diy solar

diy solar

Cells from Luyuan and Box/BMS from Seplos to Australia

no no no, that wont give proper reading... but ok we'll take it.
I'm all ears ... I was planning to fully charge and final balance then apply a constant load until empty while monitoring the voltage and current each minute. Quick integration on a spreadsheet gets me Wh and Ah.
Is there a better way? (Without buying more kit?)
 
if you want to test the cells you need to do it 1 cell at a time with either a fan tester or something like the zke-40 that willl give you proper results/cell.
 
if you want to test the cells you need to do it 1 cell at a time with either a fan tester or something like the zke-40 that willl give you proper results/cell.
Ah ok, now I understand what you would prefer. It's a good point. Let me look into that a bit more.
 
I'm all ears ... I was planning to fully charge and final balance then apply a constant load until empty while monitoring the voltage and current each minute. Quick integration on a spreadsheet gets me Wh and Ah.
Is there a better way? (Without buying more kit?)
This is all I plan to do - properly top balance all the cells, then do a discharge test of all 16 in series. The battery will only be as strong as the weakest cell, so this will give a good indication of the overall quality without the equipment and massive amount of time required to charge and discharge each individually. I'm not really bothered by a few Ah difference between each cell, this should be expected in any case as they're B grade.
 
Ah ok, now I understand what you would prefer. It's a good point. Let me look into that a bit more.
Ok, to buy a ZKE 40 is around A$500. Too much investment. There is a cheaper option which discharges at 5A, but I would be testing till January with that one.

So, it's a nogo from me on the single cell tests. I will test as a battery. I'm happy with that test as it's how I plan to use the cells, and as @octal_ip noted, the result will be dictated by the weakest cell.

I've done this previously with 4 cell and 8 cell configurations and was happy with the results.
 
Hopefully the Seplos enclosure will turn up soon.
No sooner mentioned ... the SEPLOS Mason 280Ah enclosure arrived today. Interestingly, the courier said there is a second package that will be delivered tomorrow.
SEPLOS have separated the delivery into two packages, presumably to keep the weight down. The package I received contained the enclosure, the BMS (fitted) and some plastic separators only
Presumably the busbars, fuse and other hardware is in the second package coming tomorrow.
 
They do that - split into multiple small packages. That is why my 48 cells arrived in 12 boxes with 12 separate tracking numbers.

I would not advise on one cell at a time capacity testing. Your approach is good. You will know what is the least potent cell at the end, but if you get expected Ah and Wh output then you don't care what would the best cell be.

A cell by cell test makes sense to me if I'm testing a seller. I would go with 4 cells and if everything is OK then get more. This is what I did with Docan - got 4 EVE 105Ah cells, build a battery, tested that everything is OK, and ordered 16 280Ah cells.
 
No sooner mentioned ... the SEPLOS Mason 280Ah enclosure arrived today. Interestingly, the courier said there is a second package that will be delivered tomorrow.
SEPLOS have separated the delivery into two packages, presumably to keep the weight down. The package I received contained the enclosure, the BMS (fitted) and some plastic separators only
Presumably the busbars, fuse and other hardware is in the second package coming tomorrow.
How much did it cost you for it to clear customs? Mine has arrived but they want $1200 to clear!
 
How much did it cost you for it to clear customs? Mine has arrived but they want $1200 to clear!
@jpetrak the first box was delivered with no additional charges. The second package still has not arrived.

Did you order just an enclosure kit or did you order cells too?
 
@jpetrak the first box was delivered with no additional charges. The second package still has not arrived.

Did you order just an enclosure kit or did you order cells too?
Just the empty kit but with base stand and cables. Looks like I got tricked by the freight forwarding company Airwave. I got the arrival email with a vauge do you have a customs broker assigned yet if not sign this. Well I signed it thinking 165 roughly and all the other fees are just what they charge for a full shipping container. Well they charged me all those fees and more. $58 Cartage-Fuel hints at how ridiculous it is.
 
Ok, to buy a ZKE 40 is around A$500. Too much investment. There is a cheaper option which discharges at 5A, but I would be testing till January with that one.

So, it's a nogo from me on the single cell tests. I will test as a battery. I'm happy with that test as it's how I plan to use the cells, and as @octal_ip noted, the result will be dictated by the weakest cell.

I've done this previously with 4 cell and 8 cell configurations and was happy with the results.

YOu dont need to buy that you can get this one it is much cheaper:


only $50
 
No sooner mentioned ... the SEPLOS Mason 280Ah enclosure arrived today. Interestingly, the courier said there is a second package that will be delivered tomorrow.
SEPLOS have separated the delivery into two packages, presumably to keep the weight down. The package I received contained the enclosure, the BMS (fitted) and some plastic separators only
Presumably the busbars, fuse and other hardware is in the second package coming tomorrow.
The courier was wrong. The second package from Seplos was not delivered the next day and has now gone AWOL. The local courier company who delivered the first package (Couriers Please) are asking for the Con Note number to track it, but they don't recognise the Con Note number printed on the first package, so they tell me they cant do anything.

Seplos initially said they will investigate, but now they wont answer my emails. What a frustrating shemozzle!
 
Thanks Alkaline, that looks like a better value gizmo at US$50. Advertised max discharge is 25A, assuming that is possible, then the process would still take me a few weeks to complete, not to mention X weeks for delivery of the gizmo to Oz.
I'll stick with the "test as a pack" philosophy for now.
 
The courier was wrong. The second package from Seplos was not delivered the next day and has now gone AWOL. The local courier company who delivered the first package (Couriers Please) are asking for the Con Note number to track it, but they don't recognise the Con Note number printed on the first package, so they tell me they cant do anything.

Seplos initially said they will investigate, but now they wont answer my emails. What a frustrating shemozzle!
It's now more than 2 weeks since part of my Seplos Mason DIY Kit was delivered. The other part is still AWOL. The fault is with the local freight company Border Express who have now assured me three times that it will be delivered "tomorrow", but as the old song says, tomorrow never comes. Very very frustrating. Seplos can't dispatch a replacement package until this one is officially "lost". Border Express keep saying its not lost, but despite their promises, they seem incapable of actually delivering it. What a contrast to the slick and professional delivery of the Eve Cells from Luyuan.

Based on the parts of the Seplos Kit I've seen so far, I'm pretty happy with the quality, and assuming the BMS operates as expected, I would like to order another one ... but I don't want this chaos again!
 
So finally, the missing package was delivered, and I have the Seplos Mason 280 battery now operating properly.

Here is my overall summary of how the ordering, delivery and commissioning of this Seplos product worked out for me.

The Good
Overall, the product itself is great. I like it.

It's a well-designed and solidly-built enclosure which does a nice job of housing the 16x280Ah cells and the Seplos 200A BMS with it's screen. The communication buses (CANBus and dual RS-485) work just fine for monitoring with PC and the CAN bus interface to the Victron CerboGX works, although the depth of information provided across CAN is a bit limited.

The "sales engineer" that I dealt with was consistently available on email to deal with issues as they arose. While the communication was consistent, it was often not accurate... see "The Bad" below.

The shipping process was generally good, except for the local courier who screwed up, but that wasn't the fault of Seplos.

The Bad
The system comes as standard with an internal ANMH fuse, specified to operate up to only 2000A. I asked for a Class T fuse (which operates to 20,000A) and was told that I would get one. I didn't get one, and what is more concerning is that the Seplos engineer tried to convince me that the ANMH fuse WAS a Class T fuse. (He didn't succeed!) Don't bother asking for a Class T fuse because Seplos engineers don't know what that is. I have added an external Class T fuse for my own peace of mind.

I was told by Seplos that the V16 BMS I was getting had Bluetooth functionality. It did not. I learned that the BT function is physically provided in the display module of the BMS, so while a V16 BMS might have Bluetooth "functionality" (whatever that means), there actually is no Bluetooth transceiver unless you specifically ask for a Bluetooth Display.

There was a missing busbar in my delivery, which Seplos have promised to send me. I fabricated a temporary replacement to make the system work.

The Ugly
There is an error in the 200A BMS Manual which has incorrectly labelled the CAN-L and CAN-H pinouts on the CANBus connector. The signals are in fact reversed. The manual for the 100A BMS is correct. According to the Sales Engineer, Seplos don't consider this an "error", just a different interpretation.. go figure. Its one of those crappy manual mistakes that never get fixed because once you know about the error its an easy fix and you move on, so no-one bothers to fix the documentation. It remains a trap for new players.

The BMS is rubbish at balancing. My cells were pretty close, but I ended up manually balancing a couple of outliers with a bunch of resistors on alligator clips. I will be keeping a close eye on cell balancing for a while. Note to self - buy a 16S balancer :)


Ok so that's a very brief summary. I'm happy enough with Seplos and the product that I'm ordering a second unit and have specifically not asked for a Class T, but have specifically asked for a Bluetooth display (Extra $10).

Happy to respond to any specific queries.
 
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