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A couple of thoughts here. I suspect that once the cells are bloated, you can't "un-bloat" them. I would think that applying enough compression to cause the bloat to go down can't be good for the cells. Although I'm not sure (I think I've read it here from others) that bloating is caused almost...

I'm probably wording it different than @TorC or @Gavin Stone but saying the same thing: There is no such thing as a minimum current out of a generator. If you turn off all the loads connected to a generator, it is putting out 0 amps. The generator will put out as much as a load will consume, up...

Touching the grid with a 20' pole should be avoided, at least if the pole is conductive. 😁

Based on my "On Keeping LFP Warm" thread (here) and @Will Prowse's "LiFePO4 Heating Pad for cold temperatures" (here). I came up with a few requirements: Heating pads - I experimented with several different DC heating pads from Aliexpress and Amazon. I ended up with 12V, 12W heating pads with a...

I almost forgot to mention the corner protectors shown here. After mostly finishing the build, one of the bottom corners got dented a bit while moving the box around. I got on Amazon again (they love me by the way) and found these little guys. They only provide a little bit of protection, but...

If I wanted to avoid stuff made in China, I would lead a pretty dull life. I wouldn't have a cell phone, TV, or any of a number of things. Fact is, the Li batteries are pretty much all made in China, so you are stuck with that. I do get your point though. It's a roll of the dice what you may...

Getting back on topic... 20-Mar (Sunday) - Via an email (sent 10pm MDT), I requested a quote from Jenny Wu @ Docan. She responded almost immediately. 22-Mar (Tuesday) - I placed an order for 8 Eve 160Ah cells. Cost was $92 each, plus a 5% fee for using PayPal. 25-Mar (Friday) - Jenny gave me...

I've been vocal here before: I currently do NOT have any battery-to-inverter communication, and I really have a hard time thinking it is such a great thing. People seem to be clamoring for it without really understanding why they want it. There is some advantage to having your BMS manage the...

Seems to me this thread is supposed to be about the poor souls who have gotten really raw deal on the CATL 271Ah cells. Maybe all the happy stuff with @Amy Zheng should go to another thread?

As an Electrical Engineer myself, I think your friend is an embarrassment to our profession. There's lots wrong with what he said, but here's a bottom line: A LiFePO4 battery (equipped with an appropriate BMS) can be used just like an FLA, although with a bit different charger settings...

So I've done several somewhat shallow discharges (60-70% SoC) and full charges, and the BMS, Victron SmartShunt, and the JuncTek all track within 1% on the SoC percentage. For some reason the Thornwave Shunt (PowerMon-5S) goes down faster than the others, even though I've done a zero reset on...

Just stumbled on this thread (too many threads to follow). Nothing useful to contribute here, but wanted to jump in and thank boB (@SpongeboB Sinewave) and Robin (@Robin Gudgel) for jumping in here. You guys are legendary in the solar community. Thanks for everything you have done at Outback and...

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Your situation is very similar to mine, and ironically it drove to a completely different conclusion. Our Colorado mountain cabin is closed up in mid-/late-November every year, and is not opened back up until early May the following year. The cabin is co-owned...

If only they could dock a container ship in Vegas. ?

Much of the focus seems to be on improving the connectivity between his charge controller and his battery. I think this is all good advice, so I won't add to that. Other things that I've noticed and not sure they have been addressed clearly: The OP has some serious misunderstandings about how...

I've been messing with both the Heltec Capacitor Active Balancer that @DouglasHHI mentioned, as well as the QNBBM active balancer. I've done a variety of experiments. I aggressively charged and discharged my little 8S test pack far beyond the knees, where cell voltage tends to become unbalanced...

An update that is not much of an update.... The battery has been at our cabin all winter. We have no access to it since November of 2022, and no idea how it has done. I designed the system based in part on the fact that my logging of information for the four previous winters showed that the...

@Will Prowse I don't take issue with most of your policy on this stuff, although I personally wish the vendors were still allowed here. As for the discussion with @RayfromTX about his video and individual sales people, I really do agree with Ray. I think it goes way beyond this particular hobby...

Unlike lead acid, LFP doesn't "require" a float charge, but like @Ampster said, if you don't use the float on your solar charge controller you are not taking advantage of solar while the sun is out. Using float allows the power you consume during the day to be from the sun, rather than from your...

Many of us have come to appreciate the value of the JBD BMS that is offered by Overkill Solar, Current Connected, and by JBD Alliexpress page. Some of us have also fielded multiple of these units. They are great, but it can become confusing if you can't figure out which unit you are talking...

Generically, a shunt is a hunk of metal that has a very precise/specific resistance and very small resistance, usually 50 milliohm or 75 milliohm. When current goes through the shunt the current creates a voltage drop across the resistance. So if 100A goes through a 50 milliohm shunt, the...

I tried to address this mathematically in a thread a couple of years ago: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/on-keeping-lfp-warm.17629/

Wow - Another thread generating 25 pages of comments in about a day. This board is pretty phenomenal. I didn't read everything, but it seems like another "EVs suck" vs "EVs rock" thread. I've had a Tesla Model Y for a bit over a year. I went into it knowing that I didn't know everything, but I...

I made the exact same points after Sun Fun Kits was busy using V x Ah = Wh math to back into whatever answer they wanted. I got blow-back from several people, and decided they just didn't understand my point. For cells, it is best to stay with Ah because the results will be repeatable. If you...

Ahhh. The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Like everything in Monty Python, there is always a way to relate it back to having a pint or two. (y)

Hopefully this won't offend anyone... I think that many folks here on the DIY Solar Forum - including myself sometimes - seem to try to over-engineer things. Make it more complicated. It may be mostly to try and get from 98% perfect to 99% perfect. I mentioned this before, but at times it...

I used Trophy's for an install I did for a neighbor near our cabin. This is at a little under 9,000 ft elevation in the Colorado mountains, so it get's cold there in the winter. I went with Trophy in part because of the built in heating, but also because of the reputation of the guy who runs...

Yes, I agree. There is good reason to keep the cells from moving around relative to each other. I think some of the recent comments here sound crazy. People are going to squeeze their cells so much the cells will probably be damaged before the battery has even been used. But to each his own...

But, everyone here is just "someone on the Internet". I've personally heard some questionable things from people, and when asked for any source information they turned out to be just talking. That's even happened here on this forum, you may recall. ;)