battery help - 18650 locally?
 

Like a doofus I bought the MTE P7 from DealExtreme but didn't order a battery. SO I called a few local places like RadioShack, Batteries Plus... and the guys have no idea what I'm talking about.

Are there any retail stores likely to have the 18650?

Can I substitute 2, CR123's as noted here?
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a...SHLIGHT/1.html

Thanks

Do not put in two CR123 batteries in there. It will most likely fry your circuit board. The voltage of one CR123 is the same as one 18650 (3.6 volts) If you put in two 123s you will be putting 7.6 volts to your driver.

I am not sure which P7 you have, but most sold at DX have a max voltage of 4.2 (which would be about the voltage of a freshly charged battery)

You could buy a black and decker lithium battery pack, crack it open and harvest the two batteries inside. Most stores are closing them out at under $12.00 from what I have seen. I have not done this, so I do not know if they are the flat top batteries or the button top. But for only $12.00 it maybe worth a shot. You will still need a charger that charges the lithium batteries.

ok thanks. Any idea of a retailer likely to have those in stock?

I know Wally world use to have them. You would have to check to see if they still have any in stock. You could also check you local home improvement centers some of them could carry them.

Also be very careful when working with lithium batteries, you don't want to short them out as they could start on fire.

shiningbeam has 18650 batteries.. They are helpful and fast shippers. The trustfire charger and the 2500 trustfire protected cells work fine..

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/t...dsh-ion/Detail

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/t...er-1140/Detail

Just order a pair of the Trust fire protected 18650 batteries and charger from DX like you should have. I know-1 to 2 weeks wait. Perhaps you could make a spacer and use one CR123 battery while your waiting for DX.

From where I sit, the DealExtreme site has been down for two or three days now. Anybody else?

It's hit-&-miss. Maybe they're having DNS resolution issues. Try http://75.126.181.176 and see if that comes up for you.

People who are desparate for an 18650 fix sooner, try some other places such as BatteryJunction, 4Sevens, Lighthound, Shiningbeam, etc.

I went to a couple of Circuit City's out of curiosity and the employees told me they'd never heard of 18650's. Shiningbeam is my suggestion.

For Real?
Deal Extreme?
Takes 2-3 months to get delivery.
3 out of 3 orders they shorted me and claimed is was shipped.
Spent $180 and had to eat $57 OF NON delivered product.
There 18650 batteries are way over rated and do not even come close to their stated specs.
Their prices are 2X more than alibaba.com who gets from the same factory that DX does.
DX support Phone number is a bad number.
Email response is greater that 2 days for each response.
Do yourself a favor - do not buy from DX as you are setting yourself up to get ripped off.
There are dozens of places that sell 18650 batts.
Currently I pay $2.10 ea for trustfire 2400 MA. The same ones DX sells $7-9 ea.

DX has never taken more than 6 weeks to deliver to me, typical is 3. I haven't ordered a TON of stuff, but I've now ordered from them a total of about 10 times, with 5 to 15 items per order. I've never been shorted on anything.

The one time I had a defective product, it was a bad 18650 battery. I had one dead one out of two 2-packs, they shipped me an entire new 2 pack for free.

The 18650s I have are trustfires, and I paid around $8 for two. I don't know where you're finding them for $7-$9 each, I don't think they have any for that expensive.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5790

I've placed several orders with DX, and nearly everything I've ordered from them has broken in a short amount of time or simply didn't work right from the beginning. The last order I placed with them took 59 days for an 'in stock' item to reach me. They knowing lie about their stock status and shipping times, and I suspect that they also sell goods that didn't pass quality control. I base this on me and a friend both buying the same lights from DX and Shining Beam. The Shining Beam lights still work fine (two of them) the DX lights all died (three of them). Three of the same lights dieing is more than a coincidence.