Tiny 10180 Battery Questions

The 10180 is a novelty battery for a novelty light. Cool invention but it cannot be relied upon for emergency use. If your light has an electronic switch like the nano, the parasitic drain will likely eat up the battery while the light is in your pocket. When you need the light, guess what? You are screwed.

Great feed backs but I think I’ll just skip 10180 flashlights for now. I already have 2 chargers and I don’t what a third one. Plus If I use my Opus, it might ruin the little guy. Kind of like burned toast. :smiley:

[quote=d_t_a]

This is how I charge my 14250 batteries. I just add a magnet to the positive contact, put into my Opus BT-C3100, and charge at 200 milliamps. There should be minimal resistance since the magnet is solid metal.

Steve Ku of Veleno designs used to sell a “nano” charger for 10180 cells. I have one that I got with a quantum dd. USB charger and it works well… if you can find one.

[quote=NeutralFan]

Thanks for the idea! I’ll try to find a long cylindrical magnet (any idea if neodymium “rare-earth” magnets are good conductors or will add a big amount of electrical resistance?)
I suppose the electrical resistance is OK since most chargers may be charging at a bit higher current, and the resistance sort of lowers the charging current?

I use the Xtar XP1 to charge these at a more or less proper rate.

Of the roughly 45 lights I’ve bought in the last year I’ve luckily yet to need any of them in an ‘emergency situation’ but I get your point. I did however buy 5 extra 10180 batteries when I bought a L/top Nano as the shipping cost was more than a single cell, I think 5 was like $15aud. Also got the 10440 tube so maybe the Nano is right now for emergencies lol. But with a full battery it has quite a useful runtime even with the 10180 I couldn’t run the thing dry going for a 1/2 hour walk. I wonder what light is king of the ‘emergency situation’…I suppose it depends on the emergency.

Parasitic drain is a fair question, I’ve left my DQG fairy for long periods of time without charging it, I suspect that there is no parasitic drain.

Sofirn SC01 has a different mechanism (its a ‘screw the head off to access the charging port’ kind of light, I do not know whether this has parasitic drain…. anyone?

It’s not too demanding to keep it topped up at any rate, same charger for my phone so always have a cable.

I’m not sure I consider keychain lights for “emergency situation” criteria… That said, they’re better than nothing in a pinch.

Is there still a parasitic drain on the GT Nano even thougth the button LED is turned off? Thanks,HB

Yeah it’s got a super weak red switch led that is barely noticeable. I just unscrew tailcap 1/2 turn to avoid drain when not using light.

I think my button LED was switched off when I bought it from Amazon.ca as I don’t see any red light on at all on the button.HB

The very faint red light is almost not visible when looking straight up.

Position the light a bit at an angle (and in a relatively dark place) to make the red light visible, such as shown in the picture below
(in actual, it’s not as bright as the picture shown below)

Mine is definitely turned off.HB

Mine is the same, no red light at all. Apparently a common defect. I bought a second one in brass and that one does have the red light.

Yeah to see the switch led on mine I need to cover it with my hand and tilt it to a certain angle. Someone modded one recently which made it much brighter, can’t remember what thread it was.

the manual tells how to turn the red switch led on and off
see item #3 in the following photo from the manual:

I have also read reports from people who thought their red led was off, until they checked in a really dark room, and found it was actually on, just very dim…

and
I continue to read reports by people who did not read the manual,
and dont realize that the red LED Can actually be turned OFF, completely.

10180 DQG lights don’t have any parasitic drain.

GT Nano does, even if you turn the switch LED off. I don’t know how much is it, I remember some BLF drivers having parasitic drain below the cell self-discharge…but it was with cells that had 40 times larger capacity.
As always with e-switch lights, physical lockout is recommended. Then you have no parasitic drain.

The Lumintop Pimi should fit that bill.

There’s currently a coupon code available…

https://m.vipon.com/#/product/8397426?sl=3d11aa126bd62513c138b0d8b04be71a

It’s 31% larger than spy / fairy, so not really as small as possible. But I like the optics, I’m a big fan of aspheric flooders and I don’t know any other 10180 light like that.
That said - the price is way too high so I’m not considering it. Lumintop is really over the top with their pricing nowadays. :weary: