Dive light from E-Bay -- Great buy!!!

[TT_Vert]

Just dove w/ this light changing the head using this process and it was amazing!!

 

[fnog]

Be warned and warn your buddies, there are shops and websites in europe that re-label these and sell for over 200 bucks. Such as this
Taucheruhr - Unterwasserkamera - Taucherlampe - Unterwasserblitz und Meer RIFF dive
They put a sticker and make the price 10x on the lamp, 2x on the battery. Dontcha just love german quality ?

I have even seen that some poor fellas from Germany and The Netherlands proudly posted video on youtube. What I have not seen yet is a side-by-side video with the same torch at 1/10th of the price as it came directly from china.

If you have the authority or know-how to try and investigate whether this is fraudulent by european rules, and report it, please do.

 

[Jondjames]

So I just pulled the trigger on this single battery light from the California seller. I also just noticed it doesn't come with a battery. Can someone recommend the best battery to use with this light and maybe a link to where k can buy it. Thanks

 

[spoolin01]

It's a long thread but you might want to read back through at least the first several pages. Performance and satisfaction reports seemed to vary considerably and were quite possibly battery related to a significant degree. I think this is because the light doesn't use much in the way of current or voltage control circuitry, so the intrinsic characteristics of the battery matter more, but that's just speculation. It's quite possible there are unit-to-unit differences or variability as well.

I bought the black 4200MAh Shoshine batteries, but in truth haven't used mine enough to comment about battery life. I also tried some cheap Ultrafire batteries and was disappointed at how quickly (well under an hour) the light noticeably dimmed. At the least the Shoshine batteries improved on that.

If maximum performance is not needed, you can get by with the more common 18650 batteries by employing some sort of non-conductive sleeve around the battery to center it in the light body.

 

[stuartv]

I got some 5500mAh Soshine's off eBay.

Soshine 4pcs/lot 26650 5500mAh PCB Protected Rechargeable Li-ion Battery B4S2

They tested at an actual 5200 - 5300 mAh in my Opus charger/tester. I am very satisfied with that.

 

[Jondjames]

Ok so I've read the entire thread and still have a couple questions regarding the batteries. Sorry I'm not real versed in any of this but I'm assuming the higher the mAh the longer the battery will last?? I was planning on going with the 5500 mAh, but found some that say "high drain" and I'm not sure if that is good or bad. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[spoolin01]

Don't think you can go on MAh alone, esp since there are no standards for setting that spec and it can also simply be a lie (like the *****Fire brands). I'm guessing that high drain is desirable, but haven't tried to confirm that. Probably best to just go with a model that someone else has testified to. Some trial and error might be needed even there.

 

[fmerkel]

Just because they "claim" a high mA capacity doesn't mean they have it. Some brands like Ultrafire will claim they have 8000mA in a 18650 which is complete fabrication. Likely they will have 800mA. People get taken by this all the time. You need to go with a KNOWN product from a KNOWN vendor. Even then there can be issues. Gearbest just recently sold some AWT batteries (a very good brand), they claimed were genuine. When purchasers got them and tested them they turned out to be half capacity and fakes. Even the Chinese retailers get taken in by Chinese copies and fakes.

It's really useful to have someone like sturatv buy and test. Saves a lot of trouble. He has the equipment and knowledge to do it.Unless you KNOW what you are buying, have the ability to test yourself and are willing to experiment and be taken once in awhile, it's best to follow someone's lead.
And you need to be SURE the person you are following knows what they are doing. Many do not.

High drain is only useful if you have a device that is very amperage hungry, like power tools of a VERY high output light. Usually you have to give up some capacity to get a high output battery. Absolutely not necessary for a light like this.

 

[stuartv]

Just because they "claim" a high mA capacity doesn't mean they have it. Some brands like Ultrafire will claim they have 8000mA in a 18650 which is complete fabrication. Likely they will have 800mA. People get taken by this all the time. You need to go with a KNOWN product from a KNOWN vendor. Even then there can be issues. Gearbest just recently sold some AWT batteries (a very good brand), they claimed were genuine. When purchasers got them and tested them they turned out to be half capacity and fakes. Even the Chinese retailers get taken in by Chinese copies and fakes.

It's really useful to have someone like sturatv buy and test. Saves a lot of trouble. He has the equipment and knowledge to do it.Unless you KNOW what you are buying, have the ability to test yourself and are willing to experiment and be taken once in awhile, it's best to follow someone's lead.
And you need to be SURE the person you are following knows what they are doing. Many do not.

High drain is only useful if you have a device that is very amperage hungry, like power tools of a VERY high output light. Usually you have to give up some capacity to get a high output battery. Absolutely not necessary for a light like this.

Thanks for the props, fmerkel.

For the record, I absolutely do not consider myself an expert on these things. But, I do know enough to feel like my Opus charger/tester (which I do recommend to anyone as a good 4-battery charger) is giving me reasonably accurate and useful info.

And it is my understanding (not being an expert) that fmerkel is exactly correct. Dive lights like these definitely do not need a high drain battery.

And, @Jondjames, to directly answer your question: Yes, a higher mAh battery will keep the light on for longer. But, as has been noted, you can't judge a battery's capacity by the rating on the label. To last longer, it needs to actually BE higher mAh capacity, not just say it is on the label.

Related to that, I will point out that if you're going to have rechargeable batteries, you need a charger. As with the batteries, chargers range from cheap single-cell chargers that are practically worthless, to multi-cell chargers and even testers.

I have enough lights, strobes, etc. that I have a 4-cell tester/charger now and I think I'm going to buy another one. Some days, being able to only charge 4 batteries (or 2 x 26650) at a time is very inconvenient. Anyway.... if you're going to invest in a decent charger, you may as well buy once, cry once, as they say, and get a 4-cell charger that also has a decent Refresh program and the ability to test cells.

I have used my Opus to test cells that tested very low, compared to their original capacity, and then used the Refresh program to restore them to very close to their original capacity.

And, even good quality batteries go bad eventually. Being able to test your good batteries periodically, so that you can know when it's time to replace them could easily save a dive for you.

So, if you're going to invest in rechargeable batteries for dive lights, I definitely would suggest to consider getting something like the Opus BT-C3400 to charge/maintain/test your batteries. $55 or so is not THAT expensive for what you are getting.

https://www.amazon.com/BT-C3400-Universal-Analyzer-rechargeable-batteries/dp/B00NR77SL2/ref=sr_1_1

Just for the record, you can use this unit with 4 different types of batteries in it and have each one on a different program (i.e. 1 on Charge, 1 on Refresh, 1 on Discharge/Test, 1 on Discharge) simultaneously. And it has options for how much current to use when charging or discharging, from 500mA to 2000mA. So, if you're in a hurry, you can bump it up to charge at 2A. Or if you have all night, you can let it go at 500mA (which I think is better for battery life in the long term).

 

[spoolin01]

High drain is only useful if you have a device that is very amperage hungry, like power tools of a VERY high output light. Usually you have to give up some capacity to get a high output battery. Absolutely not necessary for a light like this.

Not sure how you can make a categorical statement like that for this light so far. It doesn't appear so far the the issue with this light is as simple as just getting enough true MAh capacity. My light can draw 3A or more, which makes it a fairly high drain device, compared to most lights and even to small power tools. A single Li-Ion battery is not well voltage-matched to driving an LED naked, and this light doesn't appear to have much in the way of driver circuitry. Because of that, until better data or analysis is at hand, I think the internal resistance characteristics of the battery used is still a promising lead for explaining the wide range of reported results here.