Hi guys 1st post here
completely new to the Led lights and batterys that are on the market these days… so started reading the various forums and you tube video’s and am blown away at just how good these tiny lights are
so about 4 months ago bought my first flashlight in probably 30yrs Nightcore SR7 GT and have been having fun with it using it with my photography etc
and the more i watch these vids and forums the more hooked i am becoming wanting to buy every thing i see new that comes out LOL
the downside to all this is that the standard batterys for the bulk of the lights is the 18650’s which here in the UK are really expensive £20 each
having put my name down to buy the forum Giga thrower which is going to need 8 of them - started looking into getting some old laptops and getting out the batterys
anyway upto now raided 2 old laptops and cleaned them up abit although not charged or tested with a meter
decided to try them in my Nitecore to see if they would get a flicker or what ever
first set Acer (Gateway / Packard Bell / eMachines) AS10D75 10.8 Volt Li-ion Laptop Battery (4400mAh / 48Wh)
none will get a flicker at all nothin
2nd set are Samsung ICR18650-22F SDI 1A61 and was pleasantly surprised to see 4 of the 6 batteries light up my nightcore the other 2 appear to be dead
so my question is this to you more knowledgable than me is will these 4 workers be suitable for a powerhouse like the gigathrower or maybe another light that uses 4 18650’s please forgive my ignorance but all these ma and volts gets me mixed up just trying to save a few $$$ here
I’m a newbie here too, just got introduced to LED flashlights and 18650 batteries a few months back.
I also had a very hard time finding 18650s in my locality, so I did start off with dismantling laptop battery packs to harvest some 18650s.
But right now I have ordered some branded 18650s from online store (only some AliExpress stores allow shipping to my country, as the other popular online stores like Banggood, Gearbest, FastTech, etc. do not ship to for my country).
Anyway, from what I’ve been reading in the forum. Higher-power flashlights may need a high-drain-capable battery for it to function at the brightest.
For ordinary flashlights, those batteries from laptop pulls may be able to light them up (as long as you don’t need the brightest setting, and the reduced runtime from older batteries).
However, for the high-drain flashlights, then new high-drain-capable cells would be really suggested (based on the recommendations, that’s generally the Samsung INR18650-30Q). Other good high-drain capable ones that are suggested are the LG HG2, Sony VTC6. All these are rated 3000mAh capacity.
For longer runtime, bigger capacity like the Panasonic NCR18650GA and Samsung INR18650-35E (both 3500mAh) are also suggested (these are slightly lower drain than the above ones but allegedly also pretty good).
Older cells from laptop pulls may already have developed high internal battery resistance, which means they won’t be able to provide the ‘high-drain’ that is needed for the high-drain flashlight (they likely will work, but the light won’t be as bright).
More knowledgeable people than me will respond, but there are a number of factors to consider.
The big lights run parallel batteries, so they really need to be a matched set, or the stronger ones will be trying to charge the weaker ones through a very direct connection, one bad cell in there may be receiving charge from 3 good ones and may either drain them slowly, or short internally, with potentially spectacular results.
Laptop cells need to be charged and drained and charged again by a setup that measures their capacity, and left for a week to see if they can hold a charge as well. I thought I had 6 good cells from a laptop because they all charged evenly, and measured around 2000mAh, holding at 4V or so, but a week later only one had a 3/4 charge, the rest were 1/4 and although they lit up a flashlight quite well, couldn’t run a power bank for more than a few seconds each to charge a cell phone. A Lii500 Engineer or a Zanflare C4 are the current budget recommendations for analysing chargers. Expect to spend $20-$25 on one.
Best bet is to get advice from BLF members in your own country about which vendors to trust which will ship batteries directly to you. $30-$40 should get you a full set of 8 quality high drain cells for the GT, not $200!
I am also struggling here, my 4 Samsung 30Q’s ordered 23 August have been in JHB since 4 Oct, I don’t know now if they will clear customs at all.
Last resort maybe you can get someone in France or Germany to repackage and redirect a set to you via surface mail, since the restrictions seem to be airmail related.
You will need to use 8 matching batteries. That means 8 identical batteries all bought at the same time and same usage history. Do not ever mix unknown batteries together in the same light.
Better to ask where to buy Batts cheap to UK from other members here.