Lithium Rechargables Advice help

[CroMAGnet]

Happy New year everyone. I picked up a new Xenon light with 2xCR123's. I was messing around with my Nuwai Q3 and Obmu X3 when I realized the Q3 was a lot brighter than the 2(CR123)Ombu X3. So I swapped batteries with the new Xenon light and it didn't even light up. Basicaly I'm getting tired of putting in fresh batteries to keep my lights looking fresh and bright.

Can anyone recommend a rechargable Lithium R123 set-up for My Ombu X3 and Nuwai Q3?

Looking for a bit more output without frying the lights and no worries about when or how to charge them. The Ombu runs 2 CR123 batteries. The Nuwai just 1.

I guess that means they should be protected. With all the talk about the dangers of some rechargables, I wanted to make sure I picked the right ones for these lights. amps, volts etc.

JS Burly? Batterystation? Somewhere else? Thanks for the help. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[AW]

The xenon bulb is a 6V bulb which may certainly blow when used with 2 R123. However, 1 Pila 168S may drive it with a very dim output. You may try replacing the stock bulb with a Strion bulb or a 3C TT bulb for a very bright beam.
My QIII is working very well with R123s and it is producing a brighter beam for a whole 30 minutes. I would not worry about the unprotected cells as long as you don't over discharge them - meaning changing the cells when you get a dimming output. As an precaution, I always check the voltage of each cell using a DMM before putting them into a charger.

 

[CroMAGnet]

Thanks for the info. So the protection means that the charger stops charging the battery when it's full. If that's the case, I'd prefer it.

What about running the 2 Lithium R123s on my Ombu 3 Watt Led? Will I run into problems? I've heard that it might be when using two. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[CroMAGnet]

Or is the protection in the 'battery' ?? (I feel like such a noob) HEY, I am a noob /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[AW]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

The protection circuit is inside the battery itself to prevent over discharging.
Stacking 2 unprotected R123 is a very bad idea because difference in discharge rate may cause 'reverse charging' between cells and the result maybe be very hazardous.

 

[CroMAGnet]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

Thanx AW ... Is there a rechargable solution for my 2xCR123 3watt light? (without sacrificing performance of course) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[cy]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

li-ion cells are capable of extreme high discharge rates. R123 will discharge 14+ amps.

in such situations, protection circuit will shut cell down preventing possible bad things from happening.

use bare li-ion only in single cell applications, only after checking light for dead short dangers, only after reading about possible dangers, only with correct charger

 

[andrewwynn]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

how about a clever battery pack that has two parallel R123s but in a stack.. just need a little fancy wiring (maybe with like ribbon cable) to 'make it so.. shrink wrap the whole shabang and make a 2-cell R123.. of course you'd need the appropriate driver that would boost the voltage or LDO or such to drop the voltage for a 1 lux 3 solution... in any event.. maybe a safe way to use R123s in a two-up light?

-awr

 

[CroMAGnet]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

Hey Andrew! I'm so glad I bought your AAA brass beauty that's up coming! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I was messin' around with my ARC AAA tonight in anticipation. Will I still be able to celebrate your Bday with it?

Anyway, that parallel battery sounds like a really kewl idea; of which you're in no short supply. How would I charge it then? And how can I tell what voltage this dual battery Ombu requires? I have a kewl old Micronta 22-204C voltmeter that I dug out of the shed the other day.

Since it uses two 3V CR123s I'd think it requires 6v?

Thanx all, for tolerating the noob questions /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[andrewwynn]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

My thought (above) was to actually make a 3.6V two-cell battery pack.. and use an appropriate driver for the LED you were planning to use... just rather than have the batteries side by side, have them front to back... with the right wiring and insulation to make it all work.. you would charge with a typical setup for parallel charging (high current low voltage (4.2V).

me and others have been working on a system to charge series use batteries in parallel with some clever electronics or switches.. it gets tricky.. the best FETs still introduce 1/20th ohm.

I'm still planning to have the lights made by my birthday it'll be a grand birthday present to me as well as the recipients of the lights.

if the batteries are in-line (series) 6V sounds like your light.. however.. 'around here'.. what it is now is typically just the 'control' for describing later what it was.

-awr

 

[AW]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

Beamshot TD10 is using a twin 168S battery pack and charger. However, it is for 3X123 and 9V configuation only.

http://flashlightsunlimited.com/beamshot-td10.htm

 

[CroMAGnet]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

OK I'm catching on. slowly /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Thanks andrew. Everyone is really a lot of help here at CPF.

So are you running the batteries in parallel for a longer duration but not for more voltage? If so then would I be able to use just one R123 that is designed to run at around 4v with a spacer for the other battery? That would solve my running two rechargables situation a lot easier. I'm gonna take a guess and say that the performance will be hampered somehow in brightness and or duration /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I think I read that haveblue runs those 14500 batteries with a spacer to get very good results but they are probably on an LED that requires less power to run at the desired performance.

Am I catching on?

 

[andrewwynn]

Re: Lithium Rechargeable Advice help

cromagnet.. correctamundo.. more runtime same voltage..

you can get 4W out of a single AA LiON.. it should be close to what you can get out of an R123.. the R123s i have are actually rated lower mAH than the AAs i have.. but i think the AAs are good for 1.5C which means more than an amp draw easily... if you are running LEDs.. you can run a 3W lux full power from an R123 or AA from my understanding.. i'm planning to do precisely that very soon.

If you want to run an indan. that is 6V, you definitely need more than one LiON in series.. I have these tiny little SMD fuses.. i think they are like .6A or something i forget.. but you could put one between the batteries if you put them in series to protect against an out of control current event (like from an undercharged battery trying to reverse charge).. it would self-destruct the fuse but it would keep the battery safer...

I always check my LiON battery voltages before and after using them.. even though my charger is smart enough not to cause problems.. just for keeping tabs on operation.

-awr

 

[CroMAGnet]

Three R123 rechargable lithium battery pack!

HEY!! AW posted a link that I finally got a chance to look at. Thanks AW /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

There is a picture there of a rechargable lithium battery pack that looks like it's using three R123s. They sell the replacement battery packs separately but I couldn't find the charger selling separately.

Too bad they didn't make a two battery model. It pro'ly wouldn't fit, my light anyway, due to it being too tight. Anyone know any other lights that might be able to use this tri-battery pack??

 

[CESDewar]

[ QUOTE ]
AW said:
My QIII is working very well with R123s and it is producing a brighter beam for a whole 30 minutes.

I am not getting anything like that run-time on my R123's with a QIII. No-load on removing from charger is 3.85v. After 5m run-time the voltage (no load) drops to 3.58 (so still very bright) but at 9 minutes has dropped to 2.5v and is getting pretty dim - a few minutes later a jar of fireflies would work better. I'm using the Juice recharger and have 3 batteries that all exhibit the same behavior. What batteries and recharger are you using? What run-times are others experiencing with the R123 and QIII (I know this is a popular combination).

 

[CroMAGnet]

Jar of fireflies... LOL ... How many lumens is that!? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif LEI(Light Emitting Insect)