diy solar

diy solar

Looking for some help please

itsallgood

New Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2019
Messages
27
Location
Ottawa Ontario Canada
Sorry this is a bit long winded. I'll be upfront here. I am not a solar hobbyist or anything like that but I am a DIYer and I am looking for shortcuts here in maybe reviving my batteries.
Background;
I bought some lithium ion batteries (2x100Ah) for my RV 3yrs ago from a company in Florida after doing some research. Now it turns out it was a bad decision. The company is having all kinds of problems and is avoiding meeting sales and warranty obligations in many cases. Being in Canada makes shipping them back to Florida an $$ issue also. Not that they asked me too or anything. BBB gives them an F. Hoping to save some money, I decided to crack open the casing to see if I could make the batteries useful again.

Right off, it looks like the BMS (no brand markings) is fried in one battery so far. No V at posts but there is voltage at the cell level (10+v). The batteries are made up of 16 TOPBAND 2770180 3.2v 80Wh cells. I can't find that part number on web but come up with a similar LiFePO4 battery from TOPBAND so I'm not even sure I can get a data sheet yet. Contacted TOPBAND and waiting for a response.

The cells are arranged as 4s4p. Each of the s bank cells are matched in voltage exactly and bank voltages are +3.2v with one bank at 2.89v. Some of the cells are swelled up.

I have been reading and watching youtubes but I just can't learn and keep my thoughts straight like I used to! And there are so many options out there.

What I am looking for help on, without spending a lot of money, is
1/ What equipment do I need to test each cell properly and how? Specific procedures on youtube or a website will work.
2/ Some of the cells are swollen out (bulging). What would cause that?
3/ Is it even worth going down this road? Time isn't an issue. Retired.

Hoping someone will adopt me and my problem
 

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Do you have any way to measure current coming from battery if its under a load. Look for current /ampmeters on ebay if you don't
if you reply to this thread I will try and help Im seeing that im just finding this 5 days after you posted.

If you have time and a few bucks you can at least test them and see if they are worth salvaging.
 
Do you have any way to measure current coming from battery if its under a load. Look for current /ampmeters on ebay if you don't
if you reply to this thread I will try and help Im seeing that im just finding this 5 days after you posted.

If you have time and a few bucks you can at least test them and see if they are worth salvaging.

Appreciate your response. I think I am getting a handle on what needs to be done. I do have a DMM and after some reading, I bought a Tenergy 5 in 1 cell meter to get the IR as well as the other functions, YEECO adjustable buck converter/ammeter/voltmeter and a cheap loading device for discharging(sloooowly). I have an ac 40A lithium charger but now I'm not 100% sure I can hook that up to the little buck converter I bought without frying it. The peak current for the buck converter is 3A.

I bought all this to work at the cell level (2 or 4 at a time) and for learning. I have 2 x 100Ah batteries and I will end up maybe making one battery as some of the cells are swollen and I don't think they should be used? I would like to build a second battery if I can do it cheaper than buying one but that is down the road.
 
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