TF flame 14500 judgement call

Usually fakes have different flames and worst quality of the wrap; in originals all the battery warp change color looked with a different angle(where is not deep painted), you can see that better on the written from "WARNING" to "water" and on the big TRUSTFIRE logo

my 14500 flames weight is from 20,54 to 20,66g(I tested 5) btw chk the weight is not ever infallible...

look at HJK new test of 18650 flames(from DX) are different(bin logo) and lower weight of mine 43,1g and worst performance of all tested flames

I wish to add that on my next DD orders I got 6 pairs of original protected 18650 flames with hologram and of "correct" weight ~47,7g

Thanks for the useful info!! Now i need to get a precision scale... hehe

Hi kreisler,please give me your order number, I will do it for you.

I ripped the pcb off of my AW 14500 because it wouldn't fit properly in my nitecore d11 v2. Works great.

never mind, CS helped me in the end. received a giftcard. happy customer back i am! :)

thanks anyway!!

no further action required. i will buy some kickass multimeter probably. more useful than an imax, gorann ;)

Yoh, total confusion now. MixoMaxo said that the 4.99 ones came with a hologram sticker. So next time i will order these instead of the 7.99 ones.

imax for 4.99$? where did you buy it that cheap? (and is a power supply included?)

All my DD TFF come with the hologram and all performed OK. They are all protected and I choose the cheapest available :) Me being cheap skate

my bad. i am the cheap skate impersona. and should have stayed that way with the TF’s.

whenever i try the 'pay more and you get more' thing, i fall flat on the face

with DD, it's more like 'pay less and you get the same'. sweet.

I got another order of the TF Flames but 18650s, not 14500. It's another SKU coz the first one is already sold out (not that one which created a big hoo-haa which all like 16 cells of mine are ok when tested randomly in discharge tests on the hobby charger).

Will test one of them and see. It's this, if you check the SKU it's different. Yes it's protected, i purposely dead shorted it and see if every cell works.

http://www.dinodirect.com/TrustFire-Rechargeable-Li-ion-Battery-Protected-2400mAh-TF18650.html

For me, i don't care where and when did i buy and in which packaging. I just test them, because in the end that is really what matters most. For multi-cell operation, the light does not care about a sticker, only matched cells. And since this is not XTAR, Redilast or AW, folks better run some tests esp if you are capable of running it down so as to prevent a major case of reverse charging (PCB may not kick in for low-voltage protection under low currents).

Sorry if i sound a bit unsympathetic and too technical and a stickler for safety in reality, but seriously that is what matters. :)

Kreisler@ Usually I'll go for the low dollar item and lots of hoping/praying

2100@

True that but the hologram thing is kinda emotional and I take it as a sign of quality LOL. With my limited resources in testing and with my laziness/tendencies I'd pitched them with an established benchmark to see if they OK or way off.

that made my day, fantastic, thanks!!

lmao

I have 6 of these batteries and they have been good so far. I really don't use them very much. I bought them to use in my Xeno E03 but that light has been acting up on me a little and I wasn't really happy with the 20-25 minute run time on 14500 batteries.

I bought these batteries from this guy and he is in the US. Free fast shipping. I bought this with the charger and I emailed him and bought bought some 2 extra batteries. I later emailed him and bought 2 more batteries. I think I paid $10 for the two including shipping and they arrived the next day. He is in Salt Lake City and it's only about 100 miles from me.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-TRUSTFIRE-14500-Li-ion-RECHARGEABLE-BATTERY-CHARGER-/370485328406?pt=US_Batteries&hash=item5642a57a16#ht_500wt_1180

Chidwack, i have put much effort (=time) to test the Xeno's runtimes in detail with repeated runs and 2 different cells, i.e. the cells of a 2-pack i got from DX. I documented my results in the Xeno review thread (and in order to test the quality of my fake Dinodirect cells i would repeat the tests at some later point).

If you get only 25mins on your Xeno (mine is Xeno E03 V3 XML T6 CoolWhite), then.. your cell must have a low capacity!

Reverse charging can happen to any cell in a multicell battery pack and also not surprisingly in flashlights using 2 or more cells. This does not only happen to Li ion. NiMH/NiCd/Pb and of course Li Co behave differently when "pushed past zero". You can google it up. The idea is to use matched cells, now if the PCB kicks in then there is no problem. In reality, it is not 100% for this kind of protection. I still remember my E03 nearly killing my TF Flames 14500 because it drained it to like 1.6V?

Short circuit protection is good though, i have never come across anything (no matter how low cost it is) that did not cut the juice when i dead short it on a DMM in current mode.

It could be that my 14500 TF cells are not up to par. I really don't know any way to test them except put them in the light and time the burn.

I have stated on another thread that I'm not real happy with my Xeno E03. It's the same V3 cool white as you have. I had problems with the light when I first got it. The switch wasn't working very well. I emailed the guy I got it from (Tacticalhid) and he said to change the clicky which I did. It worked for awhile but lately it's been acting up like the first switch. The light has become a shelf queen as I have other lights that cover the same bases that I like better. Not having a memory in the Xeno drives me crazy.

For about $3 more I bought a Shiningbeam S-mini XP-G. It's less than 3/4 inch longer than the Xeno and otherwise, it's about the same size. Runs much longer on one battery, has similar brightness, throws longer and best of all, it has a MEMORY.

Draining to PCB cut, depending on voltage, can reduce useful life from 500 recharges to 100 or less.

I normally trip them a couple of times to see if they work, their voltage however hover around 3.4+ to 3.5+v.

I was always interested in knowing at which voltage the protection trips. Protected LiIon cells? All I possess are some Ultrafire 10440's, these Trustfire 14500's, and 2 cells of XTAR 18650's. I've used the Ultrafire and Trustfire cells EXCESSIVELY for runtime tests for BLF posts. in my most recent 10440's test with iTP A3 XP-G R5, i measured 2.653V, and today i happened to measure 2.627V with these Trustfire 14500's.

How did i measure it?

the cell was in my Xeno E03 XML on Ultralow Mode. When the light shut off due to the cell's tripped protection, i quickly took out the cell and placed it in my charger for 1.0 second. After that (again quickly) i measured the voltage. And there it was: 2.627V.

Now we know it.

While common advice on forums is "Dont let your liions discharge below the 3.6V mark", in reality the cell manufacturers dont let the protection trip until the nominal 2.75V mark. With slow discharge currents (e.g. in ultralow mode), this mark is even undershot (2.627V in Xeno, 2.653V in iTP A3, both in Low mode).

good info. i know. thanks.

haha

You are right on the low low voltage cut off but I haven't gone beyond what you tested. Maybe it will if I put them on on low mode.

ppl often exaggerate is that...

the first say: should never discharge lico under 2,5v or you will short the life of the cell, better don't go not under 2,7v, remember keeping under 2/1,5v make it dangerous to recharge!

the second reading the first say: never discharge lico under 2,7v or will explode

the 3rd reading second: lico are unsafe use only batteries with protection of discharge under 3v or will explode

the 4rd(from CPF? xD) reading 3rd: discharging litio under 3,6v will damage your cell, it can explode but first will fk your wife/GF giving you a son like radioactive Hulk version of Greta xD