4 x 18650 battery holder

oldwelshman

Hi all.
I have been looking for a holder fo 4 x 18650 batteries and cannot find anything suitable, has anyone on here got one and can tell me where to buy?
I had 3 packs from magic shine and they all come sealed, but when I split them found one battery dud and dragging others down which are ok so I am looking for holder to fit them into so I can remove them easily to re charge.
I also bought 4 with built in protection I wish to use

PashleyRider

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=1 ... &_from=R40

Not exactly the toughest search known to man!

oldwelshman

PashleyRider wrote:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=18650+holder+4&_sacat=0&_odkw=18650+holder&_osacat=0&_from=R40

Not exactly the toughest search known to man!

Well spotted I have seen these so maybe I should have been a bit more specific and asked if there are any more compact holders as I put them under the top tube and a holder that is 4 wide and not 2 x 2 is not very practical.

cooldad

A pair of doubles glued together and rewired.

Dan_xz

I've only seen the flat 4's so I would go with a pack made of two doubles as Cooldad says - but make sure you use the same parallel/series configuration as the original pack.

oldwelshman

Dan_xz wrote:

I've only seen the flat 4's so I would go with a pack made of two doubles as Cooldad says - but make sure you use the same parallel/series configuration as the original pack.

I already re made two pack but solderred them on in series /parallel, but dont like to solder these li ion batterries, they are not the easiest or safest to connect wires to hence looking for pack holder.

craker

oldwelshman wrote:

I already re made two pack but solderred them on in series /parallel, but dont like to solder these li ion batterries, they are not the easiest or safest to connect wires to hence looking for pack holder.

But you solder the wires from the battery cases, not the batteries.

When my original 4 cell battery pack died I bought replacement batteries and tried soldering them up as per the original. For whatever reason that never worked, I ended up buying a 2 cell charger and two battery cases. I only run two cells at a time now, easily gives two hours runtime and I've got a pair spare if the power goes mid trip.

Ouija

PashleyRider wrote:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=18650+holder+4&_sacat=0&_odkw=18650+holder&_osacat=0&_from=R40

Not exactly the toughest search known to man!

Those wont accept protected 18650 cells (too long).

oldwelshman

craker wrote:

oldwelshman wrote:

I already re made two pack but solderred them on in series /parallel, but dont like to solder these li ion batterries, they are not the easiest or safest to connect wires to hence looking for pack holder.

But you solder the wires from the battery cases, not the batteries.

When my original 4 cell battery pack died I bought replacement batteries and tried soldering them up as per the original. For whatever reason that never worked, I ended up buying a 2 cell charger and two battery cases. I only run two cells at a time now, easily gives two hours runtime and I've got a pair spare if the power goes mid trip.

I bought protected ones and re soldered them in but charge them with original charger, thats why I am looking for 2x2 holder

Ouija

Simply buy two of these



stick them back to back and wire both red wires together and both black wires together. Wrap in cling film or something similar to keep moisture of them and stick em in a battery or frame bag or a PRO tool frame bottle.

Avoid these....



as they wont except longer protected batteries and half the PCM circuits on the ones i've bought have all failed or been flaky in operation (though you can bypass them by soldering the wires to the B+ B- terminals, instead of the P+ and P- terminals). Not that that's really a problem if your using a good charger to charge the batteries individually and not trying to charge them all in situ through the holder.

Also keep an eye out for stuff like these....



A bit hard to find but can be adapted to your needs (the one pictured is four in parallel, but could be easily be adapted to 2S/2P by flipping two of the batteries over and using a bit of creative soldering and etching of the ring on the top).

Can also buy holders like these....




for making up your own packs (no need to solder metal strips as seen in the picture.. can just use pressure strips instead)

bif

Ive built some 18650 battery holders (for 1, 2, 3 or 4 cells) that can be configured to various parallel / series voltages. E.g, the 4 cell holder can be wired to 3.7, 7.4 or 14.8v as required. Apologies as this is a bit of a first post product plug, but thought they may be of interest to a few DIY bike lamp builders. I have a little cottage business (Customduo) building caving light stuff, but wanted a decent 4 cell holder for a mountain bike light that I built for myself a couple of years ago, and my DealX purchases of the cheapy plastic ones didn't prove too sucessful. Apologies again. John

joey54321

Hey, I know this thread is a bit old but its almost what I am looking for.

I have heard bad things about the Magicshine/cheap Chinese Li ion batteries and would quite like to replace it with batteries I am more comfortable with. Can anyone give me a complete idiots guide to using one of the holders like the above and some individual protected batteris to power a magicshine light?

Thanks

craker

Well... the batteries supplied with my original magicshine lamp 3+ years ago were the unprotected 18650s. Nothing too wrong with that, but the case they were supplied in wasn't waterproof and they died the first time they got rained on.

The following years of use have seen them powered by 6 AA batteries and pairs of 18650 batteries (I have a charger for these now).

TBH anything that gives you ~7 - 8v for the requisite amount of time is suitable. I can't remember what the deal with unprotected batteries is but I do recall one chap saying he threw his battery pack out of the train window when it spontaneously caught fire.

Given the issues I have every year with worn cables and insubstantial connectors I'm switching this year to a torch. It's 500 lumen or so, takes a single 18650 and ought to do a few days commuting before needing a battery change. And there are no issues with waterproofing, dangling cables or connectors that get wet or pull apart. Ask me again this time next year if this system has lived up to the hype ;-).

joey54321

I like the idea of torches as well but I am also running a rear light from the same battery and like having an equally bright rear light so drives can see me.