Did you mean in parallel? When cells are in series there won't be an current flowing between them, no matter what voltage they at...
I would go with a much simpler method:
Connect the cells in parallel, charge them up to 3.6 or 3.65, then when charging current drops to around 1-2 amps, you can proceed to capacity test.
Yup, I meant in parallel. I only connected them in series to test them at 24v, then I went back to parallel. The cells are currently disconnected entirely and sitting on my desk as I slowly test them and gather evidence for an attempt at getting Aliexpress to give me back my money. I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see. Stranger things have happened at sea, as they say.
Yes, and this was the mistake. Welcome to the club of Liitokala victims.
Enjoy them
before they leak electrolyte.
These are second hand cells which have been abused in electric motor bikes or similar. Write them off as a loss and check the reputable suppliers via the forum.
And dont forget to give them the 1* rating they deserve.
I was put onto Liitokala by a couple of people who'd bought 18650's from them to make ebike batteries. Basically an ebike battery forum I used to use was recommending them. I bought LG HG2 cells from them and those tested to just over the factory rated 3000mAh. I have a bunch of them I made into 2S batteries for a pair of RC cars I own. I have a pair of WLToys 12428's which come with 1500mAh Li-Ion packs as standard, so I tried HG2's and they worked lovely.
Yeah, the life of those cells is probably going to be short under those levels of stress, but 5 packs cost me about £25 all up so I'm not so worried. At that price they're fairly disposable.
I've also made a couple of ebike batteries with them, which have lasted a few years at this point, and re-celled a (c)Ryobi 18v battery with them, so I thought I'd give their LiFePo4 cells a punt.
Wow, was that a mistake. Glad I found that out though, my brother is thinking of buying an 12KWh+ pack for his house to go with a 5KW(ish) solar array he wants to put up. I can guarantee you I won't be letting him buy those cells from Liitokala! They have some 173Ah Eve cells we were looking at. After this experience, *
no chance*. They can go take a long walk off a short pier, preferably into shark infested waters. I won't even be buying HG2's from them anymore.
Really wish I'd seen this forum (and in particular this thread) 2 months ago. But, better to be stung for £250 than for thousands on those EVE cells.
And yes, 1* rating incoming, once I have all the video evidence I need to make a nice and harsh, but truthful account of how Liitokala behaves. All going up on youtube, then a link will go in the video description.
