hate to say this but they all got lithium, and Ions somewhere
if you dont want to use a voltage meter, then use a throwaway battery
because i wouldnt want to be changing a tire with a battery that i didnt know was charged and charged properly.
if your going to go rechargable, things wont be easier, it will be much cheaper and you will be able to USE your light with more freedom (after intial costs and discovery phase)
in general "lithium" is used for primary throwaways
"li-ion" is more often seen referring to various lithium based rechargable cells. even li-poly or Li-Fe is a "li-ion" type of cell item can be called li-ion, they even do it in tech press releaces ,which does Not help a lot.
it is probably about time to put a Voltage range , and a identification on the lot of them , instead of the more widely used li-rechargable tag, and almost useless "nominal" voltage.
there IS a full thread with ALL the info on it, it could be read, or a person could use trial and error.
without thinking or testing, MOST li-Fe and regulated li-ion cells will work in Place Of most primaries (in most devices). both require a specific charge discharge style. Both are VERY similar to the voltages of a throwaway, and regulated li-ions have usable capacity. so just use a regulated, and a proper charger for the regulated cells, and it will "replace" the throwaway.
i have been testing some "regulated" li-ions that are standard 3.6v type li-ions that are regulated down (3v) , got pretty good results because the light item runs in overdrive with standard li-ion, which depleats the cell faster than nessiary. and found that IT was also protected , that is different Again.
"Li-Fe-Po or Li-Fe" , lower max voltage , safer chemistry, not so great capacity, cool because they ARE lower voltage chemistry by default, usefull for boost type lights that cant handle excessive voltage, wont blow off your dingleberries. "safer" chemistry, still have a voltage range that needs to be respected.
"li-ion" , doesnt say its protected does it, unsafe without proper care, also it doesnt say Much Ado About Anything really
wear a cup.
"Protected Li-Ion" , has protection curcuit on it, safer for charge and discharge. protection fixes the 2.4v thing so you dont have to think aboud it (as much). protections attempt to keep the volitile cell much safer, but the chemistry is still the same.
"Regulated Li-Ion" same high voltage same high capacity, same chemistry but various regulators (including possible protection) are used to keep the voltage down.
"IMR lithium" , some safer li-ion cell type same voltage only slightly lower capacity. not nessiarily protected , but still can be protected like anything, safe but without protection it still have voltage range that needs to be repected.
and still within all of those designations can be safe(r) things and mechanical and curcuit protections vary, each with various caveats and ramifications a person needs to determine what they want/need.
if you dont want to blow your dingleberries off, then avoid cheap junk, and learn how to charge them properly FOR the type they are. if your dingleberries are more important than your voltmeter then use Primaries, and blow them off with them instead :mecry: because recenetally cheap primaries have been more likly to fail violently.
the frustrating thing isnt the lack of precision in the tossed out idea that a "Rechargable lithium" (li-ion) type of cell can be used, but how the light handles the Voltages themselves , and what voltage OF li-ion cells your going to toss at it.
and (as usual) that discussion in complete is about 3 pages long, no so easy to toss into a quick statement
myself i check the ACTUAL light head (its regulator and stuff) quickly on a controllable power supply, and have determined that many SINGLE cell items were (back a few years) being overdriven hard on the 4.2V, and would have prefered the "regulated li-ion" or Li-Fe types.
many Doubble cell types of light with buck type curcuits can handle ANY of the types, because they are buck not boost curcuits.
and you can often see this stuff on the graphs.
Rescentally More lights tagged for being able to use "li-ion" do so without overdrive with all types, but some still overdrive (but work)
that doesnt mean i dont Overdrive
, just that i wouldnt say it runs "normallly" when it is overdriven.
many single lights the curcuits act "different" when 4.2V is jammed into them, sure they WORK , but they are not at all working normally.
so the whole thing is a huge mystery, there is even some misinformation that can be SEEN in both runtime and graphs and real curcuit operation, that gets almost ignored as long as it "works". there are variations of the chemistry types, and they have more types comming too.
if you know enough to toss around the chemical names, learned a bit about the voltages and all, then YOUR on the total correct track, just determine where do YOU want to go today.
just like everything else on the web, gain the USEFULL info, then test the theory for yourself, then spread the word.
dont let anybody determine what your light or battery is capable of, if you know what 2.4V is , then just keep on measuring everything else too, read the Spec Sheet ON the cell you have, if it doent have a spec sheet then dont buy it. it doesnt get any LESS confusing, and stuff also changes fast.
you dont have to have a voltage meter to change a tire, but it never hurt to check things out BEFORE you get into any situation (A.B.P.), i know what capacity and voltage my battery is that i walk the dog with, but the dog has never seen me use the meter
it doesnt hurt to quick check in a few minutes what will be hundreds of hours of re-chargable use. i think most rechargable users are well Past the stages of the learning curve costing more than the learning. now if you forget things easily
whats the point in learning them.
Someday your Car might be stuffed with some high-faluting battery system in it, and you wont Be ABLE to change a tire without a voltmeter :huh: time to get a good start on the future :thumbsup:
