HELP! Battery Identification: UPTA-191

[packrat1969]

Today I finally received the (4) cells I ordered from Shenzhen Basen Technology back in November. Some 97 days ago. They all appear to be in great shape physically. No dents, scratches, or bloating, but I have some doubts to the actual manufacturer and the capacity. I was promised Grade A CATL 302Ah cells, but other than the sticker the vendor applied to each unit, I can find nothing confirming either. The QR code area on each cell isn't much more helpful, but it is broken down into 4 different elements:
1) The QR code itself. So far, I am unable to get my phone to recognize it as a QR code. It is tiny. Probably less than 1cm square. I will keep trying.
2) A unique 14 digit number that is possibly a serial number, but may have a built-in date code. All 4 numbers start with "21", probably meaning 2021, though I do not know how they incorporate month and day. Example: 21051085000108
3) The number: 1921816. The same on all 4 units
4) The number: UPTA-191. Also the same on all 4 units. This seems like it might be a model number. So far, no luck searching for it here or elsewhere. I am not going to be happy if these turn out to be 191Ah cells.

The QR code is offset from the centerline and is closer to the cell's positive terminal.



Has anyone else run across these cells and been able to verify their capacity? I have yet to pick up the rest of the tools and materials I need for assembling these into a working battery, but eventually I attempt to load test the lot.

 

[packrat1969]

Ok,
A bit more info. I took some measurements and weighed each cell and came up with some numbers. For those of you familiar with these details of your own cells, what capacities seem to match?

All dimensions are in mm, weight in Kg.

Brand X 191? CATL 302Ah Difference
------------------------------------------------------------------
Height 204.79 207.20 2.41
Width 173.04 173.93 0.89
Depth 71.44 71.65 0.21
Weight 5.4 5.51 0.11

Sorry for the misaligned columns. No matter what spacing I add manually, this site scrunches them together.

I'm thinking that these cells are probably in the 200Ah range. But either way, they are definitely NOT CATL cells....

 

[lfpinside]

These cells have been refurbished. These cells have two different qr, standard one is somewhere along with poles, these qr in your cells are secondary qr, which are covered in new cells. They changed black cap to show secondary qr.
Secondary qr can only be decoded by factory, they do not follow universal rules.
Standard qr is following rules issued by China goverment.

 

[packrat1969]

Thanks for the reply! I wasn’t sure if anybody was going to. So does this mean that the cells are used? And other than performing a manual capacity test (which I plan on doing), is there a way to determine their original manufacturer, date of manufacture, capacity, etc

 

[packrat1969]

Thanks for the reply! I wasn’t sure if anybody was going to. So does this mean that the cells are used? And other than performing a manual capacity test (which I plan on doing right), is there a way to determine their original capacity?

 

[lfpinside]

Thanks for the reply! I wasn’t sure if anybody was going to. So does this mean that the cells are used? And other than performing a manual capacity test (which I plan on doing right), is there a way to determine their original capacity?

Both used (cycled) and not used cells may have scratched qr.
Some real high-quality cells were packed into modules and were planned to be used in EV, but due to some reasons, these modules were not used. These modules were disassembled, cells were refurbished, qr were wiped, then sold to market.
The way to identify cycled and non-cycled cells are capacity testing. Real capacity >= normal capacity, high chance it is new.

 

[packrat1969]

Okay. Still working on the capacity testing thing. Got to get the battery built first. Just crimped lugs on most of my BMS wires yesterday, and ran out of time. Life keeps intruding on this battery building business….

 

[RSahan]

Hey @packrat1969 did you do the capacity test? I ordered CATL 280 cells from basen and received same cells today as you have.

 

[RSahan]

 

[packrat1969]

Yeah, I think mine are in the 280Ah range too, even though they were sold as 302Ah units. I contacted Basen, and they did take a bit off the original price via a refund. This is what they tested out as:

 

[randomthinker]

Both used (cycled) and not used cells may have scratched qr.
Some real high-quality cells were packed into modules and were planned to be used in EV, but due to some reasons, these modules were not used. These modules were disassembled, cells were refurbished, qr were wiped, then sold to market.
The way to identify cycled and non-cycled cells are capacity testing. Real capacity >= normal capacity, high chance it is new.

Do you have a source for this info? I have a batch of these too from Xuba.