Colin Says Posted September 10, 2023 Share Posted September 10, 2023 I was lucky enough to pick up some Car Lithium crank Batteries, So I done what I think we all do, get some information. Google showed a guy cut the casing on a table saw. His end result showed the content of lots of thin film stacked on top of each other seperated by a bit of copper or Aluminium. This being unusable, and hit the trash bin. Then I ran around to a few battery suppliers. But did not get the answer of its contents. They looked like I felt. Numb and dumb. The good answer/Question I got was that they could not accept them as they are not Recycleable, and there is no proper waste disposal in place....... So I did it, cut them open and I hope I can share my findings. I cut it open Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Says Posted September 10, 2023 Author Share Posted September 10, 2023 The first thing was to test the volage of the different units. But on the terminals there was no voltage. Zero. No Resistance. So I looked into the Com port. Which I thought was RS485/Can/ or similar, but turned out to be a sense wire to activate a relay. Further in it showed the busbars and housing for the BMS. ???? Now those BMS wires are realy thin ????? Okay is it only a crank battery, and the rest of the internal electronics relies on the alternator. And this only gets or needs a trickle charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Says Posted September 10, 2023 Author Share Posted September 10, 2023 The top plastic housing was held in place by the Busbars, which must have been welded to keep everything closed. The BMS nicely tucked away into a compartment. And I was hoping to keep the casing whole. But after stretching away the busbar and cutting the top plastic, nothing would move around or drop out. So I i Had to cut away the four sides, and eventually the glued base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Says Posted September 11, 2023 Author Share Posted September 11, 2023 Eventually everything pulled apart to get an inventory of Busbars - Plastic Housing - Al filler plates on side - BMS - Relay AND LifePo4 labelled 4AH 220705 63536 Google that and came up with nothing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Says Posted September 11, 2023 Author Share Posted September 11, 2023 The BMS is my big dissapointment, I really was expecting to find Huge meat, watercooled system (Daly style), but I got this. (Dala style) Where do I go from here.... Are these cells a different manufacture Deep cycle to crank to golf cart Individually : Can it be recharged, checked for the bad cells and repurposed for solar use ? - or tell the company "you're problem to dispose", because repair is virtually impossible. Although the one battery supplier said he 'knows a guy' "Of Course - I replied" In this pack i found 2 cells bad - but it is packed 4s2p - so maybe 1 is faulty and destroying its partner. Looking up the battery replacement i found 1000 Euro +/- R20K replacement value. Please flush my oil. Steve87 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Says Posted September 11, 2023 Author Share Posted September 11, 2023 Questions related : The guys with the green/blue and black/white cards doing solar installs will leave the industry as the roofs are full. The Gents with the COC's being paid the 3K to sign off . The Pros will continue to fault find. Guys come down from suntanning into the automotive industry - or do the mechanics have their chance of industry Waste management are you ready ? as this gets dumped ? Where do I go from here: Ive got a welder that can do 18650 batteries, but not for busbars this thickness. So do I drill and tap Ive got a capacity checker that gives me a percentage of charge, but does not give me soc and soh or resistance, or the mAH capabilities.: Not finding it available in SA. OR are these cells just not re-usable ? Steve87 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyCLown Posted September 11, 2023 Share Posted September 11, 2023 I am sure the cells can be reused, do you not get any voltage across the positive and negative terminals of the cells? Not very big, 4ah per cell and I assume nominal 3.2v per cell. The cells are very large for that capacity but I suspect they may be able to provide more current than the average smaller 12v 7ah lithium battery we can now buy as places like Builders, Leroy Merlin etc. I know that recycling of lithium batteries has become a big concern world wide with the push towards EV's and I guess for home and commercial energy storage too. One thing I dislike quite a bit are these disposable vapes, they all have lithium batteries inside and they all just get chucked and end up in landfill. Sure the batteries are not very big but how many hundreds and thousands of these disposable vapes are there which are being disposed of? They're designed as a single use product, it's even in the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Says Posted September 13, 2023 Author Share Posted September 13, 2023 I am sure the cells can be reused, do you not get any voltage across the positive and negative terminals of the cells? Not very big, 4ah per cell and I assume nominal 3.2v per cell. The cells are very large for that capacity but I suspect they may be able to provide more current than the average smaller 12v 7ah lithium battery we can now buy as places like Builders, Leroy Merlin etc. I know that recycling of lithium batteries has become a big concern world wide with the push towards EV's and I guess for home and commercial energy storage too. One thing I dislike quite a bit are these disposable vapes, they all have lithium batteries inside and they all just get chucked and end up in landfill. Sure the batteries are not very big but how many hundreds and thousands of these disposable vapes are there which are being disposed of? They're designed as a single use product, it's even in the name. This Particular battery was 12 V when received, on average the cells read 3.0V. So my next thing is to charge the individual cells to see their ability. Other battery packs are between 6.0V and 10V. My Next thing is to look for a tester/meter that can give me more informative results. SOH/SOC/AH/ not just Volts and Percentage. My readings tell me of a Raspberry Pi device. Ill post in classifieds. The Battery as a complete unit is rated 55 AH . Total of 8 cells packed 4s2p. So 3.2v x 4 =12,8V and 4AH x 2 = 8AH. BODMAS not working here ? Thanx for the input I think even those Lithium packs at Builders/Leroys/China are rated 9 to 12AH, but yes packed in the std 7ah housing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve87 Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 No clue where you are but I have equipment to measure, test as well carry out some diagnostics on these cells. I'm pretty sure there is still heaps of value in these cells. Your post has been very entertaining & your summary is 100% spot on...I am in Honeydew, I have an obsession with batteries & have built a fair few Li packs & also installation residential & commercial solar systems. But my major interest lies in batteries. Great topic!!! stefan44 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyCLown Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 This Particular battery was 12 V when received, on average the cells read 3.0V. So my next thing is to charge the individual cells to see their ability. Other battery packs are between 6.0V and 10V. My Next thing is to look for a tester/meter that can give me more informative results. SOH/SOC/AH/ not just Volts and Percentage. My readings tell me of a Raspberry Pi device. Ill post in classifieds. The Battery as a complete unit is rated 55 AH . Total of 8 cells packed 4s2p. So 3.2v x 4 =12,8V and 4AH x 2 = 8AH. BODMAS not working here ? Thanx for the input I think even those Lithium packs at Builders/Leroys/China are rated 9 to 12AH, but yes packed in the std 7ah housing. 55ah, that is interesting but does not add up as you have stated. If you are close enough to @Steve87 then maybe take him up on the offer and he could give you more info once running some tests on the cells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stefan44 Posted September 13, 2023 Share Posted September 13, 2023 I was lucky enough to pick up some Car Lithium crank Batteries, So I done what I think we all do, get some information. Google showed a guy cut the casing on a table saw. His end result showed the content of lots of thin film stacked on top of each other seperated by a bit of copper or Aluminium. This being unusable, and hit the trash bin. Then I ran around to a few battery suppliers. But did not get the answer of its contents. They looked like I felt. Numb and dumb. The good answer/Question I got was that they could not accept them as they are not Recycleable, and there is no proper waste disposal in place....... So I did it, cut them open and I hope I can share my findings. I cut it open good day Colin says, will you be interested to sell some of these batteries if you have more of them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Says Posted September 13, 2023 Author Share Posted September 13, 2023 good day Colin says, will you be interested to sell some of these batteries if you have more of them? Hi Stefan, At the moment I dont't know where this is going to go. The guys who supplied them seem to have a want or need if being usable. Cant make promises for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.