New Supplier for 280Ah cells: Shenzen Basen

I just received message from Gloria Lau of Basen, she told me my shipment should be at LA port on the 13th, my battreies were shipped on the Nov 8 th.

Marinepower said:

Just to clarify, has Basen confirmed your shipment was aboard One Apus?

If so, such bad luck.

& I may be in the 'same boat.'

MP

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I am according to Basen not in the same boat. Shipping was Nov 4 bound for the Pacific North West.

I hope that your container was not one of those lost MadMacks and the matter gets sorted for you soon.

So stuffs getting real now. I've just ordered 52 x Lishen 272AH 3.2V cells from Basen (via Gloria Luo) at US$71 each, ship DDP to France for $999.
I'm doing 2 boats now with 24 cells 272AH for about 19kwH useable each. Mine and a mates.
Luckily its all rail transfer to France, so hopefully no lost containers off ships !

Did wire transfer in local AUD to Citibank via Alibaba instructions .. AUD$6277 .. which is slightly dearer than conversion rate I could do with Transferwise but not 'automated' into Alibaba payment. I estimate about $90 worse conversion rate, but better than the $250 or so a credit card would have cost me ... I've also ordered a Heltec BMS to me in Aus so I can play with it before the big stuff arrives in France.
is the one I plan on using (and ordered). I will need 3 per set (6 all up , plus the one I have here for testing and learning , which will become a spare.

Looking to get some tiny cells 10AH delivered here so I can play with this before it goes to France. These look possible..

Also ordered one of these Heltec 'dumb' active balancers as I'm nervous that the balance limits of my sets are pushing the native capabilities of the BMS. (260ma .. vrs 2A of this ) US $28.


I'm planning to use the Heltech BMS above for a each of 3 strings of 8 that will be put in parallel for the final system. Struggled a lot finding a smart (i.e configurable) with bluetooth phone or PC display for monitoring, with 200Amp peak load capability. The Daly ones for 100A charge are very expensive, as are some of the Chargery and Electrodacus etc .. esp if I have 3 per set. Putting 3 cells in parallel x 8S could reduce to 1 BMS but then peak charge and load is 2 to 3 times more than a 3 set in parallel, and any balancing becomes 3 times harder with effective 840AH cells. Limits choices again/raises some costs.

I feel live I just dived off a high drive tower and am plummeting to the water below. Will I land OK or make a mush of it !

I also just ordered (8) of the Lishen 272AH LiFePO4 Prismatic cells from Emily Peng at Basen. I was looking at the Link for the 280AH EVE batteries and while the qty said they had several thousand in stock, both Basen reps I spoke with said they sold out the previous week and apologized that the count was showing wrong, and directed me to the Lishen 272 as they can output over 280AH and had those in stock because they said they were not sure they would get any more EVEs in stock. I saw Max's post about the cargo ship loss, and wonder if they ended up using up lots of the Basen stock of EVEs for replacement of customers who lost theirs at sea. My price was $75/cell plus shipping. So with the Daly 250A BMS I mention below, and shipping and PayPal fees, my total was $999.60.

Anyway I was just looking at that Heltech smart BMS you posted, Peter, and I'm probably reading the specs wrong (I'm a first timer newb), but it looks like the voltages they are posting in spec page are alarmingly high? It says charging voltage is string plus 4.2v so I would interpret they are going to charge your 8s string at 33.4v instead of the 3.65 each max total of 29.2v. Am I missing something?

For my set up I discussed BMS with Daly and would have liked two parallel strings of 4 cells running two BMS at 12v, but they said their BMS doesn't support parallel and that I'd need to go with the 8s 24v Smart BMS instead (putting all 8 cells in series) for my bank. In my case I wanted to have extra capacity so I am going with the big 250A BMS. The model of BMS is the DL-R32W-F08S0250ATJ-MM00

Anyway I'm also only going to be running a small infrequently used solar setup for outbuilding, with this setup, and starting with 4x 12v 200w panels. I don't think I'll care how long it takes to charge this bank, as I won't expect to drain it much, and in TX we get lots of sun.

Hopefully I am not missing something incredibly stupid!

tialiden said:

I also just ordered (8) of the Lishen 272AH LiFePO4 Prismatic cells from Emily Peng at Basen. I was looking at the Link for the 280AH EVE batteries and while the qty said they had several thousand in stock, both Basen reps I spoke with said they sold out the previous week and apologized that the count was showing wrong, and directed me to the Lishen 272 as they can output over 280AH and had those in stock because they said they were not sure they would get any more EVEs in stock. I saw Max's post about the cargo ship loss, and wonder if they ended up using up lots of the Basen stock of EVEs for replacement of customers who lost theirs at sea.

Anyway I was just looking at that Heltach smart BMS you posted, Peter, and I'm probably reading the specs wrong (I'm a first timer newb), but it looks like the voltages they are posting in spec page are alarmingly high? It says charging voltage is string plus 4.2v so I would interpret they are going to charge your 8s string at 33.4v instead of the 3.65 each max total of 29.2v. Am I missing something?

For my set up I discussed BMS with Daly and would have liked two parallel strings of 4 cells running two BMS at 12v, but they said their BMS doesn't support parallel and that I'd need to go with the 8s 24v Smart BMS instead (putting all 8 cells in series) for my bank. In my case I wanted to have extra capacity so I am going with the big 250A BMS. The model of BMS is the DL-R32W-F08S0250ATJ-MM00

Anyway I'm also only going to be running a small infrequently used solar setup for outbuilding, with this setup, and starting with 4x 12v 200w panels. I don't think I'll care how long it takes to charge this bank, as I won't expect to drain it much, and in TX we get lots of sun.

Hopefully I am not missing something incredibly stupid!

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Hi Tialiden,
I'm a first timer newb too so were both learning. Most of those in these forums will not be doing these things multiple times.
The key part of the BMS sheet to read is "Adjustable Protection Parameters" and secondly there are 2 versions, one for LTO and one for LiFePO4. The LiFePO4 table says charging voltage is 3.6V (* no of cells in the string). I think your reading the LTO table.

I've also had words from Daly and Haltec that Parallel operation is not "supported". However I'm not sure they mean parallel strings or strings of parallel cells. I see no way that multiple strings in parallel each with their own BMS can behave any differently than a single. EXCEPT you need to cater for the case that if a BMS does disconnect a string due to overvoltage of a cell the remaining strings(s) then could get a step increase in charging (or discharging) current. This could cascade quickly to further strings if your overall string charging voltage was still within parameters.
It should be highly unlikely that a single cell overvoltage with total string still within limits occurs, especially across multiple strings. One needs to be aiming to have the overall string voltage to stop charging via the charger as the main aim, and not relying on BMS disconnect as a first defence. In my case each BMS is sized to just allow the peak charging and discharging currents I expect alone, but normally will share 1/3 of those levels.

Also an update on my order process: My wire xfer funds were received and applied to my order within 12 hrs (much better than the 2-3 days they stated it could take) so I've had confirmation of payment complete now.

rashers said:

Wow, brand new ship in 2019. Maybe a design flaw. Very unusual to see that many containers lost in one incident. The ship turned around and docked in Japan.
ONE APUS (Container Ship) Registered in Japan - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 9806079, MMSI 431003000, Call Sign 7KEG | AIS Marine Traffic

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A celerate wave is no joke, stacked containers are unable to take that much stress.

For the Canadians, just ordered from basen and shipping to Canada was identical cost as going to US. First time I've seen that in many requests. Should be here in February sometime.

Calgary Sparky said:

For the Canadians, just ordered from basen and shipping to Canada was identical cost as going to US. First time I've seen that in many requests. Should be here in February sometime.

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Mine should be showing up in Calgary mid January. It will be interesting to see what additional fees UPS tries to get away.........

My 4 Basen cells shipped on Nov 4th and arrived in the West Coast of Canada over the weekend. So far so good but some testing now needs to occur to see how they match and capacity. That will take a week or two.

Marinepower said:

My 4 Basen cells shipped on Nov 4th and arrived in the West Coast of Canada over the weekend. So far so good but some testing now needs to occur to see how they match and capacity. That will take a week or two.

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Did UPS deliver them? If they did, did they they hit you with any of their extra brokerage fees or taxes?

noenegdod said:

Did UPS deliver them? If they did, did they they hit you with any of their extra brokerage fees or taxes?

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Yes UPS delivered and no fees were requested when I pick up at my local UPS office. Also, oddly the tracking number showed no activity until the day they were delivered.

Calgary Sparky said:

For the Canadians, just ordered from basen and shipping to Canada was identical cost as going to US. First time I've seen that in many requests. Should be here in February sometime.

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Sparky,

I delayed my Canada bound order for almost 6 months because shipping was more than the product (for 4 cells) - but in November 'by-sea' rates seemed to become available and the shipping price dropped by about 2/3rds.

Marinepower said:

Yes UPS delivered and no fees were requested when I pick up at my local UPS office. Also, oddly the tracking number showed no activity until the day they were delivered.

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Good to hear. I cringe every time a vender will only ship UPS from the US because of their ridiculous brokerage fees so I avoid UPS as much as I can. I think the shipping company clears customs first then UPS gets it for delivery. I think this is why there is no brokerage and also why the tracking number doesn't become active until UPS first scans it here.

noenegdod said:

Good to hear. I cringe every time a vender will only ship UPS from the US because of their ridiculous brokerage fees so I avoid UPS as much as I can. I think the shipping company clears customs first then UPS gets it for delivery. I think this is why there is no brokerage and also why the tracking number doesn't become active until UPS first scans it here.

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Interesting - have found that Fedex has the most cringe-worthy US to Cad custom fees. USPS seems to be the best for shipping USA to Cad fees.

Certainly agree with USPS. I have had decent luck with Fedex until the last couple months where they hammered me on 1 shipment. I canceled my account with them.

noenegdod said:

Certainly agree with USPS. I have had decent luck with Fedex until the last couple months where they hammered me on 1 shipment. I canceled my account with them.

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I never had an account with Fedex - so maybe they charge different fees depending on if the recipient is or is not an account holder?

Link: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/3-2V-120Ah-Grade-A-and_1600103184991.html (Basen)
Price: 38.40$ x 16 = 614.4$
Local delivery in china: 26$
Alipay tax +3%: 18.4$
Delivery to my country (Russia): 180$

The set includes connecting plates of excellent quality, 2mm thick (copper nickel plate, copper is visible on a scratch on one of the plates)
Number of plates: 18 pieces
Bolts 36pcs: M6 with spring washer and regular washer
Voltage on all 16 cells 3.30-3.31V (delivery 45 days and identical voltage indicates identical small self-discharge.)
in the future I will measure the internal resistance and do a test capacity.
No damage due to high-quality original packaging (4pcs per box)
Absolutely smooth edges

All cells are dated June 2019 according to qr codes
Total price with delivery 840$ for 16pcs 120ah = 52.5$ for one cell 120ah

Fedex finaly picks up my batteries from Basen today! They should be here in North Ca in around next week, yeah!
I odered on the Nov 3rd, shipped out on the Nov 8th, ship arrived at LA port on the Dec 13th.

Dzl said:

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Does anyone have the same for Lishen QR codes?

Follow-up on my first order from BASEN.