Easiest free street-lithium yet - with gold flashed contacts!

I'm actually quite excited by this evolution of the discarded street-lithium devices. It's not just an easy to remove lithium cell, but it has a rugged capacitor-style case with a contact PCB that has concentric gold-flashed connection rings that can either be easily and safely soldered to, or used as-is as a modular cell contact system. Especially if the existing spring contact system was salvaged too.

On the basis that both the capacitor-can style cells I've checked had well below the stated capacity, I've ordered another unit so I can pop the cell out and measure the as-supplied voltage, in case it's being charged to a higher voltage to achieve the higher capacity like some modern high voltage lithium phone cells do. But the 3.7V mean-voltage printed on the side makes me think it's probably a standard 4.2V cell. I'll update this description when the new device arrives.

Update:- The new unit arrived and I took the cell out immediately without using the device. The initial cell voltage was 4.1V and a full discharge and charge test initially showed an energy input of 450mAh, but I noticed that the upon termination, the voltage settled back down to 4V. I finished the charge on another lower current module and it added a further 82mAh, so that suggests the cell is close to the 520mAh stated on it. That makes it very useful.
Another test using a low current charge at 120mA yielded a capacity of around 450mAh again, but settled down to 4V after the charge. 450mAh is still very acceptable.

I'll have to recheck the first cell now in case the early termination of the charge was why it seemed to have lower capacity than expected.

As supplied, it is VERY easy to remove the cell. The base comes off with a slight twist and pull, and comes out with the rubber spacer attached to it. The cell then drops out.

This very pleasing and rugged cell format could find many applications for personal projects including lighting, or upgrading the cells in existing products that use standard non-protected cells.


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