I'M LAZY - This Christmas I decided to give out flashlights as gifts so I don't have to do battle at the shopping malls, pulling my hair out figuring out what my family & friends want for Christmas. Ten 18650 flashlights (9 Ultrafire WF-502Bs and 1 WF-501B) along with 10 what I considered premium batteries/chargers (Hi-Max, XTAR, Panasonic). The other folks that I can't trust with handling Li ion batteries, I packaged 5 Sipik clones with AA alkalines.
and I'M AN IDIOT - I packaged all my 'premium' batteries as gifts and now I'm left with a few crappy Ultrafire/Trustfire batteries. I'm sure these are fakes. As these crappy batteries have low capacities, as I found out last night, they either stop working after 10-15 minutes or some of them won't allow the flashlights to turn on the HIGH mode. Now I have to wait to get some more better batteries.
I did find someone on Craigslist selling new 2000mAh rated Samsung for $4 a piece. I'm sure they're unprotected as they still have the solder tabs on them. What do you guys think. You think they are worth it? Here's the post. (update 12/14/2011 - can't confirm if they are in fact Samsung's but have tested them and are good. capacity is 2020mAh after charging to 4.15v and discharging to 3.00v at 1A)
I have about 250 pcs of these, genuine Samsung branded, with solder tabs.
Great for retrofitting in laptop batteries, or various projects.
These are not cheap ones from China with questionable quality.
A customer cancelled a project so I would like to see these off.
Just got some protected 2400 trustfire flames from manafont today, recommended to me by benckie https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/4522 and they are fine for just over 10 dollars a pair inc. post, discharged one from 4.18v at 1A to 3v and it gave 2262ma and a rested voltage of 3.6v. Arrived in UK in exactly a fortnight (10 working days) and I believe USA is @10 days total. benckie reckons they are good for 5A discharge no probs.
I ordered Sanyo 2600 and other stuff in three separate orders just over three weeks ago from Hank at intl store and none of it is here yet so I certainly would not bother there if you want anything in time for Chrimbo unless you pay extra for fast shipping and the ups/dhl risk of getting clobbered for customs.
Thanks Bob - I never bought from intl-outdoor before. From the reviews on the forum it's worth a try. I may buy a few of those unprotected Sanyos from the Craigslist sellor to test them out while I wait for the batteries. Shipping to Canada from China takes an average of 30days. 1/2 that time if it comes from HK.
'A-N-L' - Thanks. Those flames look very impressive for the price. I usually just dismiss them cause I keep seeing folks on the form receiving fakes or unprotected ones when protected ones are ordered. So Manafont is safe to buy these batteries?
Me and benckie think that MF is the place to buy them without a doubt.
I am hyper at the mo' so put the one that was discharged on charge at 0.5A a little while ago, it was only previously charged from new with an XTAR WP2 mkll idiot charger anyway so I am expecting to see an impressive figure!
All the ones I got were at voltages between 3.86-3.89v which is a good sign of freshness too.
Benckie 'talked me into getting them' as I'm normally a Sanyo 2600/ or XTAR protected Sanyo fanatic!
He also reckons they are good to 2.75v discharge and my recovery voltage of 3.6v from 3v at a 1A discharge after a few minutes indicates that to be so.
Wow, I wouldn't trust many people I know with 18650s. In fact, barely any. I barely trust myself lol. I'm giving a bunch of lights too, but only AA and AAA lights. Now what to give for next year...
The designs of the lights you are selling were done and paid by me. The real manufacturers who is making them is not allowed to sell them, and if you sell them you are cooperating with someone who just robbed my job. That is. OK, make money on it, cheeky guys, but don't expect to look serious, honourable and with ethics.
I offered you to pay the designs, and you refused. Why to pay while you can get the design for free?
By the way, guys, if you are still interested in buying the lights, don't waste your money on a intermediary, go an buy them directly from the manufacturer, the one who started this shit:
This is such BS. I am so sorry you had to come here to defend your design from these thieves. In there society and there own minds they truly believe that they did nothing wrong. Meanwhile everyone from the west knows they are crooks.
Thank you. In fact I didn't come here to defend my interest and investment. I considered it lost when I saw the kind of people I was working with. I just came here to avoid them cheating more people, because it was too much for me to see them amusing people about how serious, how reputable, and how great they are. They cheated me, I just try to do my best to keep others away from being cheated.
On the other hand they are not so stupid to think that they are doing nothing wrong. Buying a stolen thing to trade with is a crime in China too. They just try to look stupid and don't look at what they are not interested in.
Good point, Boaz. It seems filling the mouth uo with words as "customer service", "innovation", "research", "quality"... is cheaper than investing money on real CS, QC and so on.
