May 11, 201610 yr Oh well, looks like current supplier isn't prepared to come to the party - So back looking for balancers... If you guys have a source, please let me know (US$50 + shipping seems reasonable justification to go this route for "us poorer chaps")
May 11, 201610 yr @Energy, shall we order where we can or rather wait for the PF store to stock them?
May 11, 201610 yr 1 hour ago, The Terrible Triplett said: Chicken Noodles ... and it will be running dog flavor just because. (lekker gril julle nou ne!) Ek het nou my bek te groot gerek . .... running dog flavour ? I thought the slow ones were easier to catch. 1 hour ago, The Terrible Triplett said: Seriously, Chris, 4 x 6v batts, I will need one HA02? Jip it would seem so - 4 batteries of the following nominal voltages (2.4V, 3.6V, 6V, 9V and 12V).
May 11, 201610 yr 10 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said: running dog flavour ? I thought the slow ones were easier to catch. Nope, running soos in jy moet dringend gaan. Moses, trek ek nou 'n Plonkster hier ... thread going way of topic? Right, I think I am going to wait for the Forum Store to stock the HA02, even if it is Chinese.
May 11, 201610 yr 5 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said: Right, I think I am going to wait for the Forum Store to stock the HA02, even if it is Chinese. I thought of trying to import some but I get the dondering really easily so import/export is not my game.
May 11, 201610 yr I ordered a unit (HA02) on the 5th of Feb from Aliexpress, received on the 4th of March. Then I ordered another unit (for the second bank - 2 banks of 4x12V banks) on the 22nd of March, still hasn't arrived. Price was $59 each including shipping. But shipping from China is a bit of a lottery.
May 12, 201610 yr 11 hours ago, cvzyl said: I ordered a unit (HA02) on the 5th of Feb from Aliexpress, received on the 4th of March. Then I ordered another unit (for the second bank - 2 banks of 4x12V banks) on the 22nd of March, still hasn't arrived. Price was $59 each including shipping. But shipping from China is a bit of a lottery. To import stuff and not using a reliable courier company is a gamble. I'm still waiting for stuff I've ordered in Nov 2015 and some items I've ordered in 2012. And about 8 more orders all in 2016. I try to never spend too much per order. Some items do arrive, some never arrive - probably gets lost at customs.
May 12, 201610 yr 3 hours ago, superdiy said: probably gets lost at customs I'd love to attend an auction of stuff at customs that's been there for 10 years and can't be delivered anymore. Must be some really cool stuff there.
May 17, 201610 yr To import stuff and not using a reliable courier company is a gamble. I'm still waiting for stuff I've ordered in Nov 2015 and some items I've ordered in 2012. And about 8 more orders all in 2016. I try to never spend too much per order. Some items do arrive, some never arrive - probably gets lost at customs. I'm sure you could build these locally for a better price... im surprised this hasnt happened given the importance of batteries... Open one up and reverse engineer... Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk
May 17, 201610 yr 1 hour ago, Mark said: Open one up and reverse engineer... Usually these things contain microprocessors and that skill of mine is rather limited. What I've heard is that it is not that easy to get the code out of a microprocessor - maybe Plonkster can elaborate on that matter.
May 17, 201610 yr 8 hours ago, superdiy said: Usually these things contain microprocessors and that skill of mine is rather limited. What I've heard is that it is not that easy to get the code out of a microprocessor - maybe Plonkster can elaborate on that matter. Bwahaha. Well yes, most microcontrollers have a read-protect bit/fuse/whatever. So before you let your hardware out into the big bad world you flip that bit. When someone attempts to read it back, they get only garbage/zeroes. So superdiy is right, more often than not you won't be able to duplicate that bit. But... I suspect it won't be too hard to figure out. You can often figure out more or less what it is doing by opening it up, looking at the various components, looking at datasheets, poking various parts with an oscilloscope. Probably won't be a quick job to rewrite the software, but it might not be too hard either.
July 20, 20169 yr I see the price went up? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Battery-equalizer-HA02-used-for-48V-lead-acid-batteris-Balancer-charger-battery-/262134620720?hash=item3d0870e230:g:C8cAAOSwo0JWQD01 - ZAR 810.08 Victron costing about R1400 in SA.
July 20, 20169 yr The eBay one does not ship to SA. Bought 2 from AliExpress. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/battery-equalizer-battery-balancer-for-4-pieces-battery-connected-in-series-for-48V-battery-system-solar/32340327736.html
July 20, 20169 yr 42 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said: I see the price went up? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Battery-equalizer-HA02-used-for-48V-lead-acid-batteris-Balancer-charger-battery-/262134620720?hash=item3d0870e230:g:C8cAAOSwo0JWQD01 - ZAR 810.08 Victron costing about R1400 in SA. Remember the HA02 is equivalent to 3 Victron units.
July 20, 20169 yr 21 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said: Remember the HA02 is equivalent to 3 Victron units. Good point!
October 24, 20169 yr Do you guys think its worth the extra expense to go for lead crystal over Trojan RE ? These lead crystal batteries promise a lot of cycles but are they really proven?http://www.solarsolved.co.za/datasheets/batteries/Deltec/Lead_Crystal_6_CNFJ_200.pdf
October 24, 20169 yr Depends on the price. Lead Crystal: 3000 cycles to 50%. So 3600 kwh over its lifetime. Trojan right now: R2500 a battery. 1600 cycles to 50%, so 1600*6*225*0.5 = 1080kwh over lifetime. R2500/1080 = R2.32. So you want to beat R2.32 per kwh. 2.32*3600 = R8350. Since SolarSolved has it listed at R7100 now, the answer seems yes: Yes it is worth it. Further: At Cape Town top end domestic or R2.28, I want to pay no more than 2.28*3600 = R 8200 per battery. At lower domestic rate (R1.76) I want to pay no more than R6350. So as you can see, still cheaper to buy the first block of electricity from the utility... prices in your area may differ of course.
October 24, 20169 yr 1 minute ago, plonkster said: So as you can see, still cheaper to buy the first block of electricity from the utility... prices in your area may differ of course. Check that! At 8% increases we'll be at R2/kwh even on lower-end domestic within two years. Those LC's work out R1.92/kwh. If they last as long as specced anyway. If they last 10 years, it means they will be cheaper than any grid electricity at least for 8 of the 10 years. If you look at JUST the storage cost of course.
October 24, 20169 yr Except that battery stored energy forms a very small part of your total power use, so speccing your batteries based on power cost is misleading. Most of your power comes from solar so the cost of each solar kWh has a much higher impact on you overall system cost. Interesting though as Plonkster points out that we are rapidly approaching the break even point between solar and municipal electricity. I wonder if they see it coming? Prepare yourselves for increased line fees once they figure out where all their income went.
October 24, 20169 yr 3 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said: speccing your batteries based on power cost is misleading. Yeah I know it's simplistic. I'm just looking at the basic isolated question: Store it in a battery and use it tonight? Or just buy what I need from the grid? Any battery that is cheap enough per kwh to entertain the former option, is worth it. By the above simplistic calculation, the LC does this and the Trojan does not. But I'm getting overly technical. Ignore that and just look at the price. R1.92 vs R2.32. Yes, the LC is worth it.
October 26, 20169 yr Im only using the batteries for the odd power outage and wile on solar during the day to pick up any shortfall in production when it rains etc. So im not really going to cycle very deep every day. so it guess for usage like this the Trojans will last 8 years or so.
October 28, 20169 yr I use the HA02 and I think it does. My MP never goes out by more than 1% under heavy charge or load. Normally averages around 0.1% variation. Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk
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