I recently ordered some cells from DX and in the spirit of the site I thought I would do a pseudo-review in as much detail as my skills allow me to do. I was able to set up my battery charger with serial output and combined with a week-end of on and off coding was able to produce an accucell-6 format logger. Here is what I have so far, I will update the post once I get new cells.
UltraFire Protected 18650 3.7V 3000mAh Lithium Batteries (2-Pack)
Coming soon
- OMGBattery A123 LiFePO4 Cells
- UltraFire 3000mAh discharge curve at lower discharge current (to simulate 2.4GHz Tx)
18650 Rechargeable Lithium LiFePO4 Battery 2-Pack (1350mAh)
A relatively inexpensive pair of batteries from DealExtreme. The pair in total costs $7.77 which works out to $3.89/cell. Each cell weighs 40g and comes in the 18650 size (ø18mm × 65mm). Both cells were shipped at 3.3V.
Specifications (from DealExtreme)
- Rechargeable LiFePO4 18650 3.0V~3.6V 1350mAh Battery
- Life cycle: 2000 times (Traditional Li-ion: 500 times)
- Never explode or catch fire
- Working Voltage: 3.2V and Peak Voltage: 3.6V
- Charging cut-off voltage: 3.6V
- Discharge cut-off voltage: 2.2V
- Actual capacity: 1350 mAh
REAL Specifications
- Capacity: 1100 mAh
- Not a protected cell. The "cut off voltages" are at what voltages YOU should cut it off .
There were no C ratings mentioned anywhere, I charged mine at a little over 1C.
Halfway through writing this it occurred to me I have neglected to test the current of the battery. I currently don't have all that is required to do so, but I will get on to it . If anyone has any tips on doing this I would appreciate it if you were to share.
If I have missed anything, think I should include something or made a mistake or if you think this sucks let me know why in a reply .