Well I would agree most mail moves by air. Some faster and some slower… But not everyone ships batteries by air, although more and more they are allowing batteries to come by air. So even a small number of batteries may find they are shipped via ship to ground carriers.
Personally I prefer my batteries not ship by air. At least Nimh batteries. How many times in the past have I sent something with a battery in it that was shipped by air only to find the battery oozing when I open up the battery compartment after it arrives.
Can I compliment the USPS. They are now starting to really track packages sent from China very early in the journey. I have two packages from different parts of China that were just received by the Chinese post and both are showing up on my USPS tracking platform already. Makes it rather easy to follow the process.
Lii-500 order from Liitokala official store on Alibaba took about 5 days to process through store. Another 5 days to get through Chinese customs and was flown out and arrived in Honolulu yesterday and left Honolulu this morning for the mainland. I expect it will arrive in 4 more days.
I believe they use cargo airlines for mail transport nowadays, especially since the newer li-ion transport regulations.
The problem with shipping times is mainly caused by sellers who just go for the cheapest service, I believe. These shipments are delayed by definition because of low priority.
Just received tracking email Lii-500 arrives today 9/29. Ordered on 9/15 so 14 days including time change is about standard. Now I have to make sure it is the real deal then I will have plenty of charging capability if we have a trade war with China.
Good news bad news. So Lii-500 arrived as scheduled. very fast delivery. Bad news is the wrong one arrived. I thought I ordered the US DC adapter version but the Euro DC adapter version arrived. I have written to Liitokala official store website on AliExpress but it has been 3 days and I have not received an answer if it was my error or their error. And how can I get a US DC adapter
Since this is my second unit I was able to test it using the US power adapter from my first unit. All the large batteries charged fine as did the small button top batteries. The only battery that didn’t charge fully was the 16340 flat top battery. In my first unit the 16340 flat top batteries don’t even register. In this new second unit the springs seem a little stronger and the 16340 did register so it could be set but when the Lii-500 marked it finished (end) I then put it into the Nitecore charger and it charged for another 10 minutes on the lowest setting. I tried this with all the larger batteries and small button top batteries but the 16340 flat top was the only battery that needed extra time in the Nitecore charger.
You should be able to look at your order history to see which version you ordered.
Sounds like the 16340 flat top is just too short to make proper contact. I don’t have any 16340 flat tops to check on mine. The 16340 button tops that I do have charge just fine. Voltage is 4.19 after removing from the charger, so I would consider that fully charged.
My flat top TrustFire 16340s also pose a little trouble with my Lii-100 rail. It's one of the shorter cells, of course. Wiggling the cell a bit and setting it up at the right angle helps.
Windsurf, higher cell contact resistances force the charger to enter charging CV phase earlier and may reduce the actual final cell voltage a little bit (0.1Ω of contact resistances drop 0.01V at 0.1A, the termination current). This is really no problem, there's really no point in re-loading the cell in a different charger to top it out, it'll only raise the voltage and final capacity a tiny bit and takes relatively a lot of time because the effective current flow into the cell is very low.
And if I were not to be using the cell in a brief timeframe, I'd drain it down to 3.95V or a little less first in order to minimize/negate voltage stress.
Thanks for all your advice. All good ideas. Yes the 16340 is so short it doesn’t put much stress on the spring to hold it in tight against the contact.I usually buy button top batteries just for that reason but I bought some Sanyo 18650GA 3500’s from IMR to test out and I saw that little Efest flat top 16340 and thought I would test it also. I don’t own any Efest batteries and wanted to check one out. So I was disappointed that it wouldn’t function in the Lii-500. But I will add a magnet and run it through the capacity test to see if it actually loads to 700mAh.
I have the button top version of these Efest 16340 batteries, and they don’t hold anywhere close to 700 mAh unfortunately. They are closer to 600, in my experience, when tested using Lii-500 discharge (NOR) test.
I know. So I guess the answer to my question regarding high discharge rate 16340 button top cells with capacity of at least 700 mAh is ‘no.’
It’s still a shame Efest markets them as 700 mAh, when they really are only 600 mAh at best. Alas, all these fire/fest brands are known for exaggerating the numbers. Nothing new. It would be nice if there was a reputable brand making such cells.
I have also been looking for a mid to high discharge 16340 for my flashlights. Luckily My Solarforce L2, L2M, L2T flashlight bodies will take a 18350 so I can use an Xtar 18350 850mAh or an Efest 18350 900mAh battery. But a couple of Trustfire L2M flashlights will only take a 16340 or an odd 17350 880mAh made by Solarforce that actually tests out in the low 700’s.
Pete7874 - Unfortunately the order is unclear it doesn’t mention the adapter type at all. The picture I went by looked to me like a US plug but now that I have the Euro plug it is exactly what is in the picture. So now I am trying to get/buy a replacement US adapter. But after 3 messages no one has contacted me back. I’m trying to not put in a bad review so I hope that someone will contact me shortly.
If I had a light that could take an 18350 cell, I’d be buying the Aspire 1100… a lot more capacity than anything else out there in this size, and still can handle high current drain situations, from what I remember.
