Archon 32650 Battery Dead Without Use

[excitron]

Hi folks, back in October I bought an Archon W40V light with a 32650 battery. I charged the battery and tried out the light and it worked fine. I never did get a chance to dive and simply put the light away.

I took it out today to check it out again, and the battery appears to be dead. I put it in the charger and the charger light immediately goes green, indicating the battery is charged. A voltage check shows it's dead however, as you can see in the image below.

Has anyone experience anything like this? The was all new and I can't see a battery dying like that not only in the span of time I've had it, but that it wasn't even used. The battery, from what I can tell, is a "protected" type.

Thanks for any info on this.

 

[fmerkel]

3 things:
1. The light could have slowly drained the battery. Some devices are funky that way. Don't trust any of them until proven otherwise. ( I have 4 identical high end cameras for UW photography. 2 of them have parasitic drain on the battery. I have to pull those to not kill them).

2. The protection circuit kicked out. I kind of suspect this since you are showing no voltage at all. If your charger will not reset it you need a better charger. (The chargers that comes in packages like that tend to be lame). Any good battery shops around? Resetting the PCB takes literally seconds if that's the problem.
BU-808a: How to Awaken a Sleeping Li-ion
This is a simple method if you have another good Li-on battery (Hotwire method):
How to reset battery protection?


3. It's not good practice to fully charge a Li-on cell and store it in the device for long periods.
That SHOULD NOT have killed it, but it's not a good idea

Long term storage at full charge is not good for any lithium rechargeable.... period.

 

[KeithG]

some lights draw significant battery current even when "turned off". does it have a screw off switch that mechanically disconnects the battery to turn it off? or does it have a push button / slider switch that is continuously sampled by the internal circuitry?

 

[fmerkel]

Sort your battery problem out?

 

[excitron]

Thanks for your replies. I just got back here, will check out your links. Thanks again for your replies.

 

[excitron]

Hmmm, well OK, the first link doesn't really tell you how to wake a battery up, just that you're SOL if it goes to sleep.

The second link assumes you have either a second identical battery or a power supply with a limited currant output at the proper voltage, neither of which I have.

So I guess I just trash this battery. I saw a battery listed on Amazon that appears as though it's direct replacement for a relative cheap price. I suppose I'll just get one of them and make sure it's charged from time to time.

 

[tursiops]

I have two of those 32650 Trustfires; neither is as good at mAh or holding a charge as the no-name battery that came with my no-name light. My light, by the way, DOES drain my battery even while off.

 

[fmerkel]

Hang onto it and try to revive it when the new battery comes. You can also just stack 3 NiMh or alkalines in series and do the same thing. It's just looking for ~ 4-5volt kick.

FWIW there are a lot of fakes and bad deals on lithium batteries. Trustfire is a brand that can be fine or can be a miserable fake. I have a couple 26650 that are real and they are OK batteries. I am not familiar with that line in 32650 so can't help much there.
Amazon is not actually selling it, they are passing through the deal. OTOH you do have some protection there if it turns out to be a lousy battery.

To find out if your light is the drain:
Charge up the battery, check the resting voltage, put it in the light, then check it every few days. It should hold the charge well. Keep a record.
If it does not, try the same thing but not in the light. If it self discharges out of the light the battery itself is the problem.
Lithium should hold a good charge for a long time.

But, as I stated, you really don't want to store it for a long time at full charge as that is hard on the battery.

 

[excitron]

Thanks again for your replies. I'll try the battery trick with the Trustfire battery. Even if the Trustfire is not as good, If I can revive the existing battery then I'll have a backup battery as well.

 

[fmerkel]

What's the brand of the current cell?
Like I said, you can use 3xAA, C, or D cells to do the same thing or any 18650 battery if you have one of those.

Don't know how much you want to get into this. There are battery chargers that are significantly better than the probably no-name brand that came with your battery. I simply will not use those anymore myself, I don't trust them. If you are willing to jump up to a much better brand like an Opus BT - C3100 V2.2 you can do all kinds of testing and charging of all your batteries. It's a good investment. Good batteries deserve a good charger.
Alternative: Liitokala Li500 (I have one of these on the way to check it out. Has good reviews from a reliable source).

BTW, the only way you'll know for sure how decent the Trustfires are is to run them through an analyzing charger like this. I've have a few eBay clunkers replaced this way when I could provide pictures of the discharge process.