trevor.the.van
New Member
Having been an avid lead acid battery user for many years in 4x4 and recently my own van build - I finally decided to take the plunge into LiFePo4 batteries. Like many here, I spent hours watching Will's videos and learning everything I thought I needed. Then a few weeks ago I took the plunge, bought all the parts and built my first 100Ah portable LiFePo4 battery pack.
I must say, with the knowledge I picked up here - the process was pretty straight forward! Buy the batteries, buy a BMS, wire it all together and put it in a box!
The only issue I had was with the screw terminals on one cell being a little cross threaded, which fortunately caused the bolt to fail and not the internal thread. So I replaced all bolts with new ones - and then everything was good.
I used 100Ah cells from an Australian distributor (I dont like waiting)
I used a 100Amp Daly BMS for a 4s configuration that I was using.
The box, I built that myself and added appropriate fuses, cig sockets, andersons, cut off switch, battery monitor and external terminals.
I performed a top balance as per the standard procedure, and had the cells nicely balanced at 3.6 volts before hooking them up in series and doing a capacity test. I didn't have great monitoring ability on the discharge, so took closer note of the recharge process through the victron MPPT I have hooked up - and charged up with a respectable 1320kWh of power - for a 1280kWh rated pack, I figure that's pretty good.
In my battery box, I have also wired up a 10A Victron MPPT to charge up from solar, and a step-up converter from 12v to 24v, which feeds into the Victron PV input, to use as a battery to battery charger (mainly because I had these parts already).
All up, I'm very happy with the results and now planning my next build which will be a 400Ah pack for a new camper van build I'll be doing this year.
Thanks to everyone on this forum, and Will for provide such a great knowledge base.
Some photos follow. And hit me up for any questions.
I must say, with the knowledge I picked up here - the process was pretty straight forward! Buy the batteries, buy a BMS, wire it all together and put it in a box!
The only issue I had was with the screw terminals on one cell being a little cross threaded, which fortunately caused the bolt to fail and not the internal thread. So I replaced all bolts with new ones - and then everything was good.
I used 100Ah cells from an Australian distributor (I dont like waiting)
I used a 100Amp Daly BMS for a 4s configuration that I was using.
The box, I built that myself and added appropriate fuses, cig sockets, andersons, cut off switch, battery monitor and external terminals.
I performed a top balance as per the standard procedure, and had the cells nicely balanced at 3.6 volts before hooking them up in series and doing a capacity test. I didn't have great monitoring ability on the discharge, so took closer note of the recharge process through the victron MPPT I have hooked up - and charged up with a respectable 1320kWh of power - for a 1280kWh rated pack, I figure that's pretty good.
In my battery box, I have also wired up a 10A Victron MPPT to charge up from solar, and a step-up converter from 12v to 24v, which feeds into the Victron PV input, to use as a battery to battery charger (mainly because I had these parts already).
All up, I'm very happy with the results and now planning my next build which will be a 400Ah pack for a new camper van build I'll be doing this year.
Thanks to everyone on this forum, and Will for provide such a great knowledge base.
Some photos follow. And hit me up for any questions.