It's been years, but my favorite project is complete!

hbpowerwall

hbpowerwall

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Hard to put into words finishing a project like this one - but I'll try!

Early June 2019 I had the idea to create the safest, best battery build to date. I took about 500 laptop batteries sourced from Acer Laptops from a local school in Queensland Australia. These batteries were either scheduled replacements or warranty replacement units.

Processed down all the cells over the next year & started to build what you see here.

[ Part 1 ] The build started here
View: https://youtu.be/PenPYwa00CA


[ Part 2 ] Finding out the battery build isn't legal
Mid to late 2020 the rules changed regarding energy storage & creation. These rules knocked me for SIX and instantly removed my will to continue to make the same sort of youtube content. You can read a draft copy of the regulations here. http://www.coromandel.com/new_website/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Draft-AS-NZS-5139-2019.pdf
View: https://youtu.be/HCd2opk9APg


[ Part 3 ] Addressing safety
View: https://youtu.be/EltBFVKStEg


[ Part 4 ] Fixing leaky cells and a low voltage battery
View: https://youtu.be/sOFBYmMenXU


[ Part 5 ] 3 years after I started the project it's finally ready for service
View: https://youtu.be/DAoCK3QNLng
 
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Well it's about time!! You realize how many times I had to shave for this project! Sheesh. I think you owe me for some new razors :LOL:

Seriously tho, great job on completely the project, and have some great fun with your little buddy. (y) 😎
 
Korishan said:
Well it's about time!! You realize how many times I had to shave for this project! Sheesh. I think you owe me for some new razors :LOL:

Seriously tho, great job on completely the project, and have some great fun with your little buddy. (y) 😎
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Yeh took too long but here it is done and working as intended, my little man was so excited to unbox he wanted to sleep with it!!
OffGridInTheCity said:
Sooooo much fun to see the battery come together - and it's second hand 18650 in these days where LifePo4 has all the attention!
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Thanks, buddy, yeh 18650ies are dead as a primary project - it's now time to find a new path or fade away quietly..
 
Korishan said:
lol how cute :)


Waiting on that Mini to be finished. Also status updates of the bees 🐝 ;)
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the EV mini project was sold when Covid hit, glad I did really as the new MG ZS EV we bought for 45k and took 2 hours, the mini would have taken 50k and years. Great idea but didn't understand the tooling, contacts & legals to it all..

As for the bees I think we are doing a harvest this weekend, have about 90 fully caped frames of Honey - should result in plus 200kg of honey..
 
hbpowerwall said:
As for the bees I think we are doing a harvest this weekend, have about 90 fully caped frames of Honey - should result in plus 200kg of honey..
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200kg! that's about 440lbs for us Imperalist. That's a lot of honey!

I have some nuks and frames i need to clean up and get ready, and finally order my hives. I need to just do it instead of holding off on it. I'd love to have fresh honey, plus propolis and wax, to use. We're out of the cold spells for this area, so should be good to get a colony started w/o worry of them dying from the cold.
 
I used to really enjoy the bees, but now with more hives and the requirement to look after them ethically its actually work and is no longer enjoyable.
 
Maybe get rid of some hives?
A big greenhouse for your own vegetables might be a nice idea. Or if you want a small EV for short trips, you could look into a Renault Twizy and adding your own battery if it has none, its 7ish kWh 14s li-ion.
 
I have someone that keeps an eye on them now, so its not so much work but the processing honey is a whole days physical work and my body don't do physical lol But yes that's on the cards come winter.

We just got an MG EV, but might look out for a wrecked one of the twizy, might be the right size donor for my mini!
 
hbpowerwall said:
I have someone that keeps an eye on them now, so its not so much work but the processing honey is a whole days physical work and my body don't do physical lol But yes that's on the cards come winter.
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My brother in law bought 5 hives last year and did a first production of honey. It was lovely, I must say; he also found a new girlfriend thanks to a jar of honey :D but after that bees had a wasp attack and no bees were left... sorry for the sad ending!
 
italianuser said:
but after that bees had a wasp attack and no bees were left
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Oooph, that sux :( Hope he continues the apiary.
If you take some dung (don't recall what kind atm) and wasps tend to stay away. There's some professional apiasts doing that to protect them from the murder hornets.
 
We don't have murder hornets here thankfully.
 
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