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Leaving them on, shutting them off, and a combination of the two. On one battery, I tried the bench power supply I from 200ma to 3 amps . On the other battery I just let the 10amp charge controller do its thing. After a while with 10amps the bms would just trip and stay tripped. Unplugging...

An amp hour test won't really tell us much, because we still don't know how many amps the cylindrical cells are. For all we know they could be grade B 6amp cells * 20 = 120ah, but with such poor balancing they sell as a 100ah battery (lifespan will be very short if this is the case). Some of...

That reviewer is an idiot. A three stage charger has absolutely nothing to do with boost mode or de-sulfate mode. That charger IS way overpriced, but that is a different topic.

No, no it doesn't. At all. It has nothing to do with PWM's, just that particular PWM. There are plenty of good PWM's out there, and many pieces of junk also. You are blaming an obvious BMS issue on PWM? There are many cases where a PWM will outperform an MPPT. Use the right tool for the...

Has anyone got these boards to do a damn thing? I wasted enough time with these crap batteries. I just deleted a long rant post, but I gotta tell ya, I'm pissed.

It sounds to me like your BMS is disconnecting the battery terminals, so the charge controller is going to open circuit voltage. Usually when this happens it bounces back and forth between high and low volts while all your loads freak out. Switching to a MPPT in this scenario won't help...

That is your charge controller switching from constant current to constant voltage, not the bms.

Are the batteries cutting off, or is the inverter cutting off? Either way, why run them that low?

Wild's explanation makes sense. Another reason might have to do with the way lithium cells behave when nearing full. On a lead battery, the higher its voltage goes the harder it is to increase it further. On a lithium cell, once it reaches a certain voltage it will quickly increase in voltage...

Exactly! But many people seem to not be aware that this is not normal, and the lifespan of their CC and load will probably suffer. The onboard meter is wired straight to the pack? If so, it should read higher than my Flukes on the terminals, but it reads lower on both. Regardless, those...

The onboard meter is very inaccurate. The battery posts are after the BMS also. If you disconnect the balance leads from the BMS, the battery output goes dead. Now, with this balancer board installed, instead of 1 connector there are 4. If any one fails the battery goes dead (my boat is...

This is the main problem, and very damaging to the entire system. The battery is disconnecting from the charge source and the load. Neither like when that happens. Yet many here seem to think it is normal.

Right, but that is what scares me. If ALL cells above 3.45 get shunted to ground then any charge above 13.8 is creating a tiny powerful heater inside the battery. If someone charges to 14.6v, that poor little balancer will cook away for weeks. There must be some parameters that must be met...

I wonder what happens when a fully balanced battery reaches 3.45 per cell. I guess there must be a certain voltage differential between cells for it drain a cell...well, I'd hope! I wonder what that differential is? 100mV? Yikes. Yes, I'm using a bench supply and feeding .25-.5a. It doesn't...

Agree. I planned on only charging these to about 13.8v max but that probably won't trigger the balance. 14v it will be. I guess it does make sense, so a low battery is not wasting energy balancing...but 3.45 is a fully charged cell. Maybe an adjustable "equalization" charge setting some LA...

This doesn't seem possible with everything I'm seeing and measuring, so maybe you got lucky! Mine do seem to be getting better with repeated cycles, so I'll keep at it. I just hope all progress is not lost with an overnight sit.

All of them? And are you ok with that? It would be nice if we knew how these balancers work. The lights come on near 3.45v and seem to stay on above that (charging or not). Lots of heat is produced while the light(s) is on, but I don't know if if this device is bleeding excess voltage to the...

I just received my balancers in the mail (Jim has got to be the most responsive seller on eBay!). Very easy install and I'm charging up one of the batteries now...there are no lights on the balancer yet. If I understand the operation of the device correctly, the balancing (and the LEDs turning...

Thanks for the teardown vid Bean, you saved me some time! I've been building my own lithium packs for a decade, but the price of these got me to give them a shot. My initial findings are very similar to yours, but mine were even more out of balance. The BMS's on the better one of mine hits...

There is no "expanding" a 12v 4000w system. You are maxed... I know where you are coming from. My "cheap" shed system is 12v. I made it 12v so it would be simple to modify or adapt in an extended power outage (I'm in hurricane country). But I have trouble just feeding 750w of PV to it with...

I just watched the video, and I laughed my ass off! Not because it was funny, but because it was so true...and because I always thought Will was a Liberal. It's good to know he's smarter than that ;). I'm going to go back and try and read the 8 pages of this thread. In the mean time, thank...

4000 watts on 12v? I just bought a very cheap brand new old stock 3000w pure sine wave inverter...12v... off craigslist. So cheap i had to buy it..., but was it? The amperage at those watts is ridiculously stupid. Fire hazard. You need a cable the size of my arm to power that. Do I sell...

Sorry if this question has been covered before, but is there any way to expedite the shipping? Like if I buy 16 280ah's, can I pay an extra $100 or two for faster shipping? If not, anyone want to do a group buy in SWF?

From a google search: "The battery type selection is achieved by the use of a jumper plug accessible through a round hole in the top end plate of the controller. To set the controller for flooded lead-acid batteries, remove the small jumper plug with needle nose pliers. Do not do anything if...

They are pool heater panels. Drive through Florida on trash day and you'll usually find stacks of them. The sun breaks them down over time and they start to leak. That one looks worse than most I see in the trash, so...I dont think it's worth repairing, and just one wouldn't be much use for...

This cheapie turns on with solar input. It's a boost controller so you'll need to use a 12v panel for your 24v battery, which may be a good thing for your idea as you can use tiny panels. It can be adjusted to any voltage and locked in (preset 1 only I think!). To just kick charge your dead...

Pot calling the kettle black. Do you ever post anything useful or do you just like to troll? At least fanboy Steve posts a lot of useful information.

This thread proves that the average person today can no longer comprehend the english language. I'm am one of the very few people here that recommend lithiums when the application warrants them or LAs when the application warrants them. The only ones that are "my way or the highway" are the...

Because they use the best tool for the job. Those LA's will last decades happily floating away at full charge waiting for a power failure. Lithium batteries won't last long at all being kept fully charged and at the ready. Same thing goes for UPS systems. LA's are still the best choice for...

Bag phones were not the subject. If we want to go way off topic we could talk about the telecom industry that still uses lead.

There are only two things I can't live without in life. Toilet paper and beer!

Not if partial shading is a concern.

25-30 amps should do, MUST be made for DC. Debatable, but you might want a double pole vs single pole between the panels and CC.

How do you keep your beer cold?!!?

That is supposed to handle 36v, so it should be fine? If you are worried about your 12v devices getting fried from a bad converter, you could install one of these between the converter and 12v fuse block/devices. It will trip if overvoltage is detected...