FEBRUARY 2012: NEW Panasonic NCR 18650A 3100mAh batteries $13.96 Protected (black)

No, I used to special equipment, I have shown it here.

As close as possible to the rated current, but to avoid accidental triggering I would prefer something like 30 to 50% above it, Panasonic shows discharge curves up to 5.9 ampere, this would give a protection around 8 ampere.

The most important thing is the over-discharge and over-charge protection. Which is judged by the voltage so in that case the current can trip at 1A or 7A and may have nothing to do with the actually drawn current at the moment.

As I can see the cell is second after Redilast in what it can do at 5A. The Redialst shows an "unsually" good curve for the Panasonic NCR18650A, (Jason is good, he knows what to send).
The current trips as I can see, identically with the Redilast 3100.


HKJ we know that a high current current can be sustained very easily for a short time. Let's say that one would discharge the cell at 10A not 11.7A, would it still finish/work down to 2.5v or the protection would trip after 3-4 minutes? Because if you keep trying to increase the current until you find that pulse point where you end up tipping the protection, the protection may very well activate at a lower constant current. In this case I mean lower 10A or 9A, just to be lower than your 10 times test on these cells.

My guess is that both batteries has 3 good transistors in the protection. This is probably also the reason for the high trip current, the protection IC measures the voltage over the transistors and if it is to high it assumes over current. When the transistors has a very low voltage drop, the current limit will be high.

Yes, the protection is temperature sensitive. I have not done any test at 10A+, except I have seen that the limit might be even higher if I test faster (I did a test where I instead of starting at 3A each time, started slightly below the last trip current).

On the EagleTac 3100 batteries I measured the trip current to 6A and the batteries could handle a 5A discharge without tripping.

But wouldn't 10A load generate a lot more heat than a 5A load? Also the Eagleatc 3100 is not giving as much capacity as the Redilast 3100 or IOS 3100 at 5A.

Great writeup! Any coupon code? Might buy a few of these!

Assuming the protection trips at the same voltage across the transistors, it will be about the double amount of heat.

That is due to the higher resistance in the protection.

Does that mean if each were driven at 5A every time they were used, the Eagletac would have a longer service life?

These cells are similar in price. Disregarding price which would you choose for a high output xml? Also, would there be any difference between the two in a hard driven xpg/xre?

No, only that you would get slightly less energi out of them.

For a light that uses 3 to 5A (i.e. one battery for a XM-L) I would prefer the intl-outdoor battery, but for a xpg/xre the difference is to small to have much significance.

Is $3 off really a remedy for those who bought the blue version of this battery?

I agree. I was hoping for a replacement. So my 3 blue batteries that I bought in December (2 months ago) and received in late December that I paid $35.88 for are only worth $8.78 ???????? There has to be a better plan than this.

You could have had contacted Hank after you received the blue ones, and had sent them back! he would have given you a refund.
So it’s most likely you haven’t contacted him.

Well. No, I didn't. I was trying to see how this all worked out. It appeared that he was working on a solution to the problem with the batteries and the PCB. So I waited. But I have to admit that I am not to thrilled with the current solution.

I contacted before purchasing them asking how many amps would it give before the protection kicks and the answer was 6A and it wasn't.

I did not complain about it, but what was sold was not as described, and sending back the batteries cost more than the batteries, so it is not the best solution.

I think a bigger disccount for the people who bought the blue ones should be made too.

Hi Yavi,

I think the first thing you should have done after you knew about all this is contacting them!!!

Even I had only bought 1 blue cell, Hank paid me for the return shipping and gave me a refund.
I know he would have come up with a solution.. you better had asked him...




It is him who should have contacted his customers not the customers contacting him, as he is fully aware of the problem.

Nevertheless he is in time to solve it ginving a better disccount or letting people sending the batteries back with a full refund.

I do not like complaining too much, but don't tell me it has been done as it should from Intl-outdoor.

I understand it is not only their fault, it might be the supplier who installed a not that good pcb and did not tell Hank about it, but or they wasn't tested at all at Intl-outdoor or he was not telling the truth when I asked.

I can understand your feeling. But...
A seller can`t just contact every single buyer who bought of them.. I imagine thats just a load of problematic work....
And at least now he has a solution to give you a discount on the new batteries.

and about the max A he answered.. He probably just took it from the Panasonic cells, which can handle 6A.. He hadn't tested it, and trusted the supplier.
That was his lesson, and after HKJ tested the newest version, he put them on the market!

That was his lesson, and our lesson is contacting the seller of any product you are not satisfied with.
Did you read the old thread about the blue ones..?

I appreciate the effort of asking HKJ to test them this time, and now we all know how the product is.

ChibiM, I deal with the after-sales support in the company I work for, and when there is a mistake on the design, or from a supplier we always tell our customers about it, and we send the correct material with no cost, as it is not the customers fault we did not test a product from a supplier or manufacured by us when it is not as advertised.

"That was his lesson, and our lesson is contacting the seller of any product you are not satisfied with.
Did you read the old thread about the blue ones..?"

Their fault is not the customers fault, so there should not be any lesson for the clients.

Yes I did read the old thread, and as you can see, if you read it again, I said there I had the problem those batteries have.

I repeat, I do not like complaining all time, but I suggest a good solution for what had been done wrong in the first place is to make a better discount for the people who already bought the blue ones.

If I had to learn the "lesson" I would not buy in that site any more, but I would like it to work better not to ruin it, that is why I am asking for a better solution.

ChibiM: Obviously we are going to agree to disagree on the topic of customer service at intl-outdoors.com. I contacted Hank, and I too feel the way he is dealing with this battery situation is wrong. I guess it is the old adage of "buyer beware." The only thing I did was buy the under-performing batteries and pay for them, as I was instructed to do on the website. Hank, after realizing that the batteries did not perform "as advertised," should be replacing the batteries with the correct, proper performing, "as advertised" batteries, and taking the issue up with whomever he bought them from in China or Japan. I, and yavi, both agree that sending the batteries back to China on our dime, to get a refund is not worth it. It would cost more for the shipping for us to send them back. As is the $2.96 credit for the new batteries. Just totally unacceptable.

In business it should always be customers come first. If customers are not satisfied, then the business should make it right. This whole battery purchase has been an eye opening experience for me. The $2.96 credit is not really worth it, and sending the batteries back on my dime is also not worth it. I am appalled at the outcome, and appalled that a fellow member is actually sticking up for him and standing by him. The one and only thing to do here is the right thing to do. That is to find out who the affected members are who purchased the batteries, ask them if they want the batteries replaced with the new ones, or keep their old ones. Then FIX the problem. As simple as that. There really should be no other solution. Make it right. Plain and simple.

My only option here is just to not do business with the company any more. I too tried to be a gentleman and work out the battery issue, and continue to do business, but it is just not happening I guess.

I'll chalk it up as a loss on my end as a customer.

Sorry - rant out.

There is a new green version of this battery out now as well at going gear 25$ for 2 shipped and a unprotected as well;)

What do you mean by green?