Well, there's been some talk about these and they certainly are economical compared to the (very few) other options out there... if you don't know what I'm talking about, there's an eBay seller in China that is selling parallel 3xAA to D and 4xAAA to C adapters for about $6 each shipped. I wanted to get my hands on some, and dropped the guy a message. We negotiated a slight discount for six of each - I wanted to use four of the AA to Ds in a Mag-Lite as I pretty much never use that light, but having extra AA NiMHs around and neatly stored seems like a good idea - and this just seems like a good item to have around, maybe not for everyday use but as an emergency type item (I hate to use the word prepper, but still...)
Seller was straight up and good to deal with; we worked out a deal and I sent payment on the 10th, and a box showed up in my mailbox this morning (the 19th) all the way from Guangdong. It blows my mind that I can get stuff shipped economically in 9 days from halfway around the world...!
OK, so what do I think of them? The plastic seems sturdy and well molded, the metal bits look like plated steel, about .009" to .010" in thickness (32 gauge?) as measured by my trusty Hazard Fraught dial calipers. They are magnetic, so if they are stainless it's a non-austenitic type, and they just don't *look* like stainless. (I know, real scientific.) The shininess looks like flash chrome or shiny zinc to me.
I really only have one major quibble about both adapters and an additional one about the Ds. On both adapters the negative end contacts are made of a single piece of sheetmetal folded around the end of the adapter. However, the way it is constructed, unless the thing is ultrasonically welded together, the current from all cells has to travel through one fold of sheetmetal or else travel through a connection which is just two pieces of metal pressed together. The positive end does not have this issue as the way it is constructed each tab that is folded over serves one cell. I may destroy an adapter later (and hopefully put it back together again) to satisfy my curiosity about this, but at this price point I'm seriously doubting that they went to the trouble of ultrasonically welding them. If I can pick up some flux at Radio Crack I may try soldering to provide a better path for the current (I'm guessing that if it is even possible to solder this stuff that I will need more flux than the little bit that's in your typical rosin-core 63/37.)
My quibble with the D adapters is similar; the C adapters don't use springs but the Ds do, and again, those appear to make connection between the spring and the plate simply by mechanical contact. I don't know if soldering those is possible or if the springs would lose their temper... again I may try one though just for grins.
This is probably not a concern to someone who is not using these in demanding conditions, but I know my audience here
The Cs are working fine with some Duraloops in one of my old Task Force flashlights; I have not tried the Ds yet because I'm actually still running break in cycles on the latest batch of cells I got. They physically fit however.
I'll take pictures later and follow up with my findings if I take apart one of the negative contact assemblies. Going to go get some grub and see about getting some flux...
In any case this may not be a good daily use item unless I find that I can solder them together for a more positive connection, but as an emergency use item they seem like really freakin' handy things to have around, for not much more than the Eneloop C and D sleeves while providing you much more flexibility and potential runtime. In any case these are about 1/3 the price of the Titanium Innovations adapters and I don't think that they even make one for C cells, so if you want a product like this this is what you get, I suppose.
An enterprising soul with a lot of free time, some good snips (or a water jet table) and some sheet brass might be able to "hot rod" these for high current apps, I would think?
Seller was straight up and good to deal with; we worked out a deal and I sent payment on the 10th, and a box showed up in my mailbox this morning (the 19th) all the way from Guangdong. It blows my mind that I can get stuff shipped economically in 9 days from halfway around the world...!
OK, so what do I think of them? The plastic seems sturdy and well molded, the metal bits look like plated steel, about .009" to .010" in thickness (32 gauge?) as measured by my trusty Hazard Fraught dial calipers. They are magnetic, so if they are stainless it's a non-austenitic type, and they just don't *look* like stainless. (I know, real scientific.) The shininess looks like flash chrome or shiny zinc to me.
I really only have one major quibble about both adapters and an additional one about the Ds. On both adapters the negative end contacts are made of a single piece of sheetmetal folded around the end of the adapter. However, the way it is constructed, unless the thing is ultrasonically welded together, the current from all cells has to travel through one fold of sheetmetal or else travel through a connection which is just two pieces of metal pressed together. The positive end does not have this issue as the way it is constructed each tab that is folded over serves one cell. I may destroy an adapter later (and hopefully put it back together again) to satisfy my curiosity about this, but at this price point I'm seriously doubting that they went to the trouble of ultrasonically welding them. If I can pick up some flux at Radio Crack I may try soldering to provide a better path for the current (I'm guessing that if it is even possible to solder this stuff that I will need more flux than the little bit that's in your typical rosin-core 63/37.)
My quibble with the D adapters is similar; the C adapters don't use springs but the Ds do, and again, those appear to make connection between the spring and the plate simply by mechanical contact. I don't know if soldering those is possible or if the springs would lose their temper... again I may try one though just for grins.
This is probably not a concern to someone who is not using these in demanding conditions, but I know my audience here
The Cs are working fine with some Duraloops in one of my old Task Force flashlights; I have not tried the Ds yet because I'm actually still running break in cycles on the latest batch of cells I got. They physically fit however.
I'll take pictures later and follow up with my findings if I take apart one of the negative contact assemblies. Going to go get some grub and see about getting some flux...
In any case this may not be a good daily use item unless I find that I can solder them together for a more positive connection, but as an emergency use item they seem like really freakin' handy things to have around, for not much more than the Eneloop C and D sleeves while providing you much more flexibility and potential runtime. In any case these are about 1/3 the price of the Titanium Innovations adapters and I don't think that they even make one for C cells, so if you want a product like this this is what you get, I suppose.
An enterprising soul with a lot of free time, some good snips (or a water jet table) and some sheet brass might be able to "hot rod" these for high current apps, I would think?
