Thanks for all the great suggestions. How about the NCR8650A panasonics? I read somewhere they were good for 6.5A draw and they are protected. This driver is really suppose to stayat 6A according to George at Taskled. I am pushing it already. It would be nice to have a protected battery to cut off at 7A to protect my driver too. :bigsmile:
Ken
The NCR A is in every better than the gray NCR18650, and the NCR B is in every way better than the NCR A.
The PD has less internal resistance, that is why it handles higher current better. Less heat.
The Samsung 20R’s are soooo much better for high currant though.
NCR18650A is the old version of the NCR18650B.
Its Panasonic NCR18650PD or an IMR cell like the Samsung 20R. But the Samsung only really wins at 10A+.
Why protect the driver? It should protect itself.
Thats a good question. I dont think the driver has a protection circuit built in it. George specifically preached to me not to go over 6A. If it does have a protection circuit I would feel more secure if I could utilize the PCB on the battery to cutoff at 6.5-7A in addition.
Ken
I thought the driver might be able to measure the current.. but you cant really limit it other than lowering the LED current or taking good care of the battery voltage. You could go as low as 18V input voltage, for ~130W that would be 7.2A and that might be too much already.
Problem with protected cells is, they are not exact. Cutoff could be at 5A or at 7A, depending on the parts used (tolerances..).
Ah ok. So the advertised cutoff does have some flex in it. I definitely make sure the batteries are topped off before I use the light. Im very picky about that. I think I might get a set of the NCR18650B that have a PCB. They also are button top so I can rid of the magnets. Here is the ebay link. I bought several batteries from him. All have been good.
Ken
Here is a link to a test of a lot of 18650 batteries I been looking at. The protected ncr18650b is where I need to be. I dont know what PCB they used though. Thats the question.
http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650Summary%20UK.html
Ken
Why are you adamant about the NCR18650B? The protected NCR18650PD actually provides more juice at higher currents. Enerpower sells one, and HKJ tested it.
Use HKJ’s comparator and compare the PD and the B at 5 amps.
I still cant recommend NCR18650B cells. 6.8A is the absolute limit for these cells. But thats maximum discharge (peak), not constant discharge. If you limit runtime on high to less than a minute.. maybe. But you are pretty hard one the cells.
Okay so the PD cells are my best option right? I would rather not spend near a hundred bucks for batteries and be disappointed. Lol!
Thanks a bunch guys. I believe this thread turned into a battery thread now! Haha!
Do they make those in a button top?
Ken
Woah, I just read this thread. Serious light warning. Do not enter without proper eye protection. Best wishes on this beast. There will be no lumen shortage around you with this baby on fully charged cells. No matter the cell, it will have seriously respectable light output.
Haha! Thanks for getting back to the subject! I have to say this is my favorite little lamp yet! I should have the stock one in a couple of weeks to do some side by side tests.
Ken
so you actually bought another one these shorty 12xmls to do comparison shots, or you like the light so much that you wanted another but in stock form? or were you planning to mod that too?
as far as the batteries, why not go unprotected samsung 20 R’s? and for protected cells, i actually heard these are very good for high powered lights…their magic kicks in at high amps.
http://www.fasttech.com/products/1420/10001901/1143804-sanyo-ur18650zt-18650-2800mah-protected-rechargeab
I like those zt’s, two issues though, biggest one is getting them from fasttech to the states and the second is, I don’t think they’ll do 6a, I just find they keep their voltage up better at 3A so are more useful to me in keeping 3a linear based drivers in regulation for longer, rather than giving stupidly high current.
The main reason was probably because I like the light so much. I will NOT modify the other one! Haha! I did the same thing with the AK-90s I have. I have one at 2200ma and the other is stock. I get a big kick out of showing people the stock light, then when they ask to hold it I hand them the modified one and say, “Here, this one has the batteries full charged. Use it.” :bigsmile:
Ken
Here is an update…
The light has been working great! I did do a temp test after about a minute and a half the temp on the head fins got to 140*f. I turned it off after that. The other thing is the switch started sticking on me so I went with a judco 10a switch. This judco switch feels so much better!
Please sir, can I have beamshots vs AK-90 and possibly more :)
Sure! I will be doing a few beam shots this Friday night. I will do this light with the stock one I have also. I will compare it to the AK-90 2200ma and also the stock AK-90.
Ken
from stok the battery configuration are 6s or 2s 3p?
the size of this flaslight are nice
The stock batteries are 2S3P. I converted it to 6S1P. 24+ volts J)
Ken