LI-ION battery for my DIY canister light

[mddolson]

I have a home made HID MR10 canister light.
The current battery pack is 10 c-cells in series.
It fits inside a 4" ABS cylinder.
It works very well, but it's time to replace the cells, & I hate that they won't hold the charge for more than a week or so.
So I went looking for rechargeable Li-Ion & found this battery on Deal Xtreme.
Buy 9800mAh 12.6V Rechargeable Emergency Power Li-ion Battery for CCTV Devices

comments welcome.

Mike D

 

[MRTdiver]

Here's a default answer: batteryspace - yes expensive battery packs.

charger (with Anderson connectors?)

See also: all battery - specifically: Tenergy 11.1V battery pack


Another option is to make your own. Ideally one can make their own battery pack using 18650s or 26650s with solder tabs already on them.

Here you can find quality 18650s with solder tabs: CalliesKustoms

PCB (BS) (Protection Circuit Module) - Overcharge/Overdischarge protection
PCM w/BMS (battery management system) - a protection circuit + cell balancer for whole pack

Anderson connectors (pre-wired) (BS); all Anderson connectors (BS)
Shrink wrap (BS);

 

[spoolin01]

Don't lithium ion batteries shut down at much below about 60F?

 

[EskilJ]

Don't lithium ion batteries shut down at much below about 60F?

My dive lamp works fine in 32F/0C water, using standard cheap chineese lithium ion 18650.

 

[spoolin01]

Are the batteries at 32F when you first turn the lamp on?

I can't say it's broad experience, nor that I've sorted out the possible causes, but I have two 18650 flashlights that I've taken camping in the cold along the coast (50F), two sets of batteries. Neither of them work once it gets cold. I leave a cheap camera in my truck, with 3 Li-ion rechargeables, and none of those 3 work after a night in the cold. It's not just the camera, as they misbehave in the charger as well (false termination signal) until they've warmed up. All of these batteries are the protected type.

Interestingly perhaps, this fall I was camping up in the mountains for a week with temps that didn't get much above freezing for days on end. I had some of the Energizer 1.5V lithium AA primary batteries for my walkie talkie, and fresh out of the package, they would not provide even a stable LCD image in the radio, until I had carried them in my pants pockets for hours, literally, after which they behaved as expected. The alkalines worked fine...

 

[spoolin01]

OK, so I got those two lights out, and another Ultrafire I recently got, charged the batteries and set them out overnight on the back porch. When I got up in the AM, there was frost on the ground. All three lights lit and stayed lit. So... I guess the simplest explanation for the previous observations is some other issue with the lights, not so much the batteries.

 

[CuNanoTube]

I would not purchase those.

I did fairly extensive testing on the cheap Chinese batteries you can get from places like Deal Extreme and AliExpress and compared I found most have much smaller capacities than stated and from experience have seen them degrade at a rapid rate.

I could like you to my thread on Candlepower Forums should you wish.

My suggesting would be grabbing some Panasonic NCR18650A cells which clock in at ~3100 mAh and depending on where you get them from about $10 a cell. I highly suggest getting the protected version if your electronics don't have a voltage cut-off build in.

A slightly cheaper option would be getting Sanyo 2600 mAh cells for about $7 a cell if you are okay with a bit less capacity.

Unless you have a spot welder try to use clips or magnets to hold the cells together. I have soldered Li-ion cells together before and it is hit and miss. I had 5 cells work fine after but one decided to break down after 10 charging cycles. Most specialty battery shops can put tabs on there for you for a small fee.

I hope that helps.

 

[mddolson]

Thanks for the input. I checked around on (candlepower forum) and found a few who tried the DX pack & stated it was crap.
I checked out the All Battery site & found this one might be a candidate also: All-Battery.com: AT: Tenergy Li-Ion 18650 11.1V 5200mAh PCB Protection Rechargeable Battery Pack w/ 20AWG Bare Leads

regards

Mike D

 

[spoolin01]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to follow up with the OP regarding the Tenergy batteries, and tie up a loose end.

Are the batteries at 32F when you first turn the lamp on?

I can't say it's broad experience, nor that I've sorted out the possible causes, but I have two 18650 flashlights that I've taken camping in the cold along the coast (50F), two sets of batteries. Neither of them work once it gets cold. I leave a cheap camera in my truck, with 3 Li-ion rechargeables, and none of those 3 work after a night in the cold. It's not just the camera, as they misbehave in the charger as well (false termination signal) until they've warmed up. All of these batteries are the protected type.

Interestingly perhaps, this fall I was camping up in the mountains for a week with temps that didn't get much above freezing for days on end. I had some of the Energizer 1.5V lithium AA primary batteries for my walkie talkie, and fresh out of the package, they would not provide even a stable LCD image in the radio, until I had carried them in my pants pockets for hours, literally, after which they behaved as expected. The alkalines worked fine...

Not all the data fits neatly yet, but at least some of the problem with the flashlights not working in the cold was probably due to bad batteries.

I would not purchase those.

I did fairly extensive testing on the cheap Chinese batteries you can get from places like Deal Extreme and AliExpress and compared I found most have much smaller capacities than stated and from experience have seen them degrade at a rapid rate.

I could like you to my thread on Candlepower Forums should you wish.

My suggesting would be grabbing some Panasonic NCR18650A cells which clock in at ~3100 mAh and depending on where you get them from about $10 a cell. I highly suggest getting the protected version if your electronics don't have a voltage cut-off build in.

A slightly cheaper option would be getting Sanyo 2600 mAh cells for about $7 a cell if you are okay with a bit less capacity.

Unless you have a spot welder try to use clips or magnets to hold the cells together. I have soldered Li-ion cells together before and it is hit and miss. I had 5 cells work fine after but one decided to break down after 10 charging cycles. Most specialty battery shops can put tabs on there for you for a small fee.

I hope that helps.

I've just been testing a bunch of Ultrafire 18650 batteries with a BT-C3100 analyzer, and have found that all those batteries I had were junk. I had both the gray 2400MAh and red 3000MAh protected cells. The grays take and hold a charge, but test at only 600MAh (using 500mA drain). They also have fairly high internal resistance, close to 200 ohm. The four reds are effectively unusable. They have high internal resistance, around 300 ohm, and seem to confuse the charger. It was mostly the reds I was using in the flashlights.

For comparison, I have a dozen cells I pulled from laptop batteries, six very old (LG) and well used, and six brand new (unidentified brand, likely generic). All are nominally 2600MAh based on the original pack ratings. Internal resistances range from 90-150 ohm, and capacities are all right around 1900MAh.

So one more negative experience to add to the list, of XXXXXFire batteries being mostly junk. They use nice wrappers though.

Thanks for the input. I checked around on (candlepower forum) and found a few who tried the DX pack & stated it was crap.
I checked out the All Battery site & found this one might be a candidate also: All-Battery.com: AT: Tenergy Li-Ion 18650 11.1V 5200mAh PCB Protection Rechargeable Battery Pack w/ 20AWG Bare Leads

regards

Mike D

How did the Tenergy batteries work out for you. I've had very good luck with their AAA, AA, and C NiMH batteries.

 

[lucca brassi]

Some ''BT-C3100 analyzer'' is not some powerfull reference for battery testing . Get something with PC data export which can export values in some free but powerfull program like Home | LogView and then analyze graph !