G'day from WA

SimonW

Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
89
Hi Guys,
I held off introducing myself until I had something to show.
So, the easy part is now done,I've cracked open a few lappy packs and have harvested a fewcells pictured below. Now it's time to test and sort.


image_jdnahh.jpg


Small steps for this beginner;my primarymotivation is to replace my aging camping solar batteries.
Our family camps 3 or 4 times a year and for the last 8 years or so I have been lugging around two 38Ah LA batteries in parallel.
They have served us well but are now starting to get a bit tired, especially with the electric blanket when camping inwinter!
Also, at 26kg (57lbs),I'm tired of moving the damned things! even if it is only 3 or 4 times a year.

I had been looking at a replacement LA battery, a Fullriver 120Ah costing ~$400 andweighing a mere 37kg(82lbs), but then started searching for Lithium alternatives. Seeing the prices for a 120Ah Lithium(Fusion) floored me, I had expected prices to have dropped a little over the years but ~AU$1500 is insane.

That's when a little more research and learning about 18650's, well,evil plansstarted to brew.

Current plan is a 4s60p battery, so ~14.8 and~120Ah if I'm lucky, and ~15kg (33lbs).
If I can keep costs below $1 a cell, so $240 for the battery (a little more thanhalf the LA price) I'll be happy.
If I getmore good cells from my harvest, all good, go for 80p or 100p, but I'm figuring conservatively at~50% good/bad cells after testing.

What's after this?
Well, my old man is building a motorhome, which currently has 800W solar on the roof, if I can build an 18650 system for him he might save some money on fuel (instead oflugging around 200 kilo's(440lbs) of lead!)

And after that?
An EV to drive to/from work would be really cool.... (I currently spend ~$4000 a year on petrol) .....but let's not get ahead of myself!

Breakdown of my firsthaul in the photo:
There's ~430 cells ready for testing
- 157 (36%) of the cells are Sanyo, so will need careful scrutiny,
- 110 (26%)are Sony
-71 (17%) are Samsung
- 58 (13%) are Panasonic
- 28 (6%) are LG
and just 6 cells were no-name chinese cells.

So far that's 47 cents per cell, if I can get 240 usable cells after testing, which would be 84 cents per cell, I'd be happy with that.

Not pictured:
70 leaky/rusted cells
95 cells that measured 0.0v
71 cells that measured below 1.0v
So ~35% attrition before testing!
Some of the <1.0v cells might be recoverable but I'm not sure if I'll bother.

Enough blah blah.....
 
Awesomeness Simon get into it. My testing regime went through 3 upgrades. Once I started testing I then calculated the time required to complete batches with the existing equipment and process. Lessening time required, looking for bottlenecks in the process.
 
Cheers mate!
Cheers also for the packs, I have a feeling you'll be getting another call after I get through testing these :D
 
Welcome! Will be nice to see your progress
 
Thanks Daromer.

When I got home from work this evening I had a package waiting for me... more packs!
It was an ebay purchase so not the most economical method, but I think I did ok.

47 more cells ready for capacity testing.

image_ahxsfd.jpg


Mostly LG and Samsung.
One 4-cell pack (Sanyo UR18650ZY 2500's) was dead, every cell was 0.0v
and a single 2800 cell (ICR18650-28A) was <1.0v, but the remaining 47 cells were all above 3.0v, and most are 3.5-3.8.
Feeling confident about these!

This is addictive :D
 
SimonW said:
Thanks Daromer.

When I got home from work this evening I had a package waiting for me... more packs!
It was an ebay purchase so not the most economical method, but I think I did ok.

47 more cells ready for capacity testing.

Mostly LG and Samsung.
One 4-cell pack (Sanyo UR18650ZY 2500's) was dead, every cell was 0.0v
and a single 2800 cell (ICR18650-28A) was <1.0v, but the remaining 47 cells were all above 3.0v, and most are 3.5-3.8.
Feeling confident about these!

This is addictive :D

I have had quite a bit of luck with cells below 1v. Some of them have been my better cells. Just finished charging some cells that measured in the mV range. 47mV and there about. They charged just fine, no heat, no sign of rapid discharge. We'll see about self discharge in a week or so but.

Just charge them real slow, about 100ma, until they reach 3v, then 300ma until full charged. Cycle them, watch closely, some may get hot, and need to be discarded. Even on the first discharge, some can get a little warm, quite often the internal resistance will be high for the first cycle. When finished allow to settle for a week, check for self discharge,check internal resistance, charge, and capacity check.

If you don't want to mess about with cells below 1v, send them my way. ;) Ill be happy to pay postage, and give you a few $$ for your trouble.
 
I have infact increased this to 1.5v.
I'm also weeding out everything between 1.5v and 2.0v.

I'll be focusing on testing everything above 2.0v for now.
Once that is done, I'll test the 1.5v to 2.0v cells, then everything between 1.0 and 1.5v.
For the <1.5v cells, maybe they'll be okay, but I'm not going to hold out much hope for them.

The manufacturers test labs are full of scientists and engineers that are much much much smarter than me, and have done a huge amount of research into this.
If their literature says anything that has spent considerable time below 1.5v is a risk, due to copper dissolution, then who am I to argue?

Just charge them real slow, about 100ma, until they reach 3v
Yep, have been pre-charging everything under 2.5v, so far so good.
 
SimonW said:
I have infact increased this to 1.5v.
I'm also weeding out everything between 1.5v and 2.0v.

I'll be focusing on testing everything above 2.0v for now.
Once that is done, I'll test the 1.5v to 2.0v cells, then everything between 1.0 and 1.5v.
For the <1.5v cells, maybe they'll be okay, but I'm not going to hold out much hope for them.

The manufacturers test labs are full of scientists and engineers that are much much much smarter than me, and have done a huge amount of research into this.
If their literature says anything that has spent considerable time below 1.5v is a risk, due to copper dissolution, then who am I to argue?

Just charge them real slow, about 100ma, until they reach 3v
Yep, have been pre-charging everything under 2.5v, so far so good.

May as well give them a go. That's my policy. I usually keep notes. Often cells that are below 2v probably aren't worth putting in a power wall. Although, time will tell. I shall certainly be scrutinizing these cells more than others known to have been above that.

Edit:

However I do have far fewer cells available to me. So anything extra is a bonus
 
Just been testing an OPUS and, well, so far I'm not impressed.
How can anyone trust these things?

I just picked a cell at random, a LGDAS31865, rated 2200mAh by the manufacturer. I capacity tested at 1A draw until 2.8v
My iCharger tells me it's 2023mAh which I can believe.
Same cell in the OPUS, 2303mAh.... what?!

In addition to that, the iCharger should have a figure higher than the OPUS because the OPUS is 1A CC drain with a hard cut-off at 2.8v.
The iCharger on the other hand is 1A CC until 2.8v, and then it switches to CV until the current drops to 500mA. In my experience this adds another few tens of mAh to the final figure compared to a hard cut at 2.8v.

I think these things were meant to be named UPOS not OPUS. Utter Piece Of Shit.
I'm thinking I'll knock-up a quick LM317 constant-current regulator and test the same cell the old fashioned way that I used to do with Sub-C sized NiCad's about 20 years ago, with a multimeter and a stop-watch.... will determine which is telling me porky's, the iCharger or the UPOS....
Taking bets?
Guess where my money is....

Edit: Forgot to mention, with the iCharger the cells don't even get warm but in the UPOS they're pretty toasty.
I'm thinking this is two things, first probably has to do with how the UPOS uses PWM at around 3.2 amps to average a 1A discharge... this high 3.2A current draw is likely heating the cells. I also suspect the load resistors are buried somewhere under cells 3 and 4 as they seem to get much hotter than the others.
 
First of all the current drops to mA not mAH. :)

No one that have talked to me trust the number as actuall capacity.

Yes the Opus does show a different valyue but the value is consistent. The consistant number is what you look for and then dont forget what you get for the money.

I have taken my numbers from my Opus chargers. Tested >2000 cells that are in production. I have then tested the same cells in the Powerwall and the capacity was damn close to reallife when done in terms of %. I dont take the numbers from the Opus as mAh and I have said that 100x on the forum before. All chargers does it differently and in this case only take the number as s number.
I would love to have 20 iCharger Duo on my table but I have 1 Duo sitting there for ref meassuring. I instead I got 10 Opus chargers with some minor calculation are able to sort my cells into same bin as the iCharger would have done :)

It is what they say. You get what you pay for. But as long as the numbers are close enough to continous it will work and as long as you are aware of it.
 
daromer said:
First of all the current drops to mA not mAH. :)

Doh! How did that slip in there? Fixed.

...but the value is consistent...

I certainly hope so. It's the only reason I haven't flogged it off on eBay yet.
Last night I started testing for consistency and repeatability.
I have four different brand and capacity cells (including the previous test cell) and I will rotate until all have been in each slot.
Will take some time. I'm monitoring voltages with my DMM as I go, I'm not liking what I see so far... up to 0.2v higher measured than displayed.
Also monitoring cell temperatures in slots 1 and 4 (slot 1 seems to be the coolest and 4 the hottest)

I would love to have 20 iCharger Duo on my table...

Me too.

It is what they say. You get what you pay for.

True, but I had hoped an item that is v2.2 that a few issue's had been addressed.... silly me.

Will see how it goes for these tests, but so far it just looks like this thing stresses the cells to much.... over-voltage, over-temperature and high pulsed currents... yuck.
 
Note that the consistant numbers is only in 1 slot :) it differs alot between them and between slots

Have you scoped the charge? I have not so i cannot answer if it pulses.
 
Slow progress.... Don't have figures to hand but have tested all the LG's that were above 1.5v (pack) and approx. 30% of them are good cells based on 2000mAh min. capacity (Opus figure, so maybe 1800-ish real world) that's at 1A discharge without getting toasty.
Some were looking good as far as voltage and capacity were concerned but they were nudging ~40c even at 500mA discharge. Bah. They're in the re-visit bin.
Still need to test long term self discharge, though most of the 'good' ones were sitting around 4.17 and 4.18 after 24 hours.
Maybe 20% done? Still a long way to go...
 
Good work with the scope simon. I would love to do the same here someday !
 
daromer said:
Good work with the scope simon. I would love to do the same here someday !

Oh, sorry,those weren't mine, they were 'borrowed' from the link in the post.

My scope isold and basic(monochrome) and Ican't takescreenshots. (With a phone cameramaybe)
I've been meaning to upgrade for yearsbut, I keep buying other things that get used far more often :D
Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky in the next ScopeMonth giveaway.
 
:) Ahh
 
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