Best deal for a dozen or so of good quality 18650s - INTERNATIONALLY

[torchythebatteryboy]

@Ecig

Who knows, maybe Ill get one or 2 samsung (but I dont need a dozen of them :o ), I can charge them to 4,35 at my hobby charger, but who knows…
I wonder what is their discharge curve…

I wont give any money for 3000 TF flames because its too much of a gamble (only if I’ll get warranted capacity and PCB quality from some website, if someone from few good webstores confirms me wich cell I will get - but I dont want to bother with that too much.).
I found reliable supllier for TF 2400 and Im buying these for some flashlights (I mean, its a gamble with 2400 also, and 3000 are higher priced and its also a gamble, and I dont want to take it at that price, and to find reliable supplier for some good TF3000, if thats possible at all now, need time and effort etc. SO for these better quality protected Ill go with XTAR or HiMAX. For lower but still reliable quality and capacity there are these good TF2400. And for even lower quality but very good price-value ratio I’ve found Ultrafire 2400 protected - real capacity around 2000 - from DD 5,99 a pair, wiuth coupons etc 5,0$ If I get what I ordered :o) And they even have less voltage sag than most TF flames)

Check here for discharge curves of Xtar 2600mAh and Samsung 3000mAh (with pcb added by Keeppower):

http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/batteries_21.html

The Trustfire 3000mAh and 2400mAh I just tested were almost identical apart from the pcb - the 2400 cut off at under 4A.
Hopefully they will be on the blog at the weekend.

[Ecig]

@nightcrawl
Yeeeei, voice of reason, thanx (Ill go with himax for sure, if I dont get XTARs for dollar cheaper per piece. We’ll see.

[Ecig]

PS: BTWm, if you wont best bang (mAh_) for a buck, Ultrafire protected 2400mAh are far superior to anything Thay have cca 2000mAh per 2,5-3 bucks from dinodirect (if they really send you these cells, I ordered a coupls so Ill see - I say to you, they are better than most TF flames 2400mAh out there, only PCB is little weaker, cant stand 3A)

@torchy, too many diagrams, I browsed through cca 20 of them and than I quit :o

[torchythebatteryboy]

Good quality Ultrafire are few and far between. You end up wasting a lot of money trying to find decent quality. I know, I’ve done it. That’s why I started the blog, to save others from wasting their money.

[Ecig]

I know that, but I stumbled on it accidentally

[Ecig]

@Ecig

I really love this graph, I like that voltage sag is not big, sao it would even be vey good to use it in my Joyetech 18650 tube mode (its essentially direct drive), and in directly driven flashlights.

Most of the batts I currently own sag to 3,6V in one or 2 minutes of 1A discharge (and these are better ones )
And these haved almost 3,9V after 30 mins!!! That is huuuge difference, no?

Can somebody find identical graph for XTAR’s 2600mAh cells from well-known deal topic?

I wonder how they compare to Himax.

Yesterday I r/eceived 12 HiMax 2600mAh from pingyi ebay seller.
They look great and I was thrilled to have them.

But now I started discharge test and Im quite dissapointed.

I have iMax B6 hobby charger from Dinodirect. I put 1A discharge to 2,8V (from 4,15V).

In 20 seconds voltage droped to 3,62, and in 1 minute it dropped to 3,59. (same as trustfie flames, but some very bad ultrafire can have little better voltage sag).

Now 5 mins past and its 3,51 (6 mins and its still 3,51V; 11mins its 3,45V)

So results are totally inconsistent with diagram I found on this website.

Can someone comment on what happened?

(I will uptate here with final results)

[f42]

@Ecig

@Ecig

I really love this graph, I like that voltage sag is not big, sao it would even be vey good to use it in my Joyetech 18650 tube mode (its essentially direct drive), and in directly driven flashlights.

Most of the batts I currently own sag to 3,6V in one or 2 minutes of 1A discharge (and these are better ones )
And these haved almost 3,9V after 30 mins!!! That is huuuge difference, no?

Can somebody find identical graph for XTAR’s 2600mAh cells from well-known deal topic?

I wonder how they compare to Himax.

Yesterday I r/eceived 12 HiMax 2600mAh from pingyi ebay seller.
They look great and I was thrilled to have them.

But now I started discharge test and Im quite dissapointed.

I have iMax B6 hobby charger from Dinodirect. I put 1A discharge to 2,8V (from 4,15V).

In 20 seconds voltage droped to 3,62, and in 1 minute it dropped to 3,59. (same as trustfie flames, but some very bad ultrafire can have little better voltage sag).

Now 5 mins past and its 3,51 (6 mins and its still 3,51V; 11mins its 3,45V)

So results are totally inconsistent with diagram I found on this website.

Can someone comment on what happened?

(I will uptate here with final results)

I wonder this now, because I was about to order six cells from this seller.

[Ecig]

Capacity 1980maH to 3,0V (@ 1A) (I set discharge to 2,8V so it still lasts)

Not bad regarding capacity, but I expected to get very littly voltage sag like on that diagram I liked.

Now I dont know in what to doubt: cells, my equipment or my understanding of it all

But, I used that hobby charger lot of times and these results are not very dissimilar with results I get with good Trustfire flames (2400mAh)

I wonder did anybody else, with better equipment, ordered them recently…

[HKJ]

@Ecig

I wonder did anybody else, with better equipment, ordered them recently…

You can find them in my battery comperator.

[Ecig]

FInished discharging - first cycle - 2293 up to 2,80V

Thanx HKJ (btw, can you out time on ghorizontal axis maybe?)

(Illpost comparison diagram later I dont have time now)

But thats precisely source of my doubting.
Himax cell Im testing right now gives resultrs as trustfire flames 2400mAh cell, not Himax - especially regarding voltage drop…

Maybe some other cell from the package will perform better, but if they are oscillating so much from cell to cell - thats not acceptable…
Im not prone to pay more just for the label or just few mAh higher capacity

[zeremefico]

@HKJ

@Ecig

I wonder did anybody else, with better equipment, ordered them recently…

You can find them in my battery comperator.

I was waiting for this!!!
My 80th post:-)

[HKJ]

@Ecig

btw, can you out time on ghorizontal axis maybe?

I will post the full review later today, this includes also charts with a time axis and all HI-MAX curves in the same chart (Like all my other battery reviews).

[Ecig]

On what voltage is undervoltage protection of these cells?
žI just continued discharge of this same cell, put end voltage at 2,50V, so Ill see, fif anything happens.

I still didnt had any cell, as far as I know, with working undervoltage protection - and im ordering good, high capacity Trustfire flames.

[Ecig]

It delivered 99 more mAh to 2,50V. (from 2,80 to 2,50V)
Im not aware of undervoltage protection kicking in… (but I didnt watched the charger whole time - if that matters…)

Can somebody help me understand this - I asked this questiuon on several other topics, still struggling with answer.

[HKJ]

The under voltage protection is somewhere between 2.0 and 3.0 volt, you order the protection chip for the specific voltage you need. That is the theory, but for the number of chips used here, the manufacturer only have a few fixed voltages to select between.

[HKJ]

@HKJ

@Ecig

btw, can you out time on ghorizontal axis maybe?

I will post the full review later today, this includes also charts with a time axis and all HI-MAX curves in the same chart (Like all my other battery reviews).

The review is posted now.

[f42]

@Ecig

On what voltage is undervoltage protection of these cells?
žI just continued discharge of this same cell, put end voltage at 2,50V, so Ill see, fif anything happens.

I still didnt had any cell, as far as I know, with working undervoltage protection - and im ordering good, high capacity Trustfire flames.

From where are you ordering them?

[Ecig]

I already said, Pingyi seller from ebay… http://www.ebay.com/itm/12pcs-18650-2600mAh-Protected-Li-ion-Battery-3-7V-/220944817348?pt=US_Rechargeable_Batteries&hash=item3371565cc4

[f42]

@Ecig

• and im ordering good, high capacity Trustfire flames.

Hmm… I guess I got it wrong, I meant Trustfire flames, it is ok though.

[Ecig]

Im ordering them from kaidomain.
But still didnt found any cell with undervoltage protectiion : (and I dont want to discharg/torment them all to 2,0V just to see weather undervoltage protection is on 2,2 or something like that)