TrustFire TR-J12 5*CREE XML T6 from DX MF and KD

Check out mitro's battery tests, upper left hand search field, it's pretty good. Each king kong can do 10A. So basically each cell can supply 30 watts of power. 3 of them have a 90W potential. Even 2 x King Kongs is a piece of cake for the light.

IMRs are inherently safer. Google LiMn (IMRs) and Lithium Cobalt. BTW, i mentioned safer, not safe. :) The safest is LiFePO4, but that is 3.2V and pretty much lower in capacity. Do a youtube search on everything, you can whack LiFePO4 around like crazy, burn it with a 1300C blow torch, and it'd be quite a while before it explodes. :) Correction, it does not even explode.

Safest is just get 3 x 18650 protected high-quality cells like XTAR 2600/3100 or if you can afford it AW/Redilast and be done with it. Still loads of runtime.

I believe that he's referring to the safer chemistry of the IMR cells. Magnets shift, a short occurs, and you have a pipe-bomb with at least 1/3 more energy than the one that destroyed a coffee maker, window, and human hand.

EDIT: 2100 beat me to the punch by a few sec.

I know those cells, I have many original a123 3.3v lifepo and others as I am RC car racer :) But king kongs are new to me, I bought them and their resistance is as imr, capacity higher. Safety...is not that important for me ;)

You should not need to feel that way. we are all here to learn anyway :)

Safety in RC is a bit different from flashlights. RC you can blow up the bugger with enough smoke as if you lit up a 100 shot fireworks cake and no issue, coz it is outdoors and not in your hand. But a flashlight is often in your hands, plus it is enclosed tightly plus extremely securely (a good tube of 6061-T6 is tougher than you think).

Can you see the blood? http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?280909-Ultrafire-18650-3000mA-exploded

TK Monster explosion : http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?262234-TK-Monster-Explosion

Nice :) But high current cells usually don't do this without reason, if they do at all. Remember I charge all my batterries at home :) So it is not always outdoors :) My transmitter is lipo powered, I even use liion cells at home to power up home devices. Killed many cells, they always warn you something is wrong.

Yep, for you since you are in RC, you'd have at least the basic skills and equipment to test and monitor. Charging, discharging, testing is a side-line hobby by itself for some of us. Check out old4570/mitro/HKJ's work. But the true is, I think 98% of us here don't even have a basic DMM or lux meter.

But this and good chargers should be something normal. You see what is wrong with cells every charge if you have at least resistance measure and simple thermometer. Past data you can even collect yourself if your charger can't. If you want to say that one light is 5% stronger, it is hard to see with your eyes, you need a meter.

this is why i stopped posting on this website... *drools*

Are you saying my 26650's might explode all of the sudden?

Any of your cells may. But you usually have to hurt them before :) Overcharge, over discharge -too low voltage, over discharge with too high current, physically damage.

Yes but I'm using small magnets on the + pole, because these weren't able to connect in series due to they didn't have the + side further out than the cylindrical body of the body. Any precautions?

I don't like idea of objects which can make a shortcircuit inside flashlight, can;t you weld some material on cell plus to make it higher? Of course many people use magnets and it works, but it is not safiest method in my opinion :)

Here is lux test with 26650s instead of 18650s compared to 2,8A XM-L C8 and 11w 950lumen desk light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcP_8z5K5Vo

Tail cap readings are with (4,23v) 3x2,1A and with 2cells 3,3A.

Ok, I got my TR-J12 today.

King Kongs do not work in 3x 26650 as-is. These cells have a bit of a recessed positive contact and in order to make a connection between the cells enough force has to be applied to squeeze them together. You can fix this in a number of ways, but AS-IS they don't work. I have not tried 2x26650 yet.

I have some IMR BatterySpace 26650s from a while back and they DO work in 3x26650. these cells have a bit of a raised button on the positive end and it enough to make contact. However, connection can easily be easily interrupted with a slight bump. (The good news is that it takes more than a bump to change modes.)

So unprotected cells will most likely require adjustment to work properly. I'll report back later.

EDIT: The positive contact inside the flashlight is either flush with or recessed in that white collar you can see in the pictures, so no matter how much pressure you put on the cells it's not going to make contact. The head either need a blob of solder, a magnet (at your own risk),or a heavy spring. Even then, with the KK cells you are most likely going to need solder blobs on the positive ends or magnets between the cells. On mine, the force required to make a connection between cells is so great I don't think it could be done reasonably. (Think old D Maglite spring levels of force).

Meaurements:

3x26650 IMR- 2.02A

3x26650 A123 (3.2v) cells - 2.4A

Nice! I cant wait for your TK70 comparison ! (hint, hint) haha

ah wait! Its ergotelis who's doing that! oops! :D

Still nothing received from KD though...Ahhh cHristmas times make shipping time quite high....

Im using magnets on my plus side, what risk am I taking buoying doing this?

Just a couple more thoughts/observations:

Nice build quality

Bad PWM

One cell operation - it looks like it goes DD (which I think is what we expected) - 4A on a single KK 26650, 1.6A on an A123 (3.2v) cell

Heatsinking seems good, but I haven't REALLY put the screws to it yet.

Could you please test if 2 x 26650 works?