Great waterproof box for diy 4*18650 pack - Groupbuy?

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Update 1/12-2015 - "Review"

A lot of searching (reverse image google search) lead med to a shop ("Biltema") 20km from home. They've got two of the boxes! - "in my own backyard" here in little Denmark. Small world!

It's 69,90 DKK ~ 10 USD for the small X-1010A, and 79,90 DKK ~ 11,5 USD for the bigger X-2001. I bought the smaller one, to see if the quality was ok:

middle mouse-click to open large image in new tab:

I don't have any experience with Otterbox or Pelican Case, but this "Xoom" brand seem to be quite good quality. I had no problem standing on it (104 Kg on one foot).

It's perfect size for 12*18650 batteries. The protected Keepower is a snug fit, when the rubber-foam is left in the box. When taking the rubber-foam out, there is 6-7mm space left for the unprotected battery, and 3-4mm for the protected one.

I don't know if the box its big enough to hold the battery Storage Case FlashPilot suggested, but I'll keep you updated when they arrive.

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30/11-2015

For the last couple of weeks I've been searching for a solid, waterproof, cheap projectbox for my worklight project.

I want a box that would take one or two of the PCM protected battery cases from fasttech:

The ones I found were either to expensive (to little BLF), or to crappy (to much BLF):

But then i stumbled upon these for $4/piece (the price is in the catalog ):

They seem to be a perfect fit for the 4*18650 PCM protected battery case - leaving a little space for wires, switches etc. But!

-the minimum quantity is 50 pcs :-(

I also found the same box for $17 at Amazon, where it gets great review: link1 - link2 (with a clear lid).

I don't want to pay $17 for the box, when I could get one for $4. And I'm to slow/weak in English language to want to try a group buy.

What do you guys suggest? Would there be interest for a group buy, or is it possible to make an inquiry to one of the Chinese shops (Fasttech, Banggood, Kaidomain ect) to be a reseller?

2

Good find! I will ask Neal about these, they have a good variety of stuff and they look to be of good quality for the price…

The cigar box should fit tube lights :bigsmile:

3

very interested. I have some nitehawk and they work fine but I’d like more robust stuff…

4

That's Neal from BG? Great!

Didn't see the cigarbox. A shatterproof, waterproof box for cigars? -that's funny :-) But why not - we flashaholics buy all sort of weird stuff for our pups (flashlights)

5

I’d be in for a number of them! Great find!

At four dollars I don’t think you can beat that…

I just finished modding the heck out of a Solarstorm battery box this weekend. Still not super happy with it but that’s the only thing I could make work within budget.

6

Yup, you can even keep the humidity stable for patina on copper or some such… Yes Neal at Banggood, I will ask him as soon as I can.

7

I’ll buy at least four if and when.

8

Organization helps hide my addiction.
8>)

9

I would be in for 3

10

These are cheap and dangerous, so avoid them at all costs:

They actually suck in a huge way. I have 3 of them used to construct a large cell pack and they all failed constantly. The wires would snap off with the slightest bit of pressure and vibration and required constant re-soldering of the wires back onto the cheap thin attachment points. Since these are snapped together using cheap plastic and poorly designed interlocks, they would fly apart at the slightest impact. They also use a rubber foam tape on the ends to try and keep the pieces together! :smiley: Since I finally started tightly rubber-banding the pack together (which helped marginally), this probably prevented a dead short from occurring and causing a complete 12 x 18650 meltdown.

Highs:

1) They look nice in the photos.

Lows:

1) The solder joints are cold and brittle so the wires pop off and require re-soldering. Even after resoldering, the cheap tape they use to seal the contacts and hold the assembly together puts pressure on the solder joint so they continue to snap off. :smiley:
2) They wont accept protected cells, only short unprotected.
3) The PC trips at around 3A, not 9.5A as advertised.
4) Wires are very thin, brittle, cheap copper. Probably 28ga made from recycled junk copper alloys.
5) Very poorly constructed.

After wasting time and effort constantly rebuilding the rubbish ones, I went with this type and an inline fuse, which has remained trouble free through dozens of cycles. If I need more current, I can solder bypass the springs and add heavy wire between each station.

Every imaginable type here for cheap (serial and parallel): click the image
”
“:http://www.ebay.com/itm/331606084793

11

1-2 box for me

12

Get Pelican case if you are looking for quality waterproof case. >> B&H

13

Looking at other peoples recommendations online for quality DIY cell cases, this seem to be the standard.

14

I like the solarforce battery pack style better. This one is a little inconvenient for carry/use imho

15

Otterbox isn’t too bad either.

16

I didn’t liked the protected cell cases too. If you change batteries there is a huge chance that the protection is kind of tripped so you have to power them up externally(charge)for a moment to make it work again…
I like the powerbank cases most they have huge springs which can be shortened to use protected cells and are in a nice case. Also all parts(springs, contacts…)are solderable easyly, so you can improve this easyly yourself
I have used this with great success: https://www.fasttech.com/p/1258801

17

I had no idea. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I already ordered two of them, and 8 unprotected 3400mah panasonic. The inline fuse you suggest -would that suffice as protection combined with a nanjg 105c (lov voltage protection) - or do I need pcb? I will be charging the batteries outside the box, so no overcharge protection is needed.

Pelican case and otterbox are nice -and a bit expensive. If I can find a budget alternative, that would be great :-)

18

Considering the poor quality of the cell holder and atrocious solder joints, I wouldnt rely on the internal stock protection circuit (PC) in the holder doing its job. In fact, its conceivable that it might actually cause a dead short or fire at some point in the future. Ive had cheap inline PC’s in other devices go up in smoke while being used, so its unnerving trusting anything that reeks of cheap quality while transferring such a high potential energy. So I wouldnt use the ones you ordered and buy some of the ones I linked (or similar). They are extremely inexpensive and I received mine in the US in about 10 days, so shipping was at least 3 times quicker than FT.

What do you intend to power with it? Just one 3A 4.2V driver? Will your pack be 8 cells in parallel (1S8P)?

Although I strongly advise against it, if you’re determined to go with the FT cell holders:
Id replace the wires with heavier gauge quality wires and place the inline fuse as close to the cell holders as possible. Be very careful while soldering or you’ll melt the plastic holder. The solder already in place is rubbish so just leave it there and cover it over with fresh solder. You can snip the stock wire flush with the solder joint and discard it and leave the remnant. Melt a small blob of solder on the tip of your iron and careful and quickly transfer it to the soldering points on the cell holders. Pre-tin your new wires and solder them to the new blobs of solder you just made on the battery box. I didnt test the cell holders protection circuit for low voltage cutoff, but the nanjg 105c low voltage protection has always worked well for me with 3.0V voltage cutoff. If you have a DMM, Id test it with a single cheap cell to verify that it works properly. Although an uncertain term, the reliability of the cell holders will be very dependent on them staying in place and not moving around within the the battery box. Id glue/hot glue them in place and use a foam padding on the cell side to assure that the cells remain in their slots after closing up the battery box.

Good luck!

19

It's for my 400nm uv “worklight” - 7 of these leds in parallel:

DC Forward Voltage: 3.4V - 3.8V
DC Forward Current: 700mA (=> 7 led's * 700 = 4900 mAh)

I got a 1 mode Nanjg 105C driver from intl-outdoor and some extra AMC7135 from FT to raise the driver-output to 4900mA (13x380=4940 - have to learn how to stack AMC7135)

All powered by 4*3,7v 3400mA Panasonic NCR18650B in parallel.

I really appreciate the advise from all of you, and have ditched the idea of the crappy FT cell holders -I already hate them!!! :-p

I'm still a n00b, and the best way for me to learn, is by doing. So the build is a great learning experience. It's the only way for me to get the "theory" to stick.

FlashPilot and Werner, would You mind posting/copying your comments from here (#9 #15 and #17) and into my build thread, or is it ok if I quote you over there? -I would like to have your comments in that thread also - to have the info/advice in the same thread as the build.

20

Youre welcome to copy/paste anything I wrote. Im glad you ditched the FT cell holders. I should have done the same thing the moment I began to repair mine but then thought I could beef them up and salvage them. We all have to start somewhere. Im just glad mine didnt catch fire or explode every time they flew apart. :smiley:

Now my pack has grown to 20 x 18650 1S20P to power my bike light. The cells have tabs and I wired/soldered them all together, then wrapped them tightly in electrical tape before stuffing them into a tight fitting semi-hard water resistant bicycle tail bag. It was a real chore getting them into the bag and the fit is very tight. If a wire should somehow break loose during a mega crash, it wont be able to cause a dead short becasue all the positive poles are on one side and all the negative poles are on the other. I suppose something could penetrate the pack but its highly unlikely since it lives underneath my bike seat. If it fails on its own, my groin will become my highly sensitive fault detector, and Im sure it’ll sound the alarm loud and clear! :open_mouth: But then, we use high quality name brand cells to help prevent these types of scenarios.

Depending on the forward voltage of your emitters, the 7135 driver might not supply the full 4.9A or maintain regulation very long, but Im sure you’ll still be pleasantly surprised with the results. Assuming a high forward voltage that becomes a nuisance, you could look into a 5A buck driver in the future to maintain regulation throughout the entire cell discharge curve. There is always a flashlight that could use a good 17mm driver so it wont go to waste. Be sure to heat sink your 7135 driver as they can overheat and dim down the amperage if they get too hot.

So you’re using 4 great high capacity cells. Since cheap cell holders use the same gauge wiring and connectors regardless of the number of cells they accommodate, you’re probably better off using several lesser capacity cell holders to divide the load, rather than one larger capacity one. At 2 or 3 amps, its probably not a big deal. But at closer to 5 amps, I think it might be advantageous to divide the load between 2 cell holders. So 2 cell holders that hold 2 cells each in parallel, then wire the 2 cell holders in parallel. That way the wires and internal connections carry only 2.5A each and not closer to 5A. So 1S2P x 2P for 4.2V max

Also, if you decide to go with a buck converter in the future, you could easily rewire the cell holders in series. So 1S2P x 2S for 8.4V max