Well since there was 26650 thread I figured I would make this one. I am a fan of big battery capacity and with todays LED's I find 18650's lacking. Also with bigger host's comes the possibility for some nice modding with a good size head (bigger reflector area/bigger heatsink mass). I have found its seems 32650 battery technology is behind but I believe it is getting better. The best 32650 battery I could find was 6000mah. How true this rating was is still in question. So any input on hosts and batteries is welcome.
Nice find Hikelite. Those are kinda Mag-ish looking. Good price too. I like the side clickie. Reflector looks deep. Wish they had some more detailed pics.
18650 is supposedly the most researched battery of all time ..because of that alone assume we have already hit a wall and aren't going to be pushing the envelope much further any time soon ..18650's are it . I wouldn't hold out much hope for 32650's.and I wouldn't expect 18650's to get much better .mho
Well as I posted earlier I had read somewhere about an IMR 32650 in developement. I think the ETA given was sometime next year. No idea what the specs will be. Personally I would use IMR 26650s in a 32650 host until better cells come out.
I have a Flydragon MS2010-2D80-CSM360, that takes 3 32650s. BIG light. It's under driven though. It boasts that it is 5000 lumens plus, but I think it's more around the 2000-2300 lumens. It can go for ages though. With the size batteries and light, plus a CSM360 (4 SST-90s essentially) it would be great to see what potential these lights could have fully driven. Could match a bigger HID.
btw, I think there will be further development in 18650 capacity and an increase in offerings in other sizes. These batteries are researched in much more profitable arenas than just flashlights and in imho, to think the technology will not continue to improve is kind of naive.
The Flydragon contains too little aluminum to properly heatsink the light if it's driven anywhere to its potential. Probably active cooling like 1 x 60mm fan would be better in a moderately big host. Forget about passive, it'd be too heavy.
It can't match HIDs in runs, a HID would properly run for ages simply because it likes heat.... as long as you keep the ballast cool enough but that is not an issue because usually it is big. A LED circuit is so darn small and it's not easily to heatsink it other than pumping the cavity full of thermal glue, which seems like a good idea, until you wanna change the driver. (DOH!)
Looks like a fantastic forum. Heaps to catch up on. Yep, understand and agree with your points. I wish someone would crank the CSM360 to it's full potential- it would be amazing.
Found Novae 5500mAH 32650 Cell $15 reduced shipping for additional cells. Tested at 3A to 3Vs had almost 4700mAH. knowing King Kong 26650 having tested 4525mAH 1A till 2.6V kinda spoils going with D sized LiOns. Maybe someday 18650 technology will find these 32650 cells.
Please add more links to more 32650 cells and or data if you may have. Thanks Mot
Those are kinda Mag-ish looking. Good price too. I like the side clickie. Reflector looks deep. Wish they had some more detailed pics.