Most reacted threads

Everyone wants to grumble on this forum section about vendors who don’t deliver what‘s promised, so I thought it was a good idea to mention a supplier being honest enough to give me good advice, even at the cost of making a sale. That supplier? Amy Wan. I contacted Amy because I wanted to buy...

I ordered a few different types of DC/DC converter modules from amazon all of which had vague specs like “up to 95% efficient“, so I started to wonder how efficient they really were in the application I wanted to use them in. All work in a similar way - you connect a DC voltage at the input...

I’ve received one of the new “3D brothers edition” Electrodacus SBMS40s from the prototype batch, as offered forum members for review purposes recently by Alex Gradea. It’s not clear to me right now what, if any changes might feature in the production batch of units, so for now I’m assuming...

I love the clear categorisation in this forum and find that almost everything is covered, but there’s one thing which I consistently find difficult to place into any of the sub-forums, and that’s maybe best described as “general electronics” or maybe “DIY electronics”. We have sub-sections for...

I used a dull and overcast day today to take the chance to re organise the circuiting of my panels just slightly. The middle row of three panels in the marked up picture below was previously in a 3S3P arrangement with the panels to the right of them, but this was overpanelling the input of my...

Does it? :LOL: A recent installation in France. The French always like to be a little bit different, so let‘s see if this catches on ?‍♂️

Seplos put out this interesting video on their YouTube channel: Since Seplos don’t make their own cells (unless I’m very wrong?!) it’s clearly from one of the manufacturers and the telltale electrode layout shown makes it seem to me they may be Eve cells. Pausing the video around 0:46 shows...

Does anyone know of an iOS app which can be used for easily drafting electrical schematics including the components we use in Solar systems? So PV panels, charge controllers, shunt, BMS, battery, etc... I have an iPad Pro, so plenty of screen space to draw on, but instead of trying to sketch...

Docan are offering sodium ion batteries now at $90 per 220Ah cell, with attached spec sheet, but I’m not very clear on how they compare to LiFePO4. Anyone using these already? Maybe we will need a further forum section, as currently there is just “DIY LiFePO4 batteries”. Quite a steep charge /...

An interesting video tour showing racks of batteries presumably being charged to an even level ready for dispatch. Nothing about the equipment shown seems to indicate it can do anything more sophisticated like measure cell IR or capacity.

From 9:28 - 10:00 in this video, Will explains that for systems using a custom LiFePO4 prismatic cell battery, a programmable MPPT controller is required, because you will need to set a custom upper voltage limit instead of using 14.4V which the “out of the box” lithium compatible controllers...

I’m looking at these 100w panels from Renogy, and the specs say 2 bypass diodes, guess the cells within the panel are wired in 2 strings, but how are they split? The cells within the panel are 3 x 11, so no obvious split vertical or horizontal. I’m wondering whether to orient them landscape...

I thought I’d record the process I have recently followed to improve the performance of a couple of lead acid car batteries which I’ve been using in my off grid set up. Unfortunately I didn’t measured the capacity or internal resistance of the batteries before and after, but I can see that my...

Anyone know what ESS and LSEV signifies? Price difference is very small.

Take one solar panel, connect it with a cable to the inputs of two PWM solar charge controllers in parallel, then connect the outputs of those controllers in parallel to one battery. So one panel, one battery and two current paths between the two, via two different charge controllers. Leaving...

Ok, this may constitute heresy even asking this question, but here goes anyway! :LOL: Given that the weakest cell in a series pack dictates the overall battery capacity (as it reaches LVC soonest), is there anything to prevent the DIY LFP battery builder balancing out cell capacities by adding...

Is there a typical input voltage range for a small 24V inverter, maybe 500W to 1000W pure sine? I ask because I’m having trouble finding specs on many product listings, they all just say “24V DC nominal”. I’m trying to work out if I could run such an inverter from a 7S LiFePO4 battery (instead...

I just received 4 Lishen 272Ah cells from Quishou and they all look nice, with perfectly flat sides and not a hint of swelling. I would quite like to read the QR codes to see what they tell me and whether the production date aligns with the sticker showing 2022/10/29. Is there an app for that...

A couple of years ago the Lishen 272Ah cell seemed to be growing in popularity with DIY pack builders, maybe taking over a bit from the Eve 280Ah cells which had seemed all the rage until then. Recently I’ve seen no mention of Lishen cells and it’s Eve everywhere again - what happened? Did...

If considering connecting a generic cheap off grid (not grid tie) inverter to house wiring, would it be safe to make a permanent connection between inverter neutral and house (mains) neutral and then just switch the live lines? In this case, the inverter neutral would always float at the same...

I’ve been looking at some of the stackable 18650 boards which are sold complete with battery clips, so you can assemble a board and add 14 x 18650 size Li-ion cells for a 7S2P arrangement per board (boards are double sided). Here is an example and here is an assembly video in case it’s not clear...

I’m hoping some of you can help me find a good candidate to match my needs, which I would list as follows: - Affordable 40A MPPT charge controller (under $200) - Can handle my array of 2 x 160W poly panels in parallel (18.1 Vmp). Partially shaded location, hence parallel connections - Can...

How much damage does it cause LiFePO4 cells to briefly overcharge them to 4V per cell? By briefly I mean for just a few mins before the voltage was brought back down to below 3.6v/cell.

I have a pair of identical PV panels from solarv.de and have them mounted both facing due south, but around 10m apart. Specs are below Technical data: rated power (Pmax): 160 W, max. Voltage (Vmp): 18.1 V, max. Current (Imp): 8.85A -- Open circuit voltage (Voc): 22.32V -- Short circuit...

I’d like to make use of my off grid inverter (220-240V single phase AC) to power some circuits in my house on a switchable basis, ie. only switched on once in a while when I have enough accumulated solar power in battery. The rest of the time these circuits will run mains from the standard...

I was under the impression LFP batteries could be charged in temps above freezing point, but am frequently seeing people on these boards mention 5C as the setpoint being programmed into programmable safety cutout devices such as BMSs. Is this just excess caution, or is there a reason people are...

What’s a normal rate at which LiFePO4 cell voltage settles, fresh off charge? I have four cells which were charged to a 3.6V cutoff, and within a few hours they‘ve settled to 3.37V and still slowly declining. Is this normal, or excessive self-discharge? They’re prismatic 100Ah cells. One cell...

I have a three core cable which runs the length of the outside of my house, from the south facing location where my off grid solar panels are to the north side of the house where my charge controllers and battery are housed. This cable is already in use, carrying mains voltage (230V AC) live...

Could anyone tell me who the manufacturer of this 100Ah cell might be? ?️‍♂️

For batteries of the same or similar IR, it’s considered best practice to diagonally connect load tap offs as shown in option A diagram below, but what is the best approach to manage paralleling of batteries with significantly different IR? I have Lishen 272Ah cells with a spec sheet IR of...