Shon's Powerwall

Hello all,

I've been poking around here and there, I need to start a thread with my stuff, so here is what I have for now. I will add to this thread till it's finished, then update as updates are needed.

Let me show you all the batteries





There's 1200 batteries there. I decided to go with a 15s80p setup because I'm getting the 2,000 watt Aims Inverter that accepts up to 64 vdc. I'm in the US so my power requirement is 120VAC. I will not be making 240 VAC yet. I will eventually, when I actually own a house that needs it. I have the inverter on order but it's backordered and I'm waiting for Amazon to give me a shipment date.

I started this project in October and I'm already welding together my packs. It's been a lot of work, but I have the time to do this and it's actually quite fun. Today, I finished welding 5 packs with the Sunko 787A+ welder.





This welder works "alright." I had a really hard time at first to get anything to work with it. I ended up filing a little slit into the copper probe and spreading the connectors so they fit tighter into the unit. Peter Mathews complained about the connector not fitting into the unit properly and I experienced the same thing, but it's easily fixed by spreading out the little leaf spring thingys and shoving them in.

I'll finish this post with a series of pictures along the way. I'm going to eventually try out the YouTube thing, but I'm actually boring and don't think anyone wants to watch. Enjoy.




First batteries gathered.

Great work and thanks for sharing, i should really pull that spot welder out and make up some more packs i'll use your tips

Yeah, I meant to take a picture of the connector after I spread out the "wings," but I forgot. I did try to take a picture of the tip of the tool, but I couldn't get the camera to focus on it. It's just too small.

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I forgot to add pictures of the actual welding. Here they are

To get the camera to focus on small things like wires, take a piece of paper with small text on it and use it as the backdrop. Or get a patterned background of some sort. That should help the camera focus. Maybe wear a textured glove. Just thoughts

Good work on the build. Love the stack of packs you got there. 64VDC, wow, that's nice. Your wiring must be cheap! Nice spot welding job done, too. If you haven't done it yet, I would recommend cutting the fuse wire that goes from cell to cell (where it doesn't go over the busbar). This will help make sure the fuse blows at the proper current rating. Otherwise, you basically have two wires going to the end sharing the load.

where you getting your recycled batteries. I'm having a hard time finding enough

barkster said:

where you getting your recycled batteries. I'm having a hard time finding enough

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I have a recycler here in San Diego that I have bartered with and we agreed on $1.00/lb. At first he wanted 2, but i said no way dude. I have only spent $200 on batteries. A lot I found for free, but the $200 probably covers about 40% of the batteries I have....1200.

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Watch this video. Average Joe nailed it spot on. You just have to look and be persistant. Don't be discouraged by people telling you no. IDK why they say no, but there's plenty that say sure. Here's the link to Joe's video:
Good luck....Don't lie to the people you're asking for batteries from. Offer some cash if you don't think they are gonna hook it up.

Nice, thanks for info

Hi,
your coper busbar look like many corosion. you shoud use new one, it will be more easy to solder

Being as you (like me) live in the US, why would you ever need a 240 system? (sorry if this is a dumb question..)

Pamanedes: I dont live in US but i do live with 240 system instead. You half the current = alot thinner wires. That is a big gain I would say

Palamedes said:

Being as you (like me) live in the US, why would you ever need a 240 system? (sorry if this is a dumb question..)

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If you are referring to 240V AC, then in the US we do use 240V, altho it's split phase. Most large electric appliances use 240V (dryer, water heater, oven, etc). But I'm going to assume you already know that and was wondering about 240V on a single line.
Most of the inverters that are discussed here on the forums are 240V AC single line version. And unfortunately, the large ones that have decent prices don't support 240V split phase (2 x 120V legs). There are a few, though. So that's good.
If you did get the single phase 240V inverter and needed the split phase, the only way to really do it, with that inverter, is to use a 1:1 transformer with a center tap (this provides Neutral). There was someone on here who got a transformer, but I don't remember who it was. But I think the price they got it at was about how much it'd cost if you were to build one (tho, the unit was bought off eBay, if I remember correctly). Maybe someone else can chime in and say who it was with the transformer.

Thanks for answering that Korishan. I did get my inverter in. I have three packs left to weld, and I'm debating with myself about what fuses to get. I won't hook this up without fuses. I started a discussion on Facebook about it and I know more or less what I'm getting. I'vealso been trying to think of a mounting design for my situation. I've almost got it figured out and I will share what I end up doing. After I get the battery in place I'll start looking at how I'm going to hook up my two solar panels that I found for super cheap and made frames for. This is a picture I took before I painted it. The frames are actually white.

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Here's a quick video showing how I use the Sunko 787A+. It's been a long learning process, but I think I nailed it. it's a usable welder and cheap. I don't know how to make the video show up with a thumbnail or anything like that. Many thanks to my daughter Caitlyn! She was my cameragirl.

Fixed the link for ya

To do this, take the link you posted earlier: Remove everything before the = sign, and the & and after. The encapsulate that in the [ youtube ] [ /youtube ] tags.
The code will look like this:

Sub'd, btw

Good work on figuring out what caused the spot welder to not function to its capabilities. A little extra tightening can go a long way with electrical connections.

Ah, thanks. I'll just look back here whenever I do it again. lol

I finished all the busbars and started lining up the packs next to each other and realized I needed to do half the busbars over. They need to be put on opposite of each other because my white wrap is only on one side of the packs. I decided to redo the 5 packs that had the bad busbar, corroded copper, and one more. One busbar I accidentally put on backwards, but as it turns out, I need half of them backwards. When building your wall, take a second and see how everything will fit together. Maybe it will save you some time.

shonalex said:

... When building your wall, take a second and see how everything will fit together. Maybe it will save you some time.

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Very good advise...

Btw, like your video, great camerawork...

I'll tell my daughter that. She will be pleased. lol. She told me that when I said "don't hate" at the beginning of the video, she almost busted out laughing. hahaha.

cristof said:

Hi,
your coper busbar look like many corosion. you shoud use new one, it will be more easy to solder

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You were absolutely correct. I replaced it. All my busbars look great now.

For me it looks like a good and clean solution to spot weld the fuses, compared with soldering.

Any input on this? Pros and Cons?

Any updates? what's the latest?