4 Function Multimeter question

[kwalka]

View attachment 86828

I have been reading for days on this... Everything I read says to test a battery it must be under load. Is this multimeter with a 9.v battery in it applying a load to my 18350's and my 16340's? Do I have it set correctly, or am I supposed to be 4 clicks left? The manual says I have it correct.
Charger is TrustFire model TR-001 sold by a reputable ECF vendor specifically for the batts listed. All batts also from same source.
This is only the 3rd charge cycle, the batts are 4 weeks old, and say protected.
Trustfire 18350 3.7v 1200mAh Li-ion #1 : Charged for 3 hrs last night, rested all night, just read 4.16
Trustfire 18350 3.7v 1200mAh Li-ion #2 : Charged for 3 hrs last night, rested all night, just read 4.04
UltraFire 16340 3.0v 800mAh (assuming Li-ion, dosen't say) #1 : Charged about a week ago fully, cant use as they wont fire. I'll get into that later. It just read 3.29.
#2 read 3.26

The 16340's stacked will not fire any one of 3 diff 2.5 ohm DCC's. The vendor says its the batts. I'm lost.
Please help.

 

[WillyB]

Interesting I never thought to set my meter to 9V, but I got the same reading as my usual 20V setting.

Trustfire 18350 3.7v 1200mAh Li-ion #1 : Charged for 3 hrs last night, rested all night, just read 4.16
Trustfire 18350 3.7v 1200mAh Li-ion #2 : Charged for 3 hrs last night, rested all night, just read 4.04

Did you just do a time thing or did you wait for the light to go green? For a new pair that's a bit of a spread and 4.04V is a tad low. I would try again, switching channels this time to rule out a possible charger problem. I would not be happy with a new cell that only hit 4.04V.

 

[kwalka]

Waited for green. This is like the 3rd charge/use cycle. The batt is a 3.7...So why is it reading higher that its rated?

 

[steliosak]

Waited for green. This is like the 3rd charge/use cycle. The batt is a 3.7...So why is it reading higher that its rated?

3.7V Li-Ions when fully charged have a voltage of up to 4.2 V when not on load . No problem there.

 

[kwalka]

3.7V Li-Ions when fully charged have a voltage of up to 4.2 V when not on load . No problem there.

I thought you could not test a batt unless it was under load?

 

[AzPlumber]

Pretty sure the 1.5v & 9v settings on that meter are for alkaline batteries.

 

[WillyB]

Waited for green. This is like the 3rd charge/use cycle. The batt is a 3.7...So why is it reading higher that its rated?

In a nutshell, 3.7V is the nominal or average voltage of the cell.

I have been reading for days on this.

Not been reading the right stuff.

Battery Information Table of Contents, Basic to Advanced

 

[kwalka]

Not been reading the right stuff.

Battery Information Table of Contents, Basic to Advanced

Thanks,
So b4 I head off in to hrs in the batt univ, You dont see any cause for alarm in my original numbers?

 

[kwalka]

Pretty sure the 1.5v & 9v settings on that meter are for alkaline batteries.

For what its worth, the meter reads the same set on 9v or 20v DC

 

[grandmato5]

Do NOT continue to charge those 3 volt batteries in your TR-001 charger. That charger is only for 3.7 volt batteries. You need a different charger for the 3 volt batts.

The setting of 9 VT you have indicated is the correct one to use to check the voltage of your batts coming off your charger. As far as the readings you have for the 18350 batts the 4.16 is a bit low but fine (would prefer 4.20 ). The 4.04 is low. Did you charge them at the same time or at different times ? There are several possiblities. One being that one bay is charging differently then the other. Not good. OR one battery is deteriorating and on its way out. Are you using these batts as single batts in a mod or stacked togther? You do NOT want to be using two batts stacked with that much difference in voltage as stacked batts.

 

[kwalka]

Do NOT continue to charge those 3 volt batteries in your TR-001 charger. That charger is only for 3.7 volt batteries. You need a different charger for the 3 volt batts.

The setting of 9 VT you have indicated is the correct one to use to check the voltage of your batts coming off your charger. As far as the readings you have for the 18350 batts the 4.16 is a bit low but fine (would prefer 4.20 ). The 4.04 is low. Did you charge them at the same time or at different times ? There are several possiblities. One being that one bay is charging differently then the other. Not good. OR one battery is deteriorating and on its way out. Are you using these batts as single batts in a mod or stacked togther? You do NOT want to be using two batts stacked with that much difference in voltage as stacked batts.

I forgot to mention I have a second charger for the 16340's, they came in a kit. Thanks for the heads up.
All batts get stacked, used as pairs, charged as pairs, rotated top and bottom each use. I'm not using either pair of batts any longer. They go in a alum tube mod that also takes an 18650 for 3.7v vaping. I will either stick w 3.7v or get new ECF approved batts. Or at least ECF recommended batts, I guess is a better phrase.
Yesterday one of the 3v kept tripping its circuit and that was w the #s I posted. So,WTS, I'm done playing w fire (no pun intended).

 

[sailorman]

I had the same thing happen with 3V batts. They wouldn't work in my PV, so I put them in a flashlight for about 10 seconds. Then I put them back in my tube mod and they worked fine.

I'm not so sure I'd be that concerned about a 0.03 voltage variation between the two unless you know your meter is super accurate. Stacked batteries should ideally be the exact same voltage, but that doesn't happen to often in the real world and a 0.01V variation is nothing to worry about. If you insist on absolute equality of the voltages, you need a meter capable of absolute accuracy. If your meter is accurate to anything less than +/- 0.01V, you don't know if that 0.03 variation is a cause of concern. Even if it's accurate to +/- .01V, one battery could be 3.27V and the other 3.28V, again nothing to worry about.

Also, don't confuse resolution with accuracy. Sometimes a meter will have a .0001 resolution, but the accuracy will be to +/-0.02V

 

[kwalka]

I had the same thing happen with 3V batts. They wouldn't work in my PV, so I put them in a flashlight for about 10 seconds. Then I put them back in my tube mod and they worked fine.

I'm not so sure I'd be that concerned about a 0.03 voltage variation between the two unless you know your meter is super accurate. Stacked batteries should ideally be the exact same voltage, but that doesn't happen to often in the real world and a 0.01V variation is nothing to worry about. If you insist on absolute equality of the voltages, you need a meter capable of absolute accuracy. If your meter is accurate to anything less than +/- 0.01V, you don't know if that 0.03 variation is a cause of concern. Even if it's accurate to +/- .01V, one battery could be 3.27V and the other 3.28V, again nothing to worry about.

Also, don't confuse resolution with accuracy. Sometimes a meter will have a .0001 resolution, but the accuracy will be to +/-0.02V

I put them back on the charger for 10 seconds (I read somewhere to do that to reset the circuit), then I put them back on the meter and they were very diff, like a whole volt. So I dont know if that was a result of the charger, or what. I am not experienced enough to be stacking batts that I'm not even sure of their origin. I'm relying on the integrity of the vendor. I will school myself, and purchase AW's, after I'm better educated in this mod batt area.
Thanks for all the help!

 

[grandmato5]

I put them back on the charger for 10 seconds (I read somewhere to do that to reset the circuit), then I put them back on the meter and they were very diff, like a whole volt. So I dont know if that was a result of the charger, or what. I am not experienced enough to be stacking batts that I'm not even sure of their origin. I'm relying on the integrity of the vendor. I will school myself, and purchase AW's, after I'm better educated in this mod batt area.
Thanks for all the help!

Kawalka I applaud your desire to learn and be educated about batteries and mods. We are fortunate that most often our lack of knowledge and/or lack of following good safety measures does not lead to disaster, but the flip side of that is that many that have not paid attention to batt safety think that just because nothing has gone wrong with their batts/mods that it never will, and that is extremely foolish and dangerous of them.