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3d Printed Battery Pack For Whites Machines


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A week or so ago I had ordered a 3D printed battery pack for whites machines, obviously including my V3i. It uses 3 of the large lithium rechargeable 18650 batteries. I received it already even though it was shipped from Ukraine. It has a rugged, premium feel to it. This is my first 3D printed anything, and the quality surprised me. Definitely not a flimsy piece of kit. It fits in my V3i perfectly. Right now I’m using 2,500 to 3,000. I’ll let you know how these hold up and how higher MAH versions hold up once they arrive. I’m pretty excited about these in comparison to competing packs that top out at 3100 mah. It’s an inconvenience to not be able to charge the pack itself without removing the batteries, but an open holder also has its advantages. I may even attempt to make a charging cradle. The pack seems to only be available on eBay, with one remaining at this moment. I’m sure he will fire up the printer for another batch soon though. He likes to sell one batch before making more. 

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"As 18650s improve we are seeing mAh's of 4,000-10,000"

I suggest treating any claims of over 4000 mAh as horse excrement, particularly those anonymous no-brand types.
If they were from a genuine top brand manufacturer, or re-wrapped ( usually protected ) ones from leading Vape brands or Flashlight/torch makers, then perhaps 4000 is now possible. But the generally-accepted best capacity ones are from Sanyo-Panasonic, coming in at 3500 mAh.
Development has been a bit slow on 18650's recently, the electric vehicle makers are favouring 21700 size now, and it may take a while for the tech to make it to 18650 size.

99C8DF0E-89AB-4B44-B30F-0B3FAD25FFAB.jpeg

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19 minutes ago, PimentoUK said:

"As 18650s improve we are seeing mAh's of 4,000-10,000"

I suggest treating any claims of over 4000 mAh as horse excrement, particularly those anonymous no-brand types.
If they were from a genuine top brand manufacturer, or re-wrapped ( usually protected ) ones from leading Vape brands or Flashlight/torch makers, then perhaps 4000 is now possible. But the generally-accepted best capacity ones are from Sanyo-Panasonic, coming in at 3500 mAh.
Development has been a bit slow on 18650's recently, the electric vehicle makers are favouring 21700 size now, and it may take a while for the tech to make it to 18650 size.

Thank you for raising a red flag on that. It would appear that when the batteries are sold in sets of 4 for example they are multiplying 2,500 mAh by 4 and misleadingly labeling them 10,000 mah. Comment edited so I don’t contribute to the problem 

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It's a serious problem, there's plenty to trap the unwary. It's easy to take any old cell ( old stock, salvaged from unused equipment, salvaged from USED equipment, small cell fitted into a larger package etc etc ) and then put a pretty new plastic sleeve on it and claim it's 12000 mAh.

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I’m surprised at the tolerance Amazon has for this. I was about to finish up my order which would’ve included “10,000 mAh batteries” had you not commented on it. I’m also lucky I didn’t notice this last time I ordered the 3,000 mAh. You saved me some unnecessary and misplaced expense 

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This impartial, honest, battery test website is well worth a look:

https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650IndividualTest UK.html

Notice how tragically bad the 'xxxxx-Fire' ones, with ridiculous stated capacities perform:

https://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/UltraFire CN18650 9800mAh (Yellow) UK.html

... they must be full of air or cardboard or something equally inert.

 

Two informative battery-related websites/forums are the CandlePower one for flashlight junkies, and SecondLifeStorage for recycling enthusiasts and off-grid / prepper types:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forum.php

and

https://secondlifestorage.com/index.php

 

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Love these orange packs. I bought two back in 2017 for my Tdi Sl. Now use them in the Xl Pro and MXT. So three years without any problems. Yes it is a very good idea to use quality protected cells, good 18650 cells are an investment and cannot be recommended highly enough. Shaves a bit of weight off as well compared to alkaline batteries. The voltage is not too high and there is enough power to go for days on end with the VLF machines.  The ability to swap out for fresh cells in the field is an added bonus when using the Tdi Sl.. You are on a winner..

All the best.

Tdi Sl battery packs..jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just ordered one, and a set of 18650's.  Looking forward to installing it in my V3i.

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On 3/24/2021 at 9:24 PM, ☠ Cipher said:

A week or so ago I had ordered a 3D printed battery pack for whites machines, obviously including my V3i. It uses 3 of the large lithium rechargeable 18650 batteries. I received it already even though it was shipped from Ukraine. It has a rugged, premium feel to it. This is my first 3D printed anything, and the quality surprised me. Definitely not a flimsy piece of kit. It fits in my V3i perfectly. Right now I’m using 2,500 to 3,000. I’ll let you know how these hold up and how higher MAH versions hold up once they arrive. I’m pretty excited about these in comparison to competing packs that top out at 3100 mah. It’s an inconvenience to not be able to charge the pack itself without removing the batteries, but an open holder also has its advantages. I may even attempt to make a charging cradle. The pack seems to only be available on eBay, with one remaining at this moment. I’m sure he will fire up the printer for another batch soon though. He likes to sell one batch before making more.

Hello Cipher. Those 3d printed batt. packs are great for sure. And they are on a budget, compared to other solutions. The first Li-ion pack I build myself, as many of us did.

566725927_WhitesBatteriesLi-Ion2.thumb.jpg.519ad559d45ab6b983899dc6d8f13957.jpg308327113_WhitesBatteriesLi-Ion3.thumb.jpg.18ae57043267500bdec559e77afcdf8e.jpg

Works as it should, but the 3d printed one is a lot more trustworthy 😉. So I ordered one and have to agree, it is a very well build battery pack which I really like.

DSCF3242.thumb.JPG.ed0ec4e842243e8725c9d3680a8cb883.JPG

Into this pack protected and unprotected 18650 cells can be used, but I recommend the protected ones as you never know when the detector will really shut down at low voltage.

And to me there is a big advantage to get the cells out for charging. In the past I had some issues with battery pack which had the cells soldered in a row. The charger showed them fully charged but when inserted to the detector the voltage dropped immediantely to the low bat. level. When the pack was metered the voltage seemed to be okay, but a measurement with a attached burden showed that one ore more cells were faulty.

And for charging there are so many chargers in the market... this is what I use.

1700852987_WhitesBatteriescharger.thumb.jpg.49c7c0f54594c2a498ca1aae61b5519d.jpg

It's a great thread you started, thanks.

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