Massive fraud on 18650s in the Littokala Aliexpress stores!

I would no doubt open a dispute. I'd recommend choosing “product is not as described” or “counterfeit goods”. If you choose counterfeit goods and the seller doesn't cooperate you'll have to convince the AliExpress Case Management Team with proper evidence, at least like photo-comparing the cells with known good 30Q samples.

YMMV, though.

Cheers :-)

If only I coule order one without paying huge shipping costs.

Using my 20A constant current tester, it would have been easy to see if these were real Samsung 30Qs, by capacity and internal resistance.

It’s interesting that the original link now shows the 30Q cells with 3 legs, not 4 like they used to show and the version you received.

Anyway, it’s very likely you got fakes. Whether they’re still sending fakes remains to be seen.

What’s the first 3 characters of your postal code? (PM me, maybe) If shipping isn’t a lot of $, I’ll send you one of the ones I got.

The problem is that I live in Canada, so that was why the shipping costs were so abhorrent in the 1st place.

So, even if you were to ship me one, it would cost both you and me way too much.

I wouldn’t mind a reasonable shipping cost but I forgot about customs/tax on your end. Makes sense.

All I’m able to do with my equipment is discharge with a Lii-202 (using that to charge a large portable battery pack) and then charge the cells in a VC4.

Yeah, still better than nothing.
But it could be a 3000mAh cell with high internal resistance for all we know.

If someone in Canada actually took the plunge, I could check.

Do you have some power resistors?

If you can parallel some resistors to get a load of about 10A, then connect and record the voltage instantly, you could easily calculate internal resistance and compare it to HKJ’s measurement.

Send him at least a couple cells to take a peek at cell consistency.

Cheers :-)

Good idea. Thanks Barkuti.

I’ll leave two as they came, in case I get some equipment to test. Until then, I’ll try the others in my regulated lights.

I ordered 6 30q
Tracking won’t work. I hope they are the real deal. What should the internal resistance be? I have an opus analyzing charger.

Just tested a couple 30Qs I got super-cheap as protected 26Fs (found 'em :-) after removing the protection) in my optimized Lii-500:

  1. After first seating in slots 2 & 3: 29mΩ & 32mΩ.
  2. After second seating: 31mΩ & 29mΩ.

Cells have little use.

Cheers :-)

P.S.: each slot's DC resistance adds up onto its AC cell IR, if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you, I ordered them when this thread started. As soon as they arrive I will check them

Or, it could be a cheap no-name cell that is not made to the same safety standards that the name-brands are.

Either way, it may not be a wise idea to use it in high-drain lights (like those that use a FET driver).

Just for reference, I ordered 4 x 30Q button top’s from the Banggood sale at the same time all this was going on from the Littokala Aliexpress store in this thread. They arrived last week and all 4 weighed in at 47gr, internal resistance was 20 ohm, capacity 3050 mah at 1 amp charge and discharge, and they have 3 vents each. With the coupon and shipping $22.99.

I also ordered 4 x 30Q button top from LIION Wholesale last week for $23.75, ships within the US in about 1 week. And when they come in, I will post the results here for reference.

They do look different from the ones I got from another AliExpress store, about half a year ago (“Liitokala official store”, the one that has ‘hongkong’ in the store URL)

For your 4-pronged 30Qs, are there markings or codes underneath the pink wrapper (they should still be vaguely visible)

(I have to use photo editing software to adjust the contrast since my budget camera had hard time to pick them up)

(this reads: L0H5 65V21)

(this reads: NMA6 W16)

I believe those markings underneath the pink wrapper are manufacture lot/date codes that should be on genuine Samsung cells.
(anyone knows how to decipher the date for those ‘underneath’ codes?)

Left is recent order, right is authentic.

It seems that the order of 6 use a thicker wrap. Can’t see any numbers underneath the wrap on those.

Received mine today. 99% certain they are fakes due to the following:

  • Connected to 10 amp electronic load and could not even pull 850mA of current from the one cell I tried to test. I need to verify my setup tomorrow night. It's late and I have to crash.
  • There are clear signs that there were previous wrappers that had been stripped off the cans. Remnants of the old wrappers show through the existing shrink wrap.
  • The shrink wrap is slightly darker and thicker than my real 30Q's. I can not locate any signs of date stamp on the cans through the wrappers, but it's late. I'll check again tomorrow..
  • I can't see vents (or what appears to be vents) under the button like I can on my real 30Q's.

I have 4 of the cells discharge testing on a Lii-500 at 1 amp rate. I should have results in the morning.

EDIT: I retract the struck out parts above. More testing is required. Please see my post about 4 posts down.

Ah! What kind of holder do you have to test the cells?

Because if it is a crappy eBay holder, these things can’t handle 1A without a massive voltage drop.

See you tomorrow morning!

Custom holder with short 18 gauge wires pressed firmly against the cell terminals, but I do need to make sure all my connections are in order. I think I see signs of corrosion on the wires. I'll report back tomorrow.