Disassembly is relatively straightforward. (This is my first laptop pull attempt)
No cells damaged. Rewrapped two cells for extremely minor wrapping damage.
Discharge from 4.2V to 3.0V yields 2400+mAh.
Direct drive a XM-L at 4.2V yields 5.4A
Approximate R(internal): 59mOhm
Fresh off the charger @ 28degC : 4.204V
After almost 24hours @ 20degC : 4.192V Voltage difference could be due to temperature difference, or my cheap multimeter.
Temperature difference is not due to high internal resistivity. It's just a lot colder today than yesterday.
2A11 is not the date code; date codes are printed on the metal can under the wrapper. BUT, as yet decoding the date stamps don't make sense, we haven't got it figured out yet. For instance, my cells according to the .pdf were made in 2012, but the pack the cells were in have a build date of Oct. 2010, which is impossible unless somebody is using a time machine to build laptop batteries.
None, in their as-delivered form they only fit the laptop they were made for. To get the individual cells (which are lithium-ion 18650 cells) you have to do some surgery. See here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/21382
Thanks again for the heads-up. My 2 packs arrived Saturday and with minimal effort of removal
and a bit of Dremel work I now have 16 excellent Samsung batteries.
I received mine just before I left for work this morning.
Just out of interest, where did you begin with the dremel and did you find the pack easy to get open? Any tips for a first time pack-cracker? My packs are the ASUS variety.
(Yes, I did read the thread linked in comfy's #7 post.)
I have a Dremel, thought it was too easy for the sh*t to hit the fan if I didn't know what I was doing with it. So I stuck with using my hands.
Ignore the 'Do not disassemble' sticker.
Grab a pair of needle nose pliers, straight edge wire cutters and a flat shim >5mm in width (or something that you can pry with, do NOT use a knife)
Use the pliers to grab the connector and pry it down and away from the pack.
Don't try to pry it across.
There should be a gap in between the upper and lower shell halves, run the screwdriver or similar shim along that seam to seperate them all along the sides.
Do not try to lever a gap between the two sides. This could easily damage the batteries if you use them as a pivot point.
Once you've completed the connector side, remove the electronic board, clip the connections.
From here you should be able to cut across one side of the pack with wirecutters (the pack is relatively thin soft plastic) and either pluck them out or grab the two ends of the pack and twist.
Be gentle when you pry the welded tabs off, and be patient or there'll be bands of metal in between weld spots.
Unless the weld is poor (which didn't happen in my case) you won't be able to get a clean surface.
You'd most likely want to put a large blob of solder on the ends, especially for multi-emitter lights.
My pack arrived today - genuine ASUS packaging & all.
8* Samsung ICR 28A, all around the 2.2-2.3volt mark. I wonder if this would be normal voltage for a brand new pack, or if they have been sitting around for some time.
I used the screwdrivers, pliers and side-cutters/Diags method of removing the batteries.
I used the dremel to carefully grind down any little spikes etc left from removing the spot welded
tabs so both ends are smooth rather than using solder. And yes do be careful when poking and prodding
into the plastic as the wrap on the cells is easily damaged.
Thanks guys for the tips and to Ramblings also for the OP.
One pack apart. Glad I didn't use the Dremel to open it as there really isn't anywhere much on the case not in close proximity to the cells. Just broke it up bit by bit with the pliers. Tough plastic in these suckers!
8 cells reading from 2.28V to 2.49V. Putting a little juice into them tonight just to bring the voltage up a bit for storage.
Did anyone else notice that the positive terminal is almost recessed into the head?
Will do the second pack later in the week.
16 cells for 40-odd odd bucks. Great value! Will probably use them mostly in USB packs or single cell lights with low voltage cutoff. Should be good for my ML-102/Xtar UL1 camp light combos as well.
Date is most likely the label on the underside of plastic. Mine read 10.02.18, most likely YYMMDD. That makes my cells 4 years old! We’ll see how they go.
I recently purchased in iCharger 106B+ hobby charger and was planning to run tests on mine but I haven't gotten to it yet. If I recall correctly I think there was some talk that these cells only give full capacity when charged to 4.3V but so far I've only been charging them to 4.2V.
I have been using my cells in a USB battery bank and various torches and they all seem to perform pretty well. I may possibly have one suspect cell that doesn't hold a charge quite as well as the others but I need to try some shelf testing to be sure. (It may just be that I thought that cell had been fully charged when in fact it wasn't.)
These battery packs certainly do seem to be very good value for money and I'm surprised that they still have stock.
only got $18 in my PP account…… impulse-buy denied!
