Warning about CR123

[daguin]

bump

Peace,
dave

 

[ElektroFreak]

what's up with the bumps?

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

Dave's in charge of organizing the 445nm subforum.

I wanted to state that, according to the maker, AW's rechargable LiMN RCR123 cells (not LiCo) are capable of ~4.4A draw. These are the IMR17340's.

Most of you are using LiCo cells, the best of which are really only recommended to discharge at around 1.5A. (safe guess for 16340's is approx 2C)

 

[kingdave2357]

So whats everyones opinion on those LiMN cells, I am about to grab some from lighthound but they only have a 550mAh capacity, I have ones at 1300mAh, I want to boost the power a little in my pocket mini but dont want to short of a batt life either.

 

[Xplorer877]

Dave's in charge of organizing the 445nm subforum.

I wanted to state that, according to the maker, AW's rechargable LiMN RCR123 cells (not LiCo) are capable of ~4.4A draw. These are the IMR17340's.

Most of you are using LiCo cells, the best of which are really only recommended to discharge at around 1.5A. (safe guess for 16340's is approx 2C)

+1 for that!

He's right, check this out.

AW IMR16340 550 mAh IMR CR123 size LiMN Rechargeable Lithium Battery

That is a 16439 (CR123a size) and has a capacity of 550mAh and a discharge rate of 8C. That's 4.4 amps continuously. That's more than enough for a Po of 1000mW.

550mAh isn't too bad either. if it's supping an amp of current it's last for about 30 minutes.

I think I'm going to pick one up and set my driver to 850mA or so.

-Tony

 

[kingdave2357]

Well, I bought two of the LiMN CR123's and one 18650 as well, I hope these are up to the task, Im pumping alot of current nowadays, 18650 build kit is going to run at 1.1A and my pocket mini CR123 is at 700mA.....

 

[Xplorer877]

Well, I bought two of the LiMN CR123's and one 18650 as well, I hope these are up to the task, Im pumping alot of current nowadays, 18650 build kit is going to run at 1.1A and my pocket mini CR123 is at 700mA.....

Let us know how they go.

I've got my boostdrive set to feed my diode 650mA but if this battery can supply an amp of current at at least 3.5v I think I'll turn it up. I think my Ehgemus host should have good enough heatsinking to run the diode up to an amp or so.

-Tony

 

[Kenom]

I was able to hit 800mW but that was only for a brief moment before the driver began to pulse the laser due to the battery.

I wouldn't be too sure that it was the battery that caused it to pulse.. I've noticed on my groove 2 driver that it heats up quickly and when it does, it starts to pulse as the drivers internal overheating protection kicks in to cool the driver down. it will come back on when it drops below max heat and off again when it heats back up. Try heatsinking that chip and you may find that you'll be able to easily handle 800mw.

 

[kingdave2357]

Let us know how they go.

I've got my boostdrive set to feed my diode 650mA but if this battery can supply an amp of current at at least 3.5v I think I'll turn it up. I think my Ehgemus host should have good enough heatsinking to run the diode up to an amp or so.

-Tony

Both are runnning very nicely! The 1.1A flex is doing better than I thought, using the LiMN 18650. It has a nice and steady output but I havent ran it for more than 40sec straight due to excessive heat. I havent tried this build with a standard batt but when I had the diode in my labby heatsink at 1.3A, a standard 18650 was running it fine with 2 minute duty cycles.

But I did notice though, that with the pocket mini build, using the Li-ion next to the LiMN, that with the standard cr123, it seems slightly duller than using the LiMN. Neat thing about these batts is that you can charge them higher than a standard one, I have been taking mine up to 4.30v without problems.

 

[Xplorer877]

Cool I bought two of them too. I haven't yet received my diode because Aixiz is lagging it with them 405 lenses.

I'm going to charge them up and put a 3 ohm high wattage resistor on them and measure the voltage. That should simulate the load of the driver set to 8-900mA or so. These cells have an 8c discharge so they should be able to handle 1.5A no problem with minimal voltage drop. So long as the voltage is above 2.5v and preferably around 3.5v under that discharge they should work well.

So I'll depending on how well it goes I may turn up my driver to 800mA or so. Actually now I'm more worried about the boost drive. 85-90% efficiency isn't good enough enough anymore, at least not for these high currents. At best they'll be dissipating almost half a watt of power. That's alot for those tiny components. And since they get practically no heat sinking, I'm not worried about the diode as much as I am about the driver.

Hopefully Dr. Lava can get something in the works. Technically speaking the Boostdrive and Flexdrive were never designed for really high wattages.

-Tony

 

[Xplorer877]

I reviewed the batteries here;

http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/a...ithium-battery-review-test-results-52920.html

They're gonna do fine for high currents.

-Tony