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As I've re-wired everything, there has been project creep galore. The starboard bilge was a mess when I bought the boat so I cleaned it up while running all new wiring. Here is a before: And after: I still need to install the bilge pump and some hoses, but the wiring is much cleaner...

For record keeping, I've made a spreadsheet that shows which wires run through every transit (PVC pipes) on the boat. This should be handy in the future for any troubleshooting. I took a stock overview diagram of our boat and labeled in the transit locations: Here is a representative...

And the AC main panel is now wired. And, for reference, here is the same area before:

I've slowly been wiring up various circuits. It's really a slog and much more time-consuming than initially anticipated. I'm about 60-70% complete with the wiring. *** Main Breaker Panels *** Since my last post I added in the battery monitor and 3 switches. Also wired in the Color...

Am resuming the project... the distribution part of the project is starting to come along. Just laying out how all the wiring on the boat is going to go took quite a bit of thought / time. I installed 5 circuit panels at the nav station. These are all DC 8-position panels made by...

@MisterSandals yes, I see a smalle rvoltage at the chinese capacity tester compared to the battery. I assume that is because of the resistance in the wire. Attached is a picture with voltages circled in blue. You can see the capacity tester measuring 12.8 volts while the Renogy battery...

Here is the link to the battery case. This was the best deal I could find on AliExress. Some looked cheaper but the shipping was higher. I bought 4, shipped to my door for $250.32. 2 weeks delivery. Looks like these fit a number of cases in the 200-300 ah range. I bought the ones with the...

I've been working on getting the circuit breakers together for the boat. One step closer. Also, the other two battery boxes came in from China, so now I have all four. They were all damage free and arrived in 2 weeks. The seller was Dongguan Teswatts Batteries Store from AliExpress. Came...

Completed a top balance on Battery #3 and then immediately started another battery capacity test. The result was 239.0 ah. Still 1ah shy of rated capacity. But that's still 99.5% of rated capacity, so not bad after over a year of calendar aging in a hot compartment. Final results...

*** Battery Boxes *** Received 2 out of 4 battery boxes. The other 2 should arrive soon. Pretty excited to finally see these in person. I've thought about a lot of DIY options for boxes, but these seemed like a good solution. They are sturdier than I was expecting. A year ago when I first...

Thank you for the input guys. I received 240ah even though I ordered 280ah. Haven't seen any swelling through charging/discharging. I suppose they aren't "stuffed" as much as 280 or 304 ah. Looks like I need some compression.

Did you keep the 240 ah cells and/or have any other issues with them? I had the same problem with varicore cells through liitokala. Ordered 16 280ah cells. Received 16 240ah cells.

@Skypower, I've started my 30hp diesel engines off the battleborn lifthiums without any problem. The only thing I've read that glowplugs like 12v more than 13v. With lithium not sagging like lead acid, they get more voltage than they like. Perhaps the glow plugs will wear out prematurely...

Wondering if one or the other would be better for vibration / impact (marine setting on sailboat). I'm guessing the 240 ah has less coil "packs" on the inside. They both have the exact same outside dimensions. I found the attached picture of the inside of a prismatic cell. Thoughts? /...

@wholybee, my current battleborn batteries do not have any alarm or notifiaction warning (to my knowledge) before disconnecting. Perhaps they are not ABC compliant either. I agree with your opinion that feature is not too important. I won't have my alternator hooked up to the lifepo4 pack, so...

I just peeled up under the black top part and saw what looks like the original barcodes. However, the numbers still don't work for me on that website link. Here is what I read: 17Q712A0356565 CATL 6IH3L7 3.2V - 768 Wh The 768 Watt-hour solves a mystery though. I've been pulling slightly...

@JoeHam My batteries don't appear to have legit barcodes. There is a barcode but it just goes to varicore.com. See attached. By the barcode there is also a "scratch-off" area revealing a long string of numbers. I don't know how to interpret these numbers, and when I plugged it into your link...

@whollybee, you wrote: What boxes do the Overkill not check? That's the BMS I'm planning to use in my marine installation. Thanks!

Battery Specs: My cells are supposedly Lishen. And, for future reference, here are the specs from the AliExpress listing: Product name: lithium iron phosphate cell Shell Material: Aluminum Nominal capacity: 280Ah Minimum capacity: 280Ah Internal impedance: 0.1 ~ 0.3mΩ Nominal...

Current Project Status as of 11/25/22: I've had the battery build project on the back burner for over a year. I'm finally getting back to it. So far I've top balanced 3 of the batteries, and am working on the 4th. Concurrently with this project, I'm also re-wiring the Cat and replacing...

Charging sources for the LiFePO4 Bank: Boat is currently equipped with 1920 watts of solar that charge the house bank via 4 separate Victron charge controllers. These are already installed. Additionally, I'm adding a 30 amp DC-DC Orion from the starter battery to the LiFePo4 house bank that...

Battery Posts & Tools: Some nitty gritty. For the battery posts, here is hardware used: Hardware for Battery Posts Cost / Ea Qty Total Link M6 Lock Washers (pack of 100) $11.14 1 $11.14 https://www.mcmaster.com/97079A103/ M6 Set Screws (pack of 10, 20mm long) 92029A260 $4.26 4 $17.04...

Battery Case And Location: The case has been a topic of much thought. In the end, I'm going with the plastic battery boxes from AliExpress. Their outside dimensions are 345x245x190mm. Still waiting for those to arrive as I ordered them recently. Cost for 4 with shipping was $250.32. These...

This thread is for logging the journey of installing a DIY lifepo4 bank on our 39' cat which I'm fitting out to be off-grip electrically. As far as builds go, this is fairly vanilla. But perhaps it will be of interest to someone and, in any extent, I can refer back to it in the future. This...

@OTRwSolar, what pads did you use?

Yes, just as timeselectric mentioned, to keep it healthy and fresh between charges. I'm also planning to put a Renogy battery monitor on the starter battery. Probably overkill, but then I can tell at a glance from my nav station what the voltage is on the starter battery and if there is power...

Thanks guys. Also, looking through the PDF's of each, it looks like the charger wouldn't set off the Orion as long as I set the absorption voltage of the charger below the start voltage of the ORION. So I'm thinking of setting absorption on my 5amp charger to 13.9 volts. And the start...

Hello, and thank you in advance for your help. This is for my off-grid boat (i.e. completely independent of a marina). I'm installing a Victron Orion 30 amp 12/12 DC-DC charger to charge my house battery from the starter battery while the alternator is running. I have a 70 amp alternator that...

Thank you everyone for the replies. I'm out of town at a trade show but once I return back I'll check with a clamp on amp-meter as suggested. Hopefully it's as @moon states and my cheapo tester is the one off. Fwiw, the discrepancy is between Volts AND Amps: Chinese Tester: 12.9 Volts * 7.03...

My capacity tester is reading less amps than my Overkill Solar BMS says is being taken. I took some pictures as an example. This is a 12v, 280ah battery. The BMS showing 7.7 amps being drawn while the capacity tester shows only 7.03 amps being drawn. Doesn't seem there shouldn't be that...

Mubarto, I'm currently installing 16 280ah cells in my 39' catamaran. Right now I live aboard so all the work is happening in a cramped forward locker. My plan is 4 12v batteries. Each battery controlled by a seperate Overkill Solar BMS which are rated at 120 amps continous. I'm capacity testing...

Thank you for that feedback, it makes sense. Slowly all coming together in my head! Just finished capacity test on the first 280ah 12 battery. It took a few days to charge, top balance, and capacity test. For capacity testing I'm using that same Chinese rig you used blutow. It got quite hot...

Re-reading your build thread as I'm finally starting to put mine together. I see you put two sets of batteries to a combiner switch. That makes a lot of sense so you can shut off half the battery banks to service while still keeping power up. Question: for the Victron voltage sense wire...

@RCinFLA, I'm thinking the sun angle must be the biggest issue. If sun is getting to ~40 degrees in the sky and my panels appear to be angled 5 degrees or so, that means sun is hitting 45 degrees best case scenario. I attached a picture of the solar installation (done by previous owner)...