diy solar

diy solar

Is Cell Compression Necessary?

I just went for the home depot 3/4" plywood path for the frame with 3/8" threaded rods (cover the rods with plastic tubing)

for springs if you want to produce a known force you need what are called "closed and gorund" compression springs. These are perfectly flat on both ends and have designed compression rate so you can literaly take the specification and by using calipers set them to just what you want.

sometimes you can find engineered springs on amazon, but most likley you will need to go to a spring store such as https://www.thespringstore.com.
 
for what we're doing you can use normal springs and a bathroom scale to figure out the preload. if you want to be cheap use automotive valve springs. junkyard or a shop will give them away
 
Asking again for a link please. I can't find any mouse pads on ebay that are 7mm thick.
Soo much to do here, haven’t even looked at the internet in days... too many projects and deadlines!

like this one, except mine were 7mm, slightly bigger too.
 
Asking again for a link please. I can't find any mouse pads on ebay that are 7mm thick.
Not the answer you were looking for, but I decided I didn't want thick pads so I went with thin ones:

foam sheet

You can choose 1, 2, 2.5, and 3mm. These have adhesive on one side so you can stick one cell, "move" on the other cell. Personally, I think thicker pads offer too much give, offsetting compression. I am using these sheets, more to protect one cell from the next. You can even pick black, red, or white to match your install :)
 
you can just pay a bit more and get a big roll of Neoprene Sponge Foam Rubber Sheet Roll - 15in x 60in (1/4in Thick) from amazon for $17.
You want something much thinner...head to local hardware store and ask for some shower pan liner in the plumbing section and you find big rolls.
 
Here’s a great page, I really just originally went for the graph of the compression curve, but the whole page is a good read.
My take on it is to stay away from that vertical part of the curve of overcompress which would lead to a similar effect of just smashing the batteries together. The foams listed are nicer than what I have, but also cost substantially more money. So by going cheaper with a softer foam, i have to compress it further, and therefore needed the thickness. Or so I wager. Hoping to be in the 40-60% crush zone at 12psi, haven’t had time to test It yet. If I get to 75%and not to 12psi, I will probably just let it roll at whatever it’s at and see how it works.

We should all report back in 5-10 years what worked best.

i debated using the foam from my laminate floor install project, but it tends to crush over time. I should be building my box in the next several weeks, I decided to use up a pile of red oak planks I got by mistake mixed in with some beech I bought. Makes darned nice door thresholds anyway.
 
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