Trustfire "flames" 18650 li-ion batteries - "2400mAh" protected

[metalphreak]

Bought these a while ago from manafont to power some LED flashlights. None of the capacity ratings on these are ever accurate. Surprisingly, these actually performed pretty close to the mark! Managed to get 2111mAh out of a full charge.

I'm finding the XT60 connectors from hobby RC places are quite handy for attaching various test rigs to my DC load. The male connectors with 10cm of 12AWG silicone wire are only about a dollar from hobbyking. Soldered one of these to a cheap 18650 holder from ebay and used the existing tiny gauge wiring on it for remote voltage sensing.

Discharge test was done at 1A down to 2.75v. You can see it starting to drop voltage quickly in the graph near the end. I did some further discharge on this cell after the initial test. It only provided 1A for another minute before the low voltage cutoff PCB circuit on the cell disconnected the battery.

Video below shows the test rig and the maynuo software.

[cuban8]

Not sure whether I would buy LiIon batteries that call themselves "Flames"...

[RCMR]

For some reason, many of the Chinese manufacturers seem hell-bent on using the word "fire" and pictures of flames on their Li-Ion cells -- go figure.

I guess it's better than "The Happy Dragon Feeling Hotly Bright Batterly Company" 

[amyk]

I believe the name came from Surefire torches ("flashlights" for the Americans here...)

There's also Fireworm, Spiderfire, Ultrafire, and Uranusfire (LOL)

[metalphreak]

Don't forget FandyFire!

I was fairly surprised at how well these held voltage. When it started to drop a bit after 15mins, I did a quick head calc on how much capacity it would have based on the rate of voltage drop. Would have only been around 1000mAh. My only issue is you get different cells in every batch. I'm not sure if I bought the same ones now they'd be as good. These were only $8 or so for a pair over a year ago.

I tested some 14500 Trustfire Silver Protected cells not long ago. One was absolutely rubbish. 900mAh? More like 250. The other was actually closer to 500mAh but the protection PCB on it was cactus... Can't win them all