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A neighbor to our cabin has been bugging me to help him put in solar. I finally contacted him to understand what he was thinking, and he started out saying that his wife was really enamored with SolarFlower (at first he said Solar Sunflower, so I was really confused). I finally found...

A couple of years ago I built an 8S 230Ah 24V battery for our cabin in the mountains of Colorado, replacing the AGM battery bank that had been there since 2017. I documented the details (with lots of photos) of the new battery build in this thread: Horsefly's Cabin Solar LiFePO4 Upgrade...

I'm looking at Trophy batteries for a friend as part of an all-Victron system. His cabin (a half mile or so from mine) is at almost 9000 ft elevation, so winter cold is a concern. Trophy seems to be the only one of the new generation of 48V LiFePO4 batteries with a built in heater. The Trophy...

TL;DR - I made my second purchase from Jenny Wu of Docan, and I'm very happy with the purchase. I still highly recommend Docan and Jenny. On the morning of Tuesday, 25-Jun, I contacted Jenny Wu from Docan to get a quote for 8 230Ah cells. She replied almost immediately with a quote for $108...

I'm helping a guy who's cabin is near ours to design and set up solar. I've got him convinced to go all-in with Victron. I'm now working on the detailed parts list so he can start buying stuff. He wants to put most of the equipment in the crawlspace (ugh), so I'm trying to work with that. I...

I've had a Zketech EBC-A40L cell tester for (I think) around 3 years. I've tested 5 batches of cells with it and really liked collecting the spreadsheets to see where the Ah progression happened, and of course to verify the capacity of the cells. I blew the dust off of it today to do some...

This may be a bit remotely related to DIY LiFePO4 battery banks, but... Walmart currently has a sale on "sneeze guard" 1/4" acrylic sheets of various sizes. I've used clear acrylic on the banks I've built to protect the terminals from accidental shorts from dropping tools, while still being...

I have two JK model b2a8s20p BMS. One is still great, one - the more recent one - has completely failed with very little use. NOT GOOD. Background: I had built an 8S 230Ah system for our cabin (see here) with a JBD BMS. I already had since built 3 other JBD based batteries and was pretty...

Didn't see this already posted, but it sounds like the Chinese gov't has largely shutdown Shenzhen due to a Covid outbreak. Since much of what we buy for DIY Solar comes from Schenzhen, it sounded like an appropriate topic...

Excuse the old Monopoly board game reference, but it seemed to fit. On 22-June I ordered some Silicone 2 AWG wire on E-Bay; 2 meters to be exact. 2 AWG was what I wanted, but it also was the largest they had. I wanted silicone because I needed lots of flex on the wire for a particular...

Nothing scientific, but it seems like the amount of activity on this forum has dropped significantly in the past several months. I don't know any analytics that would show for sure, but maybe someone else does. Is it my imagination? If it has dropped, does anyone know why? I thought that it...

Just finished my second LiFePO4 battery build. Actually this one is my fourth one, but two the previous two were not for me and so I didn't have as much latitude for the design. My previous build (discussed here) is for our mountain cabin, and had lots of emphasis on insulation, heating...

This isn't really a BMS topic, but I couldn't figure out what would be the right forum to post it in. Back in November I purchased one of the JuncTek 400A battery monitors as discussed in this thread; https://diysolarforum.com/threads/bluetooth-battery-monitor-0-120v-0-600a.28564/post-342574...

I'm wondering how much cell capacity is affected by cells being just a bit cooler. Here's my story: In early Aug-2021, I received 8 Eve 230Ah cells, purchased via Michael B Caro (I was on one the lucky ones). I purchased one of the EBC-A40L testers (this one) and went about testing each cell...

Our off-grid cabin has had solar since 2017. Next spring I'm upgrading from 310Ah @ 24V AGM to 230Ah @ 24V LFP. Our original energy budget has proven to be very conservative, as I believe we almost never consume more than about 100Ah. The exception is hunting season, when a crowd of guys who...

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this, so if a moderator / admin wants to move it I'm fine with that. I've had an order in with Amy Wan / Shenzhen Luyuan for over 100 days. It is for a project I'm doing for someone else, and he's losing patience. He has now asked me what U.S. sources...

I've got a couple of 8S 100A JBD BMS's that I've been happy with (actually, three now that I think about it). The JST connectors on these boards (purchased several months ago) are 2.54mm pitch (0.1"), including the 4-pin port for the Bluetooth or USB connector. I have Bluetooth transceivers for...

I'm trying to help a friend transition his sailboat house battery to LFP and upgrade his surrounding equipment. He purchased a Victron Multiplus Compact Inverter/Charger. This one is 12V 2000VA with an 80A charger. It's apparently the older model, and the manual doesn't even discuss LFP. The...

I'm helping someone migrate from AGM house batteries to a couple of DIY 4s 280Ah batteries that I'm building for him. In the process, he is getting rid of lots of very old equipment that is not compatible with LFP. Although I don't have much experience with Victron, I told him I thought it was...

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...

I have three JBD BMSs, but they are all 24V. This one on Amazon certainly looks like the JBD one, and the app is the same as the JBD uses. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08SQL487S Can anyone confirm from the looks that it is the JBD 12V 120A model? Not exactly a bargain, but another U.S...

Our family cabin was built in the 1970's, at about 9,000 feet elevation in the mountains of Colorado. It was wired (by teenage me) for 120VAC even though there was no possibility of grid power. We had a generator that we ran when needed, such as to run the well pump or for lights. By 2017, my...

I couldn't find this posted here already. I apologize if someone already posted it. Although not yet confirmed, it looks like Tesla is switching to LFP for their US standard range Model 3 and Model Y cars produced in Freemont, CA. There's also some rumor that their gigafactories will be...

Does anyone know if the temperature probes on the JBD can be extended? I've got the 100A 8S version with two temperature probes, but the wires are only about 9 inches long. I'm considering splicing in some wire to extend them to maybe 20 inches, just so I can be working on things and not have...

SORRY, THIS ITEM IS SOLD! This little cell capacity tester works pretty well. I would keep it, but bought a way over-priced better tester. :whistle: I purchased it here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001458325206.html It connects to a cell (or - I guess - a full battery pack, but I...

After the early adopters complained about how easy it was to strip the threads on their prismatic LiFePO4 terminal pads, the market seemed to have responded by offering studs welded onto the original pad, rather than drilling and threading a hole for a bolt. That certainly sounded good to those...

Greetings. I'm hoping to get some review and pointers from experts here on an LFP house battery upgrade for a sailboat. I've been posting here for a bit about off-grid systems. I've got one in a cabin in the mountains of Colorado, and am moving from AGM to LFP. I'm also a retired Electrical...

I'm sure it is someplace on the forum, but I couldn't find it. For those who use aluminum plates either for heat dissipation or compression, where did you buy it?

I know conventional wisdom says that nothing should be connected directly to the battery, but rather everything should go through the BMS. I have a Thornwave Labs Powermon-5s smart shunt. Although I think it is a bit quirky, this shunt has some nice features like data logging (power, voltage...

I have for sale a 500A Victron Smart Shunt that I purchased 2 month ago. I've decided it isn't exactly what I wanted. The product is described here: https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt I bought it on Amazon, here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0856PHNLX It...

I searched the board and found a few mentions of the Thornwave Powermon-5s, but not many detailed comments. The device is much like the Victron Smart Shunt. It monitors the Ah going into and out of a battery, and provides lots of information via Bluetooth to an app on a cell phone or tablet...

My QNBBM 8S active balancer arrived yesterday and I hooked it up. In my 8S pack of the little Navitas 25Ah cells, I have one that refuses to stay balanced with the others, so I was anxious to see how well the active balancer works. This pack is just for me to educate myself until I get around...

I’ve looked / searched a bit and didn’t find anyone addressing this specifically, so I thought I would put down some thoughts and results of my computations and hopefully others will correct and/or contribute to a better picture. We all know that LFP batteries need to be kept above 32°F/0°C for...

Greetings folks! This is my first post, so go easy on me. :) I've been reading as much as I can here (what a great resource!), and learning lots. I've got a 24V off grid cabin system, with a 4000W inverter, 1700W of panels, and a 60A MPPT charge controller (the electronics are all Schneider)...