denmendez65
Expert Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2025
- Messages
- 4,048
- Reaction score
- 2,544
What exactly is a second-life cell?
-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: Are you watching the Commonwealth Games?
LIFEPO4 Battery discussion thread
- Thread starter cavedog
- Start date
wingnut771
Honorary Master
I will bet the house and the farm that it has a bms.
wingnut771
Honorary Master
One that is a few years old and has some decent cycles on it. Probably from buses or taxis or something when they get replaced after they lose capacity.
denmendez65
Expert Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2025
- Messages
- 4,048
- Reaction score
- 2,544
I see you can get a china one for 200 rand. How useful it is I dont know, but you might be right.
denmendez65
Expert Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2025
- Messages
- 4,048
- Reaction score
- 2,544
So then you won't have 1.28kWh then? Probably 80% of that?
wingnut771
Honorary Master
No, probably 120Ah cells sold as 100Ah.
wingnut771
Honorary Master
I'm always right
Only R500 more then you get the one from solarwarehouse with a bms that has bluetooth. Maybe a jk not sure the one @wingnut771 shared.
wingnut771
Honorary Master
Doubt its a jk. Lots of bms' come with BT. Doubt you can change any settings though but still nice to have to see cell volts instead of flying blind like I am with my scott batteries.Only R500 more then you get the one from solarwarehouse with a bms that has bluetooth. Maybe a jk not sure the one @wingnut771 shared.
denmendez65
Expert Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2025
- Messages
- 4,048
- Reaction score
- 2,544
Would probably go for this over the other.Only R500 more then you get the one from solarwarehouse with a bms that has bluetooth. Maybe a jk not sure the one @wingnut771 shared.
But then again, I went for the cheapest GEL batteries I could find and they are still running strong 1.5 years later so cheap doesnt always mean bad. Even checked them when I dismantled the battery bank and installed the Victron Busbars and after letting them rest for 4 hours they all were within 0.01V of each other. The balancers are doing their job well.
wingnut771
Honorary Master
Me too. I don't like seeing artificial limits being implemented. Those are warning signs for cutting corners to hide issues.
If it's a pacebms with bluetooth you are sorted also because you use the pacebms app to set the parameters.
wingnut771
Honorary Master
There are too many stupid users out there so they normally lock those settings behind a password.
Google AI gave me all the passwords that work with pacebms. I have them saved and they work on my batteries. I just need to find a way to connect to my new ecco battery. The pacebms without a dip switch is tricky to connect to.
wingnut771
Honorary Master
Yes, but you told google ai what bms you had. Are you going to cut your gelato battery open to see what is inside there after the pacebms password doesnt work on the xiaoxiang app?
DTBA
Executive Member
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2011
- Messages
- 5,489
- Reaction score
- 862
Yea, I have 3 https://www.communica.co.za/product...c9ab567b548e28&utm_source=www.communica.co.za
They kill a 3x50ah of we have 2 rainy days
wingnut771
Honorary Master
denmendez65
Expert Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2025
- Messages
- 4,048
- Reaction score
- 2,544
The power of chemical corrosion.
The clean copper busbar is the old positive leg. The other, which was a little bit better than what it is now, was the negative. I had them in there as a temporary measure but damn, I didnt expect the negative side to corrode that badly and that quickly (1 year).
Explanation is found is that the batteries gas a little when getting charged. Its mostly positive ions. They get attracted to the negative busbar where electrolysis happens, breaks down the water and hydrogen is formed which escapes but leaves the busbar in an alkaline state.
It starts to eat away at the copper. The high humidity in the last 2/3 months accelerated this process very quickly also. The unfortunate part is my fan was actually sucking highly humid air from the inlet which accelerated the process also. That's why in the first 8 months there was little to no corrosion until the last 3 months where it rained non-stop.
Another issue that was there, was the brass screws used to mount the positive busbar were completely eaten away. They acted as a sacrificial anode for the positive busbar. They potentially also helped keep the positve one healthy. Screws on the negative were perfectly fine.
Victron busbars are coated with tin and are used for marine applications which will make them last much longer. I also got myself Battery terminal protector spray. I will cover all the connections with the spray. It basically creates an additional barrier between the copper and tin with the atmosphere. Reviews say it should be good for up to 6 years and longer. Heat reduces the time like in an engine bay but my busbars run cold.
I touched my busbars while pulling 100A for a couple of minutes and they were cold, like grabbing a metal key in this cold weather. All the cables were cold also since they are overrated.
There was no corrossion on the lugs by the way, even on the ones connected to the negative busbar. I had used tinned ones there also. So the tinning definitely helps.
The clean copper busbar is the old positive leg. The other, which was a little bit better than what it is now, was the negative. I had them in there as a temporary measure but damn, I didnt expect the negative side to corrode that badly and that quickly (1 year).
Explanation is found is that the batteries gas a little when getting charged. Its mostly positive ions. They get attracted to the negative busbar where electrolysis happens, breaks down the water and hydrogen is formed which escapes but leaves the busbar in an alkaline state.
It starts to eat away at the copper. The high humidity in the last 2/3 months accelerated this process very quickly also. The unfortunate part is my fan was actually sucking highly humid air from the inlet which accelerated the process also. That's why in the first 8 months there was little to no corrosion until the last 3 months where it rained non-stop.
Another issue that was there, was the brass screws used to mount the positive busbar were completely eaten away. They acted as a sacrificial anode for the positive busbar. They potentially also helped keep the positve one healthy. Screws on the negative were perfectly fine.
Victron busbars are coated with tin and are used for marine applications which will make them last much longer. I also got myself Battery terminal protector spray. I will cover all the connections with the spray. It basically creates an additional barrier between the copper and tin with the atmosphere. Reviews say it should be good for up to 6 years and longer. Heat reduces the time like in an engine bay but my busbars run cold.
I touched my busbars while pulling 100A for a couple of minutes and they were cold, like grabbing a metal key in this cold weather. All the cables were cold also since they are overrated.
There was no corrossion on the lugs by the way, even on the ones connected to the negative busbar. I had used tinned ones there also. So the tinning definitely helps.