5:55 & 10:42 & 12:00 Both of your side cutters are turned the wrong way around when pulling off insulation. Turn it around with the other side pointing in the pulling direction and it will no more slip over the insulation when pulling. This makes a huge difference, you don't need nearly as much finger strength to keep it in place then. Try both ways a couple of times and you will soon see the huge difference, especially for the tick wire @ 5:55. You can even make a video about it.
5:50 -- "Sorry if this looks like watching paint dry..." Clive, we could watch you disassemble and review a cardboard box...just keep talking...your voice is so relaxing to listen to.
Hi Clive, your spot on with your thesis that some humans are natural engineers, and some not! I'm one who's not happy unless I'm building things, my wife is the opposite, I have two sons, one who can build absolutely anything and one who could not build a thing if his life depended on it. Thanks for your excellent vidios!
I believe the 5 digit battery codes comes from using the same system as button cells,ie diameter in mm and thickness (length) in 1/10 of mm, like a CR 2032 being 20mm diameter and 3.2 mm thick.
+ArduinoPlays True. Moreover there are IEC designations like ICR19/66 or similar (this one means Lithium 'I'on with 'C'obalt electrode, 'R'ound, between 18 and '19' mm diameter, between 65 and '66' mm long).
+mibars Yes, is this related to the 'LR03' style designations (which I believe is zinc/manganeze alkaline 'AAA') size (the number giving the size of battery, the letters the chemistry, I believe?)
hey Clive, I always found it was easy to strip in a non-invasive way, by just bending the wire back on itself and making a small knick in the insulation of the wire with a blade and the bending it back 180 degrees the nicking it again, then you can work it back and forth until the insulation breaks, once you hve opened the insulation up a bit you can dellicatlly nip and slice any remaining insulation.
LOL @ 5:50! "Like watching paint dry..." That must be why TH-cam gave us a speed control. Clive, your videos are wonderful fun! If I ever make it to Scotland, it would be an honour to treat you to a whiskey. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, your process, and your ideas!
"The cardboard should help it combust if it were to burst into flames"... LOL!! I had to pause the video I was laughing so hard!! Nice tight fit on the newer battery, very well done sir! You are right, we all do have the tendency to try and create something... in one way or another.
I have almost the same exact model. Mine only had one battery in it.. I re-used the 3.7v BMS off of the single cell and replaced it with a 4x18650 pack i threw together in parallel. Salvaged laptop cells, but all genuine Sanyo. Battery life is actually usable for work now, charge it overnight and it'll be near full by morning. I could upgrade the 1s BMS for more charging current and shorter charge times but I am happy with it. Besides charging the cells faster will only ultimately give me less duty cycles out of them.
I have one of those 10 w lights. It has 4x18650 1500mAh cells and the LED is driven by a 10w driver board. So no room to add more cells, but one could remove the current cells and just replace them with higher mAh ones,
Actually, speaking of cell sizes, I got an old Toshiba Libretto 50CT last week that has a battery pack made up of 3x 17670 cells, so slightly thinner and longer than the normal 18650...
+twocvbloke thats good advice, i was sure all laptop batteries (apart from the few lipo ones) all used 18650s, certainly all my 18650 are from old laptops, didnt know i have to look now to avoid weird ones also! generally my luck has been sony or samsung cells, marked as 2100-2300 ah, but being worn , i usually get 1600mah with rare duff ones (coming closer to 1ah) but at around 80p a cell.
Love watching your videos Clive. Also amazed how you can use the soldering iron and hold the items together without making a terrible mess. I need the helping hands kit or it just turns into a mess!! =)
Great video, I love improving the batteries on little gadgets like shavers, toothbrushes, worklights. More bang for your buck! I'm surprised you don't use the Stanley automatic wire strippers - cuts the amount of time to do the job at 4:55 dramatically
watching you at 5:20 reminded me of when i was having to replace about 10 plug-ends a day. i found a device that i thought i'd give it a try at removing the outer sheath on extension leads by rotating gently then folding the lead back and forth. ive since found out the device was intended to clip the claws of cats, dogs or birds. also, my portable light like yours developed a rattle. i dismantled it to find that the makers had used hot glue to hold the battery and everything else in place. therefore had i wanted to remove the battery i would have used a hot air gun on the outside of the box then poured a bit of isopropyl alcohol in the hole. it makes the hot glue instantly let go. perhaps a bit of sideways persuasion with a screwdriver as well. i like one of the commenters hinting that, for all these years, i may have been using the side nippers the wrong way round.
The "depth" of cells are indeed in 1/10ths of mm. EG 2020's are 20mm diam by 2.0mm depth. 2032's are 20mm diam by 3.2mm depth. Therefore 18650 are 18mm diam by 65.0mm "depth"/long. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes for more info
i think everyone has the ability to make stuff its just that the world we live in means we dont have to so most people never bother but a long time ago everyone would have made and repaired their own clothes and tools and things. most of my friends think Im weird for being interested in electronic things and I got such weird looks when I said I got a soldering iron for my birthday but when I showed someone the battery led lights I made to use camping they were really interested and wanted to make one too so we made some together and even though theyre the kind of thing you cold get really cheap from ebay or w/e its nice to use things you made yourself
I'm surprised those lights only come with 2 cells inside. I imagined that back part being full of 18650s. And nicely done stripping that cable initially, it went better than I expected :-)
7:19 They reason they spot weld on battery terminals instead of soldering them on is that Li-ion battery cells gets partly damaged by the heat from soldering battery terminals. If they want to solder the terminals on the PCB, they have to do this BEFORE they spot weld the terminals onto the battery itself, to avoid heat damage. You should never solder terminal directly connected to Li-ion cells. The reason they spot weld them onto the PCB is probably that they do it in one process as they have to spot weld the terminals onto the battery itself afterwards anyway. By spot welding both end of the terminals, they can also spot weld them onto the cells, before connecting them to the PCB if they find that easier.
The last digit means that the cell is circular in diameter. 18650, 16340 (16mm diameter, 34mm long. AKA CR123), 14500 (14mm diameter, 50 mm long. AKA 'AA' cell.)
I think it was done originally in 10ths of a mm as you say Clive, so 2032s are 20mm diameter, 3.2mm 'long' (aka thick, in their case). I guess kind of like the way fluorescent tubes are measured in 1/8ths of an inch (T8 being 1 inch, T12 1.5 inch, etc)
+TheChipmunk2008 And indeed PAR64 lamps are 8 inches diameter, MR16's are 2" diameter. I'm pondering whether the earliest LEDs were also measured in eighths of an inch, since they had numbers that may have alluded to that.
I'm wondering if there is room in the housing to build your own 6 cell and cut a hole in the housing for a balance connector and charge it with a hobby charger/
You should use a battery charger that tells you the true capacity of the cells and test the capacity of the new battery pack, to compare it with the capacity of the previous one. Sometimes those chinese battery packs contain really really crappy cells with very low capacity, so even tho you have 6 cells, you might have lower capacity than the original 2 cells. Worth testing. :)
I must say that every single time you use that soldering iron I get a whiff of solder. I am not kidding. Subliminal smells on the bigclivedotcom channel, lol.
The rated capacity at 4.2v is correct, just not at 8.4v, assuming you have zero losses on power conversion, and you are running at the rating of a single cell with pulse width modulation. The real effective capacity is indeed 9600mAh, but only in the context of the voltage output of a single cell, 4.2v(at full charge). It is very deceptive, but at least people who understand enough would not typically get confused by that inaccurate product description, as it is obvious the pack is in series. At 8.4v, each cells effective capacity would obviously be cut in half. In fact, series is superior to parrallel in every way if you have an effecient way of dropping the voltage to that of a single cell(pwm with capacitive smoothing is good enough). It ensures good balancing of battery drain. I know you know this clive, but this is directed at people who are confused by parralell and series configurations.
Fraser Lamb Yes, i totally agree it is lie. Unfortunately most common people are so confused about the difference in voltage and current they cannot even tell the difference anyway. I was only hoping to elaborate where the truth in the title is, and where the lie is and why.
Yeah it can be confusing as hell. It gets worse when you add in the fact that capacity drops under heavy loads. Not sure if these even have a C rating listed
Fraser Lamb Heavy loads on parallel configurations can really open a can of worms, due to the internal resistance increasing with load. Non-perfectly matched cells can cause a large portion of the current to be drawn from a single cell, which can be disastrous. This is where series configurations can better parallel ones.
+Richard Harris if they were hexagonal, theyd fit together closer, so youd get a bit more Mah in the same space? dunno how much the small difference would be!
+jusb1066 No, the foil inside is still rolled together, so you will only get room for a small roll if the housing isn't round. Check out the pictures in this article: batterybro.com/blogs/18650-wholesale-battery-reviews/96816774-comparing-panasonic-a-panasonic-b-sanyo-and-ultrafire-cells This article is also very interesting as it shows how counterfeit 18650 cells can look like inside.
I just posted the same thing on a different reply. I'm not sure why people don't believe this to be true. An 18650 is 18mm wide, 65mm tall and the "0" means it is a cylinder type of cell. Glad you get it! :).
I have to wonder how many times you've burned your thumb on camera and just completely not reacted, like I'm 99% sure you singed it there while soldering the positive lead to the connector.
+petti78 My skin is work hardened through normal engineering work, but I don't bring the iron close enough to my fingers to burn them. It's just one of these things you pick up through time without realising it.
I'm contemplating buying one of these cheap units just to use the housing and stand to make something better. Probably install a 2s3p lion pack like you Clive. Then perhaps rip out the COB chip and install a single warm white (4C) Cree XM-l2 chip with 3 mode driver. With luck I won't even have to change the charge socket if it is the same as the plug on my higher quality 8.4v power supply as the ones you get from ebay are very poor as I believe you've found out. I might even fit a little LED battery voltage readout as the protection circuit on cheap Lion packs always lets the voltage go too low. Thanks for the idea Clive, cracking video as always.
I received one of these today but mine only has 1 x 18650 cell inside. Also the cell is held in by a very sticky white gloop, it's soft to the touch and still feels wet, but does seem to be doing the job of holding the cell in place.
From what i understand. 18 is mm diameter, 65 is mm long and 0 means cylindrical. I may be wrong. Another possibility is the 65 is 65.0mm. Not 100% on that but my hardware engineering lecturer did explain that's the way the numbers work with these kinds of Li-ion batteries.
Just me? School boy snigger for the long screw comment! Plus I had a total Blue Peter moment with the sticky foam pad...we've used double-sided sticky tape but you could use glue or sellotape... Great video Clive! I don't have one to modify but am now wanting to go and get one!
Im doing almost the same thing. Accept i have an old bosch cordless with 3 battery banks. Im just changing the plastic back part with a 3D printed cover for the battery and a dc to dc buck converter. Dont want to let too a high voltage pop the LED.
+radio control uk That wouldn't be very safe, especially in a mech mod, you want high quality batteries with high continuous discharge current ratings. Those random chinese cells would be pretty dangerous.
+TheDenzel2112 Correct - one of my local vape group took an old laptop battery apart and crowed of his find of lots of cells to use. Suffice to say, about ten people replied NO NO NO NO within about fifteen seconds of the pic going up....
Only if you don't use a specialised protection board. In this instance, the battery pack does have a balancing circuit inside to stop the cells over or under charging
@@DigBipper188 Most do but many of them don't for various apps. Sometimes if you buy the cheap Chinese cells they'll have a phony PCB installed just for show (I'm not joking on that)
@@randypederson6271 yup. I've seen a couple fake cells like that. Gotta be super careful charging those up if you haven't got a balancer or a BMS available to ya!
Hi would this light still work by taking the on off button out? (I’ve wired it up to longer wire’s and plan, in theory to use it with my electric fence battery.
Is there any protection circuit inside the new battery pack? The eBay link doesn't say anything about protection. Using a new battery pack without the same level as protection as the old pack is dangerous. And if there's no under-voltage protection, you might risk discharging so much that they can't be charged again.
I had the charge protection in my phone short circuit. I was charging it off my car while at work with a dodgy cable. When I came out on lunch break the cable was melted and I burned myself picking up my phone. Amazingly the wireless charging still worked and the battery was ok. It must have been the phone circuitry and not the battery's that went tits up.
Recently I read somewhere that the zero in 18650 indicated that the cell was cylindrical rather than square. Whether that is true or not I cannot verify.
what would be the best way to make them more efficient? upgrading to 3cell li-ion batteries and a cheap 12v constant current board for 10w leds? but what about charging ? i just cant find a cheap source for a cheap 3s charger (wich is not overcharging can only find those crappy imax b6.)
+Zentrius Slow charging is preferred for battery longevity, so I'd recommend sticking with the original charger. You can change the internal resistor (when one is used in the reflector area) to choose a trade-off between light output and run time. I prefer run-time over intensity as the light is just for ambient illumination.
Gotta say watching you mod or take things apart has got me really interested in electronics, is there a beginner kit you would know or suggest for a newbie like myself. Great vid as always
+WM2869 I don't know about the market from where you're from, but often googling the phrase "Electronic tinkerer" starter pack or something will get you a long way. As for the tinkering itself, don't buy a REALLY cheap soldering iron. The pricier the better of course, but don't go nuts :)
rxwh Thanks for the advice will look on the web, hahaha oops um yer just bought a cheap soldering iron... Jaycar is just around the corner might have to look into that as well.
I need help lol I love the light but the American version has no charging or charged indicator light would there be an easy fix for this thanks in advanced
I have 2x wonderful strip light work lights. They run off a 6 volt lead acid battery when the mains is cut like automatic emergency lights. However I have changed the batteries but both have died again. Are there any 220 / 240 volt charge controllers for Lithium battery packs and packs that you know might fit? Similar to this pack?
sooo no one is going to mention that the switch pops out, and the back of the port has a nut, that could have moved them both out the way, without needing to bend or resolder the connections? much love for clive, and i really enjoy his work, however, as an engineer, some of his processes trigger my autism lol
Having got some work lights I was thinking of changing them over to LED so as no heat, guess get the right drivers and a 50W would be best way to go. or just buy some
+steve64464 its an emergency lamp, or a worklight if your doing any mains work in house (so no power) fishing lamp, car workshop/ outside lamp, theres a dozen uses!
steve64464 ow about one of these lamps modded with even more 18650s and also doubles as a usb power bank, also build on the mains charger, so will be double handy to have around?
Maybes... , Its difficult to decide on a idea. Given it feels so cold in my room at the moment wish their were heaters i could power by them without them going nuclear on me
This may be a noobish question but I recently bought a bike light with this exact battery pack for it and a 8.4v charger. The charger blew up after only 2 uses and I replaced it with a camera charger that outputs 1500ma also on 8.4v. My question is because it doesn't have any light indicating that it is changing on the charger itself can I overcharge the battery pack? I tried charging the pack up and it seems to work nicely, it doesn't heat up nearly as close as the old charger, but I always disconnect the charger after about 4 hours of charging just in case.
+Boris Dusnoki The lithium packs in the 8.4v lights usually have protection. But your charger may be putting out too high a current. You can get replacement 8.4v chargers on eBay.
+bigclivedotcom thanks for the quick reply. I didn't want to have to wait a month till the charger arrived that's why I got one from a local shop, used. I'll order one just in case. BTW love your work. Got me really interested in electronics and started doing small projects and repairs on my own :) keep it up!
You know your comment on the size of a millimeter just rang the old bell in the skull, and brought back an old cigarette advertisement for Chesterfield 101's all the other smokes came in regular and 100's so Chesterfield extended it, and their advertisement said, it was just a silly millimeter longer! Funny how the brain works, I even bought a couple of packs, they were indeed a bit longer, and if you were used to regulars, you found yourself lighting the damn thing in the middle!
+bigclivedotcom how do you know if the battery will work? Do you just get the same voltage or what? If you have protection that isn't built in to the battery would that mess things up?
+bdot02 Same voltage and indeed available with the exact same charger that will limit the maximum charge voltage to 8.4V, although the battery pack does have a balancing and protection circuit built in too.
+jusb1066 just watched the first two minutes again. Somehow I missed his explanation there and thought that bigger battery was just one large cell for some reason.
The reason why it has so much space is becaus normally there is a battery charging circuit and sometimes a USB A output with 5V regulation ofcourse. As always there chinese things get sold under all kinds of rebrands.
Greetings from Naples Florida. Great video, I'm so glad that it was recommended to me by YT to watch. I've never seen those large wire strippers before, can you tell me what they are called again? Thanks so much. Cheers Frank
Beware of dodgy crapy quality recicled LithiumIon cells in ebay... often they don't meet minimum safety requirements, and in series connection it may end up with a battery blowing up. My suggestion would be to rebuild the pack using good trustable batteries from Panasonic or Sanyo (for instance), or at least check that it has the proper (and working) balancing circuitry. Nice upgrade, by the way
Clive roughly how much did that little project cost you I have a cunning plan formulating.(ignore me I should have read the link for the battery pack thanks you for the video)
Because secretly it is still way better then lead free and doesn't create problems over time, same reason they still use it in the medical and military sectors.
+Tokolozi lead solder exemptions for medical and military electronic equipment no longer apply in Europe and USA under RoHS2 directives. I do miss the old solder though.
+Jordan Durham Tin solder suffers from "tin whiskers", which is the corrosion that forms on tin solder tends to form little crystals that can short between pads on electronics, resulting in faulty or dead electricals and many millions of tonnes more e-waste than there was with lead-based solder...
I did the opposite of shorting the system out like that. I was working on an external DVD drive for a tablet PC. I had it plugged into my laptop's USB Port and it was not working right. There was a 2.5 in power port for 5 volts on the back of the DVD drive, so I thought I will just plug in the 5 volt brick that runs my clock on my desk. For some reason I had it unplugged anyhow, so I grabbed the cord and plugged her in. My laptop shut down and magic smoke came from the keyboard! Then I noticed I had grabbed the 12 volt cord for anther device and fed my laptop USB with an extra 12 volts. The USB have never worked since. Well the laptop does have one USB 3 port and it still works. Guy has to be careful even in his own shop.
+Niklas Bergsten that would remain constant brightness, but it uses a resistor, so goes dimmer over time, which should last longer overall, I dislike lights with both led drivers and protected cells, basically they work perfectly, and suddenly turn off when flat, no warning, i prefer mine to dim down as a warning.
+Niklas Bergsten that would remain constant brightness, but it uses a resistor, so goes dimmer over time, which should last longer overall, I dislike lights with both led drivers and protected cells, basically they work perfectly, and suddenly turn off when flat, no warning, i prefer mine to dim down as a warning.
+jusb1066 well you could always add a little LED somewhere that either stays off until the voltage gets to about 3.3 volts or do the opposite which would probably be easier to implement and have it always on until about 3.3 volts, so that would tell you that you only have a few minutes left.
One thing that Chinese manufacturers always get right is their ability to glue things together.. It's almost like the most expensive item in some cheap electronics is the adhesives they use to hold stuff together.
I really like your videos and I just saw something that would be a cool project for an LED loving guy like yourself. A large LED music analyzer but I was wondering if you could make a really huge one with color changing LED bulbs (Edison or bayonette cap). Since you are the go to guy for prope LED based projects I was wondering if maybe this could be a project and possibly a kit you could sell on your website. Thanks for the great videos BTW.
+Scott Savage Do you have a source for that? Because I think it really is just the length in 1/10 of mm. The same numbering system is used for button cells.
5:55 & 10:42 & 12:00 Both of your side cutters are turned the wrong way around when pulling off insulation. Turn it around with the other side pointing in the pulling direction and it will no more slip over the insulation when pulling. This makes a huge difference, you don't need nearly as much finger strength to keep it in place then. Try both ways a couple of times and you will soon see the huge difference, especially for the tick wire @ 5:55. You can even make a video about it.
5:50 -- "Sorry if this looks like watching paint dry..." Clive, we could watch you disassemble and review a cardboard box...just keep talking...your voice is so relaxing to listen to.
"That's a long screw"
Wow! You can do THAT, at the same time as changing a battery and drinking whisky? Respect!
Hi Clive, your spot on with your thesis that some humans are natural engineers, and some not!
I'm one who's not happy unless I'm building things, my wife is the opposite, I have two sons, one who can build absolutely anything and one who could not build a thing if his life depended on it.
Thanks for your excellent vidios!
I believe the 5 digit battery codes comes from using the same system as button cells,ie diameter in mm and thickness (length) in 1/10 of mm, like a CR 2032 being 20mm diameter and 3.2 mm thick.
+Michael Tempsch it works for my CR 1620 laying around - 16mm diameter and 2mm thickness
+Michael Tempsch And I bow to the fact you said this before me LOL!
+ArduinoPlays True. Moreover there are IEC designations like ICR19/66 or similar (this one means Lithium 'I'on with 'C'obalt electrode, 'R'ound, between 18 and '19' mm diameter, between 65 and '66' mm long).
+mibars Yes, is this related to the 'LR03' style designations (which I believe is zinc/manganeze alkaline 'AAA') size (the number giving the size of battery, the letters the chemistry, I believe?)
18mm wide, 65mm tall and the '0' means it is a cylinder type of cell (not square shaped).
hey Clive, I always found it was easy to strip in a non-invasive way, by just bending the wire back on itself and making a small knick in the insulation of the wire with a blade and the bending it back 180 degrees the nicking it again, then you can work it back and forth until the insulation breaks, once you hve opened the insulation up a bit you can dellicatlly nip and slice any remaining insulation.
LOL @ 5:50! "Like watching paint dry..." That must be why TH-cam gave us a speed control. Clive, your videos are wonderful fun! If I ever make it to Scotland, it would be an honour to treat you to a whiskey. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, your process, and your ideas!
"The cardboard should help it combust if it were to burst into flames"... LOL!! I had to pause the video I was laughing so hard!! Nice tight fit on the newer battery, very well done sir! You are right, we all do have the tendency to try and create something... in one way or another.
The zero at the end means it's a circle battery (18650) the number at the end indicates the shape
I have almost the same exact model. Mine only had one battery in it.. I re-used the 3.7v BMS off of the single cell and replaced it with a 4x18650 pack i threw together in parallel. Salvaged laptop cells, but all genuine Sanyo. Battery life is actually usable for work now, charge it overnight and it'll be near full by morning. I could upgrade the 1s BMS for more charging current and shorter charge times but I am happy with it. Besides charging the cells faster will only ultimately give me less duty cycles out of them.
i find your vids very entertaining and informative clive, and your smooth scottish accent makes it quite soothing! good man keep it up!
Watching these types of long videos are so relaxing! I can't wait for the next one to show on my subscriptions list...
I have one of those 10 w lights.
It has 4x18650 1500mAh cells and the LED is driven by a 10w driver board.
So no room to add more cells, but one could remove the current cells and just replace them with higher mAh ones,
do you remember what brand it is?
Cheers for the latest video, love watching them. Also love that you are now showing us where you buy your items from. Great help.
Actually, speaking of cell sizes, I got an old Toshiba Libretto 50CT last week that has a battery pack made up of 3x 17670 cells, so slightly thinner and longer than the normal 18650...
+twocvbloke thats good advice, i was sure all laptop batteries (apart from the few lipo ones) all used 18650s, certainly all my 18650 are from old laptops, didnt know i have to look now to avoid weird ones also! generally my luck has been sony or samsung cells, marked as 2100-2300 ah, but being worn , i usually get 1600mah with rare duff ones (coming closer to 1ah) but at around 80p a cell.
Love watching your videos Clive. Also amazed how you can use the soldering iron and hold the items together without making a terrible mess. I need the helping hands kit or it just turns into a mess!! =)
+M3G4UK im getting shakey as i get older, i had one heck of a job soldering a 3.5m headphone jack on recently, even with the helping hands!
I like to use a damp sponge to clean my iron tip. Usually in a small container.
Great video, I love improving the batteries on little gadgets like shavers, toothbrushes, worklights. More bang for your buck! I'm surprised you don't use the Stanley automatic wire strippers - cuts the amount of time to do the job at 4:55 dramatically
watching you at 5:20 reminded me of when i was having to replace about 10 plug-ends a day. i found a device that i thought i'd give it a try at removing the outer sheath on extension leads by rotating gently then folding the lead back and forth. ive since found out the device was intended to clip the claws of cats, dogs or birds. also, my portable light like yours developed a rattle. i dismantled it to find that the makers had used hot glue to hold the battery and everything else in place. therefore had i wanted to remove the battery i would have used a hot air gun on the outside of the box then poured a bit of isopropyl alcohol in the hole. it makes the hot glue instantly let go. perhaps a bit of sideways persuasion with a screwdriver as well. i like one of the commenters hinting that, for all these years, i may have been using the side nippers the wrong way round.
The "depth" of cells are indeed in 1/10ths of mm. EG 2020's are 20mm diam by 2.0mm depth. 2032's are 20mm diam by 3.2mm depth. Therefore 18650 are 18mm diam by 65.0mm "depth"/long. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes for more info
if I get this, I will make a new set of six cells battery pack for this
i think everyone has the ability to make stuff its just that the world we live in means we dont have to so most people never bother but a long time ago everyone would have made and repaired their own clothes and tools and things. most of my friends think Im weird for being interested in electronic things and I got such weird looks when I said I got a soldering iron for my birthday but when I showed someone the battery led lights I made to use camping they were really interested and wanted to make one too so we made some together and even though theyre the kind of thing you cold get really cheap from ebay or w/e its nice to use things you made yourself
rather get tools then clothes for presents
I'm surprised those lights only come with 2 cells inside. I imagined that back part being full of 18650s. And nicely done stripping that cable initially, it went better than I expected :-)
Nice upgrade of power cell. Never knew why they called them 18650's.
7:19 They reason they spot weld on battery terminals instead of soldering them on is that Li-ion battery cells gets partly damaged by the heat from soldering battery terminals.
If they want to solder the terminals on the PCB, they have to do this BEFORE they spot weld the terminals onto the battery itself, to avoid heat damage. You should never solder terminal directly connected to Li-ion cells.
The reason they spot weld them onto the PCB is probably that they do it in one process as they have to spot weld the terminals onto the battery itself afterwards anyway. By spot welding both end of the terminals, they can also spot weld them onto the cells, before connecting them to the PCB if they find that easier.
The last digit means that the cell is circular in diameter. 18650, 16340 (16mm diameter, 34mm long. AKA CR123), 14500 (14mm diameter, 50 mm long. AKA 'AA' cell.)
I think it was done originally in 10ths of a mm as you say Clive, so 2032s are 20mm diameter, 3.2mm 'long' (aka thick, in their case). I guess kind of like the way fluorescent tubes are measured in 1/8ths of an inch (T8 being 1 inch, T12 1.5 inch, etc)
+TheChipmunk2008 And indeed PAR64 lamps are 8 inches diameter, MR16's are 2" diameter. I'm pondering whether the earliest LEDs were also measured in eighths of an inch, since they had numbers that may have alluded to that.
I'm wondering if there is room in the housing to build your own 6 cell and cut a hole in the housing for a balance connector and charge it with a hobby charger/
You should use a battery charger that tells you the true capacity of the cells and test the capacity of the new battery pack, to compare it with the capacity of the previous one. Sometimes those chinese battery packs contain really really crappy cells with very low capacity, so even tho you have 6 cells, you might have lower capacity than the original 2 cells. Worth testing. :)
I must say that every single time you use that soldering iron I get a whiff of solder. I am not kidding. Subliminal smells on the bigclivedotcom channel, lol.
The rated capacity at 4.2v is correct, just not at 8.4v, assuming you have zero losses on power conversion, and you are running at the rating of a single cell with pulse width modulation. The real effective capacity is indeed 9600mAh, but only in the context of the voltage output of a single cell, 4.2v(at full charge). It is very deceptive, but at least people who understand enough would not typically get confused by that inaccurate product description, as it is obvious the pack is in series. At 8.4v, each cells effective capacity would obviously be cut in half.
In fact, series is superior to parrallel in every way if you have an effecient way of dropping the voltage to that of a single cell(pwm with capacitive smoothing is good enough). It ensures good balancing of battery drain.
I know you know this clive, but this is directed at people who are confused by parralell and series configurations.
+Richard Smith The rating is for the pack not the cells so its just a lie, they do it constantly
Fraser Lamb Yes, i totally agree it is lie. Unfortunately most common people are so confused about the difference in voltage and current they cannot even tell the difference anyway. I was only hoping to elaborate where the truth in the title is, and where the lie is and why.
Yeah it can be confusing as hell. It gets worse when you add in the fact that capacity drops under heavy loads. Not sure if these even have a C rating listed
Fraser Lamb Heavy loads on parallel configurations can really open a can of worms, due to the internal resistance increasing with load. Non-perfectly matched cells can cause a large portion of the current to be drawn from a single cell, which can be disastrous. This is where series configurations can better parallel ones.
So how long did the light last after the upgrade?
Clive, The 0 at the end of 18650 denotes it is a round cell.
+TheDenzel2112 just curious as to what they put at the end of rectangular cells then?
+Richard Harris if they were hexagonal, theyd fit together closer, so youd get a bit more Mah in the same space? dunno how much the small difference would be!
+jusb1066 No, the foil inside is still rolled together, so you will only get room for a small roll if the housing isn't round. Check out the pictures in this article: batterybro.com/blogs/18650-wholesale-battery-reviews/96816774-comparing-panasonic-a-panasonic-b-sanyo-and-ultrafire-cells
This article is also very interesting as it shows how counterfeit 18650 cells can look like inside.
I just posted the same thing on a different reply. I'm not sure why people don't believe this to be true. An 18650 is 18mm wide, 65mm tall and the "0" means it is a cylinder type of cell. Glad you get it! :).
with rectangular cells, you might get more surface area for more capacity.
I have to wonder how many times you've burned your thumb on camera and just completely not reacted, like I'm 99% sure you singed it there while soldering the positive lead to the connector.
+Alex Barlow My dad had a bad habit of doing this too.
With angle grinders.
"hey, the hot metal will cauterise it, it'll be fine"
+Alex Barlow Looks like he's just built up heat resistant bits on his fingers and can get away with it nowadays without even flinching :)
+petti78 My skin is work hardened through normal engineering work, but I don't bring the iron close enough to my fingers to burn them. It's just one of these things you pick up through time without realising it.
I'm contemplating buying one of these cheap units just to use the housing and stand to make something better. Probably install a 2s3p lion pack like you Clive. Then perhaps rip out the COB chip and install a single warm white (4C) Cree XM-l2 chip with 3 mode driver. With luck I won't even have to change the charge socket if it is the same as the plug on my higher quality 8.4v power supply as the ones you get from ebay are very poor as I believe you've found out. I might even fit a little LED battery voltage readout as the protection circuit on cheap Lion packs always lets the voltage go too low. Thanks for the idea Clive, cracking video as always.
I received one of these today but mine only has 1 x 18650 cell inside. Also the cell is held in by a very sticky white gloop, it's soft to the touch and still feels wet, but does seem to be doing the job of holding the cell in place.
Doesn't the additional current put a strain on the LEDs or other components? Would adding a resistor help?
It doesn't increase the LED current. Just the run time.
Just had a funny moment, I blew away the rising solder smoke in the video, reflex action from soldering over the years :)
is the resistor current control better than a buck converter with current regulation for led?
From what i understand. 18 is mm diameter, 65 is mm long and 0 means cylindrical. I may be wrong. Another possibility is the 65 is 65.0mm. Not 100% on that but my hardware engineering lecturer did explain that's the way the numbers work with these kinds of Li-ion batteries.
Just me? School boy snigger for the long screw comment! Plus I had a total Blue Peter moment with the sticky foam pad...we've used double-sided sticky tape but you could use glue or sellotape... Great video Clive! I don't have one to modify but am now wanting to go and get one!
Im doing almost the same thing. Accept i have an old bosch cordless with 3 battery banks. Im just changing the plastic back part with a 3D printed cover for the battery and a dc to dc buck converter. Dont want to let too a high voltage pop the LED.
Hi clive could i do this with a wee sealy hand lamp
those two 18650 batts would come in handy for a mechanicel mod for vaping ... :)
+radio control uk That wouldn't be very safe, especially in a mech mod, you want high quality batteries with high continuous discharge current ratings. Those random chinese cells would be pretty dangerous.
your right , i didnt think of that , well spotted
+TheDenzel2112 Correct - one of my local vape group took an old laptop battery apart and crowed of his find of lots of cells to use. Suffice to say, about ten people replied NO NO NO NO within about fifteen seconds of the pic going up....
What about the heat from the cells bij loading the cells? No much room for cooling
wouldn't the pack need a balance connector?
+TacNipples It has a balancing and protection PCB inside.
Only if you don't use a specialised protection board. In this instance, the battery pack does have a balancing circuit inside to stop the cells over or under charging
@@DigBipper188 Most do but many of them don't for various apps. Sometimes if you buy the cheap Chinese cells they'll have a phony PCB installed just for show (I'm not joking on that)
@@randypederson6271 yup. I've seen a couple fake cells like that. Gotta be super careful charging those up if you haven't got a balancer or a BMS available to ya!
@@DigBipper188 They do sell the actual cell protection circuits if you have a bunch to protect.
Hi would this light still work by taking the on off button out? (I’ve wired it up to longer wire’s and plan, in theory to use it with my electric fence battery.
Well, given the weekend was imminent it would have been rude not to say hello to Saturday without a wee tipple!
Is there any protection circuit inside the new battery pack? The eBay link doesn't say anything about protection.
Using a new battery pack without the same level as protection as the old pack is dangerous. And if there's no under-voltage protection, you might risk discharging so much that they can't be charged again.
+ITubeTooInc It does have protection.
hahaha i'm glad i'm not the only one that drinks whisky and beer while playing with electronics and high voltages
How does this 10W led work with 3,7V,without step up converter ?
Custom LED chosen for the battery voltage.
Is there a way to up the voltage of the battery pack to 12v ?
I like these lights as well
I had the charge protection in my phone short circuit. I was charging it off my car while at work with a dodgy cable. When I came out on lunch break the cable was melted and I burned myself picking up my phone.
Amazingly the wireless charging still worked and the battery was ok. It must have been the phone circuitry and not the battery's that went tits up.
New Clive catchphrase: 'Excelente'!
Recently I read somewhere that the zero in 18650 indicated that the cell was cylindrical rather than square. Whether that is true or not I cannot verify.
what would be the best way to make them more efficient? upgrading to 3cell li-ion batteries and a cheap 12v constant current board for 10w leds? but what about charging ? i just cant find a cheap source for a cheap 3s charger (wich is not overcharging can only find those crappy imax b6.)
+Zentrius Slow charging is preferred for battery longevity, so I'd recommend sticking with the original charger. You can change the internal resistor (when one is used in the reflector area) to choose a trade-off between light output and run time. I prefer run-time over intensity as the light is just for ambient illumination.
I just got one of these from amazon and it got a 2x 26650 4400mah battery pack in it.
Gotta say watching you mod or take things apart has got me really interested in electronics, is there a beginner kit you would know or suggest for a newbie like myself. Great vid as always
+WM2869 I don't know about the market from where you're from, but often googling the phrase "Electronic tinkerer" starter pack or something will get you a long way. As for the tinkering itself, don't buy a REALLY cheap soldering iron. The pricier the better of course, but don't go nuts :)
rxwh Thanks for the advice will look on the web, hahaha oops um yer just bought a cheap soldering iron... Jaycar is just around the corner might have to look into that as well.
I need help lol I love the light but the American version has no charging or charged indicator light would there be an easy fix for this thanks in advanced
+david wise wow I thought I had a legit question lol guess not
+mipmipmipmipmip lol kool quick fix but no how do i know how long to charge i guess about 4 to 8 hours would be good thanks for the help
+david wise As a rough guide, the charge time will be the mAH battery rating divided by the rated current output of your charger.
+david wise You could always modify it with a cutoff and recharge circuit... they're readily available on EBay...
I have 2x wonderful strip light work lights. They run off a 6 volt lead acid battery when the mains is cut like automatic emergency lights. However I have changed the batteries but both have died again. Are there any 220 / 240 volt charge controllers for Lithium battery packs and packs that you know might fit? Similar to this pack?
sooo no one is going to mention that the switch pops out, and the back of the port has a nut, that could have moved them both out the way, without needing to bend or resolder the connections?
much love for clive, and i really enjoy his work, however, as an engineer, some of his processes trigger my autism lol
How long will those new batteries power that work light?
Cheers.
I recommend you buy some wire stripers, there are some decent generic ones on eBay for like 6 quid...
wat werew waiting 4 paint to dry where?
is that foam fire resistant at all.
Hmm. This is an OLD video! There is no label for Big Clive’s channel on the table.
I can never work out what light output matches say a 500W halogen lamp in LED light how many watts do you need?
+Chaz Madge Theoretically between 50W to 100W depending on LED efficiency.
Having got some work lights I was thinking of changing them over to LED so as no heat, guess get the right drivers and a 50W would be best way to go. or just buy some
a bit late.. did the replacement battery pack already have the charge protection cicuit?
Yes it did.
Interesting Vid Big Clive. Here's a challange for you mate...... Do you know of a way to make a really bright efficient bike light ? Thanks
I always heard the 0 at the end stood for cylindrical cell. not sure how accurate that is.
Its almost tempting to get one the lamps now just for the modification but i don't think id have a use for it.
+steve64464 its an emergency lamp, or a worklight if your doing any mains work in house (so no power) fishing lamp, car workshop/ outside lamp, theres a dozen uses!
I have a pile of these 18650 sitting here at the moment and i guess im looking for ideas what to do with them :-) .
steve64464
ow about one of these lamps modded with even more 18650s and also doubles as a usb power bank, also build on the mains charger, so will be double handy to have around?
Maybes... , Its difficult to decide on a idea. Given it feels so cold in my room at the moment wish their were heaters i could power by them without them going nuclear on me
steve64464
yes at only 8w or so each (i think,) the only way they will keep you warm is the once only option! dude, go to the library, free heat!
Hi Clyde, Would one of those 10w leds fit in a maglite torch?
How many 18650s could you fit in this thing? Considering having a custom pack made up and want to jam as many as possible in.
This may be a noobish question but I recently bought a bike light with this exact battery pack for it and a 8.4v charger. The charger blew up after only 2 uses and I replaced it with a camera charger that outputs 1500ma also on 8.4v. My question is because it doesn't have any light indicating that it is changing on the charger itself can I overcharge the battery pack? I tried charging the pack up and it seems to work nicely, it doesn't heat up nearly as close as the old charger, but I always disconnect the charger after about 4 hours of charging just in case.
+Boris Dusnoki The lithium packs in the 8.4v lights usually have protection. But your charger may be putting out too high a current. You can get replacement 8.4v chargers on eBay.
+bigclivedotcom thanks for the quick reply. I didn't want to have to wait a month till the charger arrived that's why I got one from a local shop, used. I'll order one just in case.
BTW love your work. Got me really interested in electronics and started doing small projects and repairs on my own :) keep it up!
Clive, you you allways make me smile :-), comedy + possible danger :-D.
Ive used thick gaskets to allow boxes to fit before lol.
You know your comment on the size of a millimeter just rang the old bell in the skull, and brought back an old cigarette advertisement for Chesterfield 101's all the other smokes came in regular and 100's so Chesterfield extended it, and their advertisement said, it was just a silly millimeter longer! Funny how the brain works, I even bought a couple of packs, they were indeed a bit longer, and if you were used to regulars, you found yourself lighting the damn thing in the middle!
+bigclivedotcom how do you know if the battery will work? Do you just get the same voltage or what? If you have protection that isn't built in to the battery would that mess things up?
+bdot02 Same voltage and indeed available with the exact same charger that will limit the maximum charge voltage to 8.4V, although the battery pack does have a balancing and protection circuit built in too.
+bigclivedotcom so the important thing to do is to make sure it has the same voltage?
+bdot02 they were both lithium 18650 cells, so were fully compatible, size and voltage
+jusb1066 just watched the first two minutes again. Somehow I missed his explanation there and thought that bigger battery was just one large cell for some reason.
bdot02
no worries dude +1
The reason why it has so much space is becaus normally there is a battery charging circuit and sometimes a USB A output with 5V regulation ofcourse. As always there chinese things get sold under all kinds of rebrands.
Greetings from Naples Florida. Great video, I'm so glad that it was recommended to me by YT to watch. I've never seen those large wire strippers before, can you tell me what they are called again? Thanks so much. Cheers Frank
Beware of dodgy crapy quality recicled LithiumIon cells in ebay... often they don't meet minimum safety requirements, and in series connection it may end up with a battery blowing up.
My suggestion would be to rebuild the pack using good trustable batteries from Panasonic or Sanyo (for instance), or at least check that it has the proper (and working) balancing circuitry.
Nice upgrade, by the way
Clive roughly how much did that little project cost you I have a cunning plan formulating.(ignore me I should have read the link for the battery pack thanks you for the video)
Why use lead based solder?
Because secretly it is still way better then lead free and doesn't create problems over time, same reason they still use it in the medical and military sectors.
+Tokolozi lead solder exemptions for medical and military electronic equipment no longer apply in Europe and USA under RoHS2 directives. I do miss the old solder though.
+Tab Let ah oops that's new to me, thanks for the info.
+Tokolozi no problem, it's pretty recent.
+Jordan Durham
Tin solder suffers from "tin whiskers", which is the corrosion that forms on tin solder tends to form little crystals that can short between pads on electronics, resulting in faulty or dead electricals and many millions of tonnes more e-waste than there was with lead-based solder...
hey Clive you are a mad tinkerer just like me im never satisfied with something it can allways be better !!!
Great video, thanks! Is it possible to convert these worklights to mains 230 volt?
They're already based on mains voltage work lights.
Can you explain how for us non Engineers?
Clive ye just saved me from having to watch the xfactor. (Mrs has the remote) haha
+Orbital Tube god thats an awful show.
+Orbital Tube install the app on your cell phone to also control the tv! lol
I did the opposite of shorting the system out like that. I was working on an external DVD drive for a tablet PC. I had it plugged into my laptop's USB Port and it was not working right. There was a 2.5 in power port for 5 volts on the back of the DVD drive, so I thought I will just plug in the 5 volt brick that runs my clock on my desk. For some reason I had it unplugged anyhow, so I grabbed the cord and plugged her in. My laptop shut down and magic smoke came from the keyboard! Then I noticed I had grabbed the 12 volt cord for anther device and fed my laptop USB with an extra 12 volts. The USB have never worked since. Well the laptop does have one USB 3 port and it still works. Guy has to be careful even in his own shop.
Next step: Squeeze a small switchmode LED driver in there for better efficiency! :)
+Niklas Bergsten that would remain constant brightness, but it uses a resistor, so goes dimmer over time, which should last longer overall, I dislike lights with both led drivers and protected cells, basically they work perfectly, and suddenly turn off when flat, no warning, i prefer mine to dim down as a warning.
+Niklas Bergsten that would remain constant brightness, but it uses a resistor, so goes dimmer over time, which should last longer overall, I dislike lights with both led drivers and protected cells, basically they work perfectly, and suddenly turn off when flat, no warning, i prefer mine to dim down as a warning.
+jusb1066 well you could always add a little LED somewhere that either stays off until the voltage gets to about 3.3 volts or do the opposite which would probably be easier to implement and have it always on until about 3.3 volts, so that would tell you that you only have a few minutes left.
Awesome mod! what's the actual runtime now!
+santiago vindell x 2
your next project should be those lights with wireless dmx512 and rgb leds, :)
Cant you just add 2 more 18650s in there in parallel?
Drinking and working on electrical stuff at the same time.... Is that called Drinking-n-Sparking?
URL for work light?
Awesome tweakage good sir...keep it up
I would like to see one of those with solar charging and run off a 7.2 v 1800 mah rc car battery pack
One thing that Chinese manufacturers always get right is their ability to glue things together..
It's almost like the most expensive item in some cheap electronics is the adhesives they use to hold stuff together.
I really like your videos and I just saw something that would be a cool project for an LED loving guy like yourself. A large LED music analyzer but I was wondering if you could make a really huge one with color changing LED bulbs (Edison or bayonette cap). Since you are the go to guy for prope LED based projects I was wondering if maybe this could be a project and possibly a kit you could sell on your website. Thanks for the great videos BTW.
It is like watching paint dry. Paint that can explode! :P
Totally because I always worry about that hidden thermonuclear detonation hazard when painting my walls😂
The 0 at the end of 18650 denotes that it is a round cell.
+Scott Savage
Do you have a source for that? Because I think it really is just the length in 1/10 of mm. The same numbering system is used for button cells.
Awesome video and videos!!! Keep it up BIg
When you're cutting those combined battery wires, can't you just use a ceramic knife?