Anyone tried the liitokala lii-500?

[CUDAcores89]

Almost done testing a thousand cells. Will return to the local yard to get more...

I'm not even building a powerwall or anything. I'm reselling these cells for profit. I sort them into capacity to the nearest 100mah then auction them off on ebay. I have been doing this for 2 weeks and have made $400 in sales. Yes people, there is money to be made in this market. But don't tell others, because that will create competition and reduce my profit margins. Doing this allowed me to quit my job (I am 18 still in high school, I live with my parents and used to work at mcdonalds to pay for my college). Now I am paying my way through college by scrapping laptop batteries...


By the way, the whole reason I started gutting laptop batteries was for an ebike battery pack. I have now built a 10S 20P 2KWh battery ack for my ebike and man it is HEAVY (20lb), but still WAAAAY less heavy than my old SLA setup that weighed 40lbs. Also, my bike now has a 100 mile range, 150 miles if I pedal. I will never use all of that. But A big pack means I can keep charge and discharge rates low and extend the life of my battery pack.


But that's beside the point. The reason for this thread is I found a new discharger people haven't been using, the Liitokala Lii-500. Just found this thing on aliexpress, and it will discharge cells at 500ma.

L00-Liitokala-lii-500-LCD-Charger-3-7-18650

It costs $10 less then the BTC 3100s and still discharge tests cells. you could buy 5 of them for $100. It would allow me to crank through the 20 cells in my foxnovo chargers + the 20 for the liitokala chargers for a total of 40 cells.

Also, anyone interested in buying cells? This isn't the thread for it, but I wasn't going to bother selling them unless I knew demand was there. Minimum quantity would be 50 cells all tested for capacity, buyer pays shipping. And I would want to make as much or more profit selling them on the forum that I am making on ebay.

 

[Sean]

Why would you want, or expect to make more profit selling your cells on here ?

Perhaps Peter should be charging folks who sell on here commission .......

 

[CUDAcores89]

Why would you want, or expect to make more profit selling your cells on here ?

Perhaps Peter should be charging folks who sell on here commission .......

Several reasons actually:

1. No ebay fees
2. lower transaction fees
3. Larger quantities can be sold at one time reducing shipping costs
4. Larger quantities means less packaging material used
5. More shipping options
6. (and most importantly) Buyers who actually UNDERSTAND that these cells are USED. I had some guy thinking he was getting a lot of 50 Sanyo UR18650FM new because he was too stupid to read the First lineof the listing description. What the hell, people are idiots sometimes .

Also if Pete wanted to charge a commission or listing fees, he has the utmost right to do so. I was never implying he couldn't...

 

[TheBatteries]

7. Many local buyers are willing to travel an hour or two to pick them up, paying in cash, rather than shipping and using any sort of money transfer fees. Money saved on both parties.

 

[CUDAcores89]

7. Many local buyers are willing to travel an hour or two to pick them up, paying in cash, rather than shipping and using any sort of money transfer fees. Money saved on both parties.

OK, so selling local it is. It's funny where I live. I live in Michigan in the US. Everyone here loves cars. Cars cars cars and sports seem to be all anyone cares about. I have traveled hours in my state to pick up laptop batteries and I have not met a single person anywhere in my state who does this. Apparently I am a sole exception or something.

I have talked to other places where I get cells from and sometimes they wonder (for good reason) why on earth I would want 100lbs of laptop batteries. Then I tell them about how people are building DIY powerwalls from these cells. First of all, few if any of them even know who tesla is, second of all I have yet to meet a single person who even knows one can tear apart laptop batteries to get cells from them.

At least this means for now laptop batteries around my area are cheap as chips. Nobody wants these things and according to them, their old laptop battery is worthless. I have yet to meet a single person who opens up laptop batteries in Michigan.Most of my local scrapyards are charging an absolute maximum $1.5 per pound AND I get to pick the batteries I want (I can leave the prismatic cells out). I've been to a few batteries plus stores and they are willing to give me piles of laptop batteries free of charge. I have PC repair stores around the area who are giving me laptop batteries for free. For me, this stuff is absolutely everywhere and I do not have a single competitor around my area to compete with, so I get to set the price bar... :sleepy:

Whether any selling on this forum occurs or not really wasn't the original point of this thread lol. The original point was has anyone used the liitokala chargers and are they any good.

 

[station240]

At least you know what price bulk used cells go for, and can also get free ones. At least one person is gobbling up all the 18650's they can get in Adelaide Australia. If I have to run around everywhere just to get any cells, I'm probably not going to pay for them.

Feel free to write up a review of the liitokala chargers, people are lazy and tend to simply buy what others recommend. Not so good with electronics, where something better being released is common.

 

[Sean]

Why would you want, or expect to make more profit selling your cells on here ?

Perhaps Peter should be charging folks who sell on here commission .......

Several reasons actually:

1. No ebay fees
2. lower transaction fees

You've missed my point, it would appear that you expect folks here to be paying more - as those are costs incurred by you.

Folks will just buy via ebay - you incur the fees.

 

[CUDAcores89]

Why would you want, or expect to make more profit selling your cells on here ?

Perhaps Peter should be charging folks who sell on here commission .......

Several reasons actually:

1. No ebay fees
2. lower transaction fees

You've missed my point, it would appear that you expect folks here to be paying more - as those are costs incurred by you.

Folks will just buy via ebay - you incur the fees.

I don't expect you to pay more. In fact, i expect you to pay less. For example (these are not real numbers), on ebay I would sell 50 1500mah cells for $1.5 a piece, but here I could sell them for $1a piece and make an identical profit. The reason I want to sell on this forum is simply so I can sell directly to buyers and pass the savings onto you. Also it looks like there's already a guy on the AU who is doing the same thing. Itlooks like he is successful in his ventures, so I don't see why I couldn't do the same thing in the US:

http://secondlifestorage.com/t-Active-AU-tested-18650-1000-total-UPDATE-prices-high-cap-sold

 

[Battery]

I have a couple of them, they are good for the price. The internal resistance measurement is useless.
Here is a great detailedreview:Lii-500

 

[Batteriapan]

The reason for this thread is I found a new discharger people haven't been using, the Liitokala Lii-500. Just found this thing on aliexpress, and it will discharge cells at 500ma.

That's what I'm using. It's OK, but I wish it was programmable so I could set it what it should recharge the cell to after the capacity test. Would prefer to leave cells at 3.8v or so rather than 4.2v since I'm usuallysettingcells asidefor storage after thetest.

Also,the chargertends to be confused when I pop in cells and select mode. Popping in a cell andset it to capacity test, pop in the second cell and set that to capacitytest - now the first cell sometimesisset to charge only. Only if I wait for a while before adding the next cell it will not get confused.

But I enjoyit.

 

[daromer]

I dont like that charger at all. I like the opus better where you pop in 4 cells and then set what you want on all 4 directly. Also how you put in the batteries is backwards. I want to slide the bat in towards me and not away from me (The spring should have been on he other way around)

But thats me..

Ah ye one last time. It only does 0.5A I want to test mine in 1A since thats what i setup my banks to draw at maxium and on second hand cells its important to also test at what you going to use them at.

But if above is not a problem the charger will work just fine. As long as you always stick to the same type for all your testing to get consistent numbers.