I know that I need to use matching cells within each 4X battery carrier and I ordered 8 30Q batteries with my GT 70 so I’m good to go.
I currently have a Nitecore D4 charger that only charge 4 cells at a time which means doubling the time needed to charge all 9 of the GT70’s batteries.
My question is if I don’t have time to charge both sets of 4 batteries and only charge one of the two battery sets, will it be safe to use both sets together with different charge state since they are connected in parallel?
Never put cells in parallel in different charge states. That is really bad for the cells, as there is going to be a huge amount of current flowing only limited by the voltage difference and internal resistance of the cell, well above the maximum charging rate of 4A for the 30Qs.
I sure hope this works with the flattop "30Qs" I just got in because my light should be here tomorrow or the next day. I say "30Qs" because these cells don't look like the other 30Qs I have. These still have a pink label but instead of the other markings I'm used to these just have a white label that say "IMR 18650 3000mAh 3.7V" I hope 18650batterystore.com is legit.
I believe you can run just one carrier with batteries. Check the manual.
Of course it’s better to run 2 carries w/ equally charged batteries to split the current but it is possible with the right batteries.
Finally, batteries all charged. What a light. Besides the intense hot spot, it has a nice spill, much more than the original. I also did a side by side comparison between the GT70 and MF04S. Both are NW. Lights are very similar in the size of spot and flood they throw, but the GT7 with 1500+ more lumen definitely dominates. :-)
Sheesh. Just finished charging all the batteries. And that’s with all 8 charging at once lol. Ok so I turbo’d it to a structure about 250 yards away. It doesn’t light it up like I had imagined. The beam is nice and wide but I want more throw and am willing to sacrifice the spill. Do I slice off the dome?
Maybe I should order a new LED/MCPCB to slice off the dome haha. Thanks guys. Loving it so far. This is so ridiculously large and heavy that I’m forced to use an air cushioned shoulder strap from a Nanuk case. The one that it came with is awful lol. Btw, it fits perfectly in a HF Apache 3800 hardcase with room for extra battery carriers and other small lights. $32 with a coupon.
If you add up 8 x 30Q you get 6 amp hours at “12v”. On turbo it draws about 7A to 8A. If it could sustain 8A then you’d get 45 minutes of run time, but it can’t sustain that due to heat as well as voltage drop. As the voltage drops your amperage drops which extends the run time. So I think turbo would be at least an hour, not counting the cool down periods. This is just an estimation. I’m not sure when the LVP would kick in and force it to run at a lower level which would then extend run times further.
In the original GT it could be set to the 2A level and give about 2H 50 minutes with 8 x 30Q until lvp kicks in, but it would be drawing less than 2A near the end due to low voltage.