WE M90 Rattlesnake and Raider, which way do the batteries go in?

[Bluehinder]

Hi,

Just got a new M90 and Raider today.

The M90 manual says to intall batteries + toward the tail cap. The body tube has a sticker in the tube showing the + toward the bulb.

The Raider tube has a + towards the tail cap, and the manual says to install with the Anode towards the tail cap.

Which is it? I'm so confused.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Wattnot]

It's only an issue if you have the LED tailcap and even then, if you put them in the wrong way, you shouldn't ruin anything for just a momentary test.

The newer LED tailcaps have the batteries going in "normal" (positive toward head). The older ones had the batteries going in the opposite, with the positive toward the tailcap**.


** NOTE: I AM making an assumption here. I have two LED tailcaps, a white older one and a blue newer one. It IS possible it has to do with color rather than age. However, like I said above, a momentary test with them in the wrong way will not ruin the tailcap. I'm also assuming you are using an incan. If you have an LED module in the head, disregard everything I said and contact the store.

 

[Tekno_Cowboy]

The sticker in the body should be correct.

If you have an incan main bulb, it won't care which way you put the batteries in, so long as they're all the same way. If you don't have an LED tailcap, then your best bet is to do like the sticker says and put the + end to the front.

If you're unsure, call up Mike@PTS or whoever you bought the light from.

 

[DM51]

What they said ^^.

WE lights used to be + toward the tail, but they saw everyone else was doing it differently, so they changed (about a year ago IIRC). That has caused quite a bit of confusion.

As already mentioned, it won't matter unless you have a LED tailcap - incan bulbs don't mind which way the current goes through them.

There is an additional potential problem if you have a rechargeable model and you get a tailcap charger for it, as you would need to ensure the polarity is correct. As with the lights, they changed the polarity on the new chargers - so don't use an old charger with a new light (or vice versa). But these series tailcap chargers are a bad idea anyway - series charging of Li-Ion cells is not safe practice - so my advice would be not to use that type of charger at all.

 

[325addict]

oops... and I just bought a conversion kit with the charger, three 18500s, the "150" extender, and a 13V bulb...

I always thought that charging in series was indeed not safe. A small unbalance between the batteries will not equal out with time, as with NiCd and NiMH is the case. If one battery gets full first, it will try to cut current, but the charger wants to go on! This way, a too large part of the total voltage coming from the charger will fall across the FULL battery. The 4.200V mark is easily exceeded this way!

I'll use my own, self-designed charger instead. This one chargers every battery on its own, no series charging here :shakehead


Timmo.