I like surprising my friends and relatives with the insane brightness I get from such small torches (my AAA powered P3 AFS P is 75 lumen and a bit bigger than that is my P5R with 210 lumen)
So, unless anyone has any advice or tips as to why I shouldn’t buy the Sky Ray King, that’s the one I am going with. Fairly small, insane floodlight brightness.)
The question I have: this torch takes 4x 18650 batteries. I’ve never used this type of battery before. After a quick look on eBay, I see they range from 2600 mHa to 5000 mHa. What does this mean? The more mHa the better?
And are the Ultrafire batteries any good? Tips? Recommendations? If someone can link me to decent 18650 batteries that’d be great!
Regarding batteries, you just have to decide if you’re the sort of person who is willing to pay a premium for top quality batteries or not. The benefits are that they’re generally safer, are capable of putting out much more current, exhibit less voltage sag under load, and have a higher capacity. You’d be looking at $50 - $60 or so for 4 of the best, which are Panasonic NCR18650A (3100mAh) or Panasonic NCR18650B (3400mAh). There are some decent Sanyo 18650 cells around too, but I don’t have any experience with them.
Personally, I would warn you away from brands like UltraFire or TrustFire. The people who are selling them almost always overstate the capacity, and they typically have a much higher internal resistance. The actual cell inside them could be anything. Claims of 5000mAh are pure bullshit. In fact any claim over 3400mAh is pure bullshit, as Panasonic make the highest capacity 18650 cell currently on the market, which is rated at 3400mAh. Even an UltraFire rated at 2600mAh will almost always be something closer to 2000mAh, and that’s if it isn’t really a used cell salvaged from an old laptop battery pack, which is common.
but you can get cells of equivalent quality for a slightly cheaper price from OS.
I run my Sky Ray King on just 2 of the protected 3100mAh cells as I don’t require long runtimes. With quality cells like that, it’s almost as bright on just 2 as it is on 3 or 4.
Thanks for taking the time to reply, you’ve supplied me with some fantastic information!
I am going to order those exact batteries you recommended! Can you also recommend a charger? Do 4 space 18650 chargers exist? Seems most 18650 chargers only charge 2 at a time. Is that how you charge yours?
Any brand chargers are ok?
There is a dealer on AliExpress that sells ten protected Panasonics for $81. Probably the best deal you will get. That gives you two sets for the King and a couple for single cell lights.
If you are interested, I will chase up the link, unless some good Samaritan has in in their bookmarks?
That same seller sells both 2 and 4 bay Soshine chargers with Aussie plugs, which have both receive good reviews. Have a look through his store as he usually has some bundle deals as well. Again, you’ll pay a little more for the convenience of something prepackaged for the Australian market, so it’s up to you. You can get the same chargers, as well as a number of other decent models, for less money if you shop off-shore.
I haven’t had any personal experience with any of them however, as I use a hobby charger for all my Li-Ion charging needs.
Indeed. It’s a pity you weren’t around a few weeks ago when he had half his stuff on special.
Honestly, I wouldn’t buy a charger from him. I’m usually happy to pay a little more to get stuff locally, but that same charger is significantly cheaper elsewhere. It’s mostly because he can post batteries for only a couple of bucks, but there’s probably $10+ postage on the charger.
His location (Beacon Hill) is very close to where I live in Sydney, so I might be able to go to him a land save a few bucks. Seems painful spending $100 on batteries and a charger when the torch is less than half that. Oh we’ll, 18650 batteries are used in all decent torches and electronics, I’m sure they won’t go to waste.
The gunblade is from Final Fantasy VIII. It's called a Lionheart.
The car is from this Subaru forum: http://www.rexnet.com.au. I am not a member of that forum, but I think you posted the pic for a fellow member back in December 2009.
Welcome to BLF, Lionheart. Enjoy your new SRK! Great advice above on batteries - definitely don't skimp on the cells, especially in a multi-cell light. The Nitecore charger is a good one.
