LI-ION battery for my DIY canister light

[eelnoraa]

Don't lithium ion batteries shut down at much below about 60F?

Definitely not. Not even close. I have used Li-on battery in -20C (-4F), not in water obviously, they work just fine.

---------- Post added May 11th, 2015 at 01:56 AM ----------

And how would Tesla or any car maker sell their car if 60F is the cut off!

 

[spoolin01]

Definitely not. Not even close. I have used Li-on battery in -20C (-4F), not in water obviously, they work just fine.

---------- Post added May 11th, 2015 at 01:56 AM ----------

And how would Tesla or any car maker sell their car if 60F is the cut off!

Yes, I have since come to believe the issue was the UltraFire batteries, as of the six I bought and was using at that time, one has died completely, despite just sitting on the shelf since then, and two are now only showing 600mAh capacity. I imagine one or more of those shoddy cells was involved in the erratic performance that I thought was related to the cold.

In addition, I had the experience with lithium primary cells where they wouldn't power a radio at sub-freezing temperatures, while alkalines (which are expected to suffer in the cold) worked fine, but after warming the lithiums in my pocket, they worked as well. Again not a perfect experiment, as I had no other lithium primaries to test, and it could have been related to the radio as well.

I see however, that there are Tesla owners who complain of cold weather battery performance. Maybe they got some from the same batch as me.
I read the other day that the Tesla battery (not sure if that's the car battery, or the new home battery they announced) is built of 7000+ 18650 cells inside.

Some ''BT-C3100 analyzer'' is not some powerfull reference for battery testing . Get something with PC data export which can export values in some free but powerfull program like Home | LogView and then analyze graph !

I got it mainly for flexibility in charging and maintaining batteries, not really for careful analysis. To me it seemed like the LaCrosse models that I have used and liked, but with Li-Ion capability.

Do the better charger/analyzers offer an incremental benefit to routine charging and maintenance that you see? Is the capacity data from the BT-C3100 not reliable? I'm interested in learning about this. I also just got a Turnigy Reaktor 20A/300W which has already brought a power tool battery back to life that the OEM charger could not, and nicely charged some small 6V and 12V lead acid batteries that I didn't have 3-stage chargers for. I believe that model will export via USB.

 

[eelnoraa]

I see however, that there are Tesla owners who complain of cold weather battery performance. Maybe they got some from the same batch as me.
I read the other day that the Tesla battery (not sure if that's the car battery, or the new home battery they announced) is built of 7000+ 18650 cells inside.

Yes, Tesla uses 18650 cells from Panasonic. Their Giga factory is actually a join venture with Panasonic, so Pan provide the actual battery manufacturing technology. Tesla is just making use of the batteries.

 

[lucca brassi]

got it mainly for flexibility in charging and maintaining batteries, not really for careful analysis. To me it seemed like the LaCrosse models that I have used and liked, but with Li-Ion capability.

Do the better charger/analyzers offer an incremental benefit to routine charging and maintenance that you see? Is the capacity data from the BT-C3100 not reliable? I'm interested in learning about this. I also just got a Turnigy Reaktor 20A/300W which has already brought a power tool battery back to life that the OEM charger could not, and nicely charged some small 6V and 12V lead acid batteries that I didn't have 3-stage chargers for. I believe that model will export via USB.

I have do many regenerations not on lion but on NiMh batteries by several charging / discharging and comparing graphs you can conclude about life/lifetime of battery . As you mentioned Turnigy Reaktor 20A/300W it looks it dont have PC communication , just storing parameters for charging/discharging , but it has very nice option (which i miss at my charger very much ) and that is rapid discharging

Discharge current: 0.1~20A

which also tells about very musch about battery condition and health

The charger has a usb plug on the side but i have not attached to my pc yet. It indicates it has data logging in the menu system. i'll scan the manual shortly and upload to the files section.

some chargers have usb port for charging mobile phones , cameras , tablets through USB port ( both side connectors in 4pin connector , but 2 central pins which are responsible for communication are blank )

 

[spoolin01]

I have do many regenerations not on lion but on NiMh batteries by several charging / discharging and comparing graphs you can conclude about life/lifetime of battery . As you mentioned Turnigy Reaktor 20A/300W it looks it dont have PC communication , just storing parameters for charging/discharging , but it has very nice option (which i miss at my charger very much ) and that is rapid discharging which also tells about very musch about battery condition and health



some chargers have usb port for charging mobile phones , cameras , tablets through USB port ( both side connectors in 4pin connector , but 2 central pins which are responsible for communication are blank )

The manual says something about log files that store 31 hours of charge and discharge data - as well as the program parameter feature - but I haven't tried to grab a log file yet to see what's there.