Order placed! Thanks for the link and help. I ordered the TrustFire CREE XM-L T6 5 Modes 3800LM LED Flashlight Electric Torch with 3600 mAh batteries/charger combo and 2 additional 3600 mAh batteries. Assuming all 4 batteries are good I will soon need to find a use for the extra 18650.
They aren’t good. Whatever is sold as 3600mAh usually has capacity of 1500mAh or so.
Sadly this seems to be the case. There seem to be just as many scams as honest sellers, when it comes to 18650 cells.
I’ve seen 3000 mAh 18650’s advertised elsewhere for $11.00 each, probably better, but I figured the batteries are from a discount place and for now these will get me started. Hopefully shipping won’t take too long and I’m anxious to see how bright this light is.
How would I know if the mAh’s are lower than advertised? Does the light output look dimmer? Shorter run times?
get panasonics 18650 from buyincoins dealer on ebay for like 8$ each .
Shorter than expected run times is the easiest way.
You need a multimeter to do it though. Measure the tailcap current. Divide the Ah cell capacity by the draw in amperes to get a run time estimate in hours.
The other way is to use a hobby charger with a discharge feature, to test each cell for capacity.
Thanks for the battery link and the info on measuring tailcap current. Now I have to sit back and wait for stuff to arrive.
The flashlight isn’t exactly “inexpensive” but I’ve been looking for something really bright anyway. So far the flashlight is in Secaucus, NJ and I’ll probably have it in a few days as I’m the next state over to the left. The batteries and charger however are shipping from China and I probably won’t see those for 17 – 28 business days. At least that was a shipping estimate provided by another website for a similar shipping origin location. In the meantime I’m considering ordering 3 batteries and a charger from the battery place in Connecticut (not sure if we’re allowed to mention vendors here) and I’d have them easily by early next week for about $50 dollars.
The pro is that I’d have a functioning flashlight without having to wait until mid July. The con is that when the batteries from China arrive I’d have 3 batteries in the flashlight and 4 extras to store or use as charged backups. Also this would considerably almost double the overall cost of what was originally intended to be an “inexpensive” flashlight. Not sure if this is a pro or con but those extra batteries might start talking to me to find a flashlight or two to put them into as I really don’t have any other dedicated battery holders laying around.
What do you guys do in a situation like this, just sit back and wait for everything to arrive or take the plunge and pay the extra for having what you want sooner? I’m not sure if I can wait 4 weeks for batteries to show up just to see how my new and brightest flashlight will be.
If you order the batteries from the states presumably they will come with nice little 2 x 18650 cases to store them. :bigsmile: then you just need a nice single 18650 light as a better storage device.
I’ll just leave this here… 0:)
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/xintd-c8-v3-xml-u2-910lumens-flashlight-p-308.html
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/roche-f12-xml-mini-18650-desert-yellow-flashlight-p-384.html
If the order hasn’t shipped I’d probably cancel and order elsewhere. If it has and I could wait, I would.
Another option is to find a cheap package light deal in stock from US shipper and get the extra light to go with the extra batteries now. 
So far I haven’t ordered the “extra” batteries yet. Tmart says they already shipped everything out on the 25th so it’s too late to cancel. At least the stuff’s in the pipeline. I’ve ordered RC helicopters from China before and the longest wait was 34 days for a large package so I can “hack it” with waiting (sort of). I’ll try and wait and see how it goes and once I have the flashlight in my hands I’ll see what the shipping status progress of the batteries fromChinais doing and take it from there.
According to the email from Tmart the batteries shipped Monday and the flashlight shipped Tuesday so I can’t cancel at this point. The flashlight is shipping from NJ and should get here pretty soon. The batteries are coming fromChinaand I expect they will be a while and in the meantime I may end up getting some batteries that ship from the states. It all depends on how long things are going to take.
The flashlight came last week and the batteries came yesterday. Took a while to charge them up and I found out the “5 mode” light I ordered was actually a 3 mode light received with High>Low>Strobe. Not sure if it’s worth the bother, or possible, to try and send it back and get the 5 mode or just keep what I have. Anyway it’s bright as heck and the brightest light I have and my first Li-ion. I ordered 4 batteries with it on the possibility of getting a dud but the batteries are all good, first 2 charged up to 4.17V and the second pair charged to 4.2V. Charging took around 8 hours per pair but I can live with that. With my “extra” 18650 lying around I’m going to have to find a decent light for it. I gave the flashlight a test run tonight on my nightly walk and its brightest setting is almost too bright, if there is such a thing as too bright. Lights up the entire street for quite a distance and it’s like carrying a car headlight around.
I can’t point you to it, but there is a thread about how some drivers can be converted between 3 and 5 modes.
As far as spare batts, my theory experience has been a cheap budget light makes a nice holder if there is no draw.
On the too bright comment, heresy!!! 8) Beam profile can make a huge impact on how useful the brightness is. I have less problem with too bright in a thrower and more with floody lights in places where I get a lot of light reflected back.