diy solar

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[PSA] Make sure to properly prepare your connections to aluminium terminal posts in order to ensure low contact resistance.

In the examples from the manufacturer it is all contacts that are sliding over each other so we can't safely assume a press connection would work well with the product.
I did forget to mention that in the TDS the list of suggested applications for the carbon paste specifically stated battery terminal and bus bar suggested applications.

"Use 847 when you want a non-bleeding paste that provides great electrical contact and environmental protection. It is excellent for use on ground connections, battery terminals, bus bars, single pole jacks, slide connectors, HVAC connections, speaker posts, and fluorescent light pins."

 
FYI, I emailed MG and got this reply regarding their silver grease:

"While we do have a silver conductive grease, it actually wasn’t formulated very well and does not have very good electrical conductivity so I would still suggest the 847. We are currently formulating a silver grease but it is likely several months away from going to market."

I guess its coming out of my cart.....
 
Bare aluminum?
Read the various threads, and you'll have enough info to put something on it.
What are you using if i can know @Hedges =?.

I found both No-ox and the carbon stuff perfectly reasonable, sliding a little bit to the carbon side but still not sure. Maybe ill measure conductivity in a test setup.
 
What are you using if i can know @Hedges =?.

I found both No-ox and the carbon stuff perfectly reasonable, sliding a little bit to the carbon side but still not sure. Maybe ill measure conductivity in a test setup.

Copper on copper, or copper on tin-plated aluminum. I don't have anything with bare aluminum electrical parts. I'm also not in a particularly corrosive environment.

I know my QO breakers come with some grease, not loaded with any particles.

I did get some copper particle grease years ago, and recently tried that in some plated crimp terminals on unplated copper, making battery cables.
I probably have some no-ox or similar. I did have to splice to an aluminum wire a while ago, using Cu-Al terminals.

I have had some seized aluminum set screws so I should start using something on any such threads.
 
You beat me to it. I was getting ready to post this stuff.


I don't know if Chemtronics is better than MG Chemicals. But I would think either one is better than using carbon grease. Isn't silver the best conductor?
Gold is the best..
 
Well, someone asked what's best and I answered, gold is best, which is why high end audio and video cables are plated gold.
No...silver is best, followed by copper then gold. Maybe the high end audio stuff uses gold to prevent corrosion. I really don't know.

 
I am laughing at the description "Enhanced Loud Oxygen-Free Copper Speaker Wire Cable" :ROFLMAO:

 
Wait wait are people actually talking about using silver on bus bars like we did on heat sinks for computers back in high school???
 
Wait wait are people actually talking about using silver on bus bars like we did on heat sinks for computers back in high school???
Er, "home computers" were still well in the future when I was in high school. I didn't know anyone had used silver to interface with a heatsink, my first computer was a Sinclair kit, I even had a 64k memory expansion. I will never forget the comment my father made when I gave him his first PC, "640 kilobytes of memory? We process 3 banks and the city payroll on 8k".
 
What are you guys using in between, any grease like this?
It sounds ideal...

Conductive Carbon Grease​

Lubricates and improves electrical and thermal connections between sliding surfaces, while providing protection from moisture & corrosion. Excellent for use on switches and EMI shielding applications. Industrial, trade and hobby use.

• Prevents normally closed switches from corroding in place.
• Reduces make-break arcing and pitting of switch contact surfaces
• Improves the connection between irregular or pitted contact surfaces
• Reduces EMI noise by maintaining a continuous path between conductive surfaces
• Thermally stable up to 200°C
• Density: 2.7 g/ml
• Electrical resistivity: 117 ohms/cm

View attachment 37317
So what did you end up using?

Like you I am in Australia where ox-gard and noalox are neither cheap or easy to get.
If, as some say the mission is to keep air and moisture out of the connection I wonder why lanolin couldn't be used
I have several litres of lanox mx4 onboard, have used it for years on electrical connections with no noticed issues .
INOX-MX3 lubricant (LANOX-MX4 for the more extreme climatic condition areas) stops electrolysis between aluminium and stainless steel, keeps fibre optic cable connectors corrosion and moisture free. https://www.inoxmx.com/applications-and-uses/electronics/
 
So what did you end up using?

Like you I am in Australia where ox-gard and noalox are neither cheap or easy to get.
If, as some say the mission is to keep air and moisture out of the connection I wonder why lanolin couldn't be used
I have several litres of lanox mx4 onboard, have used it for years on electrical connections with no noticed issues .
As per many recommendations, I did order the NO-OX-ID grease from Amazon US. I have used this between terminals and busbars where I had issues before and so far ? all good... never had to touch these connections again.
It is a conductive grease, not a dielectric grease which is in fact an isolator. I put a tiny amount on a cloth and wiped both terminals and busbars where they touch. There is no visible film or so. That seems to be the solution for me. I will use that on all these joints when the second battery goes in.

This Lanox you have can be sprayed onto electronics directly, it says. So this is definitely a dielectric fluid. At the end, you can only test it out...
 
As per many recommendations, I did order the NO-OX-ID grease from Amazon US. I have used this between terminals and busbars where I had issues before and so far ? all good... never had to touch these connections again.
Thanks for the quick reply
Yeah Ok sounds like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go that route as well as I only want to do it once.

How long did it take to get here and is the 1oz tube enough for an 8s 3p setup?

Getting very annoyed at having many multiple tubes of "stuff" that never get used again.
 
My 2 cents on the topic - oxidation protection is much more important than conductivity. Based on that it doesn't matter much if the lube is going to be silver, carbon, gold, zinc, or whatever. Average silicone lube will offer adequate protection from oxidation. That's what I'm planning to use. As long as it is not getting totally melted at 60-80C.

And I'm in Europe. We don't have ox-guard here. So it may be common to US folks and off-the-shelf, but it is not in the rest of the world.
 
Sorry for resurrecting this thread... but I still have some doubts related to it:
If I use these cells (EVE LF280k with double terminals) with an alu busbar - with the double of the original busbar size (don't know which alu type, tbh) - there should be no worries with dissimilar metals corrosion, right?
All I should worry about is proper cleaning of alu terminal and busbar due to natural oxidation and I'm good to go...

Or I'm totally missing it?

Thanks in advance!
 
Sorry for resurrecting this thread... but I still have some doubts related to it:
If I use these cells (EVE LF280k with double terminals) with an alu busbar - with the double of the original busbar size (don't know which alu type, tbh) - there should be no worries with dissimilar metals corrosion, right?
All I should worry about is proper cleaning of alu terminal and busbar due to natural oxidation and I'm good to go...

Or I'm totally missing it?

Thanks in advance!
Yup.

My personal recommendation is to use a thin, wide busbar. Make it wider if you want to but make it thin. I used 1/16" (1.6mm) x 2" sheet aluminum for my busbars. Many people have used thicker material but if the surfaces of the terminals are not exactly coplanar a thick narrow bar will stress the terminals far more than thin wide sheet material will.
 
Sorry for resurrecting this thread... but I still have some doubts related to it:
If I use these cells (EVE LF280k with double terminals) with an alu busbar - with the double of the original busbar size (don't know which alu type, tbh) - there should be no worries with dissimilar metals corrosion, right?
All I should worry about is proper cleaning of alu terminal and busbar due to natural oxidation and I'm good to go...

Or I'm totally missing it?

Thanks in advance!
Aluminum will oxidize quickly and invisibly, right after cleaning I would recommend applying an anti-oxidant compound.
People get carried away and think more is better, but a very thin coating works best. Just apply it and wipe it off with your finger, should be pretty much invisible but you can feel it. I have tested a couple of different compounds and found no difference when applied properly. Use whatever is available and in your price range, its only purpose is to block oxygen from the air making contact until the two connections are mated and properly torqued down (thus excluding oxygen). I have aluminum busbars as well and use the nickel-plated copper ones provided by the vendor because they have worked fine, and were free. If you have welded-on terminals, then aluminum busbars serve no purpose since you aren't making direct contact with the battery terminal.
 
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