Flashlights and Batteries

[Arizona Kid]

21 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

You Navy guys seem to know all the techniques.  I'm sure that Jake told us that same method!  

Ya. I went to a 1 month flashlight training school. Almost failed!

[robert k]

On 12/29/2018 at 5:34 PM, OnMyWay said:

I like flashlights a lot.  In the old days, I would carry a big D battery Mag Light in my car.  The light was nothing compared to today's powerful lights, but it made a darn good heavy club when some heads need to be banged!  

Nowadays, my kids love them too!  So with one exception, they tend to be "low-batt" a lot!

My wife got me a new one for Christmas and it is the most powerful I have ever had!  I think I know where she got it but I don't know what it cost.  It says Challenger  and Police 12000W on the body.  The battery says AX 18650 4800 mah, 3.7 v li-ion.

Made in China of course, but the quality seems decent.  The main lens has a sliding focus with Hi, med and flashing modes, and the side work light is very bright.

Back in October, I ordered a couple of lights from Amazon.  One is a small diving light and the other is fun light that has white, blue, green, flashing green and a red led pointer.  I give the kids exercise with the led pointer.  They are like cats and will chase it all over the house!  Both were only around $10 each and are not rechargeable.  I have not used the dive light yet but it is much brighter than any of my old small dive lights.  The fun light is currently MIA and it will probable turn up in a toy box somewhere.

I have another small LED that my BIL bought for me when we were visiting NZ a few years ago.  It has a nice stainless steel body and what is amazing about it is the batteries last forever.  I don't think I replaced them for 1.5 to two years after I got it, and this is the light I let the kids play with the most.

The good old days. I still have some maglights. I once had a steel Kel Light, like a maglights but solid steel. Where you can run over a maglights with a car and it still works, you can run over a Kel Light with an overloaded 18 wheeler and it still works. Never loaned it out again after that.

[robert k]

19 hours ago, fillipino_wannabe said:

hg2s for 200 pesos definitely won't be genuine unless they're clearing them at a loss, I sell all that stuff in the UK and the wife sells it here, vaping business lol.

Better to get some that have authenticity codes- Efest, Golisi, Cylaid are all decent and come with codes, wouldn't take the risk with fake batteries personally.

I figure they are old stock that had lost some capacity or, they were substandard in capacity to begin with. They are certainly high drain, they power my true 1600 lumen Astrolux flashlight that takes plenty of amps, no problem and will power my 0.5 amp fan for just over 5 hours. I consider them high quality, and a bargain. You might try them and see if you think the same. I personally was impressed enough to buy 40 of the batteries at that price. As you have intimated, your wife is in the business and she can't give as good a deal.

Edited December 30, 2018 by robert k
Clarity

[robert k]

My current project is to get my hands on some high drain 14500 3.7v (AA size) batteries. I have tried some marked Bike King and the Skywolfeye that came with some cheap lower power lights but I think I have damaged their capacity a bit running them in my Lumintop EDC05. They are just too high internal resistance to keep up, even at 3/4 power. I'm pretty sure I could get some Nitecore or OLight batteries off Lazada at a cost of p900 each and they would work but I need about eight of them. I'm not paying that, not when I'm going to have to go to the US in about 3 months anyway to oversee my tax preparation and I can bring what I have waiting for me there already. A 16 pack of EBL batteries that cost me 900 pesos, but Amazon refused to ship them here. Yes, I knew up to date technology was expensive here when I made the move. Maybe I can find something in Cebu City when I'm there next week.

[robert k]

On 12/30/2018 at 4:30 AM, fillipino_wannabe said:

hg2s for 200 pesos definitely won't be genuine unless they're clearing them at a loss, I sell all that stuff in the UK and the wife sells it here, vaping business lol.

Better to get some that have authenticity codes- Efest, Golisi, Cylaid are all decent and come with codes, wouldn't take the risk with fake batteries personally.

You got me to thinking. I wondered why anyone would bother to use such excellent batteries in a fake product so I checked with LG, they have the physical characteristics of LG cells, 4 leg positive, measurements, the ridges in the body before the ring groove...and the manufacture date of June 2017, corresponding with a large mainland China order which was declined. The batteries then went to HK and have been wholesaled out over time. The 17% loss of capacity is normal for new cells stored in good but suboptimal conditions for 19 months. It so happens, mine are real...or someone lost money on the materials to make counterfeits indistinguishable in looks and performance to the originals.

[fillipino_wannabe]

13 minutes ago, robert k said:

You got me to thinking. I wondered why anyone would bother to use such excellent batteries in a fake product so I checked with LG, they have the physical characteristics of LG cells, 4 leg positive, measurements, the ridges in the body before the ring groove...and the manufacture date of June 2017, corresponding with a large mainland China order which was declined. The batteries then went to HK and have been wholesaled out over time. The 17% loss of capacity is normal for new cells stored in good but suboptimal conditions for 19 months. It so happens, mine are real...or someone lost money on the materials to make counterfeits indistinguishable in looks and performance to the originals.

I don't know, I just know there's a lot of guys wholesaling fake hg2s in the Philippines for 120-150 pesos per pair so I assumed it was those, the hg2s and sony vtc4 are probably the most faked batteries around. Wholesale price on legit hg2s is about 3.4$/pair from China but the shipping and payment fees would take it close to $4 and that's if the seller is paying zero import duty/vat which is unlikely.

[robert k]

4 minutes ago, fillipino_wannabe said:

I don't know, I just know there's a lot of guys wholesaling fake hg2s in the Philippines for 120-150 pesos per pair so I assumed it was those, the hg2s and sony vtc4 are probably the most faked batteries around. Wholesale price on legit hg2s is about 3.4$/pair from China but the shipping and payment fees would take it close to $4 and that's if the seller is paying zero import duty/vat which is unlikely.

Well, it is a perishable good. Maybe someone who mattered noticed that the new batteries were no longer to spec. No manufacturer would use them in this shape for new battery packs. From what I understand, LG never intended the batteries to be used in vape as they are INR and not IMR. They can give good amperage in parallel or series parallel but they aren't rated for 35-40 amps like an IMR battery, they are rated for 20A and will tolerate 30A for short periods. It's possible I could condition my batteries and regain some of the lost capacity, discharging them with a moderate load of 3 amps and giving them a slow charge but that wouldn't be practical with a dozen shipping containers full. I just charged all mine up, threw an 8A load on them to get them hopefully between 3.8v and 4.1v for long storage, except the 4 I'm using on a regular basis. It is what it is.