Oh, so it’s not like something I could get “off-the-shelf” then :(…
Jim
Yeah, I pulled the direct drive driver before I ever turned on the light. I didn’t want to fry my emitter. Plus 4 amps gives me plenty of light when I need it with more run time.
EDIT: Just looked at the link. That is cool. Man, comfychair. Your are one creative and resourceful dude.
Not off the shelf like in a local store. But you can get them with direct drive and they will pull more current then mine.
ohaya, I get the impression you don’t have a high power light yet. If that is the case, you could mod a real nice one using the Defiant Super Thrower that Home Depot sells. Mine out throws everything I have except my handheld spotlight.
That could have been the very reason the packs where sold so cheap. They tested as a bad pack, voltage wise. Would not charge.
Hi,
Are you saying that these are bad packs?
I have no way to know the veracity of what the seller told me, since I don’t know him, but, while I didn’t specifically ask him why he was selling, he did say that they had moved to a different location, and were trying to reduce some older inventory, so I kind of believe that these were actually new/unused, and not “chucked”.
Just commenting…
Jim
No that’s not what I ’am saying. If a tech was to check the voltage of the pack or use some kind of tester to check the voltage of the pack he would have thought the pack was bad as all of the batteries would have reported 2v or below given the voltages you all have received them in. That could have been the reason they where sold cheap.
Hi,
Ok, thanks for the clarification.
However, if that were the case, it seems funny/strange that, apparently, all of the batteries from the packs have approx. the same voltage?
I guess that this may be a “mystery” that we’ll not be able to unravel :(…
Jim
I have never heard of a brand new battery setting for that long, reporting a 1.9v on the battery then charged and seemed fine. Most any battery guy would have consider the battery junk from the reported voltages when received. But apparently this is not the case. From the info that I have gathered from this thread the battery seems to behaving as if it just rolled of the assembly line. There is definitely some thing about the battery not being ever used before that has extended the life of the battery with out any degradation.
After all most people use there batteries shortly after receiving them. So I guess the old saying is true “I learn something new every day”. :bigsmile:
Moderator007,
I appreciate your open-mindedness. It’s kind of refreshing. I was “that close” to dumping all of the batteries the other day, because of comments, but then my “stubborn side” kicked in.
I tried to take any precautions that I could, taking “baby-steps”, even though I knew that I was going against those comments, but I still felt “wrong” trying to do what I did.
It’s nice that the gamble seems to be working out, but, I am still curious about the “Why?”.
I didn’t say so, but as I’ve been doing all of this charging/discharging, I’ve been googling like crazy the last few nights, but I haven’t been able to find anything definitive, which is, to me, kind of strange, but I keep thinking that there’s no doubting the reality of the results.
Catch-22…
Jim
Hi,
Sorry. I’ve been trying to ignore what you said above :), because it’s tempting, but I don’t know if I want to try modding yet. I appreciate it though :)…
Thanks,
Jim
Modding lights, Its what we do while where setting around baby sitting batteries. :bigsmile:
I don’t know… When I was charging/discharging those 12 batteries the other night, just doing that, I got confused a couple of times. If I was multi-tasking, I know I would’ve messed up even more.
Jim
I took one of the cells that I had discharged (at 1.5A) to 3.0V last night (2550 mAh pulled from the cell) and put it back on the discharger and pulled another 335 mAh out of it before it hit 3.0V again.
The discharge algorithm that I am using has a hair trigger on the cutoff switch. Only 8 milliseconds of voltage readings below 3.0V and it cuts off. It tends to cut off around 50mV early due to digitizing noise. I may make the low voltage cutoffs less twitchy. They have less serious implications than the high voltage/current cutoffs.
Hi,
How long was it between the end of the 1st discharge and when you started the 2nd discharge?
Jim
Overnightish… maybe 5 hours.
I checked at the pack's external connector before I broke one open, no voltage present between any two pins. The internal circuitry could have disconnected the cells from the outputs, I don't know enough about what kind of tricks they can do.
If you take one of these cells at 1.9v, and stick it in a cheap parallel charger with a charged battery, for as little as 10 seconds, the 1.9v cell will jump up to around 2.9v or so (and stay there). It's almost like they're just having a little nap, and need a gentle reminder it's time to wake up now. :p
comfy,
That was my experience also. As I mentioned earlier, my TR-003p4 couldn’t see the batteries initially, but then I put a couple of batteries in a 1-battery charger I got free for a minute or so, then put them back in my TR-003p4, and it started charging them.
Jim
One the second discharge cycle (1.5 A) of a battery I got 2777 mAh out of the cell. Panasonic spec’d the full 2900 mAh capacity at a discharge to 2.5V, I only discharged it to 3.0V. The voltage popped to to around 3.3V and I immediately started the discharge again and pulled another 85 mAh out of it.
I’m running another one now at 1A to see if there is any difference.
Seller is listing more of these, but in singles and in auction format instead of buy-it-now. I guess they figured out they were listed too cheap!
Still charging... doing 4 at a time in parallel set to 2A charge rate (safe to go up to 4A, with 4 in parallel?). I tried 6 in series, but the charger didn't like it, or the cells were too low with the starting voltage at around 2.9v, or I had set it wrong, and got a VOL SELECT ERR a few minutes into the cycle.
moderator007 (or anyone),
You did get me curious about the Defiant, and I happen to be at Home Depot today (right :)!), so I went looking for this. It was a heck of a job, and took 2 different service reps to find it (it was away, way away, from the other flashlights they had), but, anyway, I did find it, and bought one.
I’ve mostly had smaller lights (AAA/10440, AA/14500, and a couple of 18650s) until now, so I now have some questions (maybe I ought to open a new thread?):
- What is the original/out-of-box emitter?
- What is the input voltage range for the original/out-of-box driver?
Thanks,
Jim