Most reacted posts

Dang that tape is kind of cool. I just upgraded my heat setup using a 3d printer silicone heat pad + aluminum 1/4" plate as a raised floor (minutes ago)-initial test in progress. Turns out there isn't a lot to be had in the USA &/ ETA < 6wks in the 12v flavor and with acceptable wattage/size...

I just wanted to post an update to my self heating battery since it's miserably cold today here in Colorado. I'm in the process of moving in to a new home which has an uninsulated garage, so the battery box has been placed out there to free up room in my truck bed (for hauling crap during the...

I like running mean well power supplies in to my MPPTs as PV input. Been doing it for over a year with a meanwell 600w 24v power supply and just received a 48v version that's a little more compact. I don't foresee ever needing a dedicated lithium battery charger for shore power. If you put...

So here's where I am with the app, just a step or two beyond a dump of values. Good enough for initial testing though. Knowing your charge input from MPPT and knowing the BMS current is helpful. While the watts are occasionally a couple off due to what I'm multiplying things by, I have a...

Hooray. They arrived. No visible bowing of cells, terminals seem ok without any metal bits to clean up. Hardware is cheap-thin bus bars and some standard screws. The wraps were in fine condition, the black sticker on top of the cells wasn't perfectly stuck down on each cell but they're still...

This is ongoing as parts are still arriving. Background: built my first LFP setup using 90ah "new" cells from eBay, K2 greens if you've been scoping listings this year, and found that they were from 2010 with one terribly out of whack cell. This setup served me well all summer long running a...

Looks like mine have made it across the ocean

I built a false floor in a box (ammo can lined with thin roll insulation-not reflectix) and stuck a silicone heat pad to the bottom of the floor which is made of thick aluminum sheet. A silicone baking mat sits on top of the aluminum plate and the cells on top of that. A 3d printer heater...

Box inside and slow charging (I guess, 5 amps seems pretty slow to me). Looks like it took a proper pooper pounding down to 8.65v and a cell hit 1.9v. Hope to never see these numbers again. I'll follow up in many many hours after we're sitting at full and I can run a discharge. I charge to...

Got band locking working and built that in to the UI. So, it's basically all good now. Particle Photon receives data from BMS and MPPT. It receives and sends data to router (to ask it to tell me something, or to tell it to lock bands). Cloud stuff working. Alarms working. This was just...

Is there a good reason for ditching the stock furnace? I gave away my Mr Buddy heater in favor of the suburban whatever btu furnace in my camper. Which I then stopped using in favor of a diesel air heater. Mr Buddy: moisture, hard to warm up after going in and out Camper heater: noise, on or...

Ammo cans, pelican cases, and a dewalt TSTAK flat top box for portable lifepo4 battery builds, though none with the 280ah cells. Have also built some other things in dewalt products (DS400 boombox, DS300 portable diesel air heater) I think the biggest downside to the dewalt boxes and other...

I have my lightly insulated box in the bed of my truck with a canopy on it, so it gets pretty hot in there even right now during spring time. Like 115*F / 46*C. But we still have extreme dips at night down to around freezing. What I'm noticing (with temp sensors inside and outside of the box)...

All the junk on the table. I ended up omitting the BatteryProtect for LVD. More capacity than I'll ever use, OCD checking, and custom BMS profile. Speaking of BMS... I got the Deligreen unit (after 35 or something days of waiting) and the same day got two bluetooth BMS units that also came...

Some real world summer results with a lightly insulated ammo can for what it's worth. Getting direct sunlight, not a cloud in the sky, UV index 11+. Been hot as hell since the second I woke up this morning. Outside is 96*F Sealed truck bed (camper shell's slider windows closed) is 118*F Ammo...

Some of the first videos from Will I watched utilized giant pipe clamps (worm clamps? something like that) to keep the cells bound tightly together. Here are some links from here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/best-way-to-compress-cells-in-packs.11299/...

Cool, I can do that. Thanks for the pic. Discharging now @ 13 amps and a pretty consistent 30mv difference, settles to 2mv instantly if I shut off the load. The low cell is the bloated one :| I noticed this ~30mv difference when first charging the pack (same cell) and replaced the balance...

If you want to go down the rabbit hole... Having an insulated box would definitely be step one, and a cooler is a pretty good starting point especially if you find one that isn't overkill for the battery you're putting inside. Thinking in terms of space, but also energy used to sustain set...

Okay, well the overwhelming majority of travel trailers come with 12v systems. Many people want to know what it will take to run their air conditioner and the answer (in addition to storage capacity) is often 24/48v and/or generator. Having just wrapped up many weeks of browsing and finally...

Funny, dealing with this a year later and the first google result was my own thread. I am now running a more traditional wireless router on this battery build. The previous USB-charged hotspot thing kind of sucked... you should have seen the pouch cell that came out of it after a few years in...

I put mine in a harbor freight apache case, the 3800 model. The height is perfect for fitting 4 cells laying on their sides, stacked one on top of the other. After VHB taping them together and adding a silicone baking sheet top and bottom, the lid closes tightly and evenly on the cells. I'll...

I've been using a 24v power supply through the MPPT for most of my charging since I assembled the pack so it has been a while since I've used the X6. In on-the-living room-floor-tests before I put everything in the ammo can I know I did do charging and discharging at the same time with that...

I've been slow with building my pack using these cells but am just completing top balancing with the iCharger X6. From the 3.000V per cell they were received at, exactly 100ah was required to hit 3.6vpc / 14.4v. I'll begin discharge testing tonight (not very scientific, chinese smart bms +...

Yeah, you can diy it. Victron text protocol allows you to request certain data from the MPPT over wire. So any MPPT (even the old bluesolars, as long as they have a VE Direct port), in to a $3 microcontroller that also reads data over wire from the chinese smart BMS units and makes decisions...

I have a couple of these bluetooth module BMS units ranging from 30 amps to 100 amps. I charged a 57ah (usable) pack up to 3.46VPC last night which made the BMS read 100%, 57/57ah remaining. I disconnected all charging and load and went to bed. This morning that pack reads 50ah remaining /...

Certainly not for everyone. Pretty simple stuff though in the grand scheme of things. My first venture in to environment control was with a salt water aquarium and a full PC tower. I could do everything I did back then and much more with pocket change and an arduino in 2020, infinitely more...

I just got a notification from this thread and had forgotten about it. The self heating ammo can I posted on page 2 is still in service and we're entering consistent warm weather in Colorado. The temperature was maintained the entire winter including temps below 0*F, snow days, days of minimal...

I'd keep the AGM hooked up to the SmartPass and hook the D250 up to that + vehicle battery, too. Just running the Orion as an accessory off the AGM that just so happens to be an (intelligent) charger for another battery. I don't think you'd have any trouble doing that while the engine is on...

I always watch these kinds of videos to see how people mount the cells, and seldom do I ever see it addressed. Did I miss it in this video, too? This is constantly a conundrum in my builds. Making sure the cells are joined together and act as a single brick, and then making sure that brick...

FWIW I'm not finding it to be that big of a battery drain, though tonight will be a more proper test (low of 24*F and was below freezing at like 530pm) For days in the 50's with some mediocre winter sun and lows around freezing, I've found my ammo can enclosure with < 1/4" thick foil-foam...