floyd's powercabinet

floydR

Moderator
Joined
Aug 23, 2017
Messages
1,647
My goals are to offset the mini split I installed this summer. Convert my 48 volt LA electric lawnmower to lithium(takes two 24v batteries). The charging of the power cabinet will be via solar panels. Since most of the hardware i have is 24 volt that will be what i am making the system. I have a 24 volt ul listed 1000 watt 110 inverter which I will be using as a UPS. hopefully will get my server on it soon.




image_wwtqws.jpg

image is of a harbor freightHanging Tool Cabinet
I am still in the collecting and processing stage.
Have 200-250 cells maybe more that are good. Of which 70 will go to my electric mower.

later floyd
 
That's not a bad looking cabinet, didn't even realize they sold anything like that.
 
Ok the cabinet has been ordered. The internal dimensions is aprox. 45 inches wide x 23 inches tall x 8 inches depth enough for a 7s80p would have to be creative if i went to 14s80p. there is enough room to make the packs 100p
Thanks AZ_Tekkie I thought it was nice looking when I saw it.
Hope it is not hard to put together.

later floyd
 
Update #2
The cabinet should be here by the middle of next week. After i see how hard it is to put together I may order one or two more. Depending on how much room I can configure the cabinet for I will see if I want to stick to 24 volt or move to 48 volts.
later floyd
 
floydR said:
Update #2
The cabinet should be here by the middle of next week. After i see how hard it is to put together I may order one or two more. Depending on how much room I can configure the cabinet for I will see if I want to stick to 24 volt or move to 48 volts.
later floyd

I like the idea of using a tool cabinet for the batteries but I'm not sure this one is strong enough? Does it say anything about rating of each shelf / whole cabinet anywhere?

If you put in a 7S80P you will have 560 cells and if we assume they weigh in around 45g each that give for a total weight of the 7S80P pack of 25.2kg or 55 pounds. And that's for the cells only, spacers ad busbars and other switchgear comes on top of that.

If you manage to squeeze in a 14S80P pack the numbers doubles to 50.4kg / 111 pounds.

a 14S100P pack will weigh 25% more.


If you're standing this on the floor then no worries at all but if you plan on stacking them or hanging them on a wall then I would be very concerned about strong the cabinets are and how many wall anchors they use to fasten them to the wall. It looks like there's only two eyes for securing them to the wall so they are probably not intended to hand the cabinet with but more to make sure that the cabinet doesn't topple over when stood on the ground.


I'm toying with the idea of mounting my powerwall on an external brick wall of my house above a flat roof over the garage, that way if / when they catch fire they won't burn by house down as there's nothing flammable below /near / above thespot where I want to hang them. The inverter and chargers will live in the garage straight below the battery box.

When I get enough cells that is... :p
 
mormor1971 said:
floydR said:
Update #2
The cabinet should be here by the middle of next week. After i see how hard it is to put together I may order one or two more. Depending on how much room I can configure the cabinet for I will see if I want to stick to 24 volt or move to 48 volts.
later floyd

I like the idea of using a tool cabinet for the batteries but I'm not sure this one is strong enough? Does it say anything about rating of each shelf / whole cabinet anywhere?

20 lbs per shelf, 3 compartments each with 2 shelves, 120 lbs (54.4kgs)
Plus i will be reinforcing the cabinet and shelves. if it isn't strong enough i will find an outdoor rated cabinet like you see in parks (irrigation controller, lighting control boxes). and i will have tool storage in my garage. :)
 
Could always see if you can find a used electrical surplus place. I found one by me and picked up some 24"x24" steel electrical cabinets, they're super heavy gauge.
 
AZ_Tekkie said:
Could always see if you can find a used electrical surplus place. I found one by me and picked up some 24"x24" steel electrical cabinets, they're super heavy gauge.

will look this weekend. i may end up with a tool cabinet for my tools, if i can find what I need.
later floyd
 
I received the hanging tool cabinet today, Now I am too tired to put it together. Worked in my garden.Will have to wait till tomorrow.

Looked at the local electronic surplus place for a proper electrical box found at least one that would work. I was gonna ask the owner how much he wanted for it. But he was nowhere to be found. Couldn't have gotten it yesterday anyways.

Later floyd
 
The Cabinet is together think it will end up in the garage. It is ok for the price. and would have enough room for a 14s80p set up. so my search goes on.
later floyd
 
looks like I jumped the gun, my supply of used laptop batteries has suddenly turned into nothing, and my good cells aren't as good as when first tested. I have been retesting every cells I have and many are returning low mAh much lower than when i first tested them. guess I will be retesting them again. hope I can get consistent results.

later floyd
 
Man, that sux. :s What charger(s) are you using? What settings? And what ever other questions that might need to be answered .....
 
floydR said:
looks like I jumped the gun, my supply of used laptop batteries has suddenly turned into nothing, and my good cells aren't as good as when first tested. I have been retesting every cells I have and many are returning low mAh much lower than when i first tested them. guess I will be retesting them again. hope I can get consistent results.

later floyd
Indeed. Let us know what equipment you have, there could be many explanations as to what is going on. Poor cell contact can give very poor test results. It is unusual for cells to loose a lot of capacity between one test an the next.
 
2 Opus BT-C3400 V3.1 Battery Charger Analyzer Tester for testing
I charge all the batteries to 4.2 v let them sit for a week check voltages
use The charge test which charges to 4.2 volts then discharges to 2.8 volts (mAh results) then charges it back to 4.2 volts
I have a Foxnovo-F-4S-4-Slots-LCD-Battery-Charger I use for charging.
a Foxnovo F08 8-Slots Li-ion Battery Charger which I no longer use. it charged to 4.35
various single 18650 cell chargers no longer used going to use them as cell holder for the TP4056's thanks Korishan
it is the cells under 1800 mAh that are testing lower. they may have been weak in the first place
I have 137 cells @2000 mAh plus probably 20 @ 1900 mAh plus 20@1800 mAh plus 100-150 @>1800 mAh

later floyd
 
floydR said:
2 Opus BT-C3400 V3.1 Battery Charger Analyzer Tester for testing
I charge all the batteries to 4.2 v let them sit for a week check voltages
use The charge test which charges to 4.2 volts then discharges to 2.8 volts (mAh results) then charges it back to 4.2 volts
I have a Foxnovo-F-4S-4-Slots-LCD-Battery-Charger I use for charging.
a Foxnovo F08 8-Slots Li-ion Battery Charger which I no longer use. it charged to 4.35
various single 18650 cell chargers no longer used going to use them as cell holder for the TP4056's thanks Korishan
it is the cells under 1800 mAh that are testing lower. they may have been weak in the first place
I have 137 cells @2000 mAh plus probably 20 @ 1900 mAh plus 20@1800 mAh plus 100-150 @>1800 mAh

later floyd

If cells seem to have lost capacity - clean the contacts on the Opus. There is also often some variation between tests.

How much capacity do your cells appear to have lost?

Also are you testing a the same discharge current. If you discharge cells at a different rate you will definitely get different results.
 
Geek said:
floydR said:
2 Opus BT-C3400 V3.1 Battery Charger Analyzer Tester for testing
I charge all the batteries to 4.2 v let them sit for a week check voltages
use The charge test which charges to 4.2 volts then discharges to 2.8 volts (mAh results) then charges it back to 4.2 volts
I have a Foxnovo-F-4S-4-Slots-LCD-Battery-Charger I use for charging.
a Foxnovo F08 8-Slots Li-ion Battery Charger which I no longer use. it charged to 4.35
various single 18650 cell chargers no longer used going to use them as cell holder for the TP4056's thanks Korishan
it is the cells under 1800 mAh that are testing lower. they may have been weak in the first place
I have 137 cells @2000 mAh plus probably 20 @ 1900 mAh plus 20@1800 mAh plus 100-150 @>1800 mAh

later floyd

If cells seem to have lost capacity - clean the contacts on the Opus. There is also often some variation between tests.

How much capacity do your cells appear to have lost?

Also are you testing a the same discharge current. If you discharge cells at a different rate you will definitely get different results.

will clean the contacts.
300-400 mAh
I thought all my tests were at 1000 ma. and all discharge results.
I think by rearranging the cells I could use the 1800-1900 cells to complete a 7s20 pack only need 3 cells.
Might be that i am tired and got sloppy with how i was testing. The buttons need to be fixed Mike orDaniel has a video on fixing ithe buttons

later floyd
 
That is a huge difference. Odd indeed. If you are short of cells I would use the <1800mah cells. A lot of my cells are 1500-2000mah. Anything less is torch battery.
 
Geek said:
That is a huge difference. Odd indeed. If you are short of cells I would use the <1800mah cells. A lot of my cells are 1500-2000mah. Anything less is torch battery.

Man, that's a lot of torches! :p
 
I blame tiredness and finding I had fewer good cells than I thought. kinda disheartening to realize you haven't met your goals. On the plus side a coworker gave me two laptop batteries today. First laptop batteries I have had to harvest in the past couple weeks.

Later floyd
 
floydR said:
I blame tiredness and finding I had fewer good cells than I thought. kinda disheartening to realize you haven't met your goals. On the plus side a coworker gave me two laptop batteries today. First laptop batteries I have had to harvest in the past couple weeks.

Later floyd

Onwards and upwards, one reclaimed laptop battery at a time.

It sounds very easy from the onset but as soon as you get into it and start planning things for real you soon realise that you need _a_lot_ of 18650's and getting those tested and sorted is a long process. And there's a lot of work going into this too, I certainly didn't expect it to be that much so that needs to be taken into account too.

I am leaning more and more towards simply buying new cells and use those if this works out as I want it to, that way I can test the concept out and then if / when I decide to go for a big system I will most likely use new cells for the new packs.

I'm trying to work out a pack layout that I can make so that I can reconfigure the packs easily into different configurations and something that fit my wished for form-factor but I haven't made that decision yet.

I still got a crapton of cells to test and sort so will decide on a layout when I know how many cells I have and of what capacities.
 
Back
Top