My first thought was that it's a protection board that is broken (cell is labeled as protected). So I removed label, no sign of protection whatsoever. Maybe it's a new design, protection inside?? :0
Then some work with pliers and voila, Ńhinese li-ion matrioshka is revealed.
If someone interested here is the link to the product :)
And another version with a small LiPo battery inside. And with white powder instead of the brown one
Bought on ebay from seller toymodel55 on April 18th, 2012.
Thank you for the warm welcome, brted. No, the tiny LiPo pack ist not all that´s in the battery. There is white powder and red heat shrink, too
I contacted the seller, I´ll let you know when I receive a reply.
For $13.50 you'll get a pair of known good protected XTAR 18700 2600mAh (the group buy is "over", but Serena still sells to that price. I just bought four more pairs - and received them in seven days!
I actually think these are the best battery on the market right now! Yes I know Panasonic have a 3100 cell but they are double the price and not double the capacity. I have the same Sanyoâs bought from Kaidomain and they are brilliant. I quite like my Trustfire flames but where my TF flames will put out 2A the Sanyoâs give 2.5A. Makes a big difference.
One other thing I would not worry about them being unprotected they are a very good cell, very safe.
A couple of months ago, I bought some silver/gray ultrafire 14500s. Not only were they too long (the plastic wrapper barely covered the neg ends), but they were too big in circumference. After the usual haggling of âyou send picturesâ and âyou return batteries,â the seller refunded my money. Soon after ALL silver/gray ultrafires disappeared from his ebay ads.
So curious, I too attacked the battery with an xacto. What did I find inside the wrapper? The usual protection circuit and mini pcb attached to ANOTHER complete Ultrafire silver/gray 14500!!! I peeled off the PCB and end tabs, leaving a ânormalâ silver/gray ultafire 14500, that worked! (as well as those 14500 UFs ever do). So the reason for the oversize? They had sent the thing through the âprotectionâ and wrapper machine TWICE. Talk about NO quality control! I have stripped probably 7-10 dead (or otherwise funky) 14500s, and there were no markings on the metal casing at all.
I havenât bought the cheap red 18650 Ultrafires for a couple years âŚ. because the 20 first ones I bought (before I knew better) still work fine and hold their own against even Sanyos and Panasonics and the TF flamers. Yeah, they might run a little shorter and a little less voltage wise, but ones I have work fine for what they are. I check the voltages from time to time and for heat while charging (none) and they seem to still be working just fine. HOWEVER, friends have bought those red UF cheepies with stated outputs HIGHER than 3000 mah (usually 3500 on the wrapper, but I have seen 4000mah) and those were definitely fakes. DOA or unchargeable. Combine those dead fakes with a fully topped-off 18650 in a 2-cell light, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Would I buy the UF cheepies again? Probably not. But mine have worked as expected for a cheep battery.