Fried my flashlight? Lumintop ODF30

What makes you think it’s backwards?

Where do you suggest buying Li-ion batteries?

I do a lot of business with them.

Yea. I will be careful… this light is similar to the jetbeam t6. You have to insert the battery correct position.

Unless otherwise stated the positive goes towards the head of the flashlight. Just like the old maglights and every other flashlight from a kid onward.

But in this day and age especially lumintop should have reverse battery protection. Either physical like nitecore or electrical.

Is this your first flashlight?

I would be highly surprised if the manual doesn’t say don’t insert battery backwards

If the batteries are icr then yes a direct short will most likely cause a vent with flame or this case a pipe bomb literally. But if it’s a imr inr chemistry. It may just vent some when it gets overheated. If you look at battery spec sheets. They have to be direct shorted for hours with no flame or explosion. They have to be overcharged at 12volts and 3x the mah for hours. They have be cooked in a oven. And crushed vertically horizontally. And violently shaken.

But no I wouldn’t recommend lithiums to someobe who doesn’t have a little common sense.

I have had shorts in lights I built and thought I had enough reflector clearance and smoked the drivers literally. Comes up under the lens. And melted springs before also.

Only thing I can guess is maybe staying up to late. :confounded:
Funny part is when I saw the pic I thought the battery is in backwards when I saw the negative on the tail cap end.
I will never live this one down. :person_facepalming:

Nope never

Oh come on, yes, we got to give him a pass based on sleep deprivation. :slight_smile:

I apologize to the OP, poor Zane probably spent half the night trying to figure what the *ell I was talking about. :person_facepalming:

Hello Zane,
Regret to hear that and the unhappy purchasing experience happens to you.
Due to the high current output, ODF30 is designed without reverse polarity protection indeed.
So, when inserting the battery, please make sure and make sure that the positive side goes towards the LED, and the negative towards the tail.
Next, we will make a notice about this issue.
Thanks for the supporting. :slight_smile:

I'm new here and this is my first post. :-)

I recently purchased a Lumintop ODF30 Flashlight and same battery from Amazon as well. And, made the mistake of installing the battery backwards. After removing the battery, I smelled the smoke too. Light didn't function after re-installing battery with the proper polarity.

Looking at the manual and flashlight, there doesn't appear to be any reference to the correct polarity for the battery. It's been my experience that most flashlight use a spring on the negative poll with few exceptions. I will never make that assumption again. :-P

I ended up watching a youtube video about this light to gain insight into how the battery should be installed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAII-erOb6I&t=261s

I'm under the opinion that this battery does not have reverse polarity protection. Perhaps, if I had I used a protected battery, the flashlight wouldn't have gotten fried.

Regret to hear that again :frowning:
We have learned the lesson that to make the visible notice if there is without reverse polarity protection.
And here we again, to make the notice:

  1. To use the battery WITH a PROTECTION CIRCUIT, to prevent reverse battery installation.
  2. MAKE SURE the anode side towards the LED side when inserting the battery.
    Otherwise, the light, ODF30, would be damaged when reverse installing the battery without a protection circuit.

Make the notice like this instead:

1. Use a protected 26650 battery to prevent a reverse polarity battery insertion.

2. Put the positive side of the 26650 towards the LED side of the light when inserting the cell.

There is no reverse polarity protection present on the light. Therefore, reverse polarity results in a damaged ODF30.

:+1:
:+1: :+1: :+1: :slight_smile:

Why does a high output flashlight like this doesent have reverse polarity protection ?

What battery did you use?

This one?

As far as I understand it, the reverse polarity protection built into the battery is designed to protect the battery. It’s not designed to protect the flashlight circuitry. So I’m not exactly sure if a protected battery inserted backwards would save the flashlight or not.

That light by the way has a magnetic charger connection on the end cap. That’s why the battery is backwards in it. It is definitely the exception and not the norm for battery direction.

From post #30.

It’s not a detailed reason, but I probably wouldn’t understand a detailed reason anyway. Lol.

I have one light where the negative end of the battery gets inserted first. The makers put a very clear label on to light to show the correct orientation.

I don’t know if there’s room on the outside of the ODF30 to put a label like that. Maybe they can put a label inside the tail cap showing that the negative end touches the tail cap.