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Skipbidipop

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  1. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to Kalahari Meerkat in Series or parallel.   
    I'd go for 5S2P, 10S would be 498.5V + temperature coefficient, so outside the 450V Max MPPT range.
    Also remember a series string with one panel shaded, will not perform at all that well, and you want to get rid of the shadows source 🙂 so having more strings will hopefully be a positive benefit in terms or actual solar energy production.
  2. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Kalahari Meerkat in need battery advice   
    Stop, don't go this high you should ideally if you want a longish life out of the cells, probably not go beyond 3.55V per cell, there is very little energy to be had at these extremes and you are just not doing your cells any favours hitting those Voltage levels...
  3. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to Kalahari Meerkat in need battery advice   
    Here's a temperature graph and PV production graph for the last few days, you can clearly see when we had mostly (15th Jan.) and partial (18 & 19 Jan) cloud cover, but not really visible on the temperature graph, a BME280 sensor outdoor being handled by an ESP8266 module.

  4. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to Kalahari Meerkat in need battery advice   
    @Skipbidipop, thinking last night, my mental math was way off, I can only blame our daily peak temperatures of between 45 and 52degC in the shade, its turning my brain to mush...
    To recap 100W, 12V Halogen, assume at 12V it is 100W, then P=VI, means 100/12=app 8A current, now V=IR, 12V/8A=1.5Ohm app. at 3.6V that would work out to a measly 2.4A or just less than 10W of draw out of the cell, which is fine, just it would take somewhat longer than the 7-8A I was thinking in my previous post... funny, no-one else picked up the screwup, maybe I'm not the only one having his brain fried this summer...
  5. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Kalahari Meerkat in need battery advice   
    hopefully not, i still reckon if all the other cells are at around 3.45V and the one at 3.6V, I'd put a load on the high Voltage cell to bring its Voltage down, connect a 100W 12V Halogen lamp to it, that could draw maybe 25W, maybe, so 7 or 8A out of the cell and when it reaches 3.45V, disconnect the load/lamp and see what how things progress from there, rinse/repeat if required...
  6. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Tinbum in need battery advice   
    It should be ok. Keep dropping the current so it doesn't go over again. Don't rush the charging. Ther will still be big differences in SOC.
  7. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Kalahari Meerkat in need battery advice   
    I would personally not exceed 3.6V, in fact 3.55V balanced is probably 99% full and maybe even a bit over... so, if you can provide 100A with all cells paralleled at 3.55V then you can probably just let it stand and when the current is down to less than 1A, I'd say the cells should be fairly well balanced... if you have time... wait for current to drop below 100mA
  8. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to Tinbum in need battery advice   
    Less chance of the higher SOC cells going over voltage and gives the bms chance to do its balancing.
    If you can get away without paralleling then you can still increase the voltage as the current goes down.
  9. Confused
    Skipbidipop reacted to Tinbum in need battery advice   
    Less, if your using the bms  3.45 to start with. Then gradually increase as the current goes down.
  10. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Scorp007 in need battery advice   
    With your cells all over the place it might help to charge the lower cells from the high cells by connecting all of them in parallel to assist with balancing. I know you without power but at least try it for a few hours.
  11. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Tinbum in need battery advice   
    Your cell SOC's are all over the place you must top balance them. Your bms will never balance them as they are too far out.
  12. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Kalahari Meerkat in need battery advice   
    If you can, connect a load just to cell #16 and consume some of its energy so it Voltage comes down to 3.4V or even just below 3.4V to 3.35V, then it'll be a lot closer to its fellow cells... then you can try charge the pack and let the BMS do some balancing, although, a JK BMS with 2A active balancing would probably have been a better choice...
  13. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Tinbum in need battery advice   
    The voltages of the cells only vary at high and low voltage. Ie high or low SOC. Look up the charge curve online.
  14. Thanks
    Skipbidipop got a reaction from Steve87 in need battery advice   
    I have finally connected the charger..
    I have compressed it by feel with hand.. and I'm done with compressing.. as many say it is not worth the effort.. If I ever build another battery I will just compress by feel again
    I returned the big torque wrench and bought a smaller one, for bicycles.. still not low enough torque range.. this one is 2-20Nm +-4%.. but at least I can torque down the terminals and busbars now 😁
    I connected all cells in parallel with household installation wire.. solid core, I think 2.5mm.. no wires are touching each other.. and the charger poles are on the opposite sides as you suggested
    And from the start it was about 3A only.. my shitty TEMU voltage source came with very bad wires.. there is around 0.12V on each wire.. so the actual voltage applied to the battery is only around 3.3V.. it will go up as current gets lower.. I hope this will be OK.. I don't think I can damage the battery this way.. I don't want to increase the voltage on the charger to compensate for drop in wires
    __
    edit:
    I realize now how stupidly long it would take to charge the battery at 10W.. I'm thinking 20 days or so.. I'm in search for better wires right now
    __
    2nd edit:
    new wires.. charging at 8A now

  15. Like
    Skipbidipop got a reaction from Steve87 in need battery advice   
    I have assembled the battery, but didn't torque it down yet.. as you can see I have subscribed to compressing after all
    I used 8mm plexiglass on top and bottom sides ..and some aluminum profiles (painted white in the photos), to compress the battery.. and 2 sheets of cardboard (~1mm) between every cell.
    I had to make some space between the two rows because the busbars don't fit on terminals if they are together.. I think this is actually good because I think I need to add 2 more threaded screw bars in between the 2 rows because when I started to tighten the nuts there was some bending in the aluminum profiles and the plexiglass.. I used straightedge to check as I was tightening.. is this OK?
    Here are some pictures:



    Also.. I don't know what torque to use on the terminals.. I've found spec for compression in datasheet(1500-5000Nm) but nothing for terminals.. is 5Nm enough?
  16. Like
    Skipbidipop got a reaction from WannabeSolarSparky in need battery advice   
    I have assembled the battery, but didn't torque it down yet.. as you can see I have subscribed to compressing after all
    I used 8mm plexiglass on top and bottom sides ..and some aluminum profiles (painted white in the photos), to compress the battery.. and 2 sheets of cardboard (~1mm) between every cell.
    I had to make some space between the two rows because the busbars don't fit on terminals if they are together.. I think this is actually good because I think I need to add 2 more threaded screw bars in between the 2 rows because when I started to tighten the nuts there was some bending in the aluminum profiles and the plexiglass.. I used straightedge to check as I was tightening.. is this OK?
    Here are some pictures:



    Also.. I don't know what torque to use on the terminals.. I've found spec for compression in datasheet(1500-5000Nm) but nothing for terminals.. is 5Nm enough?
  17. Thanks
    Skipbidipop reacted to Calvin in need battery advice   
    Yes.
    You would be using about 50% of the yield strength of the rod (assuming grade 3.6 steel), so in theory it would be (just) OK.  However, depending on the length of the rod, it will twist significantly as you tighten it.  I would recommend an 8mm rod.
    Another useful calculator: Torque and Preload Calculator | Bossard South Africa
     
  18. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to Calvin in need battery advice   
    You can use an online calculator to find the clamping force (Bolt Torque, Axial Clamp Force, Bolt Diameter Calculator)
    That will tell you that 4 x 8mm screws tightened to a torque of 1.2Nm will generate about 3000N (about 300kg force)
  19. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to korenchkin in need battery advice   
    just a quick note,browsed through fast,did not see it specifically mentioned(except for !datasheet! for batteries-you can see it there)
    DO NOT CHARGE UNDER 0 C (degrees)
    sorry for the bold letters
    as pylontech has it,i think full 0.5C till 10Celsius and gradually lowers charge to 0 at 0 Celsius,bms should have the settings and when you connect bms to inverter(hopefully you can),it will inform inverter(charger) what it can push/pull
    set it conservatively to prolnong cell life (no long times at 3.6V definitely,LFP really hates high voltage,low voltages under 2.8V hates a bit too)..
    but watch andy's videos,he has a lot of usefull info...
    k.
     
  20. Thanks
    Skipbidipop got a reaction from Steve87 in need battery advice   
    ok.. this is a good idea.. I wouldn't think of that myself.. I know of this but always forget .. thanks
     
    why don't you compress your cells ? I thought it would give you more life out of your battery, stop the delamination, etc.. I thought this was standard practice
    So, I should not expect swelling if I just charge-balance them without compressing? I can compress them later?
    ___
     yes, my first build with lifepo4.. only lead-acid before this .. I can already see it is addictive 😅🤣 and quite fun.. only if shipping was faster
  21. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to Steve87 in need battery advice   
    This is the variable up to 5V & 40A charger. I don't know of other ways maybe some other guys can step in & comment but I don't know another way to top balance without this equipment. 



  22. Like
    Skipbidipop reacted to Steve87 in need battery advice   
    So you need to decide whether you subscribe to compression or not. Me personally I don't subscribe to it. I can't convince you, it's a personal choice, do the research & do what is comfortable for you. 
    Setup the cells in a long parallel stack using the busbars, set your charger to 3.60V & set 10A. Some guys go as high as 3.65V personally I don't think it's necessary, 3.6V is as good as it gets for me. 
    When the charger reaches 0A you know your cells are all top balanced. Now you can begin your battery assembly starting with good knowledge that they are all at the same SOC. 
    Now 10A over a stacked Parallel set of 15 or 16 cells can take a long time to charge. Because that's 100ah x 16 or 15 cells so you might need to let this charge a good few days depending on the individual SoCs. Also make sure you place you charger + & - on opposite ends of the parallel stack, so that energy is traveling directly through the entire bank, not via individual cell transfer. 
    Your 10A charger can take long & that is why I prefer the 40A charger it just goes 4 times faster & can also give me cycle data on the cell, but what you have there will definitely be good enough to do the job. 
    Enjoy the build if it's your first time: be careful it's becomes addictive !!
  23. Thanks
    Skipbidipop got a reaction from shakeel ahmad in Revo VM II - MPPT problem   
    The inverter is working now.. thanks to shakeel ahmad's help.. inverter, AC charging, AC bypass, PV charging battery-inverter and PV-inverter work now.. when I was reassembling everything back in the case, I forgot to connect one 4pin cable to the MPPT board, but shakeel ahmad found where to connect it
    I'm not sure what was the problem in the beginning .. I did found a lizard's tail 🦎 under the main PCB and some dead bugs 🐛🐞 around PV connections 🤣 .. but I didn't actually do any 'repair'.. I guess the lizard and bugs made a short somewhere 🤔
    I didn't have enough PV panels or batteries for testing so shakeel ahmad suggested to make a bridge rectifier with a capacitor from 230V AC to DC and use it for PV input.. Also, I used an electric scooter battery for battery input and everything seems to be working correctly now

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