The charger should automatically select the right voltage, and should automatically quit charging when the battery is full. If the LED is lit while charging, then it should either change colors or go out when finished. If it isn’t lit while charging, then it should light when finished.
The light probably doesn’t have any built-in protection or warning of low voltage (battery needs charging). It will probably go dim near the end of the battery charge, because the voltage of the battery will drop as it loses charge. Since those are laptop pulls, I wouldn’t worry about them too much. Other than just using the light to see how long it will last, there isn’t an easy way to tell.
Jokes aside, in the blurred and low quality charger sticker “1200mA” charging rate is stated. I presume the current is shared among the bays, so you may have to wait a little for your batteries to get filled if you use more than 2 slots. :-)
People are going to disagree with me, but I’ve successfully taken 18650s from laptops well below 2.5v
I generally charge them and if they can maintain that charge for a week of resting I keep them.
I’ve had many pulls that read 1.5v and within 20 seconds on the charger they jump up to 3 volts.
But this is with the caveat that a bad battery can lead to venting with flame. I would make sure you charge and store them in a fireproof container until you are sure the batteries are fine.
The charger is supposedly “Intelligent” but I´m not sure if I can trust it. I charged the 4 batteries inside a big can outside my house (just in case) and after 3 hours the four lights in the charger kept red. I think it doesn’t change the color because the 4 leds are red. The voltage setting is manual, I put it in 4,2V.
How do I know when the batteries are fully charged?
Can they be damaged If I put the charging for 3 hours when they are still half charged?
Can I measure the voltage of the batteries while they are charging to check if they´re full charged?
What’s the voltage when they’re full charged?
Can this batteries damage the flashlight when they are discharged?
Is it safe to use these batteries in a less cheaper flashlight?
If the voltage setting is “manual”, I wouldn't say that's an “intelligent” charger. In case you still don't know, in this world of prickass chinese traders, you ought to know they'll stick whatever sheesh on the labels for their usually PoS products to look good. So be wary from now on.
If, as I told you before, the current is shared among all the bays (and if it indeed pumps 1'2A, which is to be seen), each bay will get ¼ of the current with all of them filled. For a depleted 4-pack of 2200mAh li-ion batteries, this probably means at least 7 hours of charging if the cells are still good.
The battery voltage reaches ≈4'2V after topping out (CV phase), and in this case I'm pretty sure the charger leds will change colour, something which typically occurs once the current flow to the batteries has diminished to a certain fraction of the nominal rate.
No.
Yes, but the voltage on the batteries could reach in the vicinity of or above 4'2V in the topping out phase (Constant Voltage or CV phase). So it won't serve you to check out how the batteries are doing, it only tells you the charger has entered the second charging stage phase.
Turning off the charger will allow you to take a meaningful voltage reading.
≈4'2V for standard li-ion chemistries and chargers.
No. Well, if you plug the stuff to an AC mains hot wire and wait a few minutes, the thing may go BOOOM! so take cover. Not recommended.
As long as the batteries are in working condition, it’ll be fine.
There are three things that make up a rechargeable Li-ion flashlight system: flashlight, battery, and charger. It's fun to take chances on the first. Cheap flashlights are often irresistible. When things don't work out, you just toss/recycle them. A faulty flashlight, in general, is not as risky as a faulty battery or charger.
Batteries and chargers are completely different. For safety reasons, I recommend sticking to known, good-quality brands and vendors. Do not buy the cheapest stuff you can find from random sellers on ebay and Amazon. Check the reviews by HKJ and others. When you can get a highly rated charger for only around $20 USD, there is no reason to mess with unknowns. Ditto for batteries.
I am not necessarily opposed to laptop pulls. If you are careful, and understand what you are doing, they can be a cheap source of batteries. But if you cannot explain what dendrites are, and do not know what might cause them to form, you should not be screwing around with laptop pulls. These days, top-rated 18650 batteries are not expensive. When in doubt, buy them.
batteries can take up to about 8 hours to charge…depends on the charger,capacity of the cells and rate of charge.
If you don’t have a meter I’d suggest buying a half way decent DMM…one with leads capable of giving you accurate amperage readings . Cheap multi meters are pretty worthless imo .
I think if you buy what members here are telling you is a good deal you’ll find you’ll spend about the same / maybe a little more but avoid wasting money on junk …in the long run you save . Not to many people here would have suggested either the light or the charger you got …the upside is neither were expensive // the light can be improved and the charger isn’t the worst one you could have gotten
(there are plenty of threads talking about the light…upside is you didn’t pay $59.95 for it )
At these crazy-low prices, I see no reason not to get one. Of course, others may argue about quality and accuracy but, as previously said, at these crazy-low prices I see no reason not to get one.
Did I told you I see no reason not to get one?
Cheers ^:)
P.S.: the mere act of connecting an amperimeter to a load in order to measure the current through it will have an impact on the reading proportional to the voltage drop across the “measurement device” (amperimeter plus leads), being such voltage drop V = I²R, where R is the resistance of the measurement device; this is unless this is somehow compensated.
Hello. I alredy have the dmm and tested the 16 batteries full charged. All had 4,25 volts even a week after charging. The torchlight also arrived. The brightness is impressive, at least for me. I have a Decathlon 80 lúmens led light and there’s no comparation. However I’m not very pleased with the results for my purpose because the mount is too tight for the road bike bar. I can only mount it in my mtb bicycle bar and I need this for my night road rides.
