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Yes our power Co has online total consumption readings over every 1/2 hour interval, for more granular data I used one of those wall plugin power meters on individual equipment like fridge freezer etc. We have 2 fridges and a freezer which occasionally can all start simultaneously, potentially...

I am a bit wary of pre-packaged server rack batteries, certainly the less expensive ones out there can have very dodgy componentry. In the past month or so I have pulled apart 4 of these 100AH 48v batteries due to internal faults, blowups and am very dismayed at the crappy level of construction...

Here are a couple of photos for an 8-cell version of the balancer, using 3.5 amp balancing resistors, no communications and no master, working in stand-alone mode. Heatsink is a scrap piece of alloy wall siding material. The 200AH Lifepo4 battery cells are not that well matched, thus the high...

Power mosfet Data sheet 100N02, spec for low as 2.5v drive. I normally use fixed resistors, when I have an on board accurate voltage reference, in this case there isn't one, so have opted for an 20T pot, have found these are ok provided they are not continually played with, which makes their...

Boards have come back from JLCPBC, they look good; will test them out in the next 2-3 weeks, very busy on another project, adding a bank of LifePo4 cells (24v 200AH) in parallel with an existing 24v 300AH bank of lead carbon batteries in a small off grid system. The sealed LC batteries have a...

Completed the controller, 100x100 pcb; using a Picaxe20M2 to run everything. As up to 32 opto-coupled slave boards can be used for a 96v Lifepo4 battery bank, have used a power mosfet driven by a Fan3111 driver for the TX serial output and a dual logic schmitt trigger for the RX input. The...

As an electronics tech, I would not be messing around attempting to measure the plug for over heating, just get a new mains cable run to the main switch board and terminated in a proper rated 20 amp switched socket outlet, better get a 40amp circuit installed, then you have redundancy, and fit a...

Yet to finally decide how I want to show to the user, status of the cell balancing operation, in many instances these batteries are in some paddock somewhere powering some pump or other; there is no one to see any display. Simplest method perhaps is some sort of serial output from the main...

Have made a change to the design of this board, seems pointless to have an IDC plug\socket on every cpu slave board, have placed a 10pin IDC on the input and output only, the output one can be left off and jumper wires used to join up multiple boards as required. PCB size remains the same. Input...

Have started to build a battery box to house 16 Lifepo4 cells and the above balancer layout is rather bulky as two are required, was planning to place the balancer at the end of the case, its messy to have cooling fins protruding out of the case; so a after a re-think, have whipped up a new pcb...

Here are a couple of photo's showing how the unit is assembled. I have set it up for Lifepo4 cells, stand-alone, no master controller, so the voltage regulator, opto couplers etc are not required. Have used 1 ohm power resistors (3.5A balance current) bolted to the heatsink, the module...

Testing this project now, have assembled 8 cpu boards and writing some initial software to see how effective it is when connected to 8 series 200AH Lifepo4 cells. First smd 08M2 cpu I tried didn't work, could not connect to it, tried other boards and they worked fine. Replaced the cpu with...

Still not able to purchase, seems NZ is excluded, no idea why, other stores can export to NZ ok.

Clicked on the link to purchase some 20X2, does not ship to NZ.?? Wouldn't 10 between 2 bits of foam fit inside a standard envelope, and posted normal surface mail workout least expensive method. Seem not.

Decided to make a pcb for initial connection of the battery balance wires, fuse in series with each wire, will make it easier and safer during experimentation with various balancer designs. The 9.5mm screw pcb sockets can take up to 4mm wire - required for the inductive balancer. 81x87mm pcb...

Here is the load module pcb for eight cells, its quite large, 240x76mm; sits above the 50W load resistors bolted to a thick alloy plate acting as a heat sink and will form one side of a box possibly. Automotive 10 amp fuse holders for standard fuses solder direct to the board, a disconnect...

Here is the cell module pcb, 50 x 62mm, the boards will mount edge on vertically direct to the pcb hosting the 50w aluminum shell resistors bolted to a heatsink, the ribbon cable runs across their tops. I am using 2 ohm load resistors - 3.5A for the 6v battery cells balancing at 7v. This scheme...

Each battery cell module communicates via opto coupled common Input and an outputs all in two parallel streams; makes sense for a master to poll each one as required to get any data; so each has to have a unique cell address to prevent multiples attempting communications at the same time. The...

I need a cell balancer for a three separate 48 volt banks of 8 series 6v lead carbon batteries; these are 300 AH sealed gel batteries and are proving difficult to get 100% balanced; once in a balanced condition, they will probably remain in that state and require little intervention. Another...

I have also created an alternative variant of this low power PWM controller using a PICAXE 14M2, it used shunt PWM regulation and will have lower standby power when not under charge, which maybe more important for smaller batteries; also has extra leds showing charge status. Look over on The...