Hello everyone! I’m new to the forums here, and fairly new to any sort of half-decent flashlights as well. My go-to for a couple years was harbor freight el-cheapo freebies.
What sparked my interest in BLF was my ignorance regarding lithium batteries, and devices that can handle them. That, and the fact that I had several “dead” or aging laptop battery packs laying around - so I found the idea of harvesting the cells interesting. A couple days ago I cracked open a dell pack, and found some LG 18650’s (2400mAh) in there. They all seem ok so far, but I haven’t checked them over long term yet. Unfortunately all I have is a freebie Harbor freight multimeter that doesn’t seem very accurate and only wants to work half the time. Today, I cracked open a Fujitsu pack, and found some Panasonic 18650’s (3100mAh) - I’m charging 2 of them up with my new Nitecore d2 and XTAR MC1 chargers right now.
My primary use for lights is when I’m outdoors hiking, (hammock) camping, and backpacking. Because I find a headlamp most practical in these situations, my current light is a Black Diamond spot (3xaaa, the ’14 version with max 130lm). Although to utilize my new plethora of recovered 18650’s, I have a Crelant CH10 on order - I am hoping the step-less dimming works as promised.
I also have a fully stock Solarstorm X2 light on the handlebars of my bike and I’ve started into looking into battery boxes for it.
I’m also in the market for a USB power “bank” that takes 1x18650 and itself has protection for use with unprotected cells. I see a lot of the cheapies but I didn’t see HJK review any of them, so I don’t really trust ordering one.
Sorry for the long winded hello! Glad to be here. 
