Using what you have is better than doing nothing

[Bob142]

I decided I might as well share this as an example of how my designs and reality don't always intersect...

I had been procrastinating for many months building an enclosure for 8 EVE 280Ah cells I got from @Michael B Caro's group buy. These were to replace my ancient Trojan AGMS in my 24V cart based system. Well there's nothing like an impending hurricane to get some giddy up in me. So when Henri was barreling down on RI (it turned out to be a non-event where I live) I decided I would rather have my EVE cells deployed however I could rather than kick myself for having them as expensive paper weights.

A couple weeks prior to the storm I grabbed a produce crate that someone was discarding. I had no plan other than I seem to be a crate nut and couldn't let it go into the trash. Turns out it was the perfect size to make a slap-dash battery enclosure. The night before the storm I went to work fabricating the one long busbar I needed from some leftover copper stock I used in my Yeti 1250 build and put everything into the crate. It turned out to be a good enough solution and one I may just live with for a good long while.



Yes, my incredibly low tech compression is accomplished by some shims. That's right: shims...

That's an Overkill Solar 8S BMS in there as well.

 

[Tecnodave]

Very nice, anything in a storm......native Alaskan here, we didn't have hurricanes but we did have some doozies of winter storms

I would like a user review on that Samlex 2425 sitting there.....been drooling for one of those for a while now.
Pfc corrected as i remember

 

[Bob142]

I would like a user review on that Samlex 2425 sitting there.....been drooling for one of those for a while now.
Pfc corrected as i remember

It's been doing a good job for me for my AGMs for a long while now. I'm going to use it for the LFP bank for a bit and see how it does.

What's your battery tech? Lead acid, LFP, other?

 

[Tecnodave]

Rolls Surette FLA L-16,s in use right now and building “pouch cell“ LFP battery with same BMS as you but from current_connect 24 volt, 2P8S....2 ea. scrounged from Fution powerwall

 

[Tecnodave]

Using Iota DLS-55 and MagnaSine MS4024AE for charging, The Iota is not very generator friendly as it is not pfc hence the interest in the Samlex charger

 

[Bob142]

I suspect it would work great for the FLA. What I'm leery of is that it has an unusual charging curve that I'm not sure how it will do with LFP:



You can get the manual online where it explains the details. It's not really completely CC/CV. That segment from B1 to C1 in the chart is what concerns me.

 

[Tecnodave]

Yes that is a concern, I do have 2 cc/cv 45 amp power supplies that i will probably use for the lithiums

 

[Bob142]

Yes that is a concern, I do have 2 cc/cv 45 amp power supplies that i will probably use for the lithiums

Ultimately it's what I have right now, so along with the produce crate enclosure it's better than nothing!

 

[Tecnodave]

If the lithiums work out real well I will most likely purchase some real LFP’s The ones that I have are not your everyday LFP

 

[Tecnodave]

Not your everyday run of the mill lithium’s each pack is 2P4S 200 a.h. LFP pouch cells mounted in plastic frames, source unknown, brand new, free, from Fution Powerwall

 

[Bob142]

Not your everyday run of the mill lithium’s each pack is 2P4S 200 a.h. LFP pouch cells mounted in plastic frames, source unknown, brand new, free, from Fution Powerwall

Seems we're in the same boat: use em!

 

[Tecnodave]

Have you ever seen anything like these? Yep, they were free, still building plywood compression frames for them.

 

[Bob142]

The A123's come to mind that at least @MrNatural22 was using for a while (not sure if he still has them).

 

[Tecnodave]

I am going to wait a while to buy more, I have 2 banks FLA@426 a.h. and now 2 banks LFP @200a.h. testing not done yet and i kinda really dont beleive that they really are 200a.h.

Biggest pouch cells that I have found are 75 a.h.

The Fution Powerwall is kinda flakey everywhere, cheapest Daly BMS that i have ever seen. A one person shop in China, you can order one on Amazon for $3995 but you need to wait while he builds one

 

[Bob B]

Compression using shims!!
Now we are going to have to get a mechanical engineer to tell us how much of a drop of different weight hammers and various shim angles with various materials ..... would result in the correct amount of compression. LOL

 

[Bob142]

Compression using shims!!
Now we are going to have to get a mechanical engineer to tell us how much of a drop of different weight hammers and various shim angles with various materials ..... would result in the correct amount of compression. LOL

Sounds like a great idea for a thread that I won’t watch.

 

[Smokin]

Ziplock Bags with Sand in them.

 

[MrNatural22]

The A123's come to mind that at least @MrNatural22 was using for a while (not sure if he still has them).

I am still using one that is doing very well connected to a 2000w Samlex PSW inverter which doesn’t even break a sweat making coffee or running the small 700w microwave.
No complaints so far.
Sold the other one a while ago because one was enough for my purposes. ?