I see these graphs and wonder where they should logiclly be cut off when comparing two different batteries.
At what point do you normally pull batteries and stick them in the charger ?
Most protection circuits on protected batteries kick-in around the 2.75-2.8v point. Because of sag I’m not sure what the cutoff is but the 3040mA Nanjg in my Trustfire X9 cuts it off when the cell is at 3.15v (resting). Generally though it’s not a good idea to take them lower than 2.8v for reasons of battery health/longevity for the same reason you don’t want to run down a car battery to zilch. It disrupts how the anode and cathode reform while charging and they don’t give as much current on the next pass. Besides, there’s really not much to be gained by going farther. Look at how steel the curves are at the 2.8v mark, you’d get a couple minutes maybe by going farther.
I aim for 3.4V (~3.7V resting) or higher, so i am not getting close ot over discharging, plus i have some emergency runtime left.
I mentally calculate when they need charging, but lately i’ve been going with recharge when anticipating long usage because i have laptop pulls that i don’t care if i leave fully charged because if they lose life faster i am getting free enjoyment anyways
I just go by feel. After some usage I just top up. Normally the charger shows between 3.6V to 3.8V when starting to charge.
About 3.5 to 3.8ish. Why? Heck…I don’t know.
People here have spread sheets on everything in the world ....I just figured someone is religiously checking voltages as they pull batteries .
Generally I'd say I run mine down pretty far beyond where I'd like to normally be running them .Sometimes I'm a bit shocked how low I've let them get . I need more drivers with low voltage cut offs.
I spreadsheeted this information previously, but the file was lost when the HDD was corrupted. These days, because I have a lot of spare cells, I simply cycle through them once I stopped using them even if it was only half an hour’s worth of use.
Under load if protected you’re typically approaching circuit cutoff at that juncture. I usually put them on at 3.85v resting to have some cushion.
3.5-3.8v is about where I recharge. I don’t use my lights much so I just check when I feel I’ve used it a decent amount. If its anobe 3.8 I’ll leave it there for a bit. If below I likely change it out for a fresh cell.
I usually recharge at about 3.6V resting voltage but all my lights have drivers that step down at 3V, so I usually notice it. Only one of my lights steps down at 2.7V, but I'm only using cells that are safe to discharge down to 2.5V in that light, so thats not a problem..
Am I the only one that it varies for by flashlight?
By this I mean, I have several more “budget” lights that are single cell. Once the battery dips below 3.9v resting, there is a noticeable drop in performance. These lights I tend to charge the battery sooner.
My more “premium” lights seem to be far more stable in their output, and will not visually appear to have dropped off until nearer 3.3v resting or lower. These I tend to run for longer.
Similar story with multicell lights, they tend to perform better for longer and at lower voltages. So I’ll run these lower before charging.
Rarely do I drop them very low though, can’t see the point as I have no real need to.
i’d love to charge at 4V but i use them too much for that, the runtime is not long enough
My laptop pulls are cycled, when they reach 3.6 V, they go into a storage box , as 3.6 v is the storage voltage.
New batteries I keep for my lights to be gifted or sold, except for multi emitter lights they get topped up when the reach 3.6-3.9 V, the same batteries get used in the same multi emitter light.
3.03v resting voltage when the light tripped the PCB. This was in my Olight, to output was well regulated to this point.
Well with high power flashlights (TK75/MM15) you cant really use your lights on turbo under 3.5/3.6V….so i always recharge around 3.5-3.8v……