The Shockli 5500mah black is a newer battery (2017) and it looks like it is a step up. It’s still 20A continous and 30A pulse. Compared to the Liitokala black it has about 0.10 volt less sag at 20A and about 0.15 volt less sag at 30A.
I’m just learning there is a new Shockli 4300mah (2018) light green that looks aimed at even higher drain use. It is 30A continous and 40A pulse. Compared to the Liitokala black it has about 0.13 volt less sag at 20A and about 0.2 to 0.25 volt less sag at 30A. That’s a huge improvement. This looks to be the cell to use for highest performance.
If anyone has heard of any other new 26650 high drains, let me know.
Edit: It looks like the Ijoy INR26650 4200mAh (Black-Yellow) is a match for it.
The highest drain 26650 might be the Golisi IMR26650 4300mAh (Gold) at 35A continous. Wow.
The Golisi blows away the Shockli 5500mah and Liitokala 5000mah black.
Note: This is all data from HKJ.
Edit: The Aspire 4300mah should be right up there as well.
D’oh! I completely flaked on my recollection of the Shockli cells I bought. Richard lists them now on his site as “flat top” and he must have been selling button top ones when I bought them a few months back.
Anyway, if you can find button top cells like these, they should be a great choice.
If I could buy a bag of button tops I’d try soldering them into place as opposed to doing solder blobs. They look more professional and are probably more durable. I saw some for sale once, but can’t find them anymore. If anyone has seen them for sale, please post a link.
I have used THESE and they work very well.
They are hollow, I fill the cavity with solder then put it on the battery, heat it up and there you have it.
I’ve got those as well. The issue there is that brass can tarnish over time and add resistance. This is why I’m looking for the plated steel button tops.
Soldered steel button tops will add even more resistance, as tested on my SKY RC 3000. Simple test, try 30Q button tops against 30Q flat tops, test the IR and amp pull, flat tops for the win every time.
You can use NO-OX-ID-“A” special to polish brass, copper contacts, then leave a light coating on them. The stuff is outstanding.
Also my IJOY 26650’s slightly out perform and pull more current than my 6 Golisi Gold’s and my 2 Aspires, in my lights that I tested on my T/A tube and amp probe, but it’s nothing you can see….
The amount of added resistance from metal button tops does vary a lot since they are usually spot welded in placed. Some spot welds are fairly weak, while others are more solid. I think if they are actually soldered into place they should be pretty decent. I want to try it out so I can measure the results for myself. All part of experimenting and learning.
Go to a lot of trouble to solder wire bypasses in the springs to decrease resistance. Then solder steel button tops on the cells to add that resistance back in. Priceless.
I just tested a few cells in an L2 put togther for a friend. Testing a new 30T for a standard, the XP-L HI that came in his light does 1711 lumens. I have two Gold Golisi cells, one does 1607 the other an even 1600. LiitoKala blue did 1538. Shockli did 1500. Basen did
1483.
I will charge up a series of 26650’s tomorrow and load pairs in my DBC-05, now a triple MT-G2 Q0 5000K light. Will see what fares best. This light will pull close to 30A from the pair of cells. I also have pairs of 30T’s and iJoy 21700’s, will include them. I expect the 30T’s to be the best, followed maybe by the Golisi cells and then the iJoy 21700’s, we’ll see I guess. Tomorrow though, getting late and I gotta hit the sack…
You should know that there is a huge difference between the resistance of a spring compared to that of a steel cap. What is on the end of every battery? A steel cap. If bonded properly, I want to see how much additional resistance I might see from adding a “second” steel cap. I’m curious. Will it be the same as spot welded or will it be better? Maybe worse?
Besides, this is more of an experiment in general and not aimed at any particular light.
Jason, neither acting dumb or making a joke… being facetious.
Total waste of time to add steel button tops on a cell after spending time reducing resistance soldering bypasses in the springs. Essentially, without trying too hard to be rude, I was telling you that doing so was a stupid waste of time and effort. Go ahead though, by all means, experiment and find out for yourself.
Solder a copper button on top, or a brass one if you must, but keep in mind that ANY soldering to the top of a cell is potentially dangerous and plated steel is more difficult to heat up for solder than copper or brass. The danger comes by way of applying too much heat, which is most likely to happen with the steel button tops. This is why they Tig weld them on when they’re more professionally applied.
The steel cap on all cells is a safety measure, it connects through a temperature sensitive membrane and disconnects the cell in case of overheating or overdischarge (which would result in overheating) The extra heat needed to solder steel button tops on may well “turn off” your cell, rendering it useless and unchargeable. At that point, should it happen, you have to recycle the cell and your experiment will never be completed. Just an FYI.
Of course, it could also come into play that in use the solder could release the steel button top and let it slide, shorting out the cell and introducing a welding scenario of potentially explosive proportion.
@JasonWW, you are right in that regard that the added steel button top is nothing regarding a steel spring’s resistance.
However, I think he’s speaking about the huge contact resistance of steel robbing some of that gain. The difference is small, but non-negliible, and that adding a soldered steel button top is just asking for more trouble than worth.
Interesting statement. How do you know this, have you tested this? What button tops did you attach to the flat tops? How or what did you attach the button tops to the flat tops with? Inquiring minds need to know…
Ahhh, that SONY 26650 was real SONY. Back in the day, it was a hot cell and the capacity, though low, was the price to pay for high amps, low resistance. We are talk'n history here - back when the Samsung 20R was the hottest 18650 cell, so to get high performance at 2600 mAh capacity, it was a good deal. This might have been before or during the time the KK 26660 4000 mAh cell revolutionized the 26650 form factor, and the absolute king of the 26650 cell at the time, the short lived Powerizer, the orange one but not MNKE.
It just blew me away why SONY never continued with the 26650 after the 2600 mAh did so well. Again, we are talk'n ancient history here - back in the day before all these high performance, high capacity cells hit the market over the last 3 years or so.
Some essential information I got from the SP70 manual:
According to the manual the flashlight is designed for 26650 and 18650 (with adapter sleeve) only. For batteries, maximum diameter is 26.9mm and maximum length is 71mm. I asked Sofirn about 21700 compatibility. They said it's working but not recommended as spring compression will be very tight. I have some doubts as flat top 21700 would not make contact out of the box, so one needs to solder a blob onto one's unprotected 21700 cells or use a neodym magnet as protected batteries might be way too long.
There is no information if flat top or button top cells need to be used. I highly recommended to add the information to use button top cells only but Sofirn says it works with both types.
Maximum intensity is 89,733 cd or 687m @ 5,500 lumens. The ANSI/NEMA FL1 test was performed with 2x 26650 with 4,800mAh.
The SP70 is rated with IP68 ingress protection.
The lens is toughened mineral glas but without AR coating.
ATR (advanced temperature regulation) will be triggered at 60°C on the driver. For comparison: The C8F triggers ATR at 50°C and the SP33 XHP50.2 triggers ATR at 55°C already.
There will be a two-stage stepdown from Turbo: After 3min on Turbo (5,500 lm) the SP70 steps down to High (3,000 lm). After 30min there will be a second stepdown but there's no information to what level it will be reduced.
It will have a power indicator to show the battery status and to work as a locator LED when in standby.
The SP70 will have two mode groups (group 1: 6 stepped modes, group 2: ramping) that can be changed with 6 fast clicks.
It can also be locked-out electronically by 4 fast clicks.
Strobe will probably be activated by 3 fast clicks but I need to ask Sofirn again as it's not mentioned how to activate it.
