Bluetti AC500 / B300S Power Bank - Review & Teardown 

The mains-in connector is confirmed as RS 207-0706. Eighteen bloody quid! Note this is a screw-terminal plug which is tricky to wire with 4mm^2 cable but can evb soldered if the screws are removed. The 12V out connector is confirmed as RS 131-6386

The 32A output connector is now available from Bluetti's Uk shop

my inner skeptic really hopes they don't cherry pick the ones they're gonna send to tech review channels.

Password is also good for the AC500 in the EU-Version. THX❤

Mike neds to buy an official "banana for scale" :D

Chinese QA at work. Let's just hope they did a better job on the electronics and the software.

Every modern household needs its own X-ray machine.

@@stephenbell9257 It was called a TV ... and we didn't stop at x-rays ;)

Yea, such a nice product, just the mixed up fonts are killing it :) On the beginning I thought that it is showing some bitmap images and they added these numbers over it as it is not properly alligned, but no. They are changing text as well, so only numbers are so ugly.

@@randybb They're probably using a Chinese font for the numbers. Those usually have Times glyphs for Latin characters.

It's been corrected on mine 3 months ago.

I was thinking the same thing.

Yes, it doesn't take much force, so could be knocked off without noticing, they could really do with displaying a warning on the screen

It isn't just the SoC, I've seen significantly varying rates even at similar SoC and temperature. I suspect there is a bug somewhere. Bluetti told me that it will never charge over about 2.5kW in any circumstance and the high-rate password wasn't useful in Europe but haven;t had a reply when I told them I'd seen higher. I've not been brave enough to leave it going at 4+kW for any length of time...

I've noticed on mine that although it charges fairly quickly, the charge slows way down when it gets above 95%, like it's programmed to be careful topping off the batteries.

that makes sense. that would be useful to use on my circuits too

Standby draw with AC output on 50W. 0.3W with AC off

@@mikeselectricstuff Thanks for the info. Not as bad as I suspected, particularly when off.

Due to all the SMPSes on the power grid pulling power only at the peaks, the peaks of the mains tend to be distorted. This is common all over the UK.

regardless of syncing, any backup supply should have a delay before switching back to grid, , as it's common to have brief on/offs when power returns.

@@mikeselectricstuff Sure but it appears like its using the DC-AC inverter also as AC-DC charger. This is why it can only switch over after Sync. Try AC charging it with it's own AC output. (it won't let you) but if you put a isolated Variac between its output and input weird things happen :D

I suspect they switch batteries in & out until they're balanced. I've also seen parallel fuses in a Makita drill battery. No reason that they wouldn't balance & share current - one would blow first but the other would follow very shortly after.

Dangling in the air the fuses might not share equally, but soldered to the same pcb they'll share temperature pretty quickly and that steady state will keep them in line until the bad juju kicks in. I think. Sameish as how it's bad to run 5mm leds in parallel, but power leds frequently have many strings in parallel - being gooped to the same substrate keeps them in check.

@@frollard I think the reason for the current potentially not balancing was that the resistance for a given fuse model isn't tightly controlled. I don't think a tolerance is usually even specified. I guess if you either design to allow a +-20% resistance difference due to manufacturing, or just measure a bunch a figure out who makes them consistently, it'd probably work OK.

Floating

The mains waveform here isn't very sinusoidal - the transformer added a bit more distortion.

At this power levels you can use electric stoves without limitation, so this sounds like good addition @edit: I re-watched andthose are independent channels, so this is great :)

Marketing & competition. I think market is growing due to fears of energy security and also general green awareness. I think cooling & efficiency is the main reason for not supporting online mode. A 90% efficient 5kW inverter would put out 500W.

It definitely has German, don't recall if there were any other options.

@@mikeselectricstuff ah thank you! Bluetti Asia (Philippines) is what we have, but they are not selling the ac500, matter of the fact it ends at ac200p and it has been sold out for more than a year. We have a great need, since Europe, U.K and Australian uses 220/240volts I am forced to buy from there. I'm in Texas, U.S and I plan/need to buy overseas. Well thanks for the info. I have a brother in Manchester. Thanks.

Yeah, he has a video about the welder.

You can turn off the BT on the unit and access via the more secure wifi if you're that paranoid

My experience has been that only one BT device at a time can connect to most BT items, including the AC500. In fact, I have to turn off BT on my iphone for my ipad to use the BT app, even when the iphone is not being used, and vice versa. I've had to turn off BT completely on my iphone so that it will 'let go' of the AC500, so I can use my ipad BT. For both devices to have access to the AC500, my iphone app is set to wifi and ipad app to BT.

An audio amplifier and a tone generator? One that can do 2000W into 8 ohms would give you 16A at 120V.

​@@Motorman2112 lol I had the same idea but thought it was crazy. Still, if I drive it from an mp3 player I could see which appliances prefer which styles of music.

Yes, trucks and the like still use regular "cigarette lighter" sockets for 24V, a lot of better USB car chargers are designed for both 12 and 24V, though for most use cases 12V would be much more useful as most air compressors, mini fridges and the like will be 12V only. But why oh why use them both for 12 and 24V supplies on essentially the same device, madness!

Yes, blown up a few inverters etc. accidentally on a 7.5t, annoyingly it has both 12 and 24v lighter sockets!

Many aircraft have 24v/28v cigarette lighter plugs.

@@dglcomputers1498 Yup, I've toasted a couple of things because I was in a rented truck and forgot about the whole 24V thing...

Unless EcoFlow has updated their products they were not using Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries that's why I went to Bluetti this summer.

@@KoRntech The Ecoflow Delta 2 and Delta Pro use lithium iron phosphate cells, I don't know about the other models.

Sidenote for anyone charging a car from a variable source like this - higher voltage is literally the best voltage on the car charger's side (about 90% efficient at 240, 80% efficient at 120v on a tesla). The question becomes "is the bluetti equally efficient from 50v to 220, 230, and 240v?"

@@frollard It's not so much about efficiency but that it's the input current that is limited to what the EVSE tells the car, so more voltage = faster charge, at least up to the power limit of the OBC.

@@mikeselectricstuff til. It could be vehicle specific but I recall Tesla documentation saying to use higher if an option because boosting from 120 to 400 was less efficient. (notwithstanding running the aux systems for longer taking a bigger bite of the energy budget, pumps and computers and the charger itself)

Less integrated, but more portable

Tesla Powerwall was originally designed with NMC (Model S/X) chemistry batteries and marketed for a bit cheaper than this. That was a long time ago now though and it is currently quite hard to get. All reservations from 5 years back still haven't been fulfilled, though plenty have. Bluetti should be much more available and there is no electrician required to install it. AFAIK the Tesla powerwall was also marketed as a three phase supply (outside NA anyway). The inverters are about the same power. (5kW continuous and 7kW peak on Tesla Powerwall originally).

I don't see why not, there are no vents to block

Yes, it can. But while it is on its end, don't move it much. The cells may be loosened accidentally.

@@raymondramirez9177 Thanks, it is stationary and does not get moved and it working fine

Time to discharge wouldn't be very meaningful on any varying load - they'd get complaints about inaccuracy. Base load of AC inverter probably too high to be useful in deep discharge mode, DC only also limits the discharge rate in this mode.

@@mikeselectricstuff Possibly but driving cars is also highly variable and they can give you a good estimate of your remaining range. If they tracked the device's use over a long enough time it could probably end up quite accurate, if you were using it for the same thing like running a fridge or freezer.

@@mikeselectricstuff I couldn't disagree more. All the other competitors do it, Ecoflow, Jackery etc. Just do a 3-5 second sample. Saying you have 7 hours and getting 6 is better than not having any gauge other than doing your own math. And the monitor accounts for idle consumption already.

They are not in parallel - one goes to each battery connector

We just need something to show the scale of the banana now 🤣😂🤣

The use of serif fonts on displays like this always scream to me: Made in China. It's very typical because their own fonts are almost always calligraphic (and therefore serif) and the same fonts may contain Latin characters that are serif, it's what they're used to. There are baseline sans serif fonts with various supported Chinese character ranges as a secondary consideration but I guess they just don't use them. Mystery about the static sans serif text though, I'm guessing that text are baked into the images based on the antialiasing (the changing text is aliased) if I had to guess I would say the visual design and static text were not produced by Chinese developers? We will never know.

@@Nitrxgen I think you are correct. The static pictures were designed by a design team, and the chinese software team made the actual programming of the display. I do have one of Dwin's displays at my disposal and there is no excuse for not importing a proper font for use - It supports proper truetype fonts with anti aliasing. It's just sloppy developers that doesn't really care i believe.

@@zaprodk This is something that sets alarm bells ringing for me too. If the software developer can't be bothered to do something easy like import a nice-looking font, what other more important things might they have been too lazy to do properly as well? (EDIT: @Woodsy posted in another thread the 16:52 misspelling of their own brand name, which just adds weight to this concern.)

Yes nothing like cheapo looking fonts on chinesium equipment, a decent font isn't a big or difficult ask. We have a Chinese made/designed Haier washing machine and one of the things that makes it look decent is the fact that it uses decent fonts. A product that looks cheap is a big turn off for a lot of people even if the specs are good.

Made in China so local sourcing of most parts. Magnetics will be custom made.

Problem with SLA batteries is you have to be on top of them otherwise you ruin them.

@@edc1569 The Clarke IBC15 Intelligent 15A Battery Charger, keeps the bank of 3 batteries totalling 360AH fully charged 24 hours a day 365 days per year. It checks the condition of the batteries chemically, it trickle charges and maintains, it switches off when batteries are at full auto switches back on when not. It can cope with up to 400AH. I have a good relationship with Machine Mart, my husband used to buy thousands of pounds worth of kit every year with his company before he retired. If the unit gets a fault, I will take it back and get an instant replacement anytime in next 5 years. The Batteries are bought from ABS Batteries. A reputable seller. They are branded and have a 5 year “Pick up and replace” warranty. The Sealey Inverter is put on the market by a British reputable company that has been in the trade for years. Sealey. Every single part for my inverter I can purchase cheaply with on phone call. I have a 3 year no quibble warranty. By a company I can ring anytime. All the equipment I have bought I can ring an English company speak to them in English and get the response I want in seconds. Total cost of my unit including high ampage switches and fuses £471. My system that took me a few hours to put together acts as a 24 hour high powered UPS. It will still be working in 5 years time unlike many of the “Power Bricks” or as my husband refers to them “Anchors” people are buying. Try doing that with the joke of unit reviewed here. I know it might look from my Avatar, that I don’t really know what electricity is. But I really do; And I really know what I am doing.

​@@MadeleineTakam _"the bank of 3 batteries totalling 360AH"_ Just remember that you shouldn't try to extract 360AH from those batteries, at least not if you want them to last a good number of cycles. 50% DOD is typically the maximum recommended for AGM deep cycle batteries, which still leaves you with over 2kWh.

In the U.S we use the Split Phase version of the AC300 to produce 240 VAC. Two units are connected with a 9-wire cable and one of the units is defined as Master while the other is defines a Slave in the settings. The Master generates the original 60 HZ waveform, while the Slave must follow and generate an opposite (180 degree) waveform to produce the two 120 VAC line that feeds a new Fusion Box which sums up the 240 VAC output. For a 3-phase system, you have to define a new programming so the three units are 120 degress out of phase to each other. In theory it seems possible but I doubt that Bluetti will actually build it. Their products are directed at hoome and outdoor applications, not for any industrial applications.

It does have a heater

The 32A output is something different - I've not been able to find anything like it yet

Source ?

@@mikeselectricstuff Amazon, can I post a Link?

@@mikeselectricstuff He can't post a link cause YT's gonna eat him alive. Just google the name, easy peasy. I can confirm that it's within the first search results.

@@mikeselectricstuff Weipu. They are in China and have a webpage. But buying from them is difficult unless you ask for a sample and pay a heavy shipping charge. I did pay $35 for two SP29 aviation connectors.

The spelling is corrected on mine, which I bought about 3 months ago.

In the UK there's talk about offering users rebates for not using power between certain hours - this could be good for gaming that...

You have to compare the cost per kWH and the simplicity of the Bluetti units with the competition and other piecemeal applications. As an EE, I did my own comparison and Bluetti came out ahead for its cost. BTW, Bluetti does offer specials several times a year to lower costs. I also have a 7.5 kW gas powered generator but it can only run outdoors, while any power station can run indoors.

Naaanah!

They could do this in principle, there is CAN on the interface connector, but not sure there would be enough market for people wanting to do it.

API via WiFi would be nice, or replace their esp32 fw to something more usable, like esphome :)

Aren't pouches less safe than cylindricals?

It's not just an inverter though, it's a complete portable power solution that includes the battery, the inverter, the mains charger and a solar MPPT charger.

The AC500 has no internal batteries (except a coin cell for memery functions on the control board). Bluetti manufacturers their own battery sets, and the AC500 can use the B300 and B300S (improved version with an internal heater). Both hold over 3 kWh of energy each. But with the B300S the AC500 can manage six batteries, for over 18 kWh of energy.

Why wouldn't it?

Is this a special kind of radiation, like Jupiter radiation or normal Earth radiation? Because it would suck if you're around Jupiter and it doesn't work to jumpstart your rocket.

Yes, it has a Special Radiation Operation mode..

@@mikeselectricstuff Semiconductors become leaky in presence of ionizing radiation, unless shielded. Since this is sort of a survival device, the scenario should be considered. It was not relevant a year ago, but today we have the madmen with nuclear weapons repeatedly threatening to use them in Europe.