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Top balancing new 280ah cells

RyanNicholas

New Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
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Hey everyone... I'm a beginner here, and I hope someone can help me. I'm trying to top balance these 4 cells using the method Will shows in the video. (didn't have 6 busbars, so I had to use these other big things..) But they've been connected like this for over 3 hours and the amperage has hardly gone down at all. Am I doing something wrong? Or can this take way longer than the 'few hours' the video says?

Also, I just checked each cell with my multimeter. They all started out at 3.28. Currently the one in front has 3.32, and the other three still read at 3.28. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of 'balancing' happening here. Can someone please help me understand this?

Another user here said to connect the - and + at the first and last cell, respectively. But that isn't how Will does it in his video.

*a while after taking this picture, I figured I'd disconnect the cells and try charging them individually first... So far, the first one has charged a little - but not all the way to 3.6, even after an hour or so. I wonder if I should reconnect them and try the pictured method again to sit overnight...

20210127_164719.jpg
 
Those are 280 AH cells which were probably delivered at 40-50% SOC .... which means it will take at least 140 AH to fully charge them. At 3.3 amps for 3 hours, you have done about 10 AH.

I would get rid of the junky alligator clips and put ring terminals on there ..... and be VERY patient. Hopefully the AH will come up with a better connection to get a little faster charge.

Edit: .... don't get impatient and start adjusting the power supply with the leads disconnected. Always adjust the voltage with the leads disconnected an the current adjustment set to max.
 
I made my own cables using high quality silicone 12awg wire with ring terminals. I know the awg that comes with some of those chargers can be as bad as 16awg. With higher voltages it doesn't matter as much.
 
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