Trustfires and recharge port

[Darth Zion]

Tim has these back in stock http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/TrustFire-Protected-37V-900mAh-14500-Lithium-Battery-2-Pack-P342.aspx, but it says not to use these with a recharge port. Is that a CYA thing or should they really not be used in this way?

[Count Malik]

although they say not to be used with a recharge port... you can still do so... but its highly recomended that you use the "Wall" charger for charging these specific batteries... but its not the fact that they are li-ion that can't be used with a recharge port set up. because MANY people have done that! haha

[Novastar]

The reason for this is--the cells are individually protected. Therefore, recharging them as a "7.2v" pack or even in series or what not could be bad over time.

However... I've not (yet) been able to confirm that using a charge port for a PAIR of individually protected cells (being used for ~7.2v)... is dangerous or "bad". It's just... it is what it is... :)

[Count Malik]

and speak of the devil... Its Nova! And I think you hit it right on the head with that one Nova. :)

[Darth Zion]

Ok thanks guys I just wanted to make sure before I bought them and tried to use a charge port and blow my saber up.

[Strydur]

I just dont want someone blowing up thier house and then blaming me :mrgreen:

[Darth Zion]

Damn is it really that big of a deal. Could it actually blow up that bad? I hope not. If so then maybe I can find another use for them, oh wait not a good plan.

[Count Malik]

look up li-ion explosions, on youtube... they can prolly burn down a house, easly if you mis-use them haha:D;) but it depends on what your gunna run lux III, k2, p4,etc... then your basic 4.8v nimh style should do ya just fine... but its always nice to have alittle bit longer run times with the li-ions! hehe

[Darth Zion]

The plan is to run a sabersound sound board and a Lux V overdriven with a 1000ma puck, with the recharge port wired for kill key and charge. I also ordered the smart charger. Would that be "miss useing them?"

[DJMoonbass]

what about that li-ion smart charger?

[Darth Zion]

What do you mean what about the lith-ion smart charger?

[Count Malik]

the li-ion smart charger WILL charge those batteries... but they must be soldered togeather WITH PCB protection in the pack you wish to make. Now i'm no expert in li-ions, but i know the basics.... the trustfires however are SINGLY PCB protected (so each battery is 3.6v PCB protected) take a battery holder of your choice, and since your running a lux. V you can run the trustfire pack (2) on the LED and it will power it to its approprate voltage. BUT the catch here is you won't get very good run times with a 7.2 volt set up... but idk if that will be an issue, because some people don't care, and others like to have more battery power to run their saber for longer.:cool:

[Darth Zion]

by shorter time are we talking like 2 min or 15min then dead?

[Count Malik]

no haha but around 12-20 min if your lucky... but you also gotta think about heat, lux V give off alot of heat, so about 12-20 min isn't such a bad thing lol :rolleyes: because lux. V's are expensive and no body wants to burn out a $25 LED haha, so the timming before your saber dies is (for me anyways) perfict... Oh! and don't forget li-ions keep your saber running full power, and then dies automaticly (if your run your saber all the way anyways) most people dont usually run their sabers all the way so they don't always experence that! :eek:

[Darth Zion]

12 mins of bat time is pleanty for me.

[Count Malik]

then i recomend a two AA battery holder which will hold the trustfires... as for the charger all li-ion will work fine, but.... like the trust fires say to charge out of hilt seperatly, its recomended to get the trustfire all-in-one charger.;)

[DJMoonbass]

huh. hey eco will you chime in here for what you did with yours?

because he is using a smart charger to charge two in hilt 14500s powering a green lux 5. which if you are driving just the LED you should get a little more than an hour runtime. but add a board to it then yeah it decreases.

[Darth Zion]

huh. hey eco will you chime in here for what you did with yours?

because he is using a smart charger to charge two in hilt 14500s powering a green lux 5. which if you are driving just the LED you should get a little more than an hour runtime. but add a board to it then yeah it decreases.

Yeah Eco, I would like to hear about you experiance with this set-up.

[Amptrooper]

I have used the trustfires with in hilt charging and have not had a single problem. I use a smart charger however. I have even used a single Trustfire
to power a Jedi board and a K2 with accent 3mm led, in hilt charging and got at least 30 min of great run time. The average total is 40 min of continued use before noted loss of brightness. The smart charger allows you to be able to control the amount of charge. I guess I just don't see the issue as long as you are setting things up right and putting the proper amount of charge in the batteries. I understand that Tim wants to protect himself from any mishaps tho.
Am I wrong with this. I have been doing it for awhile now and have not had any issues. So, I don't know. I would hate to sell a saber or a set up that is dangerous.

[Darth Zion]

So far this setup is working great. I also set up a saber with a hasbro and a green lux 3 with one 3.7 bat and it seems to work great also.

[Novastar]

While we're here... I want to extend a word of caution regarding "smart chargers" (read: the ones that AUTO-DETECT voltage) and sabers...

As far as I have known/learned... the smart chargers (auto-detect) essentially POLL for the correct voltage. As in: ... ... ... 4.2v?? ... ... 8.4v?? ... ... 11.1v??? ... ... 14.4v?? ... ... (repeat)

This is fine and all for most battery cells/setups... but as you might imagine... it is *NOT* fine for any/all driver board/circuit setups!!!!

What I mean is... some of you may choose to do a recharge setup on a saber without using a "kill power to board" option. Which is GENERALLY fine... but if you have a smart charger (auto!)... even if you momentarily feed an MR board ~14v... it will not be pretty.

I've learned this the "hard" way, when one of my kill setups somehow grounded out (through the saber hilt??) and it is likely that I momentarily fed ~14v into a board which was... well... not capable of such voltage. That could have been avoided if the charger was able to be manually set to solely output the correct voltage.

So, if you have chargers where you MANUALLY select the voltage... I highly recommend those over any "auto-detection" ones unless you ~NEVER~ have a board connected (as in you completely remove the cells / detach with quick disconnect) when you do your charging.

I hope people understand why I'm saying this.

[Darth Zion]

Yeah the smart charger from the store is the kind that you select your own voltage. And my setup is such that it disconects power from the board.

[Novastar]

Correct, this is NOT applicable to the one in the TCSS store... I meant to say--people should be cautious if they buy/utilize "auto-detect" chargers.

Reason I brought it up was... a few people were asking me recently (I never remember where--so many messages from TCSS, FX, Y-tube, e-mail!!)... and I want people to understand that:

* "Smart"-charger (auto-detect, usually 4 detections)
is NOT THE SAME as
* Multi-charger (manually select voltage, usually 4 choices)

So... hmm... hope it helps people out there. BEFORE they mess something up.

Ironically... I don't find the "smart" chargers so smart in this fashion, lol.

[Darth Zion]

it would be kinda hard to sell though if they called it a "Dumb" charger