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18650 Battery Help

crazyhobo

crazyhobo

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I have an A140 with a microboost in a 18650 host. The battery measures 4.0 volts right after it finishes charging. Whey I put it in the laser, it works for about 10 seconds then the beam starts flashing. The battery is a TrustFire 2400 protected. When I put the battery back on the charger it takes hours to charge.

:wtf:
 





Zike

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4.0v is a little low it would mean 75% charged. (4.2v is 100%)

What you describe seems to be battery related because it is what happens when the battery can no longer deliver the voltage/amperage needed by the flexdrive.

You should definately try another battery.

Is it a black/red trustfire ?
What charger do you use ?
What amperage did you set the flexdrive to ?
 
ff-racer

ff-racer

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The flashing is most likely the thermal protection built into the driver. I have had this happen and now have my driver heat sinked as well as the diode.

Another possible cause if you are using a protected battery cell and drawing a high current. The protection can cause this as well. I have run into this with high powered LED lighting running over 2 amps.

Doug
 
magonegro

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Those 18650 batts can deliver easily 3 or 4 amps. Reading what you say 4.0v full charged and after that flashing and taking hour to recharge again... Sincerely I think that what we have here is a malfunctioning battery protection circuit, try another batt if you can. And remember, some protection circuits coul be damaged if the battery is hardly pressed into the host or simply by dropping them. In such a case what you have is a dangerous batt...
 
crazyhobo

crazyhobo

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Zike said:
4.0v is a little low it would mean 75% charged. (4.2v is 100%)

What you describe seems to be battery related because it is what happens when the battery can no longer deliver the voltage/amperage needed by the flexdrive.

You should definately try another battery.

Is it a black/red trustfire ?
What charger do you use ?
What amperage did you set the flexdrive to ?
Click to expand...

The battery is grey. The charger is generic and has an LED that turns green when charging is complete. The microboost is set to max, 1A.
 
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crazyhobo

crazyhobo

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magonegro said:
Those 18650 batts can deliver easily 3 or 4 amps. Reading what you say 4.0v full charged and after that flashing and taking hour to recharge again... Sincerely I think that what we have here is a malfunctioning battery protection circuit, try another batt if you can. And remember, some protection circuits coul be damaged if the battery is hardly pressed into the host or simply by dropping them. In such a case what you have is a dangerous batt...
Click to expand...

Can I remove the protection circuit? The microboost cuts off at 2.5 volts, so the battery would still be protected from overdischarge, right?
 
Zike

Zike

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crazyhobo said:
The battery is grey. The charger is generic and has an LED that turns green when charging is complete. The microboost is set to max, 1A.
Click to expand...

There are known issues with these batteries here is the link to them at DX:

Trustfire grey 2400mah

By reading the comments here you will see that they deteriorate very quickly and are inconsistent from one battery to another...

At least use the the black/red one which are known to be better:

Trustfire black/red 2400mah

And best is AW cells if you can afford it.
 
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cd520

cd520

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At my shop we have ordered 25 of the red and black Trustfires in the past month. All have been good and i personally have been using them in my high current flashlights with no problems and great capacity. For $10 per pack of 2 you cant beat them.
 
BShanahan14rulz

BShanahan14rulz

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crazyhobo said:
Can I remove the protection circuit? The microboost cuts off at 2.5 volts, so the battery would still be protected from overdischarge, right?
Click to expand...

Yes, 2.6V is generally the lowest you should take them, so the microboost will pretty much act like a protection circuit, I reckon.

Also, if you get unprotected cells, I'd pick something other than a generic or DSD charger.
 
crazyhobo

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Thanks guys. I'll get a bettery battery. Hopefully that is all that is wrong.
 
Scross1220

Scross1220

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I have a simular problem with my Microboost flashing the LD at 1100ma. I just upgrated to the AW 18650 battery and moved my ground connetion to the LD case and the driver. at 1100ma the LD starts flashing after 20 seconds. The LD has a very large heatsink (MXDL 3405 build) and still is flashing. I dropped the power to 1000ma and I can run the laser for two minutes without a problem. Any ideas what I should try next? One last piece of information, the LD is soldered directly to the driver as in most builds but I am wondering if the heat from the diode is the problem.
 
Bionic-Badger

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A Microboost driver only goes to 1A. If you have a Flexdrive, it can go higher than that. Maybe it's flickering because it's out of regulation?
 
Scross1220

Scross1220

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I guess I will order a flexdrive and try it. But from what I read on the forum People are saying that the flexdrive is not as efficient as the Microboost and also the the Microboost is rated for 1000ma. I checked the battery and it is reading 3.9v so I know its ok.
Thanks
 
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