While protected cells are always a good idea, as long as you don’t put the cells in backwards it should not be a problem. It depends on your skill level I suppose.
As far as modding the GT, it should come pretty much maxed out with the stock XHP35. A very slight bump in power to around ~2.8A could net you a handful of extra lumens but not enough to bother with IMHO.
The only real way to mod the GT would be to swap the LED to an xhp50.2 or 70.2 which would increase the lumens but reduce the throw. Although even then the cells would only need to support around 5A, so basically any quality cell should still work fine.
This is the great thing about using higher voltage and lower current, it makes everything in the electrical circuit much simpler and cheaper.
Thanks Neal for fast answer, I would much rather have DHL shipping with lower value on package and take a risk with customs… Done it before and worked every time.
For this GT light, those will be less spectacular, since their high drain capability will be left untapped. Capacity is the only part that’s going to matter here. If you’re certain that you want one of those two, look at the capacity: What is the capacity of the VTC6 and is it an extra dollar higher capacity than the VTC5?
My guess, is that the lumintop cells are re-wrapped ncr18650b Panasonic 3400ma cells. Seeing as they even say ncr18650b on them, I think this is a fair guess.
These are fine cells for this light, I would have no problems using them and the nice thing is that they can be shipped with the light which is very handy.
If you shop around and if they offer free shipping to your country you can generally find similar cells for a bit cheaper but it is getting harder and harder to find cells with free shipping now days.
So overall I would say the lumintop cells are a fair deal for those that need cells and have issues getting them from other sources.
Yes, since they are all in series they need to match in order to not risk killing a cell.
There is no worry of fire, explosion, or damage to the light but you could kill a cell pretty easily if you drain the cells too much and they don’t match. The lower capacity cell will drain faster and could get too low on voltage before LVP kicks in.
Although you also don’t have to be super worried about it and make sure you use only a set of cells purchased together or anything like that (although it is not a bad idea).
As long as the cells are the same make and model and not drastically different ages / usage, you should be fine.
Is anyone else having an issue where blf threads are constantly being reloaded because of an error? It is becoming maddening to use my iPhone to access blf.
As said many times before, any batteries will be good as long as they match in serial connection. So just get some good old Panasonic NCR18650B, A, PF, or Sanyo GA….
Even Samsung 2600F will be good if you want go on budget…
Me personally wouldn’t give more than 25$ for 8 matching cells, and its possible very easy
DHL is great to the US. Customs doesn’t kick in until $800 in value and the shipping is super quick as well.
At least that is how it was last year, no idea if that has changed with the new government but I assume not, that would be far too quick for any government to work lol.
I am pretty sure they are just going to put the batteries in the light and ship it normally. So it should not take any longer then normal if the batteries are included.