Blue TrustFire 18650 Problem (update: maibe it's the drop-in...)

I've got a battery,(it's 3 years old and has 73 charges) that yesterday shutted off at 4.12v. It was charged at 4.20v when I putted it in a SForce with a KD XML dropin, used it for a couple of minutes and puff.

Read the voltage: 0.00v.

Placed it on the charger, and after it started charging, took it of and read 4.12v. Decided to charge it again.

Another reading on the multimeter: 4.20v.

Put the battery in another P60 with a XPG dropin and nothing happened. The multimeter shows 0.00v again.

The battery went into the charger again, didn't charge, but after removing it, showed 4.20v on the DMM.

It went straight to the XPG P60 and it worked for a few seconds, but only because I turned it off. It made a clearly hearable buzzing sound when on!

The sound is like "BZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNN" if this makes any sense...

What to do?

I have had numerous other 12v batteries do the same thing. They would fully charge and then once a load hit them they would go very low on voltage. They ended up being bad batteries. I would assume that the same thing has happened with your battery.

That would be my opinion

I think, either the battery has gone bad (drop voltage under load) or the protection PCB is bad. You may salvage it yet, but will have to remove the protection circuit to see whether the battery would work unprotected.

Sounds like the Protection board to me too...

I'm guessing high internal resistance is tripping the PCB.

Time to recycle, IMO.

try slow discharge.

I don't know how to slowly discharge... don't have any hobby chargers also...

Tried to take it apart, and in the process, got some beautiful sparks. Recicle bin it went.

Time for new batteries.

Good riddance to a bad battery.

A few minutes ago, went to feed the sheep, picked the P60 light that did the buzzing sound, (just because...) put a fully charged 18650 in it, turned it on and... BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

WTF?

Changed the battery for another, and: BBZZZZZZZZZIIINNNNNN! The dropin is a 5 mode XPG R5, that came with an Ultrafire WF-502B bought a couple of years ago. Never heard that sound before, in this light. The drop-in has the aluminium foil wrap trick, as does every p6o style light that I own.

Tried it with a couple of hosts and batterys, and same story. On high, it makes a very low IIIIIIIINNNN, on medium a loud BBBBZZZZZINNN, on low a loud PIIIIIIII, on strobe a loud short ZIIIN, on SOS it doesn't make any sound.

The output is fine.

When opened it smells like a very bad fart... dismanteling it, the smell goes away. Only smells when lit.

The drop-in is making the sound, and it is probably easily fixed, but I don't even know how to solder...

Maibe someone would want it for modding...

" On high, it makes a very low IIIIIIIINNNN, on medium a loud BBBBZZZZZINNN, on low a loud PIIIIIIII, on strobe a loud short ZIIIN, on SOS it doesn't make any sound. "

I like sound words .

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ok , PWM = Some drivers make noise ! cant be helped , unless there are other issues ?

Ive also noticed sometimes , the Bzzzzzzzzzzz may also come from the clicky switch [ Not so great contact some where ? ]

Yeah , some lights go Bzzzzzzzzzzz ......

If thats the only issue ? its ? not really an issue unless it really bothers you ...

Bzzzzz , is it the battery ? I mean does this happen with other batteries ?

Could be the protection circuit [ if it has one ] , if the protection circuit has become an issue , either strip the circuit and re wrap or toss the battery .

Discharge , do you have a light with low mode ?

Discharge in low mode .... If the circuit keeps tripping , well , you got 3 years out of it , its about the use by date for batteries in anyway ..

It isn't the batery. I tried with 3 diferent brands and the sound is there. (The faulty battery was recicled.)

The sound comes from the drop-in. This light didn't make any sounds and didn't smell funky before. Only when I tested the faulty battery these symptoms appeared.

Maybe something is baking in there?

If you have a MM , check current [ is it the same as before ] ...

The bzzzzzz , is the frequency of a component on the driver , for what ever reason , they can become audible ...

It happens from time to time , if everything checks out ok , your only options are to live with it , or swap out the driver ...

You could try potting the driver , or super gluing the components , this may change the resonance of the noisy component ... [ Maybe ]

I'd double check the foil just cuz it's the easiest thing to do .

then I would reach over and grab one out another 700,000 lights I own and shrug as I dropped the light into the drawer (giving new meaning to the term ..Drop in)

I wonder if maybe a sheep farted in your light ??

I'd say any smell that odd is a short of some kind .I think i'd be buying a 1.5 amp driver and maybe getig rid of a strobe if you hate them ..this could be good thing .

I tried without the foil, even in different hosts, and it's still there. Tried running it longer (3min) and it has a distinct burned stuff smell.

Measurements:

Light when new: H:1.20Amps, M:0,18Amps, L:0,04Amps

Today: H:1.21Amps, M:0,18Amps, L:0,04Amps

Had to look up the word shrug in the dictionary, lol, and that's how I feel with this drop-in.

Could you recomend a new driver for this light? 5 mode preferably, or at least with 3 modes? I think I can persuade one of my RC friends to mount it for me...