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Rechargeable 3V CR123A?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 22482
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Deleted member 22482

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Hey!

So as most know the Spartan requires their CR123A batteries to be 3V, if you ever put a 3.7V in you are gone and when the paypal/credit card dispute time has gone, DragonLasers (and most chinese companies) are not willing to help.

So I don't like buying new batteries everytime as all 3V CR123A I find are not rechargeable. Does anyone know of any? When you search eBay and such and find them, in the description it says later on "when fully charged, 3.7V" while the title says "3V".. Whatever.

Do you know of any?

Thanks!
 





ryansoh3

ryansoh3

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Ah yes, they should be of a different battery chemistry.

The normal high capacity ones are ICR,
the high current ones are IMR,
and the one that has a 3.0-3.2 charged voltage should be what you're looking for.

I forgot the name but I'll get back to you soon.

Cheers! :beer:

Edit: I think the chemistry you're looking for is LiFePO4, Lithium Iron Phosphate, but I'm sure many other members have more knowledge about them, including LarryDFW.

Edit: here is a site: http://www.all-battery.com/rechargeablecr123abatteries.aspx

Cheers!
 
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Moronic

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I was going to say the same thing, you want LiFePO4 chemistry. Normal lithiums come off the charger at around 4.2 volts, whereas LiFePO4 come off at around 3.6 but are supposed to have a working voltage under load of about 3.2.

Also I think LiFePO4 batteries are supposed to be intrinsically safe, if that floats your boat.
Look around the internet (CPF and google) for LiFePO4 specs and reviews for more info.
 
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Moronic

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NO. Those are regular (ICR?) Lithium ion rechargables. They come off the charger at 4.2v and are just about drained at 3.0v.

You want batteries that charge to a MAX of 3.6v, and drop to lower under load. These batteries are usually LiFEPO4 chemistry and will brag about it in the title of them. Here is an example:

Combo Kit: 6 RCR123A 3.0V 750mAh LiFePO4 Rechargeable Batteries with a Smart Charger Tenergy 39003

That seems like a pretty good price TBH, it also comes with a charger because you cannot charge them on a normal LI-Ion charger because that will try to charge them to 4.2v and something bad will happen.

I think primary CR123a's are fresh at about 3.25v, so this SHOULD be a safe alternative. No one (including myself) will promise that they won't damage your laser but they SHOULD be safe and personally I would give it a shot. Most of us use regular or IMR lithium rechargeables in our lasers and do not have issues (the 4.2v ones), though maybe your laser is more sensitive to input voltage? Do you have a manual or written specs from the manufacturer?
 
ryansoh3

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Here's a guy's review of the Spartan + Tenergy cell combo:

#1 - Tenergy 3.2V 750mah LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron phosphate) (safe chemistry - unregulated) rechargeable CR123A cell
This battery is the star of the show. I can't tell you how happy I am I found this battery. First a little background information.
The LiFePo4 battery is a new generation of lithium battery that has been out on the market since 2006 I believe. The chemistry in this battery generally runs at 3.2V underload, they come off the charger at a maximum voltage of 3.7V. This new chemistry also makes this battery safer than the standard Li-Ion cells allowing you to charge them unsupervised (I wouldn't encourage this however). It also gives them a much longer lifetime over their Li-Ion equivalent with 1000 charge cycles. Due to this new "safe" chemistry the cells are unregulated and are the exact same dimensions as a standard CR123A cell. The ones I have are 750mah in capacity. Hopefully as technology progresses we shall see bigger capacities of this battery available.

These batteries are still new and only reach their potential after 4-5 charging cycles. Despite that they were able to power this laser at 1030mW-1050mW consistently for 20 minutes until they went flat and required recharging. These batteries gave the best power stability overall, even better than that of the standard Lithiums and also gave the longest runtime at 1W+. All the time these cells are discharging they remain cool to the touch. Charging this cell takes roughly 2.5hours or 5 hours if you are charging two on the same charger. Two batteries and a charger can be found in a kit for under £20 ($30USD). While I can't speak for all applications this battery certainly works the best in this laser for me.

Can I recommend this battery? YES DEFINITELY, it performs the best out of the lot I have tested.
Click to expand...

Yup, definitely should work well I think.

Cheers! :beer:
 
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