Bummer for me as I just received today another four Keeppower 26650 protected cells from BG and they are "all" recessed. Won't work at all in my L6 or my other flashlight now. All are 68mm long. Any idea what I should use for spacers to make them work without any danger?
For others thinking of ordering the Keeppowers from Banggood, my suggestion would be to specify to them "button top for L6" otherwise you are going to get whatever they feel like sending to you. I received 3 orders from them now. First order has 1-buttontop and 1- flat top, second order same thing and now the third order four cells are flat tops.
Is there any danger using magnets? Don't they have a + and - side to them?
Those are magnetic poles. So there is no danger. I believe they do have some electrical resistance though…
The classiest magnet fix so far at BLF. see post 2 and 6-8 at link below.
Electrical resistance? Makes me think I should just ask BG to take them back and send me new button tops. I think that may be the best way to go and be done with it.
Makes no difference unless you’re trying to put 2 magnets together. I got these same batteries which would not work in my shiny new L6, so I went to Harbor Freight and got 10 small neodymium magnets for $2.99 USD minus 25% coupon. I used just 1 magnet between the batteries and wrapped 1 layer of Scotch tape around the place the batteries meet, just in case the magnet should ever try to shift out toward the tube of the L6. (Very unlikely, as these little buggers are STRONG)
I think this an unlikely scenario; shipping is too expensive. If you can use the cells for different flashlights, you might be able to bargain with them to keep them for half price or something.
Thanks for the tips. Still not too excited to do that as I am giving one flashlight as a gift and good luck for me to tell them why they need the magnets on and to pull them off when charging etc etc. Maybe Banggood can send me another four and I will pay for shipping to send the other four back or something like that hopefully.
The easiest and best option is to simply apply a solder blob to the top of the cell, it is quick and easy to do and permanent.
My other flashlight needs all four cells in series so it's sort of a problem and I did not worry as BG says right on there page it fits for the L6 so I knew they would be button tops as they show in their pics, but they are not.
You need to puzzle for a good solution I think. You can search what others have done, or start a new thread for advice.
Edit:
From what I’ve read, patience seems to be a mandatory ingredient when it comes to negotiating for a solution.
I'm in no hurry and have patience, but I can see down the road that just getting the correct ones is the better way to go for me instead of adding this and adding that. If BG does not want to help, I'm ok with paying return shipping on the four batteries if they will send me the correct ones. That should be a fair deal for them. I'm not going to jump up and down and have a temper tantrum because the batteries are not the ones shown on their website :D
Maybe you can get four correct cells for half price, which would cost you maybe less than sending them back. And you get to keep the flat tops which you could sell or something.
That's a good idea too. Whatever BG wants to do, I'm all ears. I think they should be reasonable.
A little worried to do something like that to be be totally honest.
Unless you’re really bad at soldering and would leave the tip on the battery for a ridiculous amount of time I wouldn’t worry about it. If you can’t help worrying about it maybe you can find some small cheap neodymium magnets that are flat cylinders coated for conductivity. I have one or two that fit perfectly for creating a series on flat tops.
Like was said, it is one of the easiest things you can do with a soldering iron. The most important thing is to make sure the iron is fully heated, you have good solder and that you don’t touch the wrapper.
I'm not too bad with an iron, but Keeppower just emailed me and said that BG stocks both flat top and button top so they will replace them no problem. Will see how that goes or will have to just brush up on my soldering skills!