A123 18650s

These intrigued me with their claim of a 30A continuous discharge rate. At a price of $2.50 per battery, I decided to risk it.

They arrived today at about 95% charge. I topped them off to 3.6V, put them in series (14.4V no load), and hooked them up to a 35W automotive HID lamp. They lasted 14 minutes at an average current of 4.4A. That means their capacity was about 1030mAH when discharged to 2.2V under load - well within their 1000-1100 claim. (ballast cutoff voltage was ~9V. When disconnected, the voltage went back up to 3V) They reached a temp of only 110F under this discharge rate of 4C.

Edit: After a charge, I loaded them with both the low beam and high beam of a headlight. They lasted 7 min. at 8A and the temp reached 140F after starting at 100F from the charge. As expected, capacity isn't as high at this rate of 8C at about 930mAH.

I'm not sure I have anything that would draw 30A at this low voltage. I might have to power several components at once.

So what is the Consensus? Lol you never really got close to the advertised current.

I personally use these same batteries on my combat robot (battlebots) and these guys will provide us with about 70 amps on start up and a normal load of about 40 amps.

This is one of my robots, this guy uses 4 cell to put out a normal voltage of 13.2v. Back from Kansas City

So they will easily allow a draw of at least 30A... Interesting.

M

Yes interesting.
I am wondering about direct drive LED's and finding a balance between battery drop at discharge and LED Vf increase at high currents.
At high currents this battery could well provide higher voltage than a regular 18650.

One more thing to look for information on.