I'm probably late to the game on this tip, but figured I'd post it anyway.

I found my BB making poor contact/not working occasionally. I looked at it and realized the spring tip wasn't narrow enough for the contact ring on the bottom of the 14500 batteries.

Simple fix, just trim the vinyl on the bottom of the battery with a razor...just watch your fingers . Done carefully you can just snag the vinyl with the razor flush with the bottom of the battery and it comes off nice and neat.



It has been suggested that maybe not trimming this flush is better, but I can't see why.

Battery end is - polarity, the case is solid metal on the battery and the mod in this case is the BB where the whole case is - polarity in the circuit. Maybe I'm missing something?

I could totally see me taking my thumb off doing that

With a square scraper/razor blade, if you set the corner of the blade flat against the battery with it's sharp corner in the center of the radius of the battery, you can use the top of the battery as a support as you twist it into the blade...if that makes sense. It's still a wonder I didn't cut myself heh. The first one was with a pocket knife, I recommend using the razor blade, it's a lot smoother and safer.

I'm not a battery guru and will never claim to be but I would suggest leaving some going over the lip of the battery there on the end to help keep some of the protection to the battery in place. I'm not 100% sure the reason it's there but I would wager to guess it has something to do with protecting the outside metal portion of the battery from shorting on whatever it's placed in.

Just my $0.02 and I might be completely wrong so take this with a grain of salt.

I would be extra careful cutting that pvc shrink wrap off the bottom, on protected cells the PVC holds the protection board in place. There is also a strap that runs up the battery to bring the positive contact to the negative side PCB board. If that strap touches the shell while the negative is running throuh the shell that would be a direct short that is bypassing the protection circuit...

This might work fine on unprotected cells. The pvc wraps the edge for a reason, removing some of the PVC without cutting it all the way to the edge might be a better option.


Cisco...

And now you know... and knowing is half the battle.

Ah o.k. that makes sense. The way mine turned out in context with the BB, they look good to go. They are cut flush to the end with no creep up the sides.