A ton of LiFePo⁴ cells

[Spunky]

Finally received my cells today, looks like my winter indoor project will be a long one.

Stacked four high, 40 cells per box.

In possession, going low and slow.

Unboxing video


And a closeup.

They'll be going into Basen-Green rack battery boxes and SunFunKits also found me some new Pace BMSes that will be fitted along with a breaker in each. Pace, because the 14 SOK 100Ah batteries that I'm adding to, are working great with that system.


On the inside looking out, waiting for wire and other parts.

 

[EastFalcon]

Wow I just got my 48 cells from sunfun thinking I was all that and a bag of chips, but 160??

subbed to your thread curious to see how the basen green boxes will work.

 

[Alkaline]

What are they 304? 280K? Did you get v1 or v2? Test Report?

 

[740GLE]

Let us know how the terminals look on the bottom case, hopefully they are still nice and level.

 

[740GLE]

What are they 304? 280K? Did you get v1 or v2? Test Report?

It’s got a hologram SFK sticker, no test reports needed, those are cream of the crop!!! ?

 

[42OhmsPA]

It’s got a hologram SFK sticker, no test reports needed, those are cream of the crop!!! ?

Is it my eyes or is that sticker crooked?

Look out @timselectric looks like you have a capacity competitor on your hands.

All joking aside, I'm looking forward to following your build @Spunky .

 

[Sam Cho TX]

What are they 304? 280K? Did you get v1 or v2? Test Report?

Video on rumble says 280K V3.

$121.2/cell shipped paying with cash nolimit coupon, sfk is getting aggressive with pricing. https://www.sunfunkits.com/productg...ss-certified-prismatic-cell-32v?ProductID=128

 

[Alkaline]

OP post pictures of the cells, how are the terminals striaght or bent? Also test report, your terminals look like the real eve terminals so that is good not shiny ones like on some sellers.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Gonna have to enter that into this thread:

Who's is bigger?

So we've all seen @timselectric big battery bank. But whos got the biggest DIY battery bank? I don't want to see the 30+ EG4 battery rack that you bought, but individual cells and DIY BMS's. Let's see it!

diysolarforum.com

 

[Spunky]

These are supposed to be the LF280Ah V3

We're looking at #10


And yes, that SFK sticker must have been applied near the end of the work shift ? ?

 

[Alkaline]

Yep those look good and the QR code has that bumpy dotted numbers from an etching machine vs the fake ones that are smooth lines. Did the cells have a label on them too?

Damn.

What do you do for a living ?

 

[740GLE]

Buys cells and powers his neighborhood by the looks of it!

So the OP already has 14 100ah SOK (guessing also 48v, that’s what 67kwhr.

He has the cells to add 10 280ah to that system, so adding 134kwhr

For a total of 200kwhr? This is low using 48v nominal voltage.

So if the average house consumes 600kwhr/month, he could power his house for about 10 days without solar.

Let me guess Pacific North West? Lol

 

[Partimewages]

I think he's in Michigan. Which is mostly like Ohio. I've seen two weeks without sun!

 

[Spunky]

Yep those look good and the QR code has that bumpy dotted numbers from an etching machine vs the fake ones that are smooth lines. Did the cells have a label on them too?

Damn.

What do you do for a living ?

I wiggled one out and checked voltage on another 19, got 3.3293v on those. After a closer look at my data sheet, I noticed it wasn't the number I thought. My sheet doesn't show what's in the top pallet, probably because I added to the original order.
It might be some time before I get into the bottom one and compare those. Good news is, the info is on the cells.
I figuring 15kwh per battery with the 14 SOK 5120kwh, I'll be over 200kwh or close enough counting only the usable portion. So 10 days of darkness.
We're down wind of Lake Michigan (kind of like the Pacific Northwest) and did have about 2 weeks of clouds, could barely hold the charge during the day last winter.
I'll try to load a battery box this weekend to see how they fit. I read where a guy had to insert a ½” board to fill some space in his.

p.s. I work a lot and it is powering 3 counties, especially when the weather is bad which could include half the State.

 

[Spunky]

Finally got the cells all uncrated and sorted. The 1st group of 16 were placed in the BasenGreen box. And varied from 302.8862 ~ 302.7712 Ah ; .115Ah per their test.
1) 302.7993
2) 302.8731
3) 302.8855
4) 302.8098
5) 302.7712
6) 302.8809
7) 302.7771
8) 302.8234
9) 302.8862
10) 302.8631
11) 302.8536
12) 302.8108
13) 302.8324
14) 302.8030
15) 302.8386
16) 302.8537
The cells fit snuggly behind the front plate and needed a push to compress the foam pad supplied and catch a couple threads of the bolts.
I added a 16ga. plate to the rear, to cover the large opening there. This was a piece 6"x24" I purchased from the local hardware.

The fit and finish of the box needed nothing else.
I ordered 9 of these without BMSes from BasenGreen on Alibaba and dealt with Daria. Price DDP was $3465, that's $385 each. I ordered an additional one State side with a BMS for $597, to get my hands on one sooner. Then purchased Pace BMS (SFK) for each @ $168 plus a 200A Nader breaker from Signature Solar @ $57 delivered ($631.20 with parts).
So in hind site, Gobel will sell kits without cells, if you order 10 or more for $618.90 DDP and with the BMS I wanted plus a 250A breaker ready for cells.
All the BasenGreens came with the BMSes installed anyhow, so I tried their brand and thought I'd keep the others for backup. I didn't like the PC software and didn't even try it with SolarAssistant. So the modifications started; the leads all reached and just needed to add a jumper from line side of the Nader (high temp wire coming this is #4 105°C welding wire).

BasenGreen's BMS was similar to a Pace, but was missing the Dry Contact port and display buttons were different spacing. I placed the breaker where the On/Off switch was and relocated the switch (the switch plug was compatible with the Pace). Their display plug had 6 prongs and the Pace has 5, I wasn't chancing the comm port compatibility either. I'll remove the Balance PCB when some ¼” ring terminals arrive, as those plugs were different too. The mounting bosses all lined up and two of the display screws caught the edge with a washer.

Edit: added a pic

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

$121.2/cell shipped paying with cash nolimit coupon, sfk is getting aggressive with pricing

Prices of cells are dropping all over the place.

 

[Spunky]

I decided to load the cells, hookup the BMS and see how balanced they were straight from the factory. Plus I wanted to know any other issues as soon as possible.
Well... it made it to about 54.4V sometime in the night before cell #3 hit Protect at 3.6V (I lowered it in the parameters).

So out came the Heltec, because we all know the Pace is only for maintaining a previously balanced pack (and a 12V headlight bulb).

I'm not sure if this is good enough after sitting for a few hours with BMS and the Heltec off?


A short clip charging this morning after Heltec was put into service.

Video

 

[Alkaline]

Those look balanced to me, anything over 3.45v is basically balanced as once you put even a little load it will drop to 3.33v

What you don't want is something where 1 cell is 3.34 and the others are 3.5 that is bad, so as long as they are all over 3.45 then its basically balanced.

In other words no practical difference between 3.45v and 3.6v

Also why did you prefer the pace over the sepolos I have a EEL case coming with the Sepolos v3, but I do like your software on the pace, looks like SOK software.

 

[Spunky]

Those look balanced to me, anything over 3.45v is basically balanced as once you put even a little load it will drop to 3.33v

What you don't want is something where 1 cell is 3.34 and the others are 3.5 that is bad, so as long as they are all over 3.45 then its basically balanced.

In other words no practical difference between 3.45v and 3.6v

Also why did you prefer the pace over the sepolos I have a EEL case coming with the Sepolos v3, but I do like your software on the pace, looks like SOK software.

SOK uses Pace and I have 15 - 100Ah SOK rack batteries. I've seen a couple others, but I'm used to the Pace. And I've figured how running a pack up to "protection" then opening it's breaker, the BMS will continue to balance undisturbed until it hits it's set release value 3.38v. Normally it would stop charging and balance, but if a cloud goes by, discharge starts and breaks balancing.

I ran that pack down to the cut-off then recharged with 38mV difference ?(not sure how much the BMS balanced, the Heltec was off). My charger was set to 15A max, so it took awhile and I wasn't watching when it finished.


I wish I knew how to network 32 batteries on the new Pace, their software shows it, but I still only have 4 dip switches.

And I ran the voltage up over 3.45 because the deviation became wider and I temporally had the Heltec attached.

 

[42OhmsPA]

SOK uses Pace and I have 15 - 100Ah SOK rack batteries. I've seen a couple others, but I'm used to the Pace. And I've figured how running a pack up to "protection" then opening it's breaker, the BMS will continue to balance undisturbed until it hits it's set release value 3.38v. Normally it would stop charging and balance, but if a cloud goes by, discharge starts and breaks balancing.

I ran that pack down to the cut-off then recharged with 38mV difference ?(not sure how much the BMS balanced, the Heltec was off). My charger was set to 15A max, so it took awhile and I wasn't watching when it finished.
View attachment 180585
View attachment 180587
I wish I knew how to network 32 batteries on the new Pace, their software shows it, but I still only have 4 dip switches.

And I ran the voltage up over 3.45 because the deviation became wider and I temporally had the Heltec attached.

Wow that Pace software looks much nicer than JBD...

Would you happen to have a table for voltage SOC % you could share?

I'm having some issues with my JBD values and I've changed them so many times I don't remember what the starting were. Post in thread '1Mwh SRNE ASF48100U200-H 10kw.' https://diysolarforum.com/threads/1mwh-srne-asf48100u200-h-10kw.67809/post-936287

 

[Partimewages]

I wish I knew how to network 32 batteries on the new Pace, their software shows it, but I still only have 4 dip switswitches.

Are the dip switches to change the address to identify each pack?
Switch 1= 1, 2=2, 3=4, 4=8.
Switches 1 and 2=3
Switches 1 and 4=9
and so forth

 

[Alkaline]

SOK uses Pace and I have 15 - 100Ah SOK rack batteries. I've seen a couple others, but I'm used to the Pace. And I've figured how running a pack up to "protection" then opening it's breaker, the BMS will continue to balance undisturbed until it hits it's set release value 3.38v. Normally it would stop charging and balance, but if a cloud goes by, discharge starts and breaks balancing.

I ran that pack down to the cut-off then recharged with 38mV difference ?(not sure how much the BMS balanced, the Heltec was off). My charger was set to 15A max, so it took awhile and I wasn't watching when it finished.
View attachment 180585
View attachment 180587
I wish I knew how to network 32 batteries on the new Pace, their software shows it, but I still only have 4 dip switches.

And I ran the voltage up over 3.45 because the deviation became wider and I temporally had the Heltec attached.

Yeah same as SOK, well much nicer than JBD still uses old ass windows XP blue and half the characters are in Chinese.

Pace seems to be the way to go for the enterprise style BMS... damn I hope my sepolos will be ok.

 

[42OhmsPA]

Yeah same as SOK, well much nicer than JBD still uses old ass windows XP blue and half the characters are in Chinese.

Pace seems to be the way to go for the enterprise style BMS... damn I hope my sepolos will be ok.

What's wrong with that old ass windows XP blue, as long as it's not the blue screen of death ?. I even selected English ?
I've read good things about seplos.

@Spunky where did you source your Pace from?
Edit - nevermind I see SFK now that I read the whole post.

 

[Spunky]

Wow that Pace software looks much nicer than JBD...

Would you happen to have a table for voltage SOC % you could share?

Pace dosen't list a table, it resets to 100% when a set voltage "Pack FullCharge Voltage" is reached with a set minimum current "Pack FullCharge Current". It must keep count of in and out sums.

 

[Spunky]

Are the dip switches to change the address to identify each pack?
Switch 1= 1, 2=2, 3=4, 4=8.
Switches 1 and 2=3
Switches 1 and 4=9
and so forth

That's correct, like the binary numbering system. But someone thought numbering from left to right was better than normal.