This video has a misleading title. You talked for 15 minutes on how to connect four batteries together, and at the end, you talked for ten seconds about getting a power supply to top balance. You did not say what top balance is, why you need to top balance, how to connect the power supply (to all cells or to each individual cell). SMH...
Off-grid Garage in sunny Australia does not think compression is a big deal. Time will show if it makes a difference or not. I think having a mildly compressed pack makes for a better bet in mobile solutions such as boats caravans and motorhomes to prevent battery case abrasion and wear plus extra forces playing on the battery connections.
Yeah, for most people they won't really even notice the difference as they will probably land up upgrading their battery within the next 10 years before the cells even get close to the end of their life.
I don't want to be negative, but for someone who is going to build just one battery that seems like an expensive way to do it. So instead of buying a single cell battery charger and making all those cables, spending say $40-$50 on something you are going to use once before it gets tossed in the trash, how about doing it this way. Why not connect them the cells in series and charge them using a your 12v charger that you will be using to recharge them on a daily basis. Then when they are fully charged but unbalanced, take the battery apart and reconnect them in parallel. You can do both with the plates that come with the cells. Leave them connected in parallel for 24-48 hrs then reconnect them in the 12v configuration and repeat the process to get the cells very close to perfect balance. This may take more time waiting for the cells to balance on their own but will save you about $45.
You missed the point as to why I did it this way. The whole purpose of doing it the way I demonstrated was so that you can clamp your cells using the ply ends and fibre tape before you top balance them to increase the lifespan of the cells. If you want to save $45 and reduce the number of cycles your cells do, then by all means use the bus bars and don't bother clamping them before top balancing. :)
@@offgrid_power Do you really think it will make a difference to the life of the battery by compressing it before you top balance them as opposed to compressing them right after top balancing them? I thought the whole point of compressing them was to stop the interior of each cell from distorting after being charged and discharged repeatedly over thousands of cycles, not from a one time charging event. If you have some data or other evidence showing me why I'm wrong in my assumption, I would appreciate seeing it.
There are a number of white papers available showing the benefit of clamping cells. Most people won't cycle their cells enough to really see a difference anyway as for the most part their LiFePO4 cells will outlast wherever they're using them.
Generally speaking, yes. If your cells are good quality, then they should only need to be top balancing once. Sometimes you might need to top balance your cells if the delta between the cells (in terms of voltage) becomes too great. But if you have a good BMS and good cells, you should only need to top balance them once.
I have an LV2424 and was going to buy the EG4 Lifepower 24V battery. However i am interested in making my own. Any idea roughly how much i could possibly save by creating 2 of those Eve battery packs?
No first you have to charge at 3.6v top balance all the cell that you need to be in parallel charging. Before you assembly into series this is recommendation what the video
This is the charger that I used in the video: geni.us/Wate365vCharger BUT right after recording this video when I put the cells on charge, the fan on the charger died, so I probably wouldn't recommend it for multiple uses. If you want a cheap charger that can be used to top balance a set of cells as a one off, then it would be fine. But I would look at an option like this for long-term multiple use: geni.us/AdjustableAliCharger
@@offgrid_power thanks mate I built a 280ah battery 6 weeks ago when I 1st built it I couldn't get it to charge past 3.4v even after a week on charge so I built it anyways and it works fine in my campervan my daly bms says it's 100% charged my victron system also says it 100% but its only 13.4v overall which isn't 100% it works great underload but bms stops charge as one cell tops out at 3.65 and others under 3.4 so I thought of trying a charger like wat you use and give it ago
![Easy way to Top Balance DIY LiFePO4 battery [using EVE 304Ah LiFePO4 cells]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
