26650 harvesting

rearden

Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2019
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36
I came across 90 nearly unused packs of 5s1p (16v 3ah 48wh) 26650 LiFePo packs. They seem to have fusing and some kind of BMS. It seems a shame to remove all that, but I assume I should pull them all apart down to the cells.

I have a Liitokala Lii-500. Is there something better to recommend for testing? I don't think it will do 26650 Lithium Iron Phosphate.

rearden
 
The opus btc3100 will test them, its what I use to test my a123 26650 lifepo4. But you have to buy 26650 holders for the larger cells and run wires to the opus where the cells go. Without the holders you willbarely fit 2 cellsin the opus, it was not feasible for medoing it without the holders. The holders are cheap, I spend less then 10 dollars for 8 holders.

Also you have to open up the opus, the toggle switch to use for lifepo4 is inside the unit. I think its only 4 screws to remove.

I tested over 200x 26650with the opus, it worked excellent. I got everything from 1500mah up to 2300mah on the ones I tested.

There might be other way to test them, but I already had 2 opus chargers, I was able to test 8 cells at a time. The 26650 lifepo4 charge/discharge quicker then the 18650 li-ion I done before, it went quickly testing the 200 cells.
 
Good find with that pack; lucky you.

A Lii-500 test is sufficiently good for common purposes, but if you want to test for high currents, you'll have to go for something like the ZKE EBC-A20 mentioned above.
 
here is a pic of one of the cells and part of the pack. The cells are in a long stick of 5.


image_cdjhjh.jpg
 
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