Dongguan Lighting: Purchase 280AH LiFePo4 cells. Purchase & Review

[Fallingaway]

Better call the manager, Karen.

 

[Electric Personality]

The battery terminals are aluminum. Won't copper against aluminum result in serious galvanic corrosion over time?

Problems With Aluminum and Copper Wire Electricity

Many homes built from the mid-60s to mid-70s contain aluminum wiring, alone or in...

homeguides.sfgate.com

Can’t deoxit significantly reduce issues? I need to get some me thinks....

 

[HRTKD]

Better call the manager, Karen.

Why are you being insulting? Instead, if you don't have something that is relevant to the thread topic, don't post. Let's keep it mature.

 

[Ampster]

Can’t deoxit significantly reduce issues? I need to get some me thinks....

I have been using NoAlox for years. I learned about it 20 years ago from an electrician in a beach town where I used to live. He put it on the bussbars in my electrical panel which were aluminum.

 

[Deleted member 4428]

Need to eliminate oxygen from the equation.

6061 Aluminum for a Busbar

Any feedback on using basic 6061 Aluminum for a homemade busbar?

forum.solar-electric.com

 

[Johnolar]

Hi folks, writing from South Australia, just ordered 17 cells EVE 3,2V 280Ah from Dongguan Lighting through rain Zeng.

The costs were: $1292 products ($76 per cell), $405 shipping, $48 inspection fee (I've added this after I've placed and paid the initial order, just to have some ease of mind, which returned me a nicely "factory" and packaging inspection report with pictures and labelled boxes). Total cost in USD 1697.
Shipping is by sea (remember, i live on a big island) and noted to be DDU - includes customs clearance but not including tax.

My project starts with building a 48V 280Ah bank to power up my full electric pirate ship.
Not solar charging yet, but in the works. At the moment I run an 48V AGM bank with AC mains power charging via a Delta-q IC1200 48V 25A.
I was planning to use the same charger as it was sold to me on the basis that at any point in time I can contact the manufacturer and request to download the LFP charging profile and just install it via a usb stick... But it's not possible apparently, as they refuse to give me the charging profile because the battery is not from an accepted supplier / manufacturer (their examples were Samsung, Relion, etc.) Even to this day (after a week of talks on a daily basis) they still handball me to various re-seller of their products and back to them... I'm very very VERY disappointed in their service.

Anyway, leaving the rant aside, following spending a good week on this forum and you tube and other internet resources, I've decided to order a set of Chargery Smart Charger 1500W and BMS16T 600A (this one form Shenzen Yirui Technology), with separate order for 2 400A energy saver contactors.
Apparently their smart charger has programmable voltage and current and can act as a power supply, so i can calibrate my 600A shunt that comes with the BMS.

The order status on Alibaba, to this date, shows "Waiting to be shipped" and just got confirmation from rain Zeng that the products will be sen to their forwarder today.
So far I'm quite happy with the experience...fingers crossed to be like this till the end.

I will put in my signature the time frames and endeavor to keep it updated.
Cheers,

 

[Dzl]

Hi folks, writing from South Australia, just ordered 17 cells EVE 3,2V 280Ah from Dongguan Lighting through rain Zeng.

The costs were: $1292 products ($76 per cell), $405 shipping, $48 inspection fee (I've added this after I've placed and paid the initial order, just to have some ease of mind, which returned me a nicely "factory" and packaging inspection report with pictures and labelled boxes). Total cost in USD 1697.
Shipping is by sea (remember, i live on a big island) and noted to be DDU - includes customs clearance but not including tax.

My project starts with building a 48V 280Ah bank to power up my full electric pirate ship.
Not solar charging yet, but in the works. At the moment I run an 48V AGM bank with AC mains power charging via a Delta-q IC1200 48V 25A.
I was planning to use the same charger as it was sold to me on the basis that at any point in time I can contact the manufacturer and request to download the LFP charging profile and just install it via a usb stick... But it's not possible apparently, as they refuse to give me the charging profile because the battery is not from an accepted supplier / manufacturer (their examples were Samsung, Relion, etc.) Even to this day (after a week of talks on a daily basis) they still handball me to various re-seller of their products and back to them... I'm very very VERY disappointed in their service.

Anyway, leaving the rant aside, following spending a good week on this forum and you tube and other internet resources, I've decided to order a set of Chargery Smart Charger 1500W and BMS16T 600A (this one form Shenzen Yirui Technology), with separate order for 2 400A energy saver contactors.
Apparently their smart charger has programmable voltage and current and can act as a power supply, so i can calibrate my 600A shunt that comes with the BMS.

The order status on Alibaba, to this date, shows "Waiting to be shipped" and just got confirmation from rain Zeng that the products will be sen to their forwarder today.
So far I'm quite happy with the experience...fingers crossed to be like this till the end.

I will put in my signature the time frames and endeavor to keep it updated.
Cheers,

I've heard a lot about the EVE cells and a lot about the Chargery BMS, I have yet to learn about the Chargery Charger, so I'm curious to hear your experience and impressions once you get everything set up!

 

[Bob B]

I've heard a lot about the EVE cells and a lot about the Chargery BMS, I have yet to learn about the Chargery Charger, so I'm curious to hear your experience and impressions once you get everything set up!

I have been looking for experience with the Chargery Charger as well.

 

[Johnolar]

Coming right back with the "Production Monitoring Report" that was delivered for the extra 48 USD.
When I view it though Alibaba all the pics are links to higher res ones...
I've just checked to visible defects from what i could tel from the pics, and all look good ?
Also attached a couple of pics for the fun of it

 

[Roobarb]

Ordered 4x 200ah paid $217 for air freight to Australia, when I asked for a tracking number he gave me a number that indicated it was going to be sent via sea, I contacted them about that and was told they would change it to air. Now today get a message saying the freight company said it would be almost as fast shipping via sea than Air and shipment had already started for the cells. Don’t really want to wait 2 months for the cells when I was told Air express was around 10 days !

 

[Dzl]

Ordered 4x 200ah paid $217 for air freight to Australia, when I asked for a tracking number he gave me a number that indicated it was going to be sent via sea, I contacted them about that and was told they would change it to air. Now today get a message saying the freight company said it would be almost as fast shipping via sea than Air and shipment had already started for the cells. Don’t really want to wait 2 months for the cells when I was told Air express was around 10 days !

Sounds like they are trying to cover up their error rather than correcting it. That's a shame. At the least, they should be refunding the difference in shipping cost I would think.

 

[Roobarb]

I did ask them to change it to Air freight and that was his response ! Am going on a vacation in around a month and really wanted the cells to be here by then, will be no chance of it happening if it goes via Sea.

 

[Johnolar]

When I’ve asked for my delivery if it can be by air, Zeng told me that he is not sure he can do it due to covid restrictions and reduction in number of flights... he ended up quoting it thou, after I’ve pushed him a hi bit, and the amount was literally doubling the price for the cells.
I hope you sort yours out...

 

[Johnolar]

Hi folks, finally received my video from Rain Zheng, with my name and all the cells checked for voltage and internal resistance.
I've tried to upload the video here, but it's says "too big" ... so just a picture for now, and below I've listed the readings from the video.

Please have a look and don't be shy if you spot something out the ordinary.
Thank you

1	3.327	0.17
2	3.328	0.15
3	3.328	0.14
4	3.332	0.13
5	3.326	0.15
6	3.327	0.14
7	3.327	0.15
8	3.327	0.16
9	3.329	0.15
10	3.329	0.14
11	3.327	0.12
12	3.327	0.15
13	3.328	0.15
14	3.326	0.14
15	3.323	0.13
16	3.324	0.16
17	3.328	0.14

 

[JoeHam]

Not the most closely matched I have ever seen but looks good enough for me.

When you get to items 6 and 10 in your plan I have more experience in that area and would be happy to help ?

 

[elimac_pt]

Hi All,
Yesterday I disassembled my 8S bank in order to insulate the bus bars and also plug in extra wires for a balancer. This mid-morning I had 465 overvoltage warnings on the BMS... specifically on cell #5... very strange. It was ok for the past weeks. First I thought it was the balancer malfunctioning, then that a cell went bad.

But no, after some tests, I believe all was caused by a bad contact between the busbar and the top of the cell (probably cell 6). This was caused because I did not wat to overtightnem the bolts. As a consequence, the busbar-cell contact was not ok for 50A+

Another related and important issue is that I saw that on 2nd assembly some cell pads were losing strenght in tightnen the bolts - Is that really Aluminium inside the pads?!
So, I need a solution, I cannot continue to disassemble and having the risk of not being able to tightnem the bolts. My first idea is to use a double thread of M6 stub so that then I only need to tightnen a washer and nut. The material seems also important. I normally use stainless steel, but in this case I seem to have better results with ZINC bolts.

Any ideas from anyone? Has someone had the same issues?
The cell pad to busbar contact is paramount. It can cause dangerous voltage disalignments.

 

[BiduleOhm]

Always use studs if possible.

Cell posts are aluminium so they are fragile and don't like multiple assemblies/disassemblies.

 

[elimac_pt]

Thanks. Yes, I will modify accordingly.
Has anyone, as a last resort, successfuly changed the M6 connection to an M8 connection? That is, enlarge the hole with new screw track, to M8. Do we have enough aluminium in the cell posts to do this?

 

[BiduleOhm]

I would recommend using a M6 recoil kit, going to M8 would be riskier.

 

[Luthj]

What is the safe max re-thread size for these terminals? My initial though would be a M6 threaded insert (M10 OD), and a M6 stud. But if there is enough material, a M8 threaded insert (M12 OD) would be ideal.