In my article, I will tell you how to make an insanely bright rechargeable LED flashlight and turn night into day with your own hands. Show 4 more images
Most of us use flashlights when hiking, for night walks, or simply when going out into the dark. We usually buy these lights at hardware stores, and they shine quite dimly. To fix this, I designed and built a heavy-duty flashlight that is suitable for illuminating the road at night, creating cool photo and video effects (like glowing spheres in science fiction), illuminating a work site and much more, all at a reasonable cost.
Answers to 5 frequently asked questions about choosing an e-cigarette battery
Battery
Look at the picture of the battery
18650 for an electronic cigarette.
It is quite difficult to choose the right battery for an electronic cigarette, since there are many varieties with different degrees of power. For example, they work for a long time,
but they cannot be turned on at full power. Others won't get hot even at 40 amps, but they require frequent charging. When selecting a battery for an electric cigarette, people wonder about the criteria.
There are five main criteria: High energy intensity,
rated current indicator, voltage when used, temperature when used, cost.
There is no point in paying attention to other nuances, like the color of a cigarette. All this is secondary. To choose a good unit, you should study all the criteria in detail. As a result, the buyer will receive all the necessary information for a good purchase. Energy intensity
Electronic cigarette
Energy intensity
expressed in milliamps per hour. Accordingly, the higher this indicator, the better the model will be. Safety depends on the rated current. The conclusion suggests itself that it is advisable to buy batteries with the highest current supply. For example, the LG hb6 battery has 30 A, which means it is suitable for 40 A. But having made such a purchase, a person will prefer high voltage and sacrifice energy intensity. The energy capacity of the above battery is only 1500 mAh. Therefore, it will hold less charge than options with 3000 mAh.
It is necessary to select the rated current indicators ,
which will not overheat the device, but do not sacrifice battery life. It is better to purchase the LG HD2 model, which has a rating of 25 A and microamps per hour. This will be the average. As for the voltage, you should not rely on this nuance when choosing - if the cigarette has two previous indicators that are good, then the voltage will be sufficient.
Which battery is better for a led flashlight? flashlight charging tests.
You also need to select devices
having a low degree of heating.
Overheating an electric cigarette will soon damage the entire mechanism. That is why you need to take a battery that will work at the lowest temperatures. The cost of cigarettes
is approximately the same and this is not the most important criterion. It is advisable to start from the indicators first.
How to restore a Li-ion battery after a deep discharge
If a Li-ion battery quickly charges and discharges, it means it has exhausted its resource and cannot be restored.
If the battery does not have a protection circuit and the voltage at its terminals is zero, then the battery cannot be restored either.
If the battery has a built-in protection circuit and it does not accept a charge, and the voltage at its terminals is zero, then you can try to restore it.
The reason for this behavior may be a deep discharge as a result of long-term storage of the battery in a discharged state. If the voltage at the terminals of the can becomes less than 2.8 V, then the protection system regards this as an internal short circuit and, for safety, blocks the possibility of charging it.
To understand the reason, you need to measure the voltage at the battery terminals with a voltmeter. If the value is less than 2.8 V, then apply a voltage of 4.2 V from the controller, observing the polarity, directly to the battery terminals. There is no need to disable the battery protection circuit; it is safe for it.
If the charging current has started, then after ten minutes you need to disconnect the controller from the battery and again measure the voltage at its terminals. If it becomes more than 2.8 V, then try charging through the protection circuit. If the voltage is close to zero and does not increase, the battery is faulty and cannot be used for further use. If the voltage increases, but does not reach 2.8 V, then continue direct charging.
If the battery begins to charge through the protection circuit, it means it is working. Otherwise, the scheme must be deleted. To use a flashlight battery, a protection circuit is not required.
In this simple way, you can test the LI-ion battery and, if possible, restore its functionality.
How does an LED flashlight work?
The classic design of flashlights is very simple (regardless of the type of housing, be it the Cosmos or DiK AN-005 models). An LED is connected to the battery, the circuit is broken by the shutdown button. Depending on the number of LEDs, the number of light elements themselves (for example, the main light on the front and an auxiliary one in the handle), a stronger battery (or several), a transformer, a resistance are added to the circuit, and a more functional switch is installed (Fo-DiK flashlights) .
LED flashlight operation diagram
Top 3 best battery chargers
Nightcore digicharger D4
Charger _
Can power four batteries. This is an already proven brand, loved by many owners of lithium batteries.
Device
It is equipped with a convenient display - you can study various data, including charging speed and time, voltage on each element. It is very convenient to monitor the battery status on this display.
This is a universal charger,
Designed not only for the 18650 model. D4 should be used by people who have a large number of mobile devices that fit several types of batteries.
Beginners will quickly master the work, since charging occurs automatically .
Efest luc Blu6 oled Bluetooth intelligent Charger
This is also a very good charger model ,
designed for 6 batteries. To safely charge, the device is equipped with special protection against high current, voltage, and so on.
The user gets the opportunity to connect his mobile phone to charging via Bluetooth
- You can remotely monitor the battery charge level. The only drawback of charging is the high price.
Nightcore i2 intellicharger
Charger
went on sale recently. This is a modern type of device, equipped with interesting features and improved design.
Users don't need to worry about charging speed and time,
since the device detects everything automatically. The person only needs to install the battery in its proper place.
The device only has room for two batteries, but the charger is very compact and can be taken with you when traveling.
Selecting a controller for charging a lithium-ion battery
You can make a controller yourself, but for sale, for example, on Aliexpress, they sell ready-made ones for 0.2-0.3 cents, assembled on the TP4056 chip or its analogues (ACE4054, BL4054, CX9058, CYT5026, EC49016, MCP73831, LTC4054, LC6000 , LP4054, LN5060, TP4054, SGM4054, U4054, WPM4054, IT4504, PT6102, PT6181, Y1880, VS6102, HX6001, Q7051).
The simplest controller module was purchased on Aliexpress, the technical characteristics of which fully meet the requirements for charging the lithium-ion battery installed in the flashlight. Its appearance is shown in the photograph.
The controller is assembled according to the above electrical diagram. By changing the value of the resistor going from the second terminal of the microcircuit to the common wire, you can limit the maximum charging current.
| Dependence of the maximum charging current on the value R of the TP4056 controller | |||||||||||
| Resistor value, kOhm | 30 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1,66 | 1,5 | 1,33 | 1,2 |
| Charging current, mA | 50 | 70 | 130 | 250 | 300 | 400 | 580 | 690 | 780 | 900 | 1000 |
The choice of the Li-ion battery charging current is determined based on two restrictions. The current value should be within 0.1-1 of the battery capacity (usually denoted by the letter C). For example, for a battery with a capacity of 600 mAh, the current should not exceed 0.6 A. Therefore, the value of the current-setting resistor must be 2 kOhm (the resistor should be marked 202). And do not exceed the current that the charger can provide. For this case, the current must be more than 0.6 A. The current is always indicated on the charger label.
| TP4056 Controller Specifications | ||
| Name | Meaning | Note |
| Input voltage, V | 4,5-8,0 | More than 5.5 V is not recommended |
| Output voltage, V | 4,2 | |
| Maximum charge current, A | 1,0 | Can be changed by R value from pin 2 |
| Minimum charge current, A | 0,03 | With less current it will go to sleep |
| Auto shutdown | There is | When charging current <1/10 of the specified R |
| Operation indicator | There is | Red is charged, blue is charged |
| Voltage monitoring, V | 4,0 | If below, charging is turned on |
| Reverse polarity protection | No | Reversing the battery polarity is unacceptable |
| Input connector | Micro-USB | There are contacts for soldering |
| Output connector | No | There are contacts for soldering |
| Overall dimensions, mm | 19×27 | |
| Module weight, g | 1,9 | |
It is worth noting that if the polarity of connecting the battery to the controller output is reversed, the chip will immediately break through and the voltage supplied to the controller will begin to flow to the battery terminals, which can damage it.
After charging the Li-ion battery, it is not necessary to disconnect the battery from the controller. In sleep mode or when no voltage is supplied to the controller, it does not discharge the battery.
This controller circuit does not include a shutdown function when the battery heats up above the permissible temperature. But it can be turned on if pin 1 of the microcircuit is disconnected from the common wire and connected to the terminal of the battery temperature sensor (these are found in the batteries of all cell phones).
If there is a need to use a controller that has protection against polarity reversal when connecting a battery and output short circuit, then you can use the controller shown in the photo.
In addition to the TP4056 chip, a DW01A (protection circuit) and a chip with two key field-effect transistors SF8205A are installed. The protection time is several minutes at a current of 3A. Other technical specifications have not changed.
In the flashlight, the batteries are connected to the controller using soldering. Therefore, a controller without a protection circuit was chosen, presented first in the article.
