I received my first set of TF protected 26650’s today. I only have a HD2010 to use them in, one works and charges fine. The other TrustFire Flame does not. Can’t get a voltage reading on the non-working one. It bounces from 24 to 55 m/volts. The other one read 3.76 and it charged to 4.17. These are from FastTech, never had a problem before. Is the high voltage cell a lost cause? It will not charge, will not power the light. Should I try to reset the protection? I’m searching the threads, haven’t found much yet… Still looking…. Advice please.
24 to 55 volts ? !
I’m not sure if that’s even possible.
Do you have a different multi-meter you can test it with?
Sounds dangerous to me anyways, try not to do anything destructive with it.
Sounds to me like your auto ranging meter is dropping to millivolts and your battery is bad.
I also had a battery with PCB locked, I solved by putting the battery blocked in parallel (for a few seconds) with a battery equal but functioning, the PCB has been unlocked and the battery to work again.
Yeah sounds like you might try to reset the protection- it may have kicked in.
Your correct, I was tired and missed the m, its 50 milivolts. After trying to reset it with the other charged 26650 flame it now reads almost 0. So the reset didn’t do anything. Tried it three times, + to + and - to - and nothing. I4 charger just kicks off within 2 seconds.
It appears my first Trustfire purchase was a failure. The I4 charger stops at 4.16 volts, seems kinda low to me? I’m draining the working cell and hoping it will charge more on the second try.
The return postage from the US is more than the battery is worth too. I don’t think I’ll be gambling on Trustfire batteries any more.
I would caution buyers of the FastTech Flame 26650’s. I thought one of them was going to be fine, but it wont charge now either. I drained it down and nada, won’t charge now. One cell did charge initially. I’m going to drain it down more in my HD2010 to see if that will get it to charge on my I4. But, so far both of these flames seem defective. The labels look genuine, no hologram sticker though. The lettering has the hologram effect, large holes in the button top and they weight 96 grams.
In the same order I got 4 2600 protected Sayno 18650’s and they all charged up to 4.17 on the first charge and work in my lights fine. So, I don’t think its the charger. The same charger terminates at 4.18 with my NCR18650B’s…
How do I know? They come with a precision made under the magnifying glass verifiable hologram sticker, wrapped as they should be, and they work. I bought a bunch as I put them into chopped de-domed DST’s. They charge and hold charge well enough.
Work very well for me. Others think they’re junk. I also think they’re FOS because bang for the $ they’re just fine for most folk’s typical usage here.
The genuine ones aren’t ‘junk’. Don’t listen to these guys with their elitist don’t know it all though they think they do BS.
Get the Wallbuys.
(Or maybe I should restate that and say, “Try a set from Wallbuys but don’t buy a bunch until you’re convinced they’re genuine yourself.”)
So your saying FastTech does not ship GENUINE flames? That does not agree with the threads I’ve read. Mine are JUNK since they are not usable. So, I won’t bother with them again. The only lion batteries I have are from FastTech, all Panasonic and Sayno, and this is the first time I’ve had trouble. Go figure it involves TrustFires. The pair I received do not have hologram stickers, but the labels look genuine.
Did I say that? You’re implying that. What I did say is that the one’s I’ve so far received from Wallbuys are genuine. I have bought plenty of these from other sources so I can compare too.
I don’t know exactly what FT sells since I’ve never bought their version.
Again, I just know what Wallbuys sells. So far. lol
Btw, if the clear two battery enclosing outside wrapper doesn’t have a crisply made hologram sticker stuck on it that shows it as such under a magnifying glass I would be suspect of their genuineness. You’re most likely not going to see that hologram stuck on each battery btw. But again that’s just me. But of course I’m not even close to an expert either as some here will quickly point out. So take my advice FWIW.
I bought a couple of the TF Flames from FT a while back and they seem OK. I bought two unprotected ones from Tmart, and they seem slightly better.
I’ll have to try the WallBuys ones. I’m still waiting on four more from FT, I’ll let you know if they appear genuine and work OK. I run capacity tests on all new cells I get.
Edit: the TF Flame 26650s arrived today, finally. I’ll check shipped Voltage, get em on the charger, and run a capacity test…
Edit2:Shipped voltage ranges from 3.855V to 3.859V. So far, so good.
Edit3: No hologram stickers on them, not sure if that will matter though.
I’ve purchased 10 Trustfire 26650 flame batteries on Amazon and another site (cant remember now) and have never had a problem, starting around Feb/March to this day. I use/recharge some of them daily almost. They do have hologram stickers, they all come up to 4.14-4.17 on the charger (depends on which charger, I have two). I wouldnt compare what a battery V comes up to vs other batteries in +/- .01 or .02 numbers as a problem: its probably a charger issue and not that important (plus not going to 4.20 helps your battery life). I also use them in 3 cell series in big lights, and during Feb/March-May they were drained/recharged most of the way 3x/wk minimum and work well still.
Mine look genuine to me, but who knows. The labels look like the “genuine” types posted on here. But, something is up, still won’t charge now on my i4, won’t even try to charge the one that works in my light now.
Hate to ask the obvious question ..did you contact fasttech ?
Most of mine except for one set have smaller vent holes on the positive end protection, but that could mean nothing. No hologram stickers on yours though. If they wont charge, and one came at low voltage, dont keep trying it, return if you can. You obviously got a bad copy or a bad batch, and I’m not sure how you can tell for certain which without disassembling large quantities of them. There are a small percent bad cells of every kind, but I know they come with hologram stickers now, so I suspect its either a bad copy, or its an old cell that never got sold/charged and was found in some warehouse somewhere and allowed to go bad (made before they put on hologram stickers).
As a point of clarification, it sounds to me like one cell charges to 4.17, holds voltage and works fine? This would be normal for Trustfire 26650s: I never have them charged higher than 4.17. But if you tried and it wont recharge, dont try again, send them both back for refund! Fasttech is supposed to be good with this too, this shouldnt be a problem. Because of the stated voltages your other batteries come up to, it also appears normal for your charger, and another 26650 probably would come up to similar V.
The charger doesn’t like the one semi-working cell, it keeps terminating early or it will just light up and quit. I can only guess these are old batteries. 4.17 is normal for my charger. But, you can’t pop them in like normal, it takes a few tries to get the charger to stay on. So, I don’t feel comfortable using them at all. I’ll see how Fasttech handles it. No response yet, opened a RMA this morning so it hasn’t been long.
The first one finished discharging (at 1A down to 3.0V); 4212mAh. Not bad.
I have three more to test, but this looks promising. Seems legit.
I wish mine would just charge… |(
The Sanyo 18650’s I ordered with the Flames work fine. I like how FastTech ships them in the little plastic boxes wrapped in bubble wrap. The 26650’s just came in those anti-static bags.
From FastTech I bought six batteries 26650 “flame” [SKU 1076400] (same as yours), and four batteries 26650 4000mAh [SKU 1209800].
Batteries 4000mAh had the hologram sticker, those 5000mAh no, all going well and I had no problems.