FEBRUARY 2012: NEW Panasonic NCR 18650A 3100mAh batteries $13.96 Protected (black)

International Outdoor Shop (IOS) has now released the newest and *upgraded version of their 3100mAh cells,

that again have the Panasonic 18650A cells under their "hood"!
And now have a much better looking wrap (black).

According to HKJ`s tests, they perform really good!
And are probably the best "budget 3100mAh cells" on the market right now.

intl.outdoor.shop has them now for $13.96

Important note:
Owners of the older Blue Protected batteries bought from IOS, can be given a compensation on these new cells.
If you are interested in the new batteries, and had bought the blue ones before, please contact Hank to get a discount on the new batteries.
Tell him the amount of blue ones you bought from him, and he can give you a discount of $2.96 each, for the same amount of batteries that you bought before.So you only pay $11 each

If you want more then the amount you previously bought, they will be available at the normal price of $13.96


Quote HKJ:

"Conclusion

This battery uses a good cell, this secures many things:

  • The batteries does match in capacity, i.e. they can be used in series.
  • The battery is very safe.
  • The battery has the specified capacity.



The battery has a very high current limit, this does not mean it can sustain more current than other 3100 mAh batteries, but just that the safety circuit will react later.
All in all a very good battery."

END QUOTE

You have like 3 different threads for the same product. I don't know where to post.

Last time you've had a problem with protection circuit.

Question:

At what current draw level protection will be activated ?

Thanks

Thank you cowboy for your post and question.

I have only 2 threads.. and this one is about the NEW cells..
And the other one about the OLD cells... (2 different products)

Please have a look at the link I provided in the opening post, where the cells have been tested.
There you can find the answer on your question.

The new black version:

PCB protection trip current (A) 11,7

for comparison: the old blue version

PCB protection trip current (A) <3


(The other reason for opening this new thread is to share that this cell is now available.
While there was already a Deal Alert thread about the first version, I thought it would be better to open a new thread, because after all, this is a new product, thus a new Deal.
And it is much easier to find Good Deals, if they are posted in the Deal Alert forums, rather than searching through all different kind of threads about tens of different cells)

I appreciate the update on these cells. Thanks !

That is good news, but there is one thing I would like you to clarify:

Does it really trip at 11.7A?

Isn't it too risky knowing panasonic recomends a maximum discharge of 6.2A?

Thanks for the update, Chibi.

No, it is not really risky, you can find videos of people that shorts the NCR18650A. The cell can easily survive this, but it will reduce the total lifetime. According to some internal Panasonic documentation I have seen the maximum recommended continuous drain is about 3.5 ampere on the cell, if you want maximum lifetime.

Is the $13.96 for one or for two cells- all the pictures show two.

Price is for one battery.

Thanks HKJ,

Just to know, Did you use it DD with an XM-L and measured the consumption?

I bought already 4 of the blue ones, so I will consider the offer...

ChibiM for president

domo ari gotcha

HKJ, in your review you said that protection trigger is set too high.

At what current level protection should trip when using this Panasonic cell then?

No, I used to special equipment, I have shown it here.

As close as possible to the rated current, but to avoid accidental triggering I would prefer something like 30 to 50% above it, Panasonic shows discharge curves up to 5.9 ampere, this would give a protection around 8 ampere.

The most important thing is the over-discharge and over-charge protection. Which is judged by the voltage so in that case the current can trip at 1A or 7A and may have nothing to do with the actually drawn current at the moment.

As I can see the cell is second after Redilast in what it can do at 5A. The Redialst shows an "unsually" good curve for the Panasonic NCR18650A, (Jason is good, he knows what to send).
The current trips as I can see, identically with the Redilast 3100.


HKJ we know that a high current current can be sustained very easily for a short time. Let's say that one would discharge the cell at 10A not 11.7A, would it still finish/work down to 2.5v or the protection would trip after 3-4 minutes? Because if you keep trying to increase the current until you find that pulse point where you end up tipping the protection, the protection may very well activate at a lower constant current. In this case I mean lower 10A or 9A, just to be lower than your 10 times test on these cells.

My guess is that both batteries has 3 good transistors in the protection. This is probably also the reason for the high trip current, the protection IC measures the voltage over the transistors and if it is to high it assumes over current. When the transistors has a very low voltage drop, the current limit will be high.

Yes, the protection is temperature sensitive. I have not done any test at 10A+, except I have seen that the limit might be even higher if I test faster (I did a test where I instead of starting at 3A each time, started slightly below the last trip current).

On the EagleTac 3100 batteries I measured the trip current to 6A and the batteries could handle a 5A discharge without tripping.

But wouldn't 10A load generate a lot more heat than a 5A load? Also the Eagleatc 3100 is not giving as much capacity as the Redilast 3100 or IOS 3100 at 5A.

Great writeup! Any coupon code? Might buy a few of these!

Assuming the protection trips at the same voltage across the transistors, it will be about the double amount of heat.

That is due to the higher resistance in the protection.

Does that mean if each were driven at 5A every time they were used, the Eagletac would have a longer service life?

These cells are similar in price. Disregarding price which would you choose for a high output xml? Also, would there be any difference between the two in a hard driven xpg/xre?

No, only that you would get slightly less energi out of them.

For a light that uses 3 to 5A (i.e. one battery for a XM-L) I would prefer the intl-outdoor battery, but for a xpg/xre the difference is to small to have much significance.