I bought one of these in grey for about $15 early this year
-Nowhere near 8,000lm, but a very decent ~2,500lm
–4 white modes and one with extra 3 amber emitters turned on, making it a nice orange-y NW
-Switching modes is a PITA as you need to go through all 6 modes, taking about 2 seconds each mode. At least it has mode memory
–3x 2,000mah 18650 in parallel
-USB-C charging is weird, doesn’t always charge and often very slowly.
-LCD display will show the mode at turn on and then battery capacity 0-9
I modded mine with high drain cells and the board got so hot it melted the wires. I think it got close to 4,000lm. So I reverted to the original battery pack.
An inflatable lantern!! Anyone ever seen these before? I happened to come across the Klymit Everglow LED Light Tube. Up to 270 claimed lumens, and the L and XL have a dimmer switch. Should be great for campers who need to pack light and small.
For anyone taking these apart I have a tip that I wish I had known about when I did my first one. I had all of the electrical stuff off, including the battery straps, but couldn’t get the end caps off. I ended up cutting the two tube side supports and got them apart. Then I noticed there are screws holding the parts together. I guess you need a thin Phillips head to go down into the tube to loosen them.
Another Tip —- take the Nickel, Strips off the opposite side of the BMS first —- That way when you pry up on the BMS that side of the battery is disconnected
I have several packs coming in next week so thanks for the hint. So it’s remove the bottom and top screws and then both caps lift straight off? Well also removing the straps, etc too
Lift that paper off in your first pic— take those nickel strips off first , then go to the circuit board end — remove the two small screws , lift the board slightly to cut the connections (if you do this side first you can end of shorting the cells ) — take the nickel strips off under the circuit board next — then take the two long screws out to separate the holder — if you unscrew the long screws slightly then tap the end of your screwdriver it helps to start the separation — the holders fit the cells kind of tight
These 24 are testing as new ( Opus numbers are typically a little high ) — I use this homemade holder to initial charge and storage charge 24 at a time — Only 30 more packs to go — Grandkids Power Wheels will be flying soon —-
If you take your time you can get them apart pretty clean — just a little dremel work needed
I have several hobby chargers — I like the ISDT Q8 Max to bulk charge and storage charge — Very easy to adjust amperage rate and the voltage you want to end at — That 24 cell holder is a 3S 8P setup — I usually charge kind of low on the first charge( about .5 per cell , so 4 amps ) after I run a discharge and put them in storage, I charge around 6 amps/ .75 per cell — that charger will do 30 amps with the right power supply
I have another hobby charger “ICharger X12” It charges and discharges up to 30 amps — to discharge that high you have to regenerate back into a battery power source — very handy when building and testing battery packs
Glad to see ppl got on the 30Q deal. I initially hesitated posting a non-Amazon link in this thread, but the price was too good on the 30Qs. Maybe we should have an active thread for just non-Amazon deals.
. I was thinking about ordering some more but they took the page down so I assume they sold out.