Recent content by JimStLaurent

Marine grade, stranded, tinned copper should work well in both you outside and inside cable environments. And it's extremely flexible, exterior wires would want to be house in weather proof conduit. I've used https://www.batterycablesusa.com/tinned-marine-grade-battery-cables with good...

Top right cable solder joint is a likely suspect. It's a dull gray color verses the other 3 solder connections that are bright and shiny. You can measure the cable resistance from the diode cathode ( side with the gray band) to the far end of its cable. Or just re-flow the dirty solder joint...

36 panels got a ride to the roof on this DIY panel ladder lift. Screwed a beam onto the top of a ladder. Built a sled with rails that rode along outside the ladder. Attached a pulley and rope. then a big guy on the ground pulled them up. Two us unloaded at top and carried them to the next...

This dated article has a few solar mounting solutions for metal roofing profiles you might be interested in. https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2018/03/metal-roofs-no-problem-solar-installations/ No experience with any of those mentioned in the article. I used the standing seam S-5-B style...

Leon, I applause your efforts. The lapping technique you've developed is flattening and polishing the mating surface nicely. But the oxidized particles you removed should not stay. Clean up the residue and apply the antioxidant with a cloth glued to your tool. Lighter is better, just need a...

Samsonite801, Thanks for warm welcome! And you have some sweet looking battery packs! Can I ask where you sourced those flexible bus bar from? I plan to spring load compress the 4S 280Ah cells. A heating soultion will follow after I play with the first cell pack, want to fully understand my...

Let's use the water analogy for current flow. Your bus bar mounting hole is the drain hole. And the battery terminal the drain pipe. The water flows towards the drain hole. The water(current) will fall over the front edge of the drain( bus bar hole) and wrap around all the way around to back...

To improve on the the exit terminals, use 3 short wires ganged together with an oversized lug. Slots like you've shown on the top left plate, would help to balance what's going on thermally, both temp and expansion wise. The E fields that will develop using this parallel plate bus bar will be...

Hi everyone, I’m a new contributor to forum, drawn in by my first battery build. Retired and in the process or upgrading a new RV for boondocking(primitive camping with privileges). I’m in the process to converting to sustainable living with respect to food production and energy use except...

Ground mounted panels run so much cooler. With 15% panel power efficiency the other 85% is dissipated as heat. They make more power of hot days and live longer than roof mounts.

If anyone goes for the cascaded transfer switches, you'll need to think about including a 110V relay controlled by the inverter output to isolate the battery, preventing it from charging itself thru the inverter. That would be a sinful waste of stored power. For educational purposes, the...

Some great testing done by RGIvy can be found at the link below. Thank You, RGIvy! https://diysolarforum.com/threads/review-of-capacity-and-terminal-temperature-cells-from-shenzhen-luyuan-amy-wan.22371/ Executive Summary : 4S configuration test at 160A, highest terminal temp measured just...

First off, I've been lurking here on the forum since mid March, reading learning a lot from everyone that contributes . For this I'm very grateful and thank you! Now my concerns, I recently receive a set of 4 Grade A 3.2V 280Ah cells from Shenzhen Luyuan Technology Co., LTD via Alibaba. In an...