OffGridInTheCity Build

[Dr. Dickie]

I only got 3 kWh yesterday (normally 7+). Battery was at the lowest I have ever seen (50.5V).
Some sun today. Hopefully enough to get a full charge.
Oregon? If you are East of the Cascades I am surprised you ever get a full charge.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

I only got 3 kWh yesterday (normally 7+). Battery was at the lowest I have ever seen (50.5V).
Some sun today. Hopefully enough to get a full charge.
Oregon? If you are East of the Cascades I am surprised you ever get a full charge.

I'm right on the West edge. Southern Oregon / Rogue Valley has a large (50-100mile radius) weather vortex of normal/mild weather with what I would call good amounts of sun most of the time. That's why 11days of thick clouds in a row is unusual. Completely different than Portland (6-9 months of solid clouds/rain) and Seattle, Washington - even worse!. In my youth, I lived in Portland for 12yrs - and it can be brutal - solar would be frustrating!

 

[Dr. Dickie]

I'm right on the West edge. Southern Oregon / Rogue Valley has a large (50-100mile radius) weather vortex of normal/mild weather with what I would call good amounts of sun most of the time. That's why 11days of thick clouds in a row is unusual. Completely different than Portland (6-9 months of solid clouds/rain) and Seattle, Washington - even worse!. In my youth, I lived in Portland for 12yrs - and it can be brutal!

I bet. My mother was from Yakima Wa, other side of the Cascades, more like desert.

 

[ziporah]

you think that's frustrating ... try Belgium for a change. I don't even get enough production to push something in my batteries ...

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

Winter doldrums are here which means it's time to work on the next battery.

18650s at my trusted sellers are pretty sparse these days (I miss RING cells!) so I took a chance and tried @jag35.com (e.g. @jehugarcia) by
purchasing 650 modem packs with 1,950 cells at 0.57c/cell including shipping.



So far I've pulled random samples from each of the 13 shipping boxes and...

- 100% are Samsung ICR18650-26F - https://secondlifestorage.com/index.php?threads/samsung-icr18650-26f-cell-specifications.1783/ with 2010 / 2011 date codes. I like to build my batteries with all the same cell so this is good for me.

- IR is a bit higher than my norm - e.g. - my OPUSs showing 110-130mOhm as apposed to 60-80''ish. I'm going to proceed anyway as in my case I have such a low charge/discharge ma/cell and these new batteries will take it down to <100ma/cell avg.

- 25% are 0v right out of the pack so far. Out of 3 cells in the pack, 1 is often 0v and the other 2 are 0.7/0.8v. I tried to recover the first set of 0v with loving / gentle initial charge etc... but totally self-discharging as they near 4.18v. Throw away! - I need 1,500 good ones which would be 75% success rate. We'll see.



Plan to install the one above + this excess RING battery from last year's cell processing for the trailer.



I may recombine the battery bank to have 4 batteries @ 520ah each instead of 8 @ 260ah to avoid buying longmons - but it makes them quite heavy to manipulate. Also I have room for 9 @ 260ah - an odd number

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

And its going from bad to worse! Snow for the 1st time in several years... Lowest production ever.

The only reason Classic 3 = 41w is because I just tried to clean off a few panels, but the snow is so thick it's useless right now.

 

[Wolf]

Yep I already had to climb the roof twice so far to clear the snow off of the pannels.
The last 30 days have not been good. But look on the bright side since dec 21 we are gaining each day.
Wolf

 

[zurkeyon]

Damn... WE are all some serious lithium nerds!
:-D
Awesome setup!

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

Just out of curiosity I tried the Batrium Watchmon Toolkit v2.0.12 on a Windows 11 Pro (10.0.22000 Build 22000) downloaded from Microsoft last month.


and the WiFi connect works! Here's my trailer Batrium

 

[Dr. Dickie]

How do you find Windows 11?
Historically, every other Windows incarnation is good, and I like Windows 10.
I really only have one computer that might be a candidate for Windows 11, but have resisted the conversion so far. I don't use that computer so much-the wife uses it occasionally. She is not a tech geek, so I am hesitant to change it. If she has problems, I have problems, and I have enough problems as it is.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

How do you find Windows 11?

I used this version of "Pro" downloaded from Microsoft - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sof...d=_z0keysh3wskf6nkp133xftfux32xrcvrlkvqhe0l00

I found a youtube or article that gave a procedure to bypass the hardware checks and use Windows 10 activation keys - and it worked. The version you see above was installed on WMware Workstation 16.2 Pro - e.g. it's virtual - and I only installed it for compatibility tests such as Batrium. I don't change windows unless forced because I have soooo many utilities etc - it's just such a pain

Historically, every other Windows incarnation is good, and I like Windows 10.
I really only have one computer that might be a candidate for Windows 11, but have resisted the conversion so far. I don't use that computer so much-the wife uses it occasionally. She is not a tech geek, so I am hesitant to change it. If she has problems, I have problems, and I have enough problems as it is.

I started my software career with DOS 1.2 when folders for the file system were introduced. My favorite Windows is "Windows 7". I never got over abandoning the Start menu after that.

My favorite OS(s) are Unix (yes, there was 'real Unix' in the old days) and Linux.

 

[Wolf]

DOS 1.2 well you are dating yourself
I was introduced to DOS 5.x then 6.x. Went to Windows 3.0, 3.1etc. Terrible stuff those days. Dipped my toes in OS/2 and was intrigued with 32bit stuff. Unfortunately it suffered from lack of applications so it was abandoned. Then there was Netware and NT3.1, 4.0 and so on. Those were the days. Making NT 4.0 talk to Netware 3, 4 etc. with Windows 95 98 with IPX/SPX , Unix and of course the trusty AS400. Fortunately TCP/IP finally became the mainstream.
My favorite Windows so far is as you Windows 7 pro. Stable easy to use. Besides also liking any decent flavour of Linux. Unfortunately Linux other than Servers has really never caught on in the corporate world as a desktop solution. Too bad.
Matter of fact I was using windows 7 as my work PC till last week when for some reason it would no longer connect to a client's VPN that I monitor. Seemed to happen after an update, yea imagine that micro$oft breaking something with an update on an OS they "claim" is no longer supported.
I was setting up a Windows 11 machine anyway (with the same compatibility hack as @OffGridInTheCity) just for testing and I opted to just switch to it. Loaded all my Apps and customized it to my liking and to be honest I like it so far. It's basically still windows 10 with a new skin.
Sorry to ramble but it brought out the nostalgia in me.

Wolf

---

 

[Dr. Dickie]

I used this version of "Pro" downloaded from Microsoft - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sof...d=_z0keysh3wskf6nkp133xftfux32xrcvrlkvqhe0l00

I found a youtube or article that gave a procedure to bypass the hardware checks and use Windows 10 activation keys - and it worked. The version you see above was installed on WMware Workstation 16.2 Pro - e.g. it's virtual - and I only installed it for compatibility tests such as Batrium. I don't change windows unless forced because I have soooo many utilities etc - it's just such a pain


I started my software career with DOS 1.2 when folders for the file system were introduced. My favorite Windows is "Windows 7". I never got over abandoning the Start menu after that.

My favorite OS(s) are Unix (yes, there was 'real Unix' in the old days) and Linux.

Oh yeah, I used Mircosoft DOS for years before the WWW even came into being. I remember when Unix commands were used for interaction with the net. I thought Windows 95 was pretty good.
Had an Apple IIe before the net was really around. Dropped apple for IBM 8086 because I could choose the components I wanted .

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

If you need to remove a pack that's misbehaving, do you just unbolt a pair and slide them out to get to the backside series connection?

Yes. Since I have alternating + and - on each end of the packs they wind up in 'pairs' To remove packs 3 and 4 (below) I undo the bolts in 'front' and then slide out both packs and then take the 2 packs apart to get to the specific pack. Note, all cell +(s) are oriented to the left on each pack - won't short them / OK if one pack (bus bar) touches another sliding in/out.

Pros for alternating + and -
1) Causes current to flow thru each pack from end to end in the series... *But at 200mah/cell (in my case), not sure this matters.
2) Its SAFE to handle and assemble. It's not impossible but very unlikely to accidentally short + and - of a pack or of the series as I assemble the packs. **This is the main reason I went this route and it's paid off in safety - have not had a single incidence.

Cons for alternating + and -
1) It make every other pack and alternate orientation - so I have to keep that in mind building them.
2) Since I have to add/remove in pairs, and individual pack of 100p means I have to manipulate 200p worth of cells as a unit. So If I did 200p it would be 400p of cells... too heavy for me.

 

[floydR]

I noticed that all the cells are numbered sequentially except for the two number 13s. One should be13 and the last 14?
later floyd

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

I noticed that all the cells are numbered sequentially except for the two number 13s. One should be13 and the last 14?
later floyd

Yes sir - quick visio / just fixed it up

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

Just finished processing 17 x Battery Hookup Samsung ICR18650-26F Medical Packs with 24cells each. They arrived looking like this, pretty nice.

And were advertised as "....Here are fully tested and balanced 8s lithium ion medical batteries. These are absolutely beautiful packs with a legit BMS. ...."

The results of processing 408 cells are....

I got 167 (green) useable out of 408 - that's $3.26c/cell out of a possible $1.33/cell (e.g. $543.96 for 408cells).

I must say - out of 20? purchases over 3 years - this is the worst experience I've had with Battery Hookup and I'm disappointed. Will contact support to see what they say.

The badly corroded cells are like this or worse.

 

[Oberfail]

Feel free to report back what their support says..
That is intolerable for such a premium reseller.

 

[hbpowerwall]

I can't help but think - how the DUCK do you test that many cells.. just contact them - you'll not be too much out of pocket..

 

[Korishan]

Hrmm, almost starting to sound like a Newegg Return scandal. Let's hope not.

And I'm with Pete, how are you processing so many cells that fast!??!