Consolidate Excel battery lists?

winny · Feb 14, 2019

Bit new here so sorry if I have missed something previosly here. Did a search but not much came up.

Has there been any attempt at creating a template for cell testing and after that, consolidate them to build up a database and get good statistics? I've dug though Wolf's list and he for sure have more columns with test procedures than I do, but this could be simplified with a macro for people who have a single test setup.

Wolf · Feb 14, 2019

winny said:
Bit new here so sorry if I have missed something previosly here. Did a search but not much came up.

Has there been any attempt at creating a template for cell testing and after that, consolidate them to build up a database and get good statistics? I've dug though Wolf's list and he for sure have more columns with test procedures than I do, but this could be simplified with a macro for people who have a single test setup.

winny,

I'm all for simplification but to get an accurate database for cell harvesting and the outcome that can be tracked and analyzed given a multitude of criteria thisis what I came up with.

Sure it can be simplified by removing the cell Manufacturer, Wrap Color ,Format, Insulator color, Tester, (if you only have 1 or 1 kind or don't care)
The database sheet is connected to all the other sheets so when you enter the cell # it Vlookups and fills in the columns. You can certainly get rid of all of the "columns" you don't need that's up to you. Not sure what a Macro would accomplish, but hey if someone has an idea help me out.
All I know is that I have all of my cells recorded with as much information as possible and if I do give away or sell some of these cells all the new owner has to do is find the cell # clearly written on the cell and they can then go online and see what has been recorded for that cell.

I have made this sheet available for anyone to use as they wish. I have spent hours designing it and perfecting it for my use. I share it freely and
if anyone wants to improve on it for their use great. I would appreciate any feedbackon what to change if anything. I am not an Excel guruso all of this was created with my limited know how and lots or research. I can tell you after ~2100 cells maticulisly enterd and tested. The data that can be extracted is quite enlightening.Take the UR18650FM Cell for example. Kind of gives you an positive assurance that IR and Percent capacity do correlate.

The database has been improved to show all the parametersthat can be found pertinent to each cell . Don't know how to simplify that any more.

The testing database can be manipulated to your heart's content so have at it.

All the columns can be removed that you don't want leaving you with the bare bones of 5 columns.

If anyone has any improvements to contribute please be my guest.

Wolf

winny · Feb 15, 2019

Wolf said:
Sure it can be simplified by removing the cell Manufacturer, Wrap Color ,Format, Insulator color, Tester, (if you only have 1 or 1 kind or don't care)

I'm not thinking about removing them, but rather a macro where you can select your setup and if you don't have several chargers nor separate IR measurement, select that and fewer columns will be shown. Same goes for wrap color and so on, this could be looked up from a database and filled in automatically.

Wolf said:
All I know is that I have all of my cells recorded with as much information as possible and if I do give away or sell some of these cells all the new owner has to do is find the cell # clearly written on the cell and they can then go online and see what has been recorded for that cell.

Yep, I have unique numbers for my cells too so I can track them down the line.

Wolf said:
I can tell you after ~2100 cells maticulisly enterd and tested.

I have 53 cells in my database and I do not look forward to adding the remaining ~2500 of them and then remeasure to calculate leakage. I've been thinking about hacking my Lii-500 to give serial port output and dump values straight into my PC and also print stickers automatically instead of writing it manually and then print stickers in batches.

Wolf · Feb 15, 2019

winny said:
I'm not thinking about removing them, but rather a macro where you can select your setup and if you don't have several chargers nor separate IR measurement, select that and fewer columns will be shown.
Ah you want to hide the columns that you don't want to see pieceof cake just highlight and select hide.

Same goes for wrap color and so on, this could be looked up from a database and filled in automatically.

That my friend is already happening through VLOOKUP! You really think I would fill all that stuff in every time? I may have been born at night but Icertainly wasn't born last night.

If you want a fresh sheet just download the file remove everything but the database and create your own. I mean all the stuff is there for you to create whatever your little heart desires.

If you want to keep the calculations and VLOOKUP just clearthe enter part number column and all the VLOOKUP data will go away.
Then just clear the date, IR etc and you have a brand new sheet to work with.

Yep, I have unique numbers for my cells too so I can track them down the line.

Splendid

I have 53 cells in my database and I do not look forward to adding the remaining ~2500 of them and then remeasure to calculate leakage. I've been thinking about hacking my Lii-500 to give serial port output and dump values straight into my PC and also print stickers automatically instead of writing it manually and then print stickers in batches.

Great idea!!Go for it let us know when it's done and I hope you share it with us. Till then I will be working on my macroless Excel sheet.

I am also testing all cells even the ones I know are not good after the initial IR reading because I want to be able to extrapolate information from this project to determine just by the initial measurements if a cell is worthy of my time or not. Believe me I have cringed knowing the outcome of a batch of 50 or 100 cells just by preliminary measurement that they will be not good for my wall. But I test them anyway to build a database of known good and known bad cells.
So don't be so lazy get you keyboard working and wear the letters off of it.

Show us your brilliance and get a macro together for us all to use with a serial data collector for the LiitoKala.
I know I would use it.

Wolf

Wolf · Feb 20, 2019

Sheese did I scare everyoneoff?
No Excel gurus out there to help with the macro?
How's it going with the LiitoKala hack winny?
Wolf

LEDSchlucker · Feb 20, 2019

Wolf said:
Sheese did I scare everyoneoff?

LOL.

I'm not sure if the effort for typing all cells in a sheet is worth for me, but if I do so, I'll use your sheet!

Right now, I just write date, capacity and IR on the cells, so I know when the cell had which capacity.

winny · Feb 20, 2019

Wolf said:
Ah you want to hide the columns that you don't want to see pieceof cake just highlight and select hide.

My thinking it would be more beginner-user-friendly. But I've been thinking and data mining DIY powerwalls is perhaps by itself beyond the reach or interest for 99.99% of the general population and perhaps 80 % of the SLS community.

Wolf said:
That my friend is already happening through VLOOKUP! You really think I would fill all that stuff in every time? I may have been born at night but Icertainly wasn't born last night.

Oh! Neat! I need to look deeper into this. It stoke me that the more convoluted model number and serial numbers (LG cells) and when the text on the cells are on multiple lines. If you know for sure how each manufacturer names their cells, this can be simplified. So far, I have entered all information to be able to seach or change later on. Did you have anything like this when you made your database?

Wolf said:
Great idea!!Go for it let us know when it's done and I hope you share it with us.

Of course! My skills here is electronic design and my biggest weekness is mechanical fiddling (build houses yes, repair something yes, spot solder small batteries into prescition electomechanical devices not so much). Hence my plans for contributions here would be my modular powerwall project and electronics like charger hacking.

Wolf said:
I am also testing all cells even the ones I know are not good after the initial IR reading because I want to be able to extrapolate information from this project to determine just by the initial measurements if a cell is worthy of my time or not. Believe me I have cringed knowing the outcome of a batch of 50 or 100 cells just by preliminary measurement that they will be not good for my wall. But I test them anyway to build a database of known good and known bad cells.

Good grief! I only record CID reset cells for future risk mitigation, but all 0 V separate charge ones and voltage at "reception" is lost at the moment.

Wolf · Feb 20, 2019

winny said:
Oh! Neat! I need to look deeper into this. It stoke me that the more convoluted model number and serial numbers (LG cells) and when the text on the cells are on multiple lines. If you know for sure how each manufacturer names their cells, this can be simplified. So far, I have entered all information to be able to seach or change later on. Did you have anything like this when you made your database?

I used the SLS database. For the LG cells I added both part numbers to the database that way if you have one that has the "LG" prefix it is there or if you have the ones with the "ICR, INR" part number they are therealso.
Either one will be Vlookup'ed and return the results to the IR & V sheet. You can see it in the database screenshot.

Good grief! I only record CID reset cells for future risk mitigation, but all 0 V separate charge ones and voltage at "reception" is lost at the moment.

CID trips don't even make it into my testing procedure.Binned immediately!All cells are sorted by voltage at reception <= 1.5V. >1.5V&<3.0V, >3.0V.
3 seperate storage areas. < 1.5V are IR checked and if there is any IR the cell will be matched with other similar low voltage cells and slow charged at 50mA in a 20p CC/CV assembly. Same with the 1.5V to 3.0V slow charged. >3V charged at 300mA.Heatersare discovered with a thermal camera. Even at a 50mA charge the heaters can be found very quickly they glow like a redheaded stepchild. Even though you cannot feel it with your hand,the slight difference in temp shows up like a beacon on the thermal cameraSo the separation starts there. Those I do not recordon the sheet. (Probably should record those for Percentages of harvest.) If the cells make it that far then they go to testing and are recorded. When I have enough cells in the tested database then I can, and will determine from reception of the cell at what IR I should bother with it or not.

BTW I am working on a VB script that calls on thecelldatabase and creates a new sheet according to a selected set of parameters that the user want to enter for their testing purposes. You kind of inspired me to see if I could do it. We will see.
In the meantime attachedis a somewhat toned down version of the Harvest recording sheet. Use it if you want to. You can add cells that are not in the database to the databaseeasy enough and all the formulas are there. Any columns you don't want just hide or delete them.

Wolf

winny · Feb 21, 2019

Wolf said:
I used the SLS database. For the LG cells I added both part numbers to the database that way if you have one that has the "LG" prefix it is there or if you have the ones with the "ICR, INR" part number they are therealso.

Sure, but there are long strings of letters and numbers after it on LG cells which I can't determine if they will mean anything to me or anyone else down the line.

Wolf said:
CID trips don't even make it into my testing procedure.Binned immediately!All cells are sorted by voltage at reception <= 1.5V. >1.5V&<3.0V, >3.0V.

I have concerns for them for sure. Very few so far, but probably a few hundred <1.5 V. Several of them seems to fail my self-discharge test over time, but I'm not there yet.

Wolf said:
3 seperate storage areas. < 1.5V are IR checked and if there is any IR the cell will be matched with other similar low voltage cells and slow charged at 50mA in a 20p CC/CV assembly.

What did you use for said assembly? I have ordered 6 four-bay TP4056 chargers and plan to modify them with lower current and possibly a bleeder resistor if the TP4056 does not play ball at 0 V. Datasheet is ill-defined here.

Wolf said:
BTW I am working on a VB script that calls on thecelldatabase and creates a new sheet according to a selected set of parameters that the user want to enter for their testing purposes. You kind of inspired me to see if I could do it. We will see.
In the meantime attachedis a somewhat toned down version of the Harvest recording sheet. Use it if you want to. You can add cells that are not in the database to the databaseeasy enough and all the formulas are there. Any columns you don't want just hide or delete them.

Seems you got ahead of me! ;-)

I took apart my charger today and made some findings. Probably I2C to the display but I can tell for sure tomorrow when I hook it up to an oscilloscope. The bastards have however washed off the model information on both the MCU and display driver.

Wolf · Feb 21, 2019

winny said:
Wolf said:

I used the SLS database. For the LG cells I added both part numbers to the database that way if you have one that has the "LG" prefix it is there or if you have the ones with the "ICR, INR" part number they are therealso.

Click to expand...

Sure, but there are long strings of letters and numbers after it on LG cells which I can't determine if they will mean anything to me or anyone else down the line.
The most important numbers are the LG and ICR/INR. Don't have any ICR or INR pictures but you get the point.
The rest of the strings are production date and possibly time, lot number, plant number, etc.
To decode that you probably need a Turingmachine to crack the Enigma codeor there may be a cipherer key somewhere.

Wolf said:

3 seperate storage areas. < 1.5V are IR checked and if there is any IR the cell will be matched with other similar low voltage cells and slow charged at 50mA in a 20p CC/CV assembly.

Click to expand...

What did you use for said assembly? I have ordered 6 four-bay TP4056 chargers and plan to modify them with lower current and possibly a bleeder resistor if the TP4056 does not play ball at 0 V. Datasheet is ill-defined here.

Ah yes actually quite a simple assembly.
5 - 4 cell 18650 holders on a piece of lexan 2 bus bars with banana plugs on the ends.Solder the holder terminals to the buss bar. Ifused the neg side with small wire(already had to replace 3 can't seem to tell neg from pos sometimes :dodgy: ) a small V meter for eye candy.

A CC/CV Buck to adjust V and A with output to banana plugsthat's it.

The Fluke is there to show me the microvolts as the batteries climb in V. Kinda neat to see it climb very gradually and then stall. You would never catch iton a 2 decimal meter as the the tenth, andhundredth don't move. You might catch it on a 3 decimal meter but not as quickly.

Once it stalls I take all the batteries out and check the V and invertanly 1 or 2 will have very low V and the other ones will show the V that was on the Fluke. I also have a thermal imaging camera that will show a warmer cell that you can't even feel with your hand. Just to think charging at 50mA per cell and there are the heaters in plain sight well to the infraredeye anyway. You see the ambient temp is 19.7C and the Battery is 23.0C barely can tell by hand. The other 3 cells on this particular CC/CV board show cool.

That's it.
Wolf

Bubba · Feb 21, 2019

winny said:
I took apart my charger today and made some findings. Probably I2C to the display but I can tell for sure tomorrow when I hook it up to an oscilloscope. The bastards have however washed off the model information on both the MCU and display driver.

Curious, what tester is it that you took apart?

winny · Feb 22, 2019

Bubba said:
Curious, what tester is it that you took apart?

Liitokala engineer Lii-500.

The Opus would probably have been better suited for this hack since I will need to fake button presses to cycle the four cells on the display in order to access the information, but its the one I already have several of.

winny · Feb 22, 2019

Hooked up the logic analyzer. Its SPI and seems to be two groups of data. I will investigate further. If anyone knows about popular Chinese SPI LCD controllers, please let me know!

winny · Feb 26, 2019

Looks like an Holtek HT1621 LCD driver. Managed to capture the data stream WRITE command to the LCD controller:

1010 0000 0111 1101 0111 1101 0111 1101 1111 1101 0111 1101 0111 1101 1110 1011 1111 1011 0110 1111 1010 0111 1101 1110 1111 1101 1100 0010 0000 0000

101 = Write
000000 = Memory Adress
1111 = data (MA)
1010 = data MA+1)
111 1 = data (MA+2) - (MA+26)

So, would anyone else be interested in modifying their Lii-500's with PCB and connectors, or should I just deadbug something for myself?

Wolf · Feb 26, 2019

winny said:
So, would anyone else be interested in modifying their Lii-500's with PCB and connectors, or should I just deadbug something for myself?

Absolutely interested.

It would be useful to be able to chart the LiitoKala and also import the final data to a sheet.
I got 3 of them so if the PCB interface works I will be at least putting it on one if not all of them.
Good stuff and great diagnostic work.
Wolf

winny · Feb 27, 2019

Wolf said:
Absolutely interested.

I'll start to look into a custom PCB for it.

Wolf · Feb 27, 2019

winny said:
Wolf said:

Absolutely interested.

Click to expand...

I'll start to look into a custom PCB for it.

Sounds great I'm looking forward to it.
Let me know if you need anything from me.

Wolf

winny · Feb 28, 2019

Wolf said:
Sounds great I'm looking forward to it.

Looking deeper into it, would Bluetooth be an option? More expensive but far easier (for me at least) to not having to cut the cases and route USB cables and hubs, and potentially easier to manage a lot of chargers in a "cloud".

Wolf · Feb 28, 2019

winny said:
Wolf said:

Sounds great I'm looking forward to it.

Click to expand...

Looking deeper into it, would Bluetooth be an option? More expensive but far easier (for me at least) to not having to cut the cases and route USB cables and hubs, and potentially easier to manage a lot of chargers in a "cloud".

Bluetooth is fine there will always be a laptop or smartphone nearby.

I imagine the laptop would have to have some graphing app to interpretthe data and some way of pushing the end results to some kind of sheet.
Also a phone app I assume would be required if that route is chosen.

Yea Btooth would obviously be easier with multiple chargers reporting.

Wolf

Oleksii · Oct 29, 2021

our forum member @enki did an amazing work to read data from Liitokala Lii-500 to pass it to desktop using USB.

Li-Ion Charger Automation

The Liitokala Engineer Lii-500 is a universal chemistry 4-cell smart charger manufactured by the well-known Liitokala brand. It is very popular with people building battery packs out of second life 18650 Lithium-Ion cells because of its reasonable price and discharge capacity testing feature...

hackaday.io

Consolidate Excel battery lists?

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