I’ve found a website selling 18650 batteries that put out 10 amps each and have 3500mAh capacity. This would be a big upgrade to my current Samsung 30Q batteries which are 20 amp but only have 3000mAh capacity. Would the 10 amp batteries be fine even in turbo mode?
That’s a question that needs some clarification. There is one plus-point however.
Emitters AND batteries are positioned parallel, so the question can be dealt with as 1 battery - 1 emitter.
First thing you can do is look-up both batteries in the comparator of >> HKJ.
He is a long time member of BLF and has tested countless batteries.
And frankly: I would not buy a battery that has not been tested by HKJ.
That leaves us to the next piece of clarification: your BLF Q8 has what emitters?
Like batteries have different curves to deliver their energy, emitters are the same in absorbing energy.
It is like asking: is an F150 a good car for pulling something? And I would ask: a horse-trailer or a Saturn V?
In true life I would prefer an F150 for pulling a horse trailer over an F1 car, and the latter has 1,000 hp!
Ask yourself if the new batteries are able to deliver their energie with the same Amp’s as your 30Q’s
These batteries are from a pretty legit company. They are well known in the vaping world for selling decent batteries so I’m not too worried about that. I guess the only option I have available is to try them out. The worst that could happen is I waste £20 or so.
Edit: I have no idea what emitters it uses. I’m a newbie to LED torches.
Yes, 10A cells will work fine in the BLF Q8. The Samsung 30Q cells are actually 15A cells (continuous), so you won’t notice much difference in output. The 10A cells will put out slightly less light (due to greater voltage sag), but you’d probably need a light meter to notice the difference.
I’ve run the BLF Q8 with 4 amp cells. I notice a big difference in output compared to using Samsung 30Q’s, but it still works.
The BLF Q8 uses a FET driver for its higher outputs. So, it will attempt to draw as much current from the battery as it can. But, lower drain cells have much greater voltage sag under load, so the voltage across the LED will be less, thus lower output. It also means lower current use, so you don’t have to worry about drawing more current from your cells than they can take. As long as they can deliver at least 4 amps safely, you should be fine using that battery.
I’d suggest a high drain cell, though, simply because you’ll get more output, and the cells are built to handle high current so they’ll last longer. 10 amp cell is still quite good.
I had the BLF Q8 and ran it on Sanyo/Panasonic NCR18650GA and it ran great. I sold it to get a Sofirn SP36 BLF Q8 Mini 4x XP-L2 that one runs 4 LEDS off of 3 batteries. I still use NCR18650GA in that one. Brightness difference between the NCR18650GA and Samsung 30Q I can’t tell without a meter. You will get a slightly longer run time from the slightly lower current push then some more from the higher capacity. Turbo in your BLF Q8 is probably drawing less than 5 amps per cell.
This article should help. https://1lumen.com/18650-reviews/blf-q8/
Cool. Thanks, everyone for your replies.