I'd like advice for a better S Mini cell

Hi,

I am having an issue with my sus and ti Olight S Mini's. When I go into turbo a few times it seems the cell's undervoltage protection kicks in and drops me immediately to medium or low mode. I called Olight and they say the light itself has under-voltage protection. Do you guys think I could run an Efest unprotected IMR in this light? If not could anyone recommend me a cell that would grant me a little more time going into turbo? I tested this with 3 different Olight 16340 cell's. S Mini's do not do this with a non-rechargable CR123A. So I am at a loss. Because the way the light's are behaving it makes them effectively a 60 lumen light (probably more like 100 lumen according to other tests) after a couple times going into turbo with rechargeables in them.

I still like the S Mini's but with a little more turbo energy I'd love them. Also, I am not as concerned about the run times but rather the run time in turbo.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate any advice.

go for a imr cell.

Thank you Jorn. Might a Lifepo4 cell work too? Like this K energy cell?

I have the rainbow Ti. S Mini and run the AWT 16340 high drain IMR cells. I'd like to try the TrustFire IMR 16340s, which HKJ tested out well, but that'll be down the road.

IMRBatteries dot com has them for $4 a piece.

Chris

With these batteries do you get the issue I have? The issue being turbo immediatly stepping down after going into turbo a few times.

ChrisGarrett said:

I have the rainbow Ti. S Mini and run the AWT 16340 high drain IMR cells. I'd like to try the TrustFire IMR 16340s, which HKJ tested out well, but that'll be down the road.

IMRBatteries dot com has them for $4 a piece.

Chris

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andydviking said:

With these batteries do you get the issue I have? The issue being turbo immediatly stepping down after going into turbo a few times.

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Either your batteries suck, or are old, or your light is glitching.

Little cells don't last as long as bigger cells, so if you're banging on a 16340 cell hard, like I do, you won't get anywhere near the cycles as you would a Samsung 30Q.

I blew through some Kinoko 16340 IMRs in under a year, not really cycling them all that often, but they just couldn't hack it in the Garrett household.

For $4, you can afford to buy a few of them and forego that Pizza Hut Double Stuff Crust pizza you've been yearning for.

Chris

HAha I'll definitely try some IMR cells. My cells were new but protected and I am seeing several other people on the web describing what I am with protected 16340 cells. I am not sure why but for 4 bucks I'll try an IMR. Thank you!

ChrisGarrett said:

Either your batteries suck, or are old, or your light is glitching.

Little cells don't last as long as bigger cells, so if you're banging on a 16340 cell hard, like I do, you won't get anywhere near the cycles as you would a Samsung 30Q.

I blew through some Kinoko 16340 IMRs in under a year, not really cycling them all that often, but they just couldn't hack it in the Garrett household.

For $4, you can afford to buy a few of them and forego that Pizza Hut Double Stuff Crust pizza you've been yearning for.

Chris

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andydviking said:

HAha I'll definitely try some IMR cells. My cells were new but protected and I am seeing several other people on the web describing what I am with protected 16340 cells. I am not sure why but for 4 bucks I'll try an IMR. Thank you!

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Lithium-manganese IMR cells generally don't come with protection circuits, since the chemistry has a slightly higher thermal runaway temperature.

If yours have protection circuits, those circuits might be glitching, although I don't think that they'd be resetting.

Try a few AWTs and see what you see.

I don't have your problem with AW, AWT or even an Efest IMR that I have.

Chris

Just the Olight IMR that goes with the S1R Baton has protection (or at least is labeled that way). I have 2 IMR's on order that supposedly will get here Friday. I will test and report back. Thank you for all your input. It would be nice to go into turbo a bit more. I really like the S Mini's but I wish they had another mode between 60 lumens and turbo. Such as 200 lumens.

ChrisGarrett said:

Lithium-manganese IMR cells generally don't come with protection circuits, since the chemistry has a slightly higher thermal runaway temperature.

If yours have protection circuits, those circuits might be glitching, although I don't think that they'd be resetting.

Try a few AWTs and see what you see.

I don't have your problem with AW, AWT or even an Efest IMR that I have.

Chris

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I use the Olight 16340 in my SMini Ti and I can get my light to do the same as the OPs, if I let the cell get down to 3.5 volts. Fully charged it has no problems.

My S1R has just over 100 full dead to full charge cycles on the original cell and there is no difference in run times. By full dead I mean it won't turn on at any lumen level.

These lights wont do turbo with 50% of the batteries run time left on it. They only turbo if fully charged. Good thing about that is the turbo levels are rarely actually needed. The darker it gets the less lumens you need to actually use a flashlight. I tend to mostly use mine when it's very dark. I live rural and there is no city street lights or house lights or car headlights to wash out even 10 lumens. Even in a urban setting 60 lumens is more than enough.

I think the OP is expecting too much form a battery with half it's capacity being used up.

I've found the Windyfire 600mAh IMR to be a good one.

WindyFire? Really?

Sounds like a goody, but that name....

I ordered it directly from windyfire.com. Wouldn't trust ebay etc for any *fire batteries.

I actually got the Efest battery that I linked to and so far so good. It seems to stay and go into turbo way longer. Maukka when you use your IMR's in the S Mini when do you know to charge the battery? I am getting conflicting info as to whether the S Mini has low voltage protection or not. I read somewhere that it stops at 1 volt. Do you just charge up when it will not go up from low mode?

maukka said:

I've found the Windyfire 600mAh IMR to be a good one.

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So I found one potential issue. On my S Mini stainless steel I tried using other caps and it work far better so I figured there must be a contact issue. I then grabbed a 240 grit sand paper and figured I'd lightly sand where the positive end contacts the cap. After one second of sanding I saw a perfect little circle fall off where I believe this was supposed to be fron the factory but mine remained on there for some reason. I guess it was a little bit of metal or anodizing that remained unfortunately. It now goes into turbo mode far longer. I really wish there was a 200 or 300 lumen mode on this light. Ah well, maybe I'll just have to get the S 1 Mini now lol.

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