Triton a little dissapointing.

[65535]

My AW 18650 cells are coming up around 1700mAh after a full charge and a full .5C discharge. That's about 500mAh short of the rated 2200mAh. I like AW he runs a good buisiness, but the results are a little unnerving.

Not a bash on AW, I think I'm having issues with my Triton undercharging.

I'm confused.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

You have had a conversation with AW about this problem, right? You did this before you started this thread?

Bill

 

[65535]

I was hoping to get some input from Silverfox. I should mention that the resitng voltage after charge is around 4.13volts using a tirton charger. Someday I'll try another charger but I feel like either my charger is undercharging them or the cells really are underpowered.

In the real world since I have 5 cells between 2 lights I'm not worried about runtime, mostly because practically speaking I don't really ever use my lights on high for the whole runtime.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

Yes, your charger needs to charge the 18650 closer to 4.2 volts. Watch that you do not under discharge them too much in your testing. I was sort of strident with you in my earlier post, as you mentioned AW like he was not selling a good product, and were critical of him personally. I was probably too critical and I apologize, as I realize that was not your real intent.

Bill

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

What is your end point voltage for discharge? To ensure a full discharge for test measurements the open circuit voltage at the end of discharge needs to be 3.3 V or less. That would mean discharging down to about 3.2 V under a 500 mA load. And as Bill mentioned you need to start with the cell charged up to exactly 4.20 V.

 

[65535]

My beef is not with AW, he does a great service I swear by his products. My issue is that the Triton undercharging my cells. I had forgotten to add that to my OP because it was late. The Triton uses preprogrammed charging and sicharging algorithms, so what can I do to push the highest charge.


On the flip side undercharging them will lengthen the useful life almost 2-fold.

 

[VidPro]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

why not just do a light slow top-off with one of them cheapo voltage regulated chargers, or a simple voltage regulation when having the extra power would be very usefull?

i donna think your going to get 500 out of 2200, between 4.17 and 4.25., or even 4.3

i still wonder why nobody has lapped together a LG-2600 (good for about 2400) and a $2 protection curcuit and some battery heat shrink.

how we gonna know what is "possible" without putting some of the best cells behind the same protection? Pila

 

[Mr Happy]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

My beef is not with AW, he does a great service I swear by his products. My issue is that the Triton undercharging my cells. I had forgotten to add that to my OP because it was late. The Triton uses preprogrammed charging and sicharging algorithms, so what can I do to push the highest charge.

You might want to change the thread title to say "Triton a little disappointing"?

A resting voltage after charge of 4.13 V is a touch low, but not likely to make all that much difference (it is actually within the error tolerance of many DMMs). Also did you leave it on charge for a full three hours?

Maybe the Triton is stopping the discharge early. What voltage did you see the discharge stop at?

 

[karlthev]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

"You might want to change the thread title to say "Triton a little" disappointing?"

+1


Karl

 

[65535]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

Okay tried doing a 2nd discharge at 500mA down to 3V under load and 3.07V after a minute of rest. Now it's doing a 2200mAh self programmed charge for a 3.7V lithium polymer cell.

 

[SilverFox]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

Hello 65535,

The Triton is known for slightly undercharging cells. However, I seem to remember the final charge ending up closer to 4.18 volts.

It is also very sensitive to hook up, connector, and lead wire resistance.

Tom

 

[65535]

Re: AW a little dissapointing.

Yeah my 4foot leads aren't the best, I just like them. :p One of these days I'll order soem more wire and connectors and rig up a low resistance jig. Until then extended cell life at the cost of runtime.