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I was building this (and making it up as I go along) at the same time as Will. This will be replacing the lead acid battery in our 25 ft camper trailer. Can't wait for camping season! This uses the Batteryhookup 100A BMS plus CALB cells from Aliexpress, both of which have been mentioned quite...

Just got my shipment of 100Ah CALB cells. As expected these babies are awesome. Packaging was top notch, cells are brand new, each one measures at 3.27V. I'm letting them warm up for a while before doing any testing/charging. They came from Aliexpress...

Been working on this for a few weeks and it's finally presentable. 60Ah LiFePO4 prismatic cells from RUiXU with BMS 1500W pure sine wave inverter Victron 75/15 MPPT Victron 65A smart battery protect QC 3.0 USB 12V power outlet AiLi power meter with 350A shunt I was going to try and mount the...

I just finished building a LiFePO4 battery for a used APC UPS. I wanted a bit more runtime than the lead acid battery would provide but that's another story. I figured about 16Ah would do me fine and decided to go with Headway cells from batteryhookup.com. In reality, I've been bit by the...

Weekend project, "upgrade" my free Harbor Freight flashlight from 3x AAA to 1x 18650. Includes USB charger module. I'm not saying this was a good idea, just something to do. Still need to find some longer screws to put it all together. Parts are: - 18650 battery - some nickel strips -...

Just saw these. If you're thinking of a cylindrical LiFePO4 DIY battery they might be worth looking into. Look fast though because I suspect they'll be gone very soon...

I assume I'm not the only one to get this email from BLS Battery. http://d.aliexpress.com/https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000224208689.html?tracelog=rowan&rowan_id2=ae_sellercrm_mail_template_1_en_US_2019-11-27&rowan_msg_id=8265SELLERCRM_61355$77cee78a919c461f99047b6a4747aa2c&ck=in_edm_other...

I'm looking for some thoughts or experience on lithium power tool battery packs. I've been repairing some of the Ryobi 18V packs which are dead or just below the BMS charge voltage. It's pretty easy and normally just involves opening the pack and injecting some volts to get the pack up to a...

I'm looking but not having much luck finding a XT-60 female panel mount connector. I want to have a 12V out panel connector for my DIY solar generator. I can find males all over the place but the female variety seems elusive. I found a photo of one which I think is a 3D printed adapter to...

I know y'all are probably smarter than this but if you see an inline breaker like this on Amazon/eBay/etc. don't waste your money. I should have tested this while I was still in the return window - lesson learned. The "150A" breaker popped at 120A after about 5 seconds. Second attempt caused...

Act now and you can get 1/10 of 1% off!

While I was sitting staring at a volt meter today I was thinking of ways to make bottom balancing easier. Since this seems to be a critical step when dealing with DIY LiFePO4 packs it would be really nice to make it easier. I'm sure there are some tricks out there and my purpose here is to...

I just saw this () on Youtube. Seems like a pretty cool way to build an 18650 pack without spot welding or soldering to each cell. Also looks like an adult erector set which is fun in its own way.

I'm looking for recommendations for an active balancer I can use to balance some Ryobi 18V (5s) packs. I'm finding that the included BMS doesn't do a good job once these older packs get too far out of balance. Bringing them back in line can help quite a bit with their capacity. So, I would...

I just bought a Li Time 24V 100Ah battery to power my car detailing setup. I will probably buy a second one next year to increase the total Wh of the system. In the Li Time manual they have an interesting recommendation for connecting the two batteries in parallel (attached). I don't think...

I found this store on eBay. They seem to specialize in battery chargers. Ordered myself an 8A 14.6V charger for just $22.22. Seems like a pretty good deal. We'll see in October when it arrives. https://www.ebay.com/str/yzpower2017

We all know that when you initially connect an inverter to power you get a spark as the capacitors charge up. For bigger inverters this spark is pretty significant. If the final connection is to your battery it means you get a tiny "weld" on the battery terminal each time you do this. I, for...

I've built a couple of LiFePO4 batteries over the years but now it seems like the price of the cheap "drop in replacements" has dropped so it's hardly worth making your own anymore. Along that line I'm wondering what the ramifications are for using a Lead Acid charging profile on one of these...

I'm putting together my vehicle mounted system and want to make sure I buy the right accessories. I'm using a Victron 100/20 MPPT and a 500A bluetooth Smartshunt. Both are located with the batteries (LiFePO4 from Li Time). My question is, what is the best/cheapest/simplest way to add a low...

Couldn't find a great section to post this in so I'll try general, even though it has nothing to do with solar. I'm interested in making a couple of UPS systems for my computers. Now I know you can buy an APC or Tripp Lite for this purpose but most of them use low Ah lead acid batteries which...

I'm thinking of putting 200-300W of panels on a 25 foot camp trailer. I've looked into doing this with aluminum framed glass panels in the past. This seems pretty straightforward but I'm wondering if flexible panels might be an option too. I'm looking for some thoughts, pros and cons of using...

Looking for some thoughts on a battery disconnect arrangement for an RV mounted solar system. What I'm trying to address is the guidance that you should not connect your solar panels to your charge controller without the battery connected. I've done that accidentally once or twice and haven't...

duplicated a post by accident - please ignore

Saw these today on Batteryhookup.com. They are LiFePO4 Nanophosphate 2.5Ah, seems like they would be a good choice for a small 12V or 24V battery. They are guaranteeing no dead cells, if only I needed some... I suspect this will sell out fast...

Just found this Youtube channel. This guy shows an installation of 4 Battle Born batteries in his Class C RV. Amazing workmanship this is really cool.

I'm looking for a meter to do some testing on lower capacity lithium batteries. I have a DROK meter that uses a hall sensor but the resolution is too low for measuring sub-amp loads. I'm looking to test some Ryobi 18V batteries that are only a few Ah capacity. I bought this meter: It has...

I need some ideas on interpreting this warning sticker on a pressure washer. I get the top and bottom images but the middle image has me really stumped!

I recently noticed that a 4s battery I built with 8 Headway cells was not performing near capacity. I disassembled and found that one cell was about a volt low after the pack had fully charged. I built it using a Daly 60A BMS from eBay. I suspect that the answer is replacing the bad cell but...

I need some help from someone with experience building LiFePO4 packs from used cells. Here is my situation: I recently bought 8 Headway 8Ah LiFePO4 cells to build into a 4s2p battery for my UPS. I got these from batteryhookup.com. These are "engineering samples" and have a 2017 manufacture...