Bare BLF A6 Interest List (coupon now public)

[beam0]

@Captainvideo

I’ve only used protected cells in other sizes in the past and have not used 18650 before. I’m concerned about the safety of unprotected cells, after reading several threads here.
Are the Samsung unprotected safe with proper use?

Yes, key words: “Proper use” …Also the BLF A6 has some built in features for battery safety:

(Quote by TK from this post on the A6 thread): https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/31076?page=77#comment-785731

@ToyKeeper

A protected cell will generally produce less light than an unprotected cell, but one would need to measure specific models to find out the details.

The firmware has the following voltage-related functions:

• Step-down and eventual suspend/shut-off when the voltage gets too low. (LVP, 2.8V)
• Battery check mode; blinks once for each ~25% full the cell is, like having “four bars” of signal on a cell phone. So, one blink means 1% to 25% full, four blinks is 75% to 100% full. Five means the cell is above 4.20 V (overcharged or a 4.35V cell), and zero means it’s below 3.0 V. In-between, the “bars” are calibrated to fit HKJ’s published li-ion discharge curves.

So, it generally won’t let you discharge a cell too far, and it allows people to check the approximate charge state without additional tools. It’s a good idea to recharge the battery if it gets down to one blink.

@Captainvideo

Any opinions on this new one: Keeppower 18650 3500mAh (Black) 2015?

This may be similar or in fact may be the same cell, I believe it is currently the highest drain/highest capacity protected 18650 available:

http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=289

Probably your best choice if you’re not willing to run with the unprotected 30Q