For the very first time I step into the exciting world of lithium batteries - and I get my fingers burned (not literally). This UltraFire 18650 lithium cell is supposed to be protected against overdischarge, cutting out at 2.5 volts.
By Julian
Youtuber, shed dweller, solar charge controller aficionado
Julian, please don't support these sellers. Also capacity of the cell is unreal right from the start, so you can tell it is fake. At least you can mention it. Highest possible capacity for 18650 cell is 3500 mAh.
You can buy tiny battery protection circuits off eBay for a few dollars for 10 of them. The ones I got are small enough to easily fit into the bottom of an 18650 cell holder. It takes a bit of work to modify the cell holders but you can put an unprotected cell into the holder and it becomes a protected cell (so long as you only use the leads connected to the protection circuit).
Hi Julian, i like your videos but – as you probably know by now, in 2014 it was absolutly impossible to have a 18650 liion cell with 4250 mAh – and it still is today. The cell with the most available capacitance is around 3500 – 3600 mAh. All the cheap chinese Ultrafire batteries are absolute rubbish and fake! You cant trust them at all – dont buy them! The cells you can get from old laptop batteries are much more reliable.
i cant find any lipo protections circuits that dont cut voltage at 2.5 volts which is far too low for most lithiums!?
omg. This video should be labelled as 35yr old virgin plays with batteries.
It's more accurate and would probs get more views
The first clue that you are being conned is the brand "Ultrafire". Never use this brand. Hopefully they will go broke and dissapear from the market, when more people discover how fraudulent Ultrafire 18650 battery specifications are. Charge ratings are almost always greatly inflated by 300% or more and I have never come accross any protection circuitry in their cells.
I was given 2x 18650 Ultrafire 2400mah 3.7v with 4.2v and 2.75v protection cut off cells for "free", with an ultrabright led torch. These cells were a dismal 725mah capacity (30% of advertised capacity), and had no cut off protection as tested. Dont be fooled by slightly less bullshit sounding battery specifications At least in this case claimed capacity was 330% exaggerated and protection 100% bullshit.
Do not give any money to these shysters.
just buy cheap 1s protection circuits and add these to laptop batteries
I buy brand new big brand 18650 cells ,, sansung 5 quid each,, they seem to have a capacity of 2700 mah each
Thanks for the test!
did you ask for your money back? to discourage sales like these also give negative feedback
it's very easy to buy unprotected Panasonic batteries on ebay (green/black package), but they cost much more.
I've read that you can get them protected (panasonic) or the other choice is to get the Olight batteries with are 40€ each (panasonic japan + protection).
I'm actually working on getting all the necessary parts to protect some of my cells
Thanks for the video!
Hey bro I enjoyed your video I'm going to watch some more of your videos most likely I'm going to subscribe to you I like your video and also what's a machine called that you're using to measure the voltage of the battery , and how much does it cost
Quite honestly Julian, I hope you are(were) the one that has brought down the ULTRAFIRE name, into the mud, were it belongs with your scope test. Thank you for sharing and that name has been imprinted on my mind….TOO AVOID! Thx
"Lithium Battery FUN"… how about another nearly 9 minutes of my life I will never get back compared to a YTer flashlight aficionado who did not waste my time and told me this brand would likely cause a fire and anything with the ending fire so I every cell I had a choice I bought Panasonic green cells. Sanyo and one other is supposed to be good, too, he said.
I got two of these with $3 bike lights — what a deal, an adjustable focus cree xml 6(which was what I cared about) flashlight with columinating lens on it, adjustable bike light holder, .5 Amp charger & one of these Ultrafire batteries. The most interesting thing of the whole setup is that when you put any battery into the charger it lights green for some reason while none of my non-internet more American storebought sort of merchandise has ever acted like that.
But I also have a $35 dollar bike light whose strain relief just popped out the back the other day. I haven't even charged it much… less than half a dozen times. I guess I need to teach it a Underwriter's Laboratory Knot!
(I found your lithium battery playlist…there is internal battery resistance tester made, is there? I don't see a part II anywhere and don't think I'm going through all your playlists. I'll probably go through the mosfet one because I could reuse a primer it has been so many years since I've designed a larger circuit and may be doing so in awhile. And I'll probably check out the arduino one.)
I have six authentic Sanyo Li-ion 18650 batteries.