Hi, sorry I haven’t checked this forum in a few days or had much time to respond.
The Panasonic cell does quite well at heavy discharges. It is a 3.6v nominal cell, with a 2.5v cutoff (it’s not your typical 3.7v nominal, 2.75v cutoff LiCo cell). If you take that into consideration and view the 5A graph, it did pretty respectable. A sign of a cell struggling at high discharges is when the capacity of the cell varies more then 10% from a .2C discharge to a 2C discharge.
Yes, the new nickel oxide based Panasonic is a very interesting creature, and bears more investigation. Besides the fact that it holds up better to the 5A load (it should, partially because of its capacity and because of its chemistry) it also appears to be a safer make up. Here is a link to panasonics page about it for those that would like to read it:
News | Panasonic Industrial Solutions Europe
Note they also have the NCR18650A at 3100mAh too! Nice energy density levels on it.
Also, here is a link to an unwrapping:
RediLast Battery Unwrapping - CandlePowerForums
I had been in touch with Lux earlier in the week and he had planned the same thing. Nice we get to see the guts.
Secondly, I didn't have much choice for the protection circuit. It was either limit things to about 4-4.5A max (less then 2C), or use a circuit that allows for 7-8A. I did not want to limit my cells uses, as a lot of the guys at CPF run these cells from time to time with high powered hotwires that may draw up to 2C.
So, all the cells use the same protection circuit? While the 6-7 amp discharge (or 7-8A as now stated) may not be too much of a burden for the Panasonic cells, it is certainly pushing it for the Sanyos. THis is the source for the 6-7A numbers.
18650 Protection circuit amperage kick in? - CandlePowerForums
While I would never recommend discharging a LiCo cell at greater then 2C for any length of time, doing a discharge at 3C on a quality cell should not cause it to explode or vent, but instead will damage the cycle life and capacity of the cell.
Perhaps. But, continued discharge of 3C or even greater will permanantly increase the cells resistance, hence causing heat while discharging. Over time the effect will multiply. This would cause a rapid decrease in cycle counts, but could also casue the cell to enter thermal runaway and vent with flames. Of course, as the cells age the capacity will go down and what was once a 3C load will become a 4C load etc.
Keep in mind that the protection circuit doesn't just have overcurrent protection, but also provides shortcurit protection, overcharge protection and overdischarge protection. Pretty much all LiCo cells also have some type of PTC protection, where in the event of an overcurrent or short circuit situation the cell will shut itself down (this is independent of the PCB)
I consider a battery with ONLY a positive temperature co-efficient to be an unprotected battery. The external protection cell is vital in the case of an unmonitored battery, like we are using here, or at CPF. However, the short circuit protection provided by the PCB is only in the case of external shorts. Keep in mind an internal short can still happen.