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connecting 5 12v lifepo4 batteries in series?

jasontyo

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Jul 27, 2022
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Hello, guys, I know my question is no related with solar but is with batterties.

I bought a chinese electric quadricycle and have 5 12 v 70 ah led acid batteries with a range extender that uses gasoline.
I want to replace this batteries for 5 lifepo4 in series to make the 60v that requires. I can't find a battery that support 5 in series.
 
An e-bike battery-bank design conundrum (on a quad, no less) ... nice!

The e-bike vendor got away with 5 x 12v70ah FLA batteries as there was no bms involved ... just a single series string of 5 12v FLA batteries ... easy to monitor, easy to charge.

We can't "easily" flip to 5x 12v LiFePO4 batteries, because most vendors probably have a limit of 4 bms's (4 x 12v batteries) in a single series string; usually, this is because they didn't test anything beyond that, and therefore won't support it, or their bms is home-grown, and can't support it. On this site, we normally deal with 12v/24v/48v battery-bank designs, to match our inverter designs. There's explicit/implicit rules for battery-banks ...

In theory only ... only thing I could think of for your 60v LiFePO4 battery-bank is to string 5 LiFePO4 batteries together in series for output of 60v, but "break them apart" for separate charging at 12v each, thus side-stepping the rule of "no more than 4" (while charging); each bms acts together for output, but on its own for charging/input. No vendor would probably support this, but you could ask them via their support mechanisms. If they don't see a problem with 5 bms's acting together on output, maybe they would allow it.

This could be dangerous on the charging (input) side, involving bus-bars, cabling, and "break the battery-bank apart" switch designs, but with lots of head-scratching, you can decide if you are comfortable with the effort and operation, to get to LiFePO4; things could fry if you aren't careful/diligent on the charging side (setting up charging each cycle).

It has a slight advantage of keeping things simple (off the shelf LiFePO4 batteries), at the cost of cabling & charging complexity. In other words, you don't have to build a pack from scratch. You'll still have to "engineer" the monitoring and charging, as FLA is out, and LiFePO4 is the technology in use. Can't reuse the old FLA engineering that came with your quad ...

Hope this helps ...
 
A single 20S LFP Pack would provide a working voltage range of 60.0V to 68.0V + if you push it "a bit".

Look at the space you have available, the shape & depth, measure it carefully 3 TIMES !
If there is no closed box (no water, dirt etc) you'll need one to fit.
IF you DIY then a box, BMS (battery Management System), fuse & proper wire & bits will be needed. Charger & other things will have to come into it but it does not have to be scary.
IF you want to buy 5x12V LFP and put them in series - you will be hard pressed to find ANY bms that will take that and even if you do, you will not end up happy... It is a huge invitation for Murphy's Laws to fall upon you like a building.

There are a lot of different LFP cells for AH but also shapes as well (not easy to find oddballs).
 
IF you want to buy 5x12V LFP and put them in series - you will be hard pressed to find ANY bms that will take that and even if you do, you will not end up happy... It is a huge invitation for Murphy's Laws to fall upon you like a building.

There are a lot of different LFP cells for AH but also shapes as well (not easy to find oddballs).
There is a new offering on Li-time where they claim the battery is rated for 5s5p. They call it the Outboard Motor battery :)

  • Born for Electric Outboard Motors:Engineered for marine excellence, LiTime OBM battery is the perfect power source for 24V-60V electric outboard motors.
  • Smart Bluetooth 5.0: auto-connection with your phone allows for smart control of discharging, real-time monitoring of battery status and data, and easy battery system checking.
  • Max. 5S5P: Configure up to 5S5P to build a 60V 500Ah battery system (Max. 32kWh of energy), capable of operating at a continuous discharge current of up to 500A.
 

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