Soshine 18650 3400mah any good?

Hi, wondering if anyone have tried or can recommend these Soshine 18650 3400mah

http://www.soshine.com.cn/a585.aspx

Some sellers say they do have the Panasonic cell inside (NCR18650B I presume).

They sell at around $25 usd for 2 include nice case . Find them interesting since they do have button top (positive pole), and seems to have stainless steel bottom (negative pole), still just around 68.3mm high. Unlike other cheap protected NCR18650B cells out here at around 70mm high.

If they are well made, they are great value, share your thoughts and experience please .

Tried to order some, will update the post once received .

I'd like to know how they are

They more than likely are Panasonic inside, I dont think any other manufacturers make 3400mAh

Just got them today, and overall specifications are true (thinking of size here), are quite short, and the protection is in the + end of battery, seems to be good quality cells, but only time will tell.

Don't have advanced measurement equipment, to test the batteries further, but are charging now, and will be testing them compared to other cheap NCR18650B batteries I got.

Here is some images:






SS - pole

Botton top

Compared to fasttech NCR18650B


Legth in mm

Compared to fasttech NCR18650B

Weight in gram

Compared to fasttech NCR18650B

Writing on cells


From left: Fasttech 3400, Soshine 3400, Trustfire 3000, AW 2200, Xtar 2200


Next to AW 2200


First impressions are good, now will test them to see if they are holding up, one thing that I noticed it the protection kicks in at 2.8v I believe that these Panasonic cells are able to go down to 2.6v (or it is 2.5v), have not tested this, it is what is written on the cells, which means you do loose some capacity due to the protection.

Any question or requests, please comment .

whc said:

Any question or requests, please comment .

Click to expand...

Looks like these batteries have protection at the plus pole, this usual means that the protection is at a low current (Consistent with the 4A rating).

HKJ said:

Looks like these batteries have protection at the plus pole, this usual means that the protection is at a low current (Consistent with the 4A rating).

Click to expand...

Ok, don't know if this is good or bad?

HVis du har tid og lyst er du velkommen til at teste dem, bor også i Købenahvn .

whc said:

Don't have advanced measurement equipment, to test the batteries further, but are charging now, and will be testing them compared to other cheap NCR18650B batteries I got.

First impressions are good, now will test them to see if they are holding up, one thing that I noticed it the protection kicks in at 2.8v I believe that these Panasonic cells are able to go down to 2.6v (or it is 2.5v), have not tested this, it is what is written on the cells, which means you do loose some capacity due to the protection.

Any question or requests, please comment .

Click to expand...

It is a pity you don't have a hobby charger that can measure capacity (or at least a reasonable guess at it), as it would be interesting to see how these actually perform and various loads (1A, 2A and 3A).

If you are serious about keeping track of battery performance and matching capacities, it is a good investment and doesn't have to cost much. I have the iCharger 106B+ which has proven very enlightening. The added bonus of a charger (and discharger) like this is being able to discharge to a precise voltage for storage.

HKJ said:

Looks like these batteries have protection at the plus pole, this usual means that the protection is at a low current (Consistent with the 4A rating).

Click to expand...

Good call

PCB8A < infers 8A protection circuit

Claims 8A discharge possible.

Interesting to see protection on + pole. Assuming it doesn't seal the vent (because plastic wrap is great at holding in flaming hot gasses </sarcasm>), seems like this would be the best way to keep the cell's physical dimensions as close to original as possible. No need for metal strip down the side of battery, button top can be soldered onto back of PCB instead of having to weld tabs to it. Wonder if these circuits can be purchased by themselves and turned into "protection pucks"...

Thanks for the pics, WHC!

IlluminationSupply.com has them for $20/pair, and are West Coast US based, btw

Wouldn't having the protection on the + end be problematic in applications with recoil? Are there any other downsides to having the protection there?

whc said:

Ok, don't know if this is good or bad?

Click to expand...

It is uncommon, but does not have to be bad.

whc said:

HVis du har tid og lyst er du velkommen til at teste dem, bor også i Købenahvn .

Click to expand...

I do live in Copenhagen, but I do not have spare time on my test station at the current time.

subwoofer said:

It is a pity you don't have a hobby charger that can measure capacity (or at least a reasonable guess at it), as it would be interesting to see how these actually perform and various loads (1A, 2A and 3A).

If you are serious about keeping track of battery performance and matching capacities, it is a good investment and doesn't have to cost much. I have the iCharger 106B+ which has proven very enlightening. The added bonus of a charger (and discharger) like this is being able to discharge to a precise voltage for storage.



Good call

Click to expand...

Only got Nitecore i4 and Jetbeam i4 Pro chargers, maybe i can use a multimeter or something?

Taken from Soshine website, don't know how accurate it is:
http://www.soshine.com.cn/upfile/20136/20130605075921609.jpg
http://www.soshine.com.cn/upfile/20136/20130605080049272.jpg
http://www.soshine.com.cn/upfile/20136/20130605080130187.jpg
http://www.soshine.com.cn/upfile/20136/20130605080151157.jpg

Image tags removed see Rule #3 Do not Hot Link images. Please host on an image site, Imageshack or similar and repost – Thanks Norm

bshanahan14rulz said:

PCB8A < infers 8A protection circuit

Claims 8A discharge possible.

Interesting to see protection on + pole. Assuming it doesn't seal the vent (because plastic wrap is great at holding in flaming hot gasses </sarcasm>), seems like this would be the best way to keep the cell's physical dimensions as close to original as possible. No need for metal strip down the side of battery, button top can be soldered onto back of PCB instead of having to weld tabs to it. Wonder if these circuits can be purchased by themselves and turned into "protection pucks"...

Thanks for the pics, WHC!

IlluminationSupply.com has them for $20/pair, and are West Coast US based, btw

Click to expand...

Learning allot here, is there suppose to be went on li-ion batteries? Thought that other like eagletac also have the protection on the + pole.

HKJ said:

It is uncommon, but does not have to be bad.




I do live in Copenhagen, but I do not have spare time on my test station at the current time.

Click to expand...

Ok if you get time, let me know would be awesome to confirm if these got the NCR1860B cell.

whc said:

Ok if you get time, let me know would be awesome to confirm if these got the NCR1860B cell.

Click to expand...

I will probably have forgotten it, when I am finished with testing the current queue (It will taka e more than 3 months).

HKJ said:

I will probably have forgotten it, when I am finished with testing the current queue (It will taka e more than 3 months).

Click to expand...

Ok, really appreciate your review, but in tree month something newer maybe came out, like NCR18650C 4000mah &#55357;&#56835;.

Just finished charging, around 9 hours on a jetbeam i4 pro charger.

Got a comparison to what others charged in?

Well the i4 pro charges at 4 x 375mA if I am not mistaken (had four in the charger, got total of eight of these cells), so anyone do the math . Just tried a single of these cells in my TM26, at 3500 lumens the protection kicks in immediately, but works fine on 1700 lumens and below, want current draw that is I have no idea.