Help on battery management? I.e, what to do and what NOT to do.......???

Batteries and Chargers Rechargeable Batteries
1

I’m a complete newbie to this and have no knowledge how to treat (or not treat) batteris and what to think about in combination with different lights.
I have done some reading and it somewhat worries me.

This will be my set-up where some things have already arrived.

  • Lights I’ll be having: SkyRay King, Jacob A60, UF-2100 (modded by E1320)
  • Batteries I have (never used): Protected Xtar 18700 2600mAh.
  • Charger I’ll be having: Sysmax intellicharge i4 charger v2

So to my questions.

  1. I measured the batteries and they were all 3.79 or 3.80. Can I use them as is to try out the King that arrived today. The charger has not arrived yet……

2. When charging the batteries, is there anything specific I need to consider or any precautions I need to take. Or can I just put them in the charger, indoors, leave them unattended and take them out later on when they are fully charged or sometime after they have finished charging

3. Do I need to ensure all batteries in the same light are equally charged everytime before I put them in a mulit-cell light?

4. Can I run the light until the batteris run out or is there a risk with that? Maybe battery life time will be reduced? Safety aspects?

5. If the answer to the above question is “No of course you can not drain them st*pid”, how do I know when to charge them again?
Do you all guys measure your batteries after each use or what?

6. Any other things I need to consider?

//Joa

2

At 3.8v, the 18700’s don’t have much power in them, but they should work just to give the King a quick try :slight_smile:

3

1. Yep, just pop them in to use it. Make sure you place them in the flashlight in the correct way. As matt pointed out they are not going to have much capacity at that voltage but it should work.

2. It is always best to charge them while watching. I generally feel them to make sure they aren't heating up. With your I4 never try to charge batteries below 1.5 volts.

3. Yes, with the king this could cause the ones that are more charged to dump high amounts of current into the uncharged ones. In a pinch the King can operate on anywhere from 1-4 cells.

4. Can you? Yes, however it is not a good idea. Just try to recharge them after every use and keep them fully charged. Nothing bad will happen if you discharge them until the protection kicks in but it will reduce the lifespan of the battery.

5. I tend to charge them after every use but a good rule of thumb is once they reach 3.5 volts recharge, but as I said above it is not dangerous to use the light until it turns off. I generally measure the voltage of batteries after every use and it works fine.

6. Just make sure they are equally charged and you will be fine. The I4 is a great charger. :)