Making a 14500 fit in 1xAA light?

[bigfish5]

I have a new crelant 7g1 on the way, in some of the early reviews it mentions that protected 14500 will not fit in the light, and that the protected cells are 2mm to long.
Well all I plan to use are protected 14500's, can I cut off a small amount of the spring so that they will fit? I have seen this done in threads about the d10's. I want protected cells to work , but I do not want to take a chance of messing up what looks to be a nice light.
Here is a pic of the spring

 

[LEDninja]

The xfire batteries are much bigger than the AWs. Try an AW P14500 before hacking your light.

I have an Ultrafire protected 14500 that won't fit my Ultrafire 10440/14500 charger! When I mentioned it AW sent me this picture.

 

[hazna]

which version of the 14500 batteries are you using?

The black and red ultrafire is significantly longer. The blue ultrafire 14500 seems to work with most my 14500 lights

 

[subwoofer]

If it is a single AA light, do you really need to use protected 14500s? I use unprotected 14500 in my Quark AA and Ultrafire UF-H2.

If it were a multi cell light or very high current, I would use protected, but I can't see how a single AA torch is going to draw enough current to be a danger.

 

[LEDninja]

If it were a multi cell light or very high current, I would use protected, but I can't see how a single AA torch is going to draw enough current to be a danger.

On high the light dims noticeably when the battery voltage drops below the Vf of the LED ~3.2-3.4V. So you know when to stop using it.

On low the torch may still produce light even after the battery drops below 2.7V and gets damaged. Then when you charge up the damaged battery
As most CPFers will charge up their batteries after every extended use I have not read any reports of this happening.

Practice safe battery handling. The protection circuit should be backup, not the primary means of protection.

 

[mr.snakeman]

AW´s IMR 14500 is really short-so short that it cannot be used in the NiteCore EZ AA as the light will only turn on to the lower setting just when the light is fully tightened (mine anyway).

 

[subwoofer]

On high the light dims noticeably when the battery voltage drops below the Vf of the LED ~3.2-3.4V. So you know when to stop using it.

On low the torch may still produce light even after the battery drops below 2.7V and gets damaged. Then when you charge up the damaged battery
As most CPFers will charge up their batteries after every extended use I have not read any reports of this happening.

Practice safe battery handling. The protection circuit should be backup, not the primary means of protection.

This is of course why you check the voltage before recharging and if too low you don't charge it so no

On the subject of protected vs non protected, I find myself getting very annoyed at the manufacturers. Firstly, the device should not damage the battery. (take the example of a Quark AA, which can run on 0.9V-4.2V, running on Moonlight mode with 14500, what does it do once the voltage drops below 2V?) Secondly a standard battery size should be standard, not vary by several mm because they stick on the protection circuit. Protected batteries should be made specially so the base battery is shorter and then once the protection circuit is added it ends up the standard length.

I have several torches where I can only use protected , or non-protected due to the inner diameter and length of the battery tube; this is a bit ridiculous.

One of the key factors in the industrial revolution was standardisation, why are we loosing this now?

 

[bigfish5]

I have the black and red trustfires, and I guessing they will not fit. If I cut 2mm off of the spring I think it should still work with all other batteries shouldn't it?

 

[hazna]

IMO just buy a new set of blue protected trustfires. They're not that expensive, and its cheaper than stuffing up your light and needing to buy a new one...

 

[yellow]

where does that SILLY idea of cutting a spring come from?

* take Your finger / any tool and push down the spring,
* if it can be pushed down completely into its "housing" - something I would bet on - then cutting it is totally useless
(and also dumb, sorry!
Even when something is typed anywhere in the internet, one should still use his/her mind be4 accepting everything, especially when the topic is technical and not mystique)


when that spring can be pushed down totally, imho a sure thing, and the cell does not fit,
then the only way is to remove the interiors of the tailcap and try to shorten the parts there
BUT
when the "end" of the inside threading of the tailcap is where the battery is stuck, then one quick solution were:
insert some kind of "body extension", usually between front part and body, because that part is not moved as often as tailcap.
(... PS: bent piece of copper wire ...)

 

[bigfish5]

where does that SILLY idea of cutting a spring come from?

* take Your finger / any tool and push down the spring,
* if it can be pushed down completely into its "housing" - something I would bet on - then cutting it is totally useless
(and also dumb, sorry!
Even when something is typed anywhere in the internet, one should still use his/her mind be4 accepting everything, especially when the topic is technical and not mystique)


when that spring can be pushed down totally, imho a sure thing, and the cell does not fit,
then the only way is to remove the interiors of the tailcap and try to shorten the parts there
I have admit, after reading this cutting the spring does not seem to make any sense. Bit it is a regular topic of conversation when talking about d10s. I figured the cut would somehow let the spring fold down all the way? Oh well.
BUT
when the "end" of the inside threading of the tailcap is where the battery is stuck, then one quick solution were:
insert some kind of "body extension", usually between front part and body, because that part is not moved as often as tailcap.
(... PS: bent piece of copper wire ...)

 

[jorn]

where does that SILLY idea of cutting a spring come from?

Prob from a quark mini aa thread. Where this trick actually works. (because when you compress it, the spring may coil on top of itself. When you cut some mm of the base of the spring, it dont. This way you gain more room for the 14500.) I guess im silly, but atlest i now got room for my AW14500 in my quark mini:devil: I dont feel silly when altering lights to suit my need's. :tinfoil:

I dont think cutting the spring will help on the crelant 7g. If you can fully compress the spring all the way down to the retaining ring, cutting it wont help.

 

[bigfish5]

I guess I should know in a couple of days. When mine gets here I will push down on the spring and see if it totally collapses , or if it stacks up on itself.

 

[Joe Hone]

One of the key factors in the industrial revolution was standardisation, why are we loosing this now?

Good question. NiMh are larger than alkalines - use a micrometer and give it a go - both longer and larger in circumference. I have several older lights with multiple AA configurations that won't take NiMh. :scowl: Then when you get to l-ion, the sizes are all over the place.