strange behavior.

 

[harddrive]

Yeah it sounds like a faulty charger maybe?

TAIGERSX, Have you used your DSD charger on other batteries?

 

[TAIGERSX]

Yeah it sounds like a faulty charger maybe?

TAIGERSX, Have you used your DSD charger on other batteries?

I only use DSD charger for 18650 which is used in my new DBS V3. Im using primary CR123 for other lights. But now the DSD charger ended up in the trash can ( NOOO!! my 12 dollars ) .
I just ordered the Ultrafire WF-139 charger.

So my lesson is: RESEARCH BEFORE BUYING

 

[mdocod]

So my lesson is: RESEARCH BEFORE BUYING

Any research on this forum would only yield one common answer, and that is that the Pila IBC is about the only consumer oriented 2-bay charger for li-ion cells that is decent. The WF-139, in it's latest revisions, doesn't seem to be too bad, but it's still not following the recommended charging methods laid forth by li-ion cell manufactures.