Not sure if you guys know about these, buy I bought some of these:
Panasonic NCR18650A Batterys

I just tested 1 of them a 1A and got just over 3500mAh going from 4.2V to 3V

Nice batts you got there !
If your calculations are correct then these bats must be the best on the market !

Jim

justninja;

The Panasonic 3100 mah cell and the Samsung 3000mah cell have the highest power rating currently available
@ 11.2 watt-hours each.

Both are very good cells for high power laser diodes.

I like the higher voltage 4.35 VDC Samsung for boost drivers, and direct-drive 445nm builds.

I have been considering the merits of the Panasonic cells.

LarryDFW

My calculations should be fairly acurate,

I used a hobbyking charger, set to discharge at 1A, the charger gives a reading in mAh of how much you have charged/discharged.

What kind of a charger do you use for those samsung 4.35v cells

I use a lab switching supply because I charge up to 8 cells at a time:



Some other 3 amp switching supplies are available @ $49.

The WF-139 charger I have charges to 4.35 VDC.

I am also looking at some other models to deliver an accurate 4.35 VDC.

The new Samsung, Sanyo and LG 18650 cells all work better with a charging voltage over 4.2 VDC

LarryDFW

Mmmmmm gunna have to grab some of those Samsung 3000mah 18650's off you Larry

Justinjja,

Thank you for short, but honest test review. You’ve ordered those batteries from me.

I decided to go with Panasonic NCR18650A 3100mAh after long research.

Some of the main reasons to go with NCR18650A is SAFETY, and I cannot say in a few words how important safety is when working with Li-ion cells.

Another reason is -follow the best-
AW, Redilast and few other sellers use the same type of cells for their 3100mAh 18650 batteries.

Tesla motors have them in their expensive electric cars (no wonder why).

I do not know if you received protective safety case with your batteries, but when I have them in stock I usually include that as well.

There is a reason I did not go with Samsung 30A model. And if you are interested to hear why, I can explain.

Happy new 2012 !

Brenner your the owner of Orbtronics? Nice, I bought those cells as well last week.

Yes, Sir.

Thank you.


NCR18650A Panasonic that you guys using right now are from the new batch (and very good source), and will outperform anything you connect to your test equipment.


I am working pretty hard with manuf. on : high current (over 20A ) cells, and of course final “touch-up” on protection PCB design.



If anything contact me 24/7

Don't forget> these NCR cells will reach their top performance after third or fourth cycle.

Good charger is a MUST.

Brenner;

Welcome to the board.

Just to to be clear . . .

both the Samsung 3000 & 2800 cell also contain a new "Safety Functional Layer"

to prevent overheating for safer operation.

I did notice you carry "Ultrafire" CR123 cells on your website.

LarryDFW

Thank you.


LarryDFW, do not get me wrong, we tested 18650 SAMSUNG, LG, SANYO, SONY, PANASONIC- you name it… for days. None of these cells are bad (maybe IMO SONY).



My question is:

Which 18650 Li-ion battery charger would you recommend to your customer -- to charge SAMSUNG ICR-18650-30A?





Yes, Ultrafire CR123 3.6V Protected. But we almost completely switched to Soshine CR123 3.7V Protected

I measured the internal resistances on mine and they ranged from 89 - 100 mOhms which is pretty good. I used (2) 1 Ohm resistors in series to give me 2 Ohms (2.1 Ohms on the multimeter), which would give me around 1.99A load depending on the battery voltage.

CottonPicker on CPF marketplace is making dedicated 4.35 VDC USB chargers w/display for them:


I will also have an AC model shortly.

LarryDFW

Larry,

I hope that you now understand why we did not choose Samsung 3000mAh cells. And that is only one of the reasons.

Samsung 4.35V cannot be charged with any 18650 standard chargers that customers usually have for their everyday use.

What I am trying to say is that customer must buy this home made / USB only charger (17 -20 USD sold only via forums) in order to have 4.35V Samsung 18650-30A fully charged.

And only if customer’s USB port supports 500-600mA current draw. But, that is different story.

Once you get that charger for Samsung cells only, you automatically putting uninformed customers at really great safety risk.

Why?

Once customer decide to try any regular 18650 rechargeable cell (he/she is assuming this is the charger for 18650 cells, right? – “why not charge my other 18650 cells as well”) recipe for great disaster is there. Once you overcharge lower quality 18650 cell to 4.35V then (which must never happen) I wouldn’t even go there – what damages, and personal injuries could happen.



Panasonic 3100mAh NCR-18650A will be happy cell with any charger that customers have available as long as it uses proper charging method for all standard 18650 cells.

That is not bad at all.

What test equipment you measuring Panasonic NCR with?

Just (2) 1 Ohm 2% 5 Watt resistors in series, the battery, a multimeter, and some math!

Sorry, only last piece of equipment I can identify



You are the only one who is actually on topic in this thread.

I would like to apologize to the guy who started this thread, I get carried away by cells other than Panasonic NCR 18650A 3100mAh .

I was asking about equipment, because it would be cool to “fire-up” this li-ion chemistry, and see how much “juice” you can squeeze from them at different current levels.

There are many reviews on CPF and BudgetLight forums, but I did not see them here.




Really nice DIY project of yours.

Thanks for this information guys, I just placed an order with them

That is some dangerous arsenal.



What is secret ingredient inside Solarforce hosts ?

Both of those are just under 2W of 445nm

Just ran into another option for charging 4.35v cells. $23 smart charger 0.5a 4.35v cutoff

Don't get me wrong , but I do not want to have anything with "recommendations" which will ultimately lead uninformed customer to big disaster (burned house, or personal injury).

My only recommendation for folks with not enough knowledge about Li-ion chemistry/batteries is:

Please go to BatteryUniversity.com web site and read. That's all you need > read and arm yourself with knowledge before you start using ANY Li-ion cell.


I choose Panasonic NCR-18650-A 3100mAh with really good reason.

Yes Jim,

Panasonic 3100mAh NCR18650A are the best on the market currently.

There is no 18650 battery that can be compared (capacity, safety) with these monster 18650 cells.

If this is important to anybody:

This NCR battery is made in Japan.

Did you include the resistance of your multimeter in your calculations?
It is probably in close to .1 ohms unless your are using a shunt instead of directly measuring current with a multimeter

Would these work with any laser that takes 18650 or is it too powerfull?