5:50 -- "Sorry if this looks like watching paint dry..." Clive, we could watch you disassemble and review a cardboard box...just keep talking...your voice is so relaxing to listen to.

Hi Clive, your spot on with your thesis that some humans are natural engineers, and some not! I'm one who's not happy unless I'm building things, my wife is the opposite, I have two sons, one who can build absolutely anything and one who could not build a thing if his life depended on it. Thanks for your excellent vidios!

"That's a long screw" Wow! You can do THAT, at the same time as changing a battery and drinking whisky? Respect!

5:55 & 10:42 & 12:00 Both of your side cutters are turned the wrong way around when pulling off insulation. Turn it around with the other side pointing in the pulling direction and it will no more slip over the insulation when pulling. This makes a huge difference, you don't need nearly as much finger strength to keep it in place then. Try both ways a couple of times and you will soon see the huge difference, especially for the tick wire @ 5:55. You can even make a video about it.

"The cardboard should help it combust if it were to burst into flames"... LOL!! I had to pause the video I was laughing so hard!! Nice tight fit on the newer battery, very well done sir! You are right, we all do have the tendency to try and create something... in one way or another.

LOL @ 5:50! "Like watching paint dry..." That must be why KZfaq gave us a speed control. Clive, your videos are wonderful fun! If I ever make it to Scotland, it would be an honour to treat you to a whiskey. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, your process, and your ideas!

i find your vids very entertaining and informative clive, and your smooth scottish accent makes it quite soothing! good man keep it up!

Watching these types of long videos are so relaxing! I can't wait for the next one to show on my subscriptions list...

Cheers for the latest video, love watching them. Also love that you are now showing us where you buy your items from. Great help.

I have almost the same exact model. Mine only had one battery in it.. I re-used the 3.7v BMS off of the single cell and replaced it with a 4x18650 pack i threw together in parallel. Salvaged laptop cells, but all genuine Sanyo. Battery life is actually usable for work now, charge it overnight and it'll be near full by morning. I could upgrade the 1s BMS for more charging current and shorter charge times but I am happy with it. Besides charging the cells faster will only ultimately give me less duty cycles out of them.

Love watching your videos Clive. Also amazed how you can use the soldering iron and hold the items together without making a terrible mess. I need the helping hands kit or it just turns into a mess!! =)

hey Clive, I always found it was easy to strip in a non-invasive way, by just bending the wire back on itself and making a small knick in the insulation of the wire with a blade and the bending it back 180 degrees the nicking it again, then you can work it back and forth until the insulation breaks, once you hve opened the insulation up a bit you can dellicatlly nip and slice any remaining insulation.

The zero at the end means it's a circle battery (18650) the number at the end indicates the shape

I believe the 5 digit battery codes comes from using the same system as button cells,ie diameter in mm and thickness (length) in 1/10 of mm, like a CR 2032 being 20mm diameter and 3.2 mm thick.

Great video, I love improving the batteries on little gadgets like shavers, toothbrushes, worklights. More bang for your buck! I'm surprised you don't use the Stanley automatic wire strippers - cuts the amount of time to do the job at 4:55 dramatically

sooo no one is going to mention that the switch pops out, and the back of the port has a nut, that could have moved them both out the way, without needing to bend or resolder the connections? much love for clive, and i really enjoy his work, however, as an engineer, some of his processes trigger my autism lol

watching you at 5:20 reminded me of when i was having to replace about 10 plug-ends a day. i found a device that i thought i'd give it a try at removing the outer sheath on extension leads by rotating gently then folding the lead back and forth. ive since found out the device was intended to clip the claws of cats, dogs or birds. also, my portable light like yours developed a rattle. i dismantled it to find that the makers had used hot glue to hold the battery and everything else in place. therefore had i wanted to remove the battery i would have used a hot air gun on the outside of the box then poured a bit of isopropyl alcohol in the hole. it makes the hot glue instantly let go. perhaps a bit of sideways persuasion with a screwdriver as well. i like one of the commenters hinting that, for all these years, i may have been using the side nippers the wrong way round.

i think everyone has the ability to make stuff its just that the world we live in means we dont have to so most people never bother but a long time ago everyone would have made and repaired their own clothes and tools and things. most of my friends think Im weird for being interested in electronic things and I got such weird looks when I said I got a soldering iron for my birthday but when I showed someone the battery led lights I made to use camping they were really interested and wanted to make one too so we made some together and even though theyre the kind of thing you cold get really cheap from ebay or w/e its nice to use things you made yourself

I'm surprised those lights only come with 2 cells inside. I imagined that back part being full of 18650s. And nicely done stripping that cable initially, it went better than I expected :-)

I must say that every single time you use that soldering iron I get a whiff of solder. I am not kidding. Subliminal smells on the bigclivedotcom channel, lol.

I have one of those 10 w lights. It has 4x18650 1500mAh cells and the LED is driven by a 10w driver board. So no room to add more cells, but one could remove the current cells and just replace them with higher mAh ones,

Thanks Clive for a very interesting one.

Clive, you you allways make me smile :-), comedy + possible danger :-D. Ive used thick gaskets to allow boxes to fit before lol.

Just me? School boy snigger for the long screw comment! Plus I had a total Blue Peter moment with the sticky foam pad...we've used double-sided sticky tape but you could use glue or sellotape... Great video Clive! I don't have one to modify but am now wanting to go and get one!

hahaha i'm glad i'm not the only one that drinks whisky and beer while playing with electronics and high voltages

New Clive catchphrase: 'Excelente'!

Nice upgrade of power cell. Never knew why they called them 18650's.

I like to use a damp sponge to clean my iron tip. Usually in a small container.

Just had a funny moment, I blew away the rising solder smoke in the video, reflex action from soldering over the years :)

Actually, speaking of cell sizes, I got an old Toshiba Libretto 50CT last week that has a battery pack made up of 3x 17670 cells, so slightly thinner and longer than the normal 18650...

The "depth" of cells are indeed in 1/10ths of mm. EG 2020's are 20mm diam by 2.0mm depth. 2032's are 20mm diam by 3.2mm depth. Therefore 18650 are 18mm diam by 65.0mm "depth"/long. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes for more info

I like these lights as well

I'm contemplating buying one of these cheap units just to use the housing and stand to make something better. Probably install a 2s3p lion pack like you Clive. Then perhaps rip out the COB chip and install a single warm white (4C) Cree XM-l2 chip with 3 mode driver. With luck I won't even have to change the charge socket if it is the same as the plug on my higher quality 8.4v power supply as the ones you get from ebay are very poor as I believe you've found out. I might even fit a little LED battery voltage readout as the protection circuit on cheap Lion packs always lets the voltage go too low. Thanks for the idea Clive, cracking video as always.

You should use a battery charger that tells you the true capacity of the cells and test the capacity of the new battery pack, to compare it with the capacity of the previous one. Sometimes those chinese battery packs contain really really crappy cells with very low capacity, so even tho you have 6 cells, you might have lower capacity than the original 2 cells. Worth testing. :)

7:19 They reason they spot weld on battery terminals instead of soldering them on is that Li-ion battery cells gets partly damaged by the heat from soldering battery terminals. If they want to solder the terminals on the PCB, they have to do this BEFORE they spot weld the terminals onto the battery itself, to avoid heat damage. You should never solder terminal directly connected to Li-ion cells. The reason they spot weld them onto the PCB is probably that they do it in one process as they have to spot weld the terminals onto the battery itself afterwards anyway. By spot welding both end of the terminals, they can also spot weld them onto the cells, before connecting them to the PCB if they find that easier.

Clive ye just saved me from having to watch the xfactor. (Mrs has the remote) haha

those two 18650 batts would come in handy for a mechanicel mod for vaping ... :)

if I get this, I will make a new set of six cells battery pack for this

Awesome video and videos!!! Keep it up BIg

hey Clive you are a mad tinkerer just like me im never satisfied with something it can allways be better !!!

The last digit means that the cell is circular in diameter. 18650, 16340 (16mm diameter, 34mm long. AKA CR123), 14500 (14mm diameter, 50 mm long. AKA 'AA' cell.)

You know your comment on the size of a millimeter just rang the old bell in the skull, and brought back an old cigarette advertisement for Chesterfield 101's all the other smokes came in regular and 100's so Chesterfield extended it, and their advertisement said, it was just a silly millimeter longer! Funny how the brain works, I even bought a couple of packs, they were indeed a bit longer, and if you were used to regulars, you found yourself lighting the damn thing in the middle!

Well, given the weekend was imminent it would have been rude not to say hello to Saturday without a wee tipple!

Greetings from Naples Florida. Great video, I'm so glad that it was recommended to me by YT to watch. I've never seen those large wire strippers before, can you tell me what they are called again? Thanks so much. Cheers Frank

It is like watching paint dry. Paint that can explode! :P

Just silly Clive. Old laptop cells are perfect. 18650's but it's usually the module that dies. So a perfect source of free batteries.

your next project should be those lights with wireless dmx512 and rgb leds, :)

Im doing almost the same thing. Accept i have an old bosch cordless with 3 battery banks. Im just changing the plastic back part with a 3D printed cover for the battery and a dc to dc buck converter. Dont want to let too a high voltage pop the LED.

Clive, The 0 at the end of 18650 denotes it is a round cell.

I have to wonder how many times you've burned your thumb on camera and just completely not reacted, like I'm 99% sure you singed it there while soldering the positive lead to the connector.

Hmm. This is an OLD video! There is no label for Big Clive’s channel on the table.

The rated capacity at 4.2v is correct, just not at 8.4v, assuming you have zero losses on power conversion, and you are running at the rating of a single cell with pulse width modulation. The real effective capacity is indeed 9600mAh, but only in the context of the voltage output of a single cell, 4.2v(at full charge). It is very deceptive, but at least people who understand enough would not typically get confused by that inaccurate product description, as it is obvious the pack is in series. At 8.4v, each cells effective capacity would obviously be cut in half. In fact, series is superior to parrallel in every way if you have an effecient way of dropping the voltage to that of a single cell(pwm with capacitive smoothing is good enough). It ensures good balancing of battery drain. I know you know this clive, but this is directed at people who are confused by parralell and series configurations.

From what i understand. 18 is mm diameter, 65 is mm long and 0 means cylindrical. I may be wrong. Another possibility is the 65 is 65.0mm. Not 100% on that but my hardware engineering lecturer did explain that's the way the numbers work with these kinds of Li-ion batteries.

Gotta say watching you mod or take things apart has got me really interested in electronics, is there a beginner kit you would know or suggest for a newbie like myself. Great vid as always

Interesting Vid Big Clive. Here's a challange for you mate...... Do you know of a way to make a really bright efficient bike light ? Thanks

I think it was done originally in 10ths of a mm as you say Clive, so 2032s are 20mm diameter, 3.2mm 'long' (aka thick, in their case). I guess kind of like the way fluorescent tubes are measured in 1/8ths of an inch (T8 being 1 inch, T12 1.5 inch, etc)

I had the charge protection in my phone short circuit. I was charging it off my car while at work with a dodgy cable. When I came out on lunch break the cable was melted and I burned myself picking up my phone. Amazingly the wireless charging still worked and the battery was ok. It must have been the phone circuitry and not the battery's that went tits up.

Next step: Squeeze a small switchmode LED driver in there for better efficiency! :)

Great video ,Thanks..

Hi would this light still work by taking the on off button out? (I’ve wired it up to longer wire’s and plan, in theory to use it with my electric fence battery.

I received one of these today but mine only has 1 x 18650 cell inside. Also the cell is held in by a very sticky white gloop, it's soft to the touch and still feels wet, but does seem to be doing the job of holding the cell in place.

Clive roughly how much did that little project cost you I have a cunning plan formulating.(ignore me I should have read the link for the battery pack thanks you for the video)

So how long did the light last after the upgrade?

I really like your videos and I just saw something that would be a cool project for an LED loving guy like yourself. A large LED music analyzer but I was wondering if you could make a really huge one with color changing LED bulbs (Edison or bayonette cap). Since you are the go to guy for prope LED based projects I was wondering if maybe this could be a project and possibly a kit you could sell on your website. Thanks for the great videos BTW.

I'm wondering if there is room in the housing to build your own 6 cell and cut a hole in the housing for a balance connector and charge it with a hobby charger/

I did the opposite of shorting the system out like that. I was working on an external DVD drive for a tablet PC. I had it plugged into my laptop's USB Port and it was not working right. There was a 2.5 in power port for 5 volts on the back of the DVD drive, so I thought I will just plug in the 5 volt brick that runs my clock on my desk. For some reason I had it unplugged anyhow, so I grabbed the cord and plugged her in. My laptop shut down and magic smoke came from the keyboard! Then I noticed I had grabbed the 12 volt cord for anther device and fed my laptop USB with an extra 12 volts. The USB have never worked since. Well the laptop does have one USB 3 port and it still works. Guy has to be careful even in his own shop.

I have 2x wonderful strip light work lights. They run off a 6 volt lead acid battery when the mains is cut like automatic emergency lights. However I have changed the batteries but both have died again. Are there any 220 / 240 volt charge controllers for Lithium battery packs and packs that you know might fit? Similar to this pack?

I just got one of these from amazon and it got a 2x 26650 4400mah battery pack in it.

Is there any protection circuit inside the new battery pack? The eBay link doesn't say anything about protection. Using a new battery pack without the same level as protection as the old pack is dangerous. And if there's no under-voltage protection, you might risk discharging so much that they can't be charged again.

How many 18650s could you fit in this thing? Considering having a custom pack made up and want to jam as many as possible in.

I recommend you buy some wire stripers, there are some decent generic ones on eBay for like 6 quid...

Beware of dodgy crapy quality recicled LithiumIon cells in ebay... often they don't meet minimum safety requirements, and in series connection it may end up with a battery blowing up. My suggestion would be to rebuild the pack using good trustable batteries from Panasonic or Sanyo (for instance), or at least check that it has the proper (and working) balancing circuitry. Nice upgrade, by the way

I need to do this to mine!

URL for work light? Awesome tweakage good sir...keep it up

One thing that Chinese manufacturers always get right is their ability to glue things together.. It's almost like the most expensive item in some cheap electronics is the adhesives they use to hold stuff together.

new tabletop!

I have the same theory! The bee theory. :) I must be a cross between a engibee and a drone :D

is the resistor current control better than a buck converter with current regulation for led?

Doesn't the additional current put a strain on the LEDs or other components? Would adding a resistor help?

What about the heat from the cells bij loading the cells? No much room for cooling

The reason why it has so much space is becaus normally there is a battery charging circuit and sometimes a USB A output with 5V regulation ofcourse. As always there chinese things get sold under all kinds of rebrands.

what would be the best way to make them more efficient? upgrading to 3cell li-ion batteries and a cheap 12v constant current board for 10w leds? but what about charging ? i just cant find a cheap source for a cheap 3s charger (wich is not overcharging can only find those crappy imax b6.)

Hi Clyde, Would one of those 10w leds fit in a maglite torch?

Now i know what to do if my battery buggers up lol

How long will those new batteries power that work light? Cheers.

Hi clive could i do this with a wee sealy hand lamp

Recently I read somewhere that the zero in 18650 indicated that the cell was cylindrical rather than square. Whether that is true or not I cannot verify.

This may be a noobish question but I recently bought a bike light with this exact battery pack for it and a 8.4v charger. The charger blew up after only 2 uses and I replaced it with a camera charger that outputs 1500ma also on 8.4v. My question is because it doesn't have any light indicating that it is changing on the charger itself can I overcharge the battery pack? I tried charging the pack up and it seems to work nicely, it doesn't heat up nearly as close as the old charger, but I always disconnect the charger after about 4 hours of charging just in case.

Is there a way to up the voltage of the battery pack to 12v ?

I always heard the 0 at the end stood for cylindrical cell. not sure how accurate that is.

How does this 10W led work with 3,7V,without step up converter ?

That pad won't go "nuclear" as long as it's only for a sec or two cause it's not a LIPO

a bit late.. did the replacement battery pack already have the charge protection cicuit?

is that foam fire resistant at all.

The 0 at the end of 18650 denotes that it is a round cell.

Drinking and working on electrical stuff at the same time.... Is that called Drinking-n-Sparking?

I can't think of a cocky comment, but the vid was nice. Could have used some more alcohol content. :)

Great video, thanks! Is it possible to convert these worklights to mains 230 volt?

wat werew waiting 4 paint to dry where?

I would like to see one of those with solar charging and run off a 7.2 v 1800 mah rc car battery pack