16350 run time on a 300mw 532

Hey guys,

So I've had my hl532-300 for a while now (laserbtb 532nm 300mw), and ive always been disappointed by the runtime i get with it.

It runs off of a single 16350, and i usually get about 45 seconds to a minute of run time before the power drastically drops (not 45 sequential seconds)

I have three thoughts about this.

1, absolute shit batteries. theyre just some random 16340s I had laying around. They claim 1000mah. (hah) From what im reading 16340s should be ~600mah. The charger I charge them on, which also charges lots of 18650s, claims their capacity is somewhere between 20 and 50mah. I should spend 15-20 bucks and get a set of real nice batteries

2, I should make tube extender to house a 16650, which is apparently >twice the capacity

3, I should make a tube extender AND find a way to take about half a millimeter of the plastic sleeve out of the inside of my laser so it can house a single 18650

I really feel like option 1 is what i /should/ do

Option 2 is the safest and will probably yield the best results

Option 3 would be great but i really dont want to break my laser, the dpss fragility scares me.

Question for you guys is, what sort of runtime should i expect from a single 16350?

DTRs page shows a diode (NUBM44) running 2.2amps @4.2v, while ouputting 3.6W. I get that this is a completely different diode, but that should equate 20 minutes of burn time on an 18650.

if its true that the max theoretical efficiency of a 532nm dpss laser is ~35%, but most are ~20%, that means that theres roughly a 1.5W infrared diode in the laser.

According to some datasheets, a 1.5W 808nm diode runs ~2amps at ~2v. Huh?

Even assuming 50% efficiency on the driver, 2 amps from a "1000mah" 4.2v battery, i should be getting ~20 minutes of runtime, and instead i get >1


What gives, are these 16340s i have REALLY just that bad, or am I just doing poor math?


For shits and giggles ill discharge one completely then slice it open tonight.


EDIT*

I butchered the title :l

Option 1
AW's or Efest..Problem should be solved.
Curious to what you what battery you have now? 45 seconds is just comical!!

GSS said:

Option 1
AW's or Efest..Problem should be solved.
Curious to what you what battery you have now? 45 seconds is just comical!!

Click to expand...

I am too, theyre blue and they say "16340 1000mah"

I dont even know where they came from


you definitely dont think that a 16650 is really needed?

What sort of runtime should i expect from one of the 750mah rated AW 16340s?

That's a nice unit and built for decent run on a 16340..No need to make extention
I'm not a Laserbtb owner but guessing at least 20 minutes or more total run before recharging??
Thinking you will find some sand if you take apart that "blue thing"
I have a knockoff of a cheaper Trustfire and when I shake it I can feel the rattle of what ever little "battery" is in it:can:
If you do end up opening up the battery, just use all the caution you can...

I use only the best safety equipment when working on chinese electronics

OSHA approved

Yeah, those are unbranded no name crap batteries. I hope you didn't pay money for them. Get a few decent ones and I'm sure your problems will be thing of the past.

Opened the cells, what.

This looks like a full cell from when I opened a Panasonic.







Edit again.

Since the cells ""appear"" to be somewhat nice inside (copper plates and shit), im going to run under the assumption theyre trash cells meant for recylcing, but instead, they got "recycled"

I think they came from a chinese thing from deal extreme

Double post, but.

I ordered 3 things.

A nice XTAR vc4, which was VERY highly rated.

A pair of LICB 650mah 16340s (merely as a test, they had decent ratings and some people said they tested at and slightly overspec)

A pair of efest 700mah 16340s


The charger can give mah estimates apparently, so if they come up over 20-40 mah (as my other charger says), Ill be happy as a pig in schlop

Hopefully this will make my laser life 1000x better.

I've heard that you can weight the batteries and tell the real from the fake that way. You might want to weight them just to see where they land, than compare them with some known name brands ?? :thinking:

BobMc said:

I've heard that you can weight the batteries and tell the real from the fake that way. You might want to weight them just to see where they land, than compare them with some known name brands ?? :thinking:

Click to expand...

Ill give it a shot. I had some 18650 ultrafires i opened that had the same style cell, but the casing was only half full and the center was hollow XD

BobMc said:

I've heard that you can weight the batteries and tell the real from the fake that way. You might want to weight them just to see where they land, than compare them with some known name brands ?? :thinking:

Click to expand...

The Fake battery suppliers are smarter than that. They put Metal rods or ball bearing inside them to make up the weight.

I didn't think that weighing them would make a difference. In the end you just have to know who you're buying from.

I pretty much have my own rule when buying cheap batteries from China.

At best they are 50% of the rated capacity.

It's only the real bad ones that are less than 50%. When you see 18650's with very high capacity they are usualy very low. Maybe 25% or less of rated capacity.

Mosc007 said:

I pretty much have my own rule when buying cheap batteries from China.

At best they are 50% of the rated capacity.

It's only the real bad ones that are less than 50%. When you see 18650's with very high capacity they are usualy very low. Maybe 25% or less of rated capacity.

Click to expand...

Yeah I actually have high expectations for my laser to get MORE powerful with these better batteries (some came in today i just havent gotten home yet!)

It always somewhat looked like my laser was operating in a different mode, maybe something towards mode 01?

Im hoping for improved beam quality, because like i said, i wasnt too impressed with the quality on mine, just the power output.


Does this look like 300mw to anyone?

This is a standard picture taken with my phone, no fog/steam has been used to make the beam more visible.




Night shot as well, again, just a phone picture.





Will compare with new batteries

also what are the chances that it IS running in like mode 01, and that the optics will become MUCH better with real batteries?

Jombo23 said:

Ill give it a shot. I had some 18650 ultrafires i opened that had the same style cell, but the casing was only half full and the center was hollow XD

Click to expand...

YouTube has half dozen or so videos you can watch that show the difference in weight between the real and the fake batteries. I found a couple of them quite interesting. :thinking:


Yes I think you new pictures could/do look like they could be 300mw's. Very nice, 300mw's will throw one heck of a beam at night. Enjoy.

Yeah, I got an Ultrafire 18650 battery recently with a cheap eBay pointer. It was rated at 5000 mAh, but tested at 750 mAh. It also had a very low internal dynamic resistance, but come on, 5000 mAh?