There should be a way to safely open them, there are a lot of pics of opened cells
Yes my teacher is probably no longer among the living I just realised.
However if you live near a high school I should pop in, when there works a good teacher with open minded spirit it could make a nice project to take a cell apart and blow one up may after hours with some kids who are interested.
My French is not good enough or u would do it myself here. And bring some old phone cells along. Could be educational and fun!
I don’t know anybody that could help me; but maybe there is a science teacher around here at the forum. If someone in the Netherlands/ France or Germany know how to safely open them; i will send a battery to you for free (send me pm). Ofcourse i would like to receive a picture or even a video how you did it and ofcourse what you found opening them up.
Maybe you can also make a instruction video for the DIY at this forum?
Iirc the capacity is to 2.5v.so it might be closer than you think to normal capacity.
I would check your scale for accuracy too.
I cant think of anything cheap to stuff in a cell to nearly double the weight but leave it with that capacity.ir looks reasonable too.
” Iirc the capacity is to 2.5v.so it might be closer than you think to normal capacity”
Maybe you can explain yourself? The first test with my charger told me the capacity was 751mAh and 910mAh. After this I try to charge them; got result 1631mAh and 1699mAh (@4.22v) this in not near the 2100mAh like advertised or shown in your vtc4 specs.
About the weight i’m not at home upcoming days (because of Easter weekend); the scale I have is brand new; but I will double check it probably Tuesday; maybe I can calibrate the scale otherwise I will buy a new one. I agree it is weird the weight is almost twice the 45grams. I already checked through google which 18650 is heavier than 50gram; could not find clear specification from a manufacturer of some kind. But this is not the big problem; the reliable of the delivered batteries is more important.
I’m for sure the battery isn’t a real Sony Vtc4. So I can’t use them like I supposed to do.
Otherwise I had bought the cheapest 18650 @ 1 dollar a pcs. But I needed the Amp so that is why I ordered the vtc4. The vendor sold me high-end 18650 batteries and delivered fake rewrapped unknown low end batteries. The only thing I can do with this batteries throw them away or buy a spare simple flashlight to put them in.
The bad thing is; I think the vendor at Aliexpress knows exactly what he is doing. He tried to lure me in a small compensation (outside AE; with transaction through PayPal) if a cancelled the dispute. So he can scam more people with fake (dangerous) 18650 batteries. This make me sad. This is why I escalated the dispute; let AE decide.
yes you still may have fakes.market is full of them.
but i doubt the accuracy of your scale.and while the ir looks within reason that charger is not super accurate in that dept.
look at the wrappers and see if there are what look like seams.
that charger probably terminates the discharge at 3.0v
sony rates the vtc capacity to 2.5v.
so your analyzing charger is leaving a little capacity on the table.
add the margin for error in the charger along with other factors like cell age and storage conditions they could be real.
i will look at those pics again but i didnt see much.
and the verdict is?
FAKE!
i couldnt get the first pics to load earlier.but there it is plain as day.
seam in wrapper strike 1.
crimp at + end strike 2
your test results strike 3
your scale is still way off.
Because i am a newbie i wasn’t for sure; nice to hear an confimation from an expert/
I think my scale is a bad one; i ordered a new high precision digital scale yesterday at fasttech.
And maybe my charge could not be 100% accurate (because range from max to 3v instead of 2,5v) but 700mah out of 2100mAh it should be 30% accurate. So my charger would be a waist of money? I don’t believe this. But because of the Gearbest 2nd Anniversary or Aliexpress 6nd Anniversary at 29 of March; maybe i can find a good deal on a spare Niticore D2. I will compare the Lii-500.
But it very weird world; we have to buy expensive battery charger to prove the seller delivered use fake batteries. Also in the Netherlands their are plenty store that sales the fake ones. You almost need to do a 2 hours search online to find an vendor that sells affordable genuine 18650 batteries (also available/ in stock) at reasonable prices. I use Aliexpress alot; because you always can start a dispute if the products not like described in the vendors advertisement.
About the vendor i have an issue with right now; i read all his feedback on this specific VTC4 18650 and in last year their where more complaints about fake 18650 VTC4 (needed to translate them all from russian language) . He wrote me; he did not know; he used an other supplier then he used normal and they messed up (not him). He is playing the victim role on me.
not saying the liitokala is bad.just that they do not have perfect accuracy just acceptable.the repeatability on ir and capacity was meh on mine.
its a decent unit that gives a good idea.
yes its too bad one has to arm themselves with test gear to make sure yo get what you paid for.
i thought the proliferation of affordable to the average joe analyzing chargers would have knocked these sellers down due to the fact that enough folks can now verify the cells.
i lucked out at a local flea a while back on some vtc5 a vaper had bought.he thought all 12 were fakes since his mod kept shutting down.he sold the mod and the 12 cells to me for $20.
and then i noticed he had installed 2 .15 coils in the dripper.the cells were genuine and the mod was working as designed.
but all the reports of vtc5 fakes scared him into dumping everything.
Yes the Liitokala do not take them all the way down, I write the measured mAh on a small piece of paper and stick it to the cells, because I do not want to take the cells all the way down myself.
But I guesstimate that the real mAh is about 10% higher then the Liitokala says and accept 10% less then advertised.
So in your case
2100 advertised
1700 measured
1870 “real” mAh
1890 acceptable for me (so only me not a law or something one should do, just my rule)
Meaning in this case, I would start the fight.
Is the nitecore d2/d4 a better buy? Or maybe their is upcoming brand with affordable prices I could better buy?
It nice to know; you can write down the mAh before you charge them; so you get a good picture of the performance. Next week I gone pre-order 6 new vtc4 at Nkon in the Netherlands at € 2,99 a pcs. I have to wait 2 months but this shop is well known; many people at different forums advise this shop.
Snake/ Miller thank you for your help; I’m gone saying this; i preciate your help very much. Keeping to repeat this; is not necessary I hope
What about the xtar vc2/ vc4? Would it be better than the liitokala accuracy?
Lol my first “good charger” was a Nitecore D4, not only did it fail on me after two weeks
It gave me the opportunity to test some things when the issue of fakes came up
Nitecore claims the rails are made from pure copper and that this is the reason they do not atrackt magnets. Well my genuine one has no copper in the rails, I snapped them. So for me Nitecore is a no go and i use a Liitokala 300 for charging and testing
Lol: I did much research about which charger to get. And everybody said get a nitecore; mostly i2 and i4. some of them advised the d2 and d4. So I almost ordered a d4; because it has more options. But before I ordered I checked the most sold 4bay 18650 charger at AE and found the Liitokala. Read some reviews and decide to go for the lii-500.
So I’m ready for a new step and get a better charger (without taking a double mortgage on my e-bike). Which one should I buy?
The Good;
Aliexpress decided to full refund the fake 18650 VTC4 (about 17 euro).
The Bad;
I need to spend this money into a new charger because i put all 4 of the 18650 VTC4 again in the Liitokala Lii-500; and did a full test. But my Liitokala didn’t survive; it smell like a circuit shortage out.
It was happening while i was switching to/ checking the mAh on bay 4; the screen died; after this it smelled very bad. So directly i disconnected the power. After less than 3 weeks normal use; this should not have happend to this charger; i already contacted the seller at Aliexpress. I hope he will come with an solution.
