In that case, I withdraw my objection to using the S1R v1 proprietary PROTECTED IMR in an unprotected Olight S Mini.
I based my objection on your previous statement to “treat ORB-163C05 as unprotected”.
I also found this, confirming the S1R v1 battery is a Protected IMR:
Olight ORB-163C05 IMR RCR123A / 16340 550mAh 3.7V Protected High-Drain 2.75A Lithium Ion (Li-ion) Button Top Battery
there is also a comment on the label “built in circuit board prevents OverDischarging”:
Thanks for giving it a go. I had the problem when the battery is closer to half discharged. I suspect a fully charged battery put in the freezer for 10 minutes would work fine, I may try that tonight.
The S1R was the first light I tried that stuck in my pocket for months and got used all the time. So many things I liked, including the MCC, the UI, the size, the moonlight mode, the mode spacing, being able to measure the battery voltage with out taking the battery out, the size.
Then after the cold battery issue started to bug me, I found the Emisar D4. That with the 18350 tube is my EDC now. Better UI, better tint, more fun modes that are useful to me.
But I may check out the new S1RII anyway, we will see how I feel when the sale comes along on Friday.
Yeah 18350 would be nice, can get like 15-25% more Wh/kg and Wh/cm^3
Agreed.
Actually, a more accurate comparison would be Armytek. They have managed to implement a magnetic charging system similar to Olight, but it doesn’t require proprietary batteries. Oh, and there’s been no reports of it being a fire hazard, unlike some of Olight’s models. Klarus also has a magnetic charging system on some of their XT lights, although theirs is on the side of the light, not the tailcap.
LOL! To clarify, I treat all LiIon (IMR, INR, ICR, IFR, etc.) batteries the same, regardless of whether they are protected or not, that is, I handle them all as UNprotected LiIon battery, and that is, with respect. I learned a great deal from many CPF and BLF members’ experience and other battery experts (including batteryuniversity.com and the book [Batteries In A Portable World]) that the best protection is between our ears. I do not rely on battery protection circuit in my day-to-day charging and discharging activities to provide protection for the LiIon battery, and to certain extend, this carries on to NiMH chemistry too.
I have in many occasions shared that the protection circuit in battery is to protect the battery, not us — the users. As a father of two, I’ve also put in certain unwritten rules about battery handling in my household and trained my kids (and wifey, she needs reminder once in a while) to treat all batteries with respect, especially LiIon battery-powered devices. :heart_eyes:
Thanks for clarification mate 
I will not forget this when I get that charger
agreed
and thank you for laughing at my sense of humor, Im glad you “get” it when Im joking.
seriously now:
My main reason for wanting built in protection is because my CR123 lights have no built in protection, so I like Protected LiIon cells, in case I fall asleep with the light on. Or in case I lend a light to someone that has not been to Battery University, and They leave the light on til it dies.
Specific to the S1r v1, I gave mine to one of my adult kids. She has no other LiIon, and no other CR123 lighs. So the proprietary cell is not going to need an Intelligent Operator. I also like that you have taught me that the S1R v1 batter IS Protected. Thank you for taking the time to educate me on the finer details of Olight models.
Regarding the S1R v2… I have completely lost interest in that model, due to the UNProtected battery… I would not want to have to manage its unique needs… I prefer Protected 16340 batteries that work in all my lights…
with great respect and gratitude for your reviews and comments
I can confirm with test data that the S1R1 battery, ORB-163C05, is protected. I ran it in my S1R at high until the light extinguished. It stepped down to medium, then low, then the light went out. I measured the lowest voltage while in low mode at 2.6V. I was at work and not monitoring it constantly. When the light went out, I measured the voltage at the battery terminals at 0V. My charger would not recognize it. I needed to take my D4 battery and shock the ORB-163C05 with a 10 ohm resistor to get it to come up from 0V. After the shock, it read 2.9V. Its charging now.
I did this in part to show it is protected, and in part to see if it would improve the cold temperature performance. I sort of doubt the latter, but who knows.
Sorry for the thread drift . . . 
Hum, funny you mention this. Last night I was making something alike.
I had my S1R running with low battery. At about +/- 3.08V it stopped turning ON (after the High Mode and Turbo, and sometimes Medium mode, didn’t work below 3.3V).
As the battery was reading NULL on the Opus BT-C3100, at 3.08V I touched the bottom of the S1R with the magnetic charger. It worked for a while and then shut OFF. Then I repeated the same process 2 or 3 times, when it shut OFF.
Later I decided to put it on a Convoy S2+ triple (FET driver), just to check if it went below 2.8V. Last time I tried it it was at 2.7V, but still with juice to run the flashlight for some more time on the lowest mode.
I ended the test there and put the battery to charge into the flashlight. This morning I measured it and it was 4.21V freshly charged. Don’t know if this is important or not, but is is another “record” about the ORB-163C05 . :arrow_right:
Awesome!
Thank you 
Protected it is then.
I hope the cold weather performance improves. Im grateful for your contributions, including your personal carry report, and how useful your S1R v1 was to you, until things cooled down after the Honeymoon.
I hope you can rekindle the affair… and get to use that second S1R v1 battery
I like this kind of detail, thanks for taking the time
sounds like your S1R has some sort of low voltage shutoff near 3.0v, and the battery did not read 0 volts, so its internal protection had not triggered, not even at 2.7v in the convoy on lowest mode (possibly set to trigger at 2.5v under load, probably would have triggered battery protection if you tried to use high mode)
and it sounds like your v1 charger was consistently turning the green charge indicator OFF while still charging, since it still worked to charge overnight correctly
Yes, I think I will be using my S1R v1 again. I am interested in seeing what factors are contributing to the voltage drop at turbo mode(s). I just did a quick test after fully charging my battery, and the light dropped out of turbo mode after a few seconds at room temp, ~22C. So I cleaned the interfaces to the battery, and the tailcap a bit, and I see the light will stay in turbo mode easily now. The voltage drops about 0.8V in turbo from off, so the battery can’t be much below full charge to work correctly.
I actually have 2 new batteries at home, so I want to compare the performance of old vs new, and also clean up the interfaces as best I can to see how much things improve then.
Yay!
I have also found that cleaning out excess oil from the threads, tailcap, head and driver, on my lights makes them more reliable. My Maratac AAA will skip modes if I let too much lube build up.
I also found my Novatac tailswitch became more reliable when I cleaned out all the thread lube and started over.
I think I wanted to give them too much Love. I still use the lube, but I wipe it off the end of the body tube, and I wipe out the inside threads and contacts… things are still lubricated, just not too much.
I use this stuff, it was recommended by darksucks, when I got a copper Beta
thanks for the recommendation.
I did a bit of cleaning, and now the original battery drops 0.45V at first turbo (600 lumens) and 0.7V at full turbo with a fully charged battery 5 seconds after going to turbo.
Also measured with a new (different?) battery that has been sitting in the refrigerator (not the one for sale) and measured it as the first. Basically I saw about 0.1V lower on both turbo modes compared to the first test. Now I am questioning if I already swapped batteries and had the newer one in the light. Guess it does not really matter, IIWII. Now I know which is a better performer at high output. My charger suggested that with the ESR readings it provided.
I notice that Olight UK also has the 25% off offer today £41.24 so will be fighting temptation all day
Same here in the US, 25% off one, or 30% of 2 or more.
Received my Olight S1R BATON II today and surprise, the battery is marked:
ORB-163C05-10C
FIT FOR S1R BATON II
HIGH PERFORMANCE IMR BATTERY WITH
OVER-CHARGE, OVER-HEAT PROTECTION,
AND EXPLOSION PROTECTION
The new wording on this battery does not specifically mention a circuit board or use the word “overdischarge” and is certainly curious. The outer shell is essentially the same length as the older protected ORB-163C05 and ORB-163C06 batteries, and it has the same “bulge” on the “positive” end to accommodate a protection PCB as those batteries have.
I haven’t tested its behavior yet, but one thing to be aware of in doing so is that not all protected batteries have to trip and latch/stay at zero volts when their protection circuit is actuated (sometimes requiring bootstrapping or charging in a “special” charger to reset the protection PCB). The tripping behavior is merely a choice made by the circuit designer. There’s no reason a tripped battery can’t provide its seriously depleted voltage to its terminals for reading by a relatively high input resistance DMM, yet not supply any significant output to a real load if called on to do so if that’s the way it was designed. Some protected batteries can be reset/restored if merely presented with a voltage higher than a specific threshold (doable in just about any CC/CV charger), while others may require a special reset routine that may or may not involve genuflecting and making symbolic gestures and/or the uttering of oaths.
It also appears that the proprietary plastic ring on the “positive” end of the ORB-16C05-10C that prevents it from being charged in many (but probably not all) stand alone chargers can be easily be defeated by popping a 6 mm/1/4 inch neodymium magnet onto the center terminal (AS LONG AS ONE IS CAREFUL INSERTING IT INTO/REMOVING IT FROM THE CHARGER).
I’m probably not going to unwrap one of these new batteries to find out what’s really inside until one gets old and weak.
So the confusion about Olight RCR123A battery protection continues…
my local distributor just received their stock of ORB-16C05-10C, bought 2 as spares. I was waiting to get my hands on these spares as backup to start verifying runtime on the lowest mode of 0.5 lumen. I'm basically in the opinion that doing this test has detrimental effects to the battery...
will report back in a week or two of the test results... stay tuned... ;)
Well, the result is in.
Having to report this now after just a week... well, you guessed it, it's ~8 days 11 hours.
Starting Voltage: 4.20V
Ending Voltage: 2.48V
Oh, one more thing, the battery level indicator at the switch button light up in RED when light cuts off.
Thank you rookiedaddy!! That is quite impressive, but the 15 days mentioned on specs are another half way almost… So, I guess the 15 days are just an estimation, right? Am I reading this data correctly?
EDIT: Sorry, I saw a the data of the S1R Baton “I” that would last 15 days on the mode 5 = 0.5 Lumens!
I apologize for the confusion :person_facepalming:
I woke up this morning to a new set of S1R Baton II line-up... sharing a few pictures from Olight...
yeah, the Winter edition is warm white... now that's fitting...
