[Closed] Anyone made a longer lasting 18650 battery pack

[url= http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/ ]http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/[/url]

^^^ +1

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Still using one of his put together for a troutie over 6yrs ago.

Define 'runs down quickly'....

Is the battery old and knackered or are you just running your light on full whack and running it down quickly?

Where did you get the battery from in the first place? Some of the batteries are very dubious quality that come from Far East suppliers - made with recycled laptop batteries, dead cells etc.

I have a 5 year old 18650 battery pack (spokeshirts light) that is struggling these days. It used to be good for 3hrs on high & many many hours on low. I think it will now struggle to do an hour on high - but it's had a lot of use, so just needs new cells.

You can get larger packs made up that will provide plenty of power.
If they are too bulky to fit reasonably on the frame, you can get them built into water bottles. The Lumicycle replacement that mtbbatteries did for me is in a water bottle.

I'm currently making up packs in new cases using the best 3500mAh cells I can get my hands on.

At the moment, just selling to the local club, and I'm shifting everything I make almost the same day.

Doing complete light systems, e.g Solarstorm type 3 x XPL with 4 x 18650 top spec batteries. 2000 Lumens for 4 hours.

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I used the pack that came with my solarstorm for a couple of years; gradually its life went from lasting most of a week to only just lasting a day if I turned it off unless I really needed it.

I got a new one from mtbbatteries last month; I don't know how long it lasts because it's gone well past what the old one did and still shows three blobs on the light, so I haven't charged it yet!

I should have done it last year...

I cut the lead off the original cheap I battery pack that came with my lights to connect my lights to a hard case Lipo pack. At 6200mah it's smaller, lighter and higher capacity than the 2s2p 18650 pack it replaced.

Fluxient do a 6-cell one, it's not expensive and performs well. Cell quality varies a lot too ime, it's like any other battery, you'll get different capacity and max current and that.

Make sure you get the right voltage and plug though! Most are 7.4V but there's a few others out there.

Really happy with my Hunk Lee one from ebay.
He has a good reputation on MTBR and uses genuine cells (you can choose Panasonic/Sanyo/Samsung for different prices).

I went for this one, but there are loads to choose from:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321320198129
(took 8 days to arrive)

Massively longer lasting than even my 4x3100mAh keeppower batts in a Solarstorm holder. Limitation with those is due to uneven discharge.

Any recommendations for a better quality (but not too expensive) charger for SSX2 battery packs?
Also, how long should the standard SSX2 battery packs take to charge fully from empty? Mine seem to charge a little more quickly than I'd have expected. (less than 2 hours)

In my experience 4-6 hours.

As I was ordering from Hunk Lee anyway, I went for one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321006076769

Although tbh I didn't have any problems with my original Bastid/Magicshine one.

Thanks Alex.

ordered both 🙂

Cool - hope your experience is as good as mine!

Gave up with far east ones, the original magicshine ones were reasnoble, mine must be on its 5th winter and its now down to about 90min on full.

But others (even UK bought ones) have either been crap out the box or failed quickly.

I've now got 4x Samsung 3000mah protected 18650 cells* in a solarstorm box and a nitecore charger. So at least the cells will stay ballanced even if it takes 30s more faffage to charge.

Also got a nitefighter light on its way with a battery. Reviews suggest its panasonic cells (and its expensive enough to make tgat believable) so as long as it stays ballanced it should be good.

*yes there are higher capacity cells and cheaper cells but after a bit of digging these have a high enough current output to make the springs in the case the limiting component, they're protected, and they were half the price of panasonic which were higher capacity and current but the extra wasn't required.

I've now got 4x Samsung 3000mah protected 18650 cells* in a solarstorm box and a nitecore charger.

Have just ordered a six cell jobbie and new charger from http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk/ to use with my old x2.
A bit expensive but hopefully worth it.

As a side note does any one know how many lumens the ssx2 actually puts out.

If I recall correctly I made a pair of 11 cell (13.2v I think) packs that I used on some homemade lights and an old set of lumicycle lights.

They worked for a few years until the solder became brittle, by which time I had a set of Exposure lights.

A certain element of pride in having a setup that I'd constructed myself.