Built some 18650 3s 12v battery packs, still have a few questions though

[travelpro85]

Hello,

Ive always been intrigued with solar, batteries, and DIY. Lately, I have assembled 4 12v packs, consisting of 18650, 3s x 7, to replace my current lead acid batteries I have sitting around on my "hobby" solar panel (a single panel which sits on my roof which i would use for hobby purposes, getting my feet wet with DIY Solar, and in case of a power outage we could at least have some light)

Glad to be here and found out that this place exists because of a YT video.

though, my main question is, now since i built this packs, how do I test out their MAH, ie how can i find out the capacity. Probably shouldve done that prior to build but wasnt think about it.


Either way, glad to be here!!

 

[Oberfail]

To test single cells, you can use a Litokala Lii-500 for example.
To test larger packs, you can use a Atorch DL24.

If you just want to occasionally test a existing battery, you can hook up a light bulb, write down voltage and current every 15 minutes until the battery is empty and do the math.

 

[floydR]

For testing existing battery packs hard to go wrong with an Icharger X series charger/discharger they come in 3sizes X6 up to 6s, X8 up to 8s, X12 up to 12s
Later floyd