How to use BatteryBlocs to build a rebuildable repairable battery pack. You can find BatteryBlocs at www.batteryblocs.com If you enjoyed this video considering donating to Macklin's school fund. www.crowdrise....
I have a FYI for everyone.. If you put two extra washers of the head of the nylon bolt, this will make the nut end shorter and will guard the end of the nylon bolt.. Will protect the threads and make the whole block sit better... I love my battery bloc pack..
This is the best vid on how to connect 18650 batteries. How to I get the battery blocks? I need to make a 24v 60ah battery for my electric riding mower that will draw 22 amps. Very happy this set up is out there. I also need to setup balancing. Thanks
I think you have done an amazing job with this product. I will be using it for my next project. I was made aware of you from jehugarcia's youtube showing of your product. Keep on innovating.
Shawn, over the last 4 days i have watched videos on building battery packs, i am 100% with your system, your system is easier to assemble, and needs no soldering onto the individual cells, so i will calculate my pack size and order the kits from you.............
Nice setup - and I saw that little spark. I'm going to swap out my 220Ah of lead for 110Ah of lithium using these things - great design Shawn! Although my capacity is high, the amp draw is low, ~5-10A tops, its just powering my battery backup.
Hello. Please can you tell me where did you buy the battery magnetic blocks ? Thank you very much and I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Kind Regards florin
@@shawname2 Hi there. Thank you very much. Last year I bought an e bike battery from China which was very expensive and don’t work so I had to dismantle in and I would like to to build my own one using your method. I tried on e bay and amazon and could not find it. All the best and greediness from Ireland.
Interesting. I watched that new video yesterday and have been looking at the other stuff and an Endless Sphere thread. Didn't know this was out there. You were talking about a 12 volt pack in one video. I can't figure how to do this. Four cells is a lot of voltage with a fully charged pack, and 3s is going to drift very low at the end. The LiFePo packs they sell for RV's are better, with a 3.6 top voltage and 4s. Seems like a very nice design. Not sure why it has gotten no real attention. I'll do something in the Spring, but it may just be connecting Titan flight packs with GA cells. I like RC chargers. If I want something big, your system is better.
Thanks George, The 12 volt Battery in one block is a good seller. But I have had people build batteries of over 100 volts for hotrod ebikes. The cool thing is you can change your battery- add or remove Blocs as your needs change.. These are for "something bigger" than the smaller RC batteries.
Nice Idea, How much current can you pull through one of the battery connections? Have you considered making such a block for an A123 ANR26650? I need 90A Continuous, 360A Short Term . The plan is 9S 3P. Going with welding copper for right now.
Hi John, Yes I make Blocs for 26650. Not for 9P though, 8P or 10P. Those cells are just 2500 mah, so 9 would give you 15 amp hours, so the 360 amps would only be able to burn for 2 minutes or so, and 90 amp hours for 5 minutes. I guess "continuous" is relative. The steel will handle it, but big slabs of copper would be better for what amounts to a near dead short. Be cautious!
Hay Shawn. I just bought a lot of 26650 from a place going out of business. I got them for $3 per 2 pack so I couldn't resist. I haven't seen a whole lot of builds using them. Is it the same as building 18650 packs? I've done some research but nothing conclusive. I'm hoping I can because I bought 300 2 packs. By the way there awesome batteries so I hope there's a use. Great vid per the norm. Thanks for taking the time to make them.
It is a really nice Idea, but the end size becomes huge compared to a traditiomal cell arangement. And it is way more heavy I can't imagine the amount of space required for a 14S 8p battery. You will need 2 bikes!
Hi I'm researching building a lithium 6p 7s battery for solar cell storage and I find your system amazingly well thought out and engineered. And also reasonably priced Only one question you have no internal fuses at all what happens if one cell shorts out won't it kill the whole expensive battery pack ?
Sure, great question. I have never seen a cell "short out'". Here is an article about this from Battery University. batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/bu_803b_shorted_cells What happens is that a cell in a parallel group may start to go bad. It looses capacity, which means it charges and discharges more quickly. But I have never seen a cell go bad so fast as to be able to trigger a fuse. Anybody? The entire parallel group, having a weak member on the team, starts to charge and discharge more quickly. A fast charging and discharging parallel group can be detected by a cell logger or better by a hobby charger. That one parallel group will not take down the whole pack, just the cells in parallel connected to it. If you don't have a hobby charger you will notice that the battery is not charging fully. The BMS is shutting off the charger because one parallel group is charging too fast and the BMS can't bleed it fast enough to keep the voltage below 4.25. So, it shuts off the entire charge- even if the other cells are not fully charged. Furthemore, that bad parallel group discharges faster than the rest of the battery. So the BMS suts off the power when that bad group gets too low first, even though the other cells still have plenty of power. So the battery capacity declines. With BatteryBlocs you can open up the weak parallel group and replace just those cells, not the entire pack. You could test the capacity of those cells individually and discard the weak one/s.
KJ Archer look up wire fuses but usually the inverter will have a built in fuse. The battery could burst and spew acid and the fumes are toxic. You'll house may ketch fire btw
4 года назад
Shawn saludos! I am building a 14s 80p battery with 18650 cells. I intend to use it as the battery to my photovoltaic system which will work at 48v. Can your system handle 20A? If so, what would I have to buy?
Absolutely. I use a 120P14S BatteryBlocs power wall in my home. Have you seen my website www.batteryblocs.com? You can get in touch with me from there. Shawn
The bolts should all be going through the same direction leaving the heads of all the bolts on one side of the assembly. This will give you one side of the assembly that you can use as the base and not have to worry about the threaded end of some of the bolts sticking out past the case causing it to wobble and teeter. He makes the mistake of leaving some of his bolts in backward and causing the battery to be sitting on the protruding ends leaving the assembly unstable when placed on either side.
For the last year or so I have switched to metric nuts and bolts so that I could get the right length. Now there is no need to assemble the bolts from one direction or the other. Thank you for your comment.
@@shawname2 Good move with the bolt length change. You won't have to worry about upon which side you are sitting your assembly. if you consistently put the bolts through from the same side, not only will it give the assembly a more professional appearance, but you will be able to tell at a glance that you are seeing the positive lead side or the negative.
so I'm hoping to make a high ah 12v battery that is split into 3 smaller 4v batteries containing roughly 50 single lithys all parallel, how could I maintain my desired voltage but divide them into say cells of 10 to better monitor and balance them? or do you know of a better way? trying to get 80-100ah at 12v
The problem is of course that balancing such a high amp hour pack with a hobby charger or BMS would take a long, long time. The good news is is that such a battery is unlikely to need as much balancing. All those cells in parallel tend to average each other out over the battery- assuming they are all the same cells.... Fancy solution: Build a high amp hour pack in parallel as you described but use individual power supplies to charge each 4 volt parallel group. I would still bulk charge to 4 volts but use the power supplies to balance. If you charge each group to 4 volts with a four power supplies, not buck converters- they are not isolated, you can solve the balancing and charging with one tool. Cheap Easy Solution: Bulk charge and then with a voltage monitor on each parallel group you could note when a parallel group was getting higher than the others and bleed it down with 12 volt automotive lamps. For a system with such a small number of parallel groups that would be the easiest cheapest way.
You can look at my series of videos and see a BatteryBloc handling 75 amps. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wCvtk7zQjW8.html What happens is that when the cells get hot they heat up the Blocs too. But the Blocs do not get hotter than the cells, because they offer no detectable resistance. So my answer is, as long as you are using your Blocs to the tolerances of the cell they will be fine. I once tried to measure the resistance in a strip of the zinc plated steel I use for connections by trying to measure the resistance in the longest piece the leads my Klien multimeter would reach. 0 ohms. If you have an extremely sensitive scientific device for measuring resistance I will send you a chunk. I'd like to know too!
We have built batteries that pull 80 amps, but they are 20P. I like the connection, with the nylon bolts it is very solid. I build spot welded batteries too, and I think the nickel plated magnet provides at least as large of a connected surface as the tiny spot welds. I would love to have it tested to failure though so I had some hard numbers.
Greetings... Awesome concept and reasonably priced... I am looking to adapt my Laptop batteries to consolidate into one; basically I grow tired of changing them right in the middle of doing something when not close to a wall unit. I want to use the Laptop external port and have seen how some put 5 or 6 batteries in line to get 19 or 20 volts. I assume one would require 20 volts to also charge the battery and run the Laptop at the same time using the external port. Edit: I meant 6P and vise versa for the 6S in my comment; so 6 in Parallel and however many in series to extend the run time to 6 hours or so? I know if I want to make a 6P 2S I would need 12 18650 Batteries, 6 in Parallel and 2 Series. My question is, am I correct in using 6S x 1, 2, 4, or how ever many Parallel? I am new to this so hopping 6s will give me 20 Volts, nominal of 3.7 18650 Batteries. I plan to use some older Laptop Batteries that won't charge but still have usable 18650's. What I hope to achieve is to be able to run my Laptop for 6 or more hours on Battery alone instead of currently being able to only run it for 3ish before needed to be changed. Secondly, is 6S is required, how many P Rows should I use to be able to run my laptop for 6 or more hours between charges? I plan to make 2 separate units so that one unit can charge while the other is being used. I want to use Solar to charge but that is another day since I have not invested in any panels at the moment. Thanks...
Hi Paul, Yes, 6S is right. The more cells you put in parallel the longer the laptop will run. I can't give you a number without knowing the mah of the cells you are using, and the amount of power your computer uses. So, keep it simple, put as many as you can based on the number of cells you have. You will need a 6S hobby charger to balance this pack.
Awesome, thanks for such a quick reply. The Batteries are the 22F or about 2200mAH; regular Laptop Batteries 3S2P for 11.1V. Of course mine are used so the 2200 is probably more like 2000mAH or so. I have 2 Laptop Chargers, 1 charging @19.1 Volts and the other @20 Volts. The reason I want to use the Laptop Port is to keep things simple; in THEORY that is... LOL... I'd seen a few videos where they put 5 in Parallel then just added the charging barrel connector and it ran the Laptop without any battery. Yes, I plan to get a Hobby Charger soon when funds become available so I will probably just have to disassemble each time I need to charge batteries until then. Which brings me to why I really like your concept of battery packs, easy assembly and disassembly with almost no brain work required short of Red is POS and Black is NEG... LOL... The Laptop Battery Packs are like 12 bucks, New, each and only run about 3 hours then the PC needs to shut down to swap out the battery. What I am hoping is 19 Volts allows me to keep the current battery topped off as it charges and runs the Laptop then when it depletes the Battery can run for a few extra hours. What I am hopping is to be able to run for 6 hours on Battery without a lot of modification. At first guess I would assume 6S2P or 3P @2000mAH. Of course as funds increase so will my batteries to the higher mAH range. Any additional info you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I've been researching 18650's for too long and now it's time to make something happen with them... Cheers...
How many watts does your charger put out? You can assume that is roughly how many watts it takes for your laptop to run. So 6P times 2 amp hour cells is 12 amp hours. 12 amp hours x 20 volts is 240 watt hours. So if your laptop charger puts out 60 watts you can run it on the battery for 4 hours. Get the math?
1 Charger is 65W and the other is 90W. Both Batteries are 11.1V with 6 Cells each. You said 6P times 2 AH cells did you mean 6S; as in 6 cells in series is about 4 hours give or take. Then 6S2P would yield about 8ish hours for 60 Watts of use? Again I plan to use this 6S2P maybe 3P battery externally and use the DC power port to connect this battery to the Laptop. Thanks for you input. Which Blocs of yours would I use for 6S2P?
A flat wrench is not the right tool for this, as it can cause a short between cells, as you demonstrate several times. Better use a socket wrench perpendicular.
LOL, I get ragged a lot about this. The moral of the story is to use tools with insulated handles when assembling any battery- or when working on your auto.... Yeah, do as I say not as I do, I know.....
Sure, using a "side to side" connector. You would buy 14 of the 14P Blocs and ask to substitute 6 side to side connectors for some of the front to back connectors.
I have never used a torque wrench to measure. Lubricated they can be tightened more. Way beyond finger tight. If you overtighten they make a snapping noise, but still hold. The steel will just begin to deform when they are right.
Sir good day I badly need your kits and also i want to know the price if i want to build atleast 70Ah 12v battery packs.. Thank you in advance and looking forward to your response.. Godbless!!
Hey Shawn! I saw your store and i really need the 4s4p 12volt batteryblocs, but i live in Estonia and when checking out it showed that no shipping methods were available. Is there any chance at all to get it shipped here? I would pay a bit extra, but I need to know how much it would cost then.
I have shipped a number of packages to the EU and the shipping rates using USPS run about $60! Which is usually more than the BatteryBlocs cost...... If you want an exact quote email me what you want and your exact address and I will prepare a quote. thanks, Shawn
I really wish I had a good answer- I would sell a lot more to the EU! Maybe you just need a few blocks? Email me your address and what you want and I will give you an exact quote- though it still will be about $30 for just a few...
Nah i would need the whole 12volt batterblocs package, Thank you for offer tho. Maybe you should consider expanding to europe with an warehouse or something or talk with some chinese wholesuppliers because i have heard that shipping from china is way cheaper to EU countries.
Nice video, please be careful with those 3d printed parts, if they are printed in PLA , they will melt above 50 degree celsius, and since that threaded rod passing pretty close to metalic contacts, if PLA will melt, that rod can touch contacts. Hope those plastic supports are from ABS.
Thank you for the caution, but PLA is printed at a minimum of 195 C, which is 383 Fahrenheit. But you are right, should the plastic melt at over 300 F, then, if threaded rod is being used, it could short the battery. But, the battery would already need to be shorted to generate such high temps and would probably be off-gassing and burning. Here I really load up BatteryBlocs- 4 cells carrying 48 amps- and monitor the temps. You can see that even under extreme use, the Blocs do not get hotter than the cells: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qGaR_JjPO9s.html thank you for your comment.
At 170 become liquid :), it starts to deform at 50, depending on your specific case of PLA, take a test and check at what temp it starts to bend/deform. If you put hot water on PLA you can see how it reacts in your specific case. Anyway i know that 18650 can reach 100 degree Celsius in hard load. I am pretty sure that at 100C that PLA will become loose. Donno how much infill you added for strenght. But hey, you can test it in hot water, put some PLA and check how it reacts.
Btw, i would advice you to take a test, put a PLA part in a boiling water then insert a threaded rod and put pressure on road to mimic the weight of batteries pack. And see how that PLA holds. Also you can check exactly PLA at manufacture info when it start deform. I printed 2 years ago a magnetic smartphone holder for my car, and was deformed in the summer and some tiny parts of PLA bended.
Lithium batteries voltages are multiples of the number of cells in series. That multiple is the nominal voltage of 3.6. So six in series is 21.6 volts and seven in series makes 25.2 volts. But all batteries have a voltage range, lithium's is from 4.2 to 2.8 volts per cell. So the 6S has a range of 16.8 to 25.2 volts, and the 7S has a range of from 19.6 to 29.4 volts. Both could be used as "24 volt" batteries. You would choose one based on the requirements of the equipment you were powering. IF all things are equal, go with the higher voltage. Speaking of batteries in multiples of 12 volts is a legacy from lead acid batteries.
Hello Shawn. First I want to congratulate you on your invention. Good thinking. One issue comes to mind regarding the magnets, is can the current draw get so high that the magnets loose magnetism? Second, regarding the patent. Unless this product goes to industrial use and I assume a patent costs money and a lot of it, I think you got suckered by the adviser. My point is as I said unless this goes industrial your main market is the home diy'er thus fairly small. How much do you need to sell to even turn a profit. Also if someone makes a copy of your product, do you even have the money to sue in another country. I get why you want to protect it but in this day and age it is all but hopeless for small business. I think your product could gain more ground by being available to as many diyers as possible and get your earnings from donations and sales and have no patent. I wish you the best though.
Hi Michael, Thank you for your insights. I agree with you on many issues. I looked into the costs of patenting on the advice of my Score mentor and decided it was a bad return on a 10K investment. So after considerable research I applied for the patent pro-bono. The goal of a provisional patent is to give the inventor a space to market the product and see what the market possibility is before going for a full patent. In my case, with the America Invents act, the subsequent cost of applying for a full patent was less than $1000. I can still make the product available for free to DIYers under the Creative Commons act. And I very well may....but I am having too much fun right now! The magnets lose magnetism through heat. The max operating temp for NM magnets is 212 fahrenheit. If the magnets should get that hot there are very serious battery problems!!!!! making the loss of magnetism a minor concern. And the magnets are easily replaceable... My overarching goal is to nudge the world in the direction I want to see it go, away from fossil fuels and into an electric age. Arranging power units- batteries, capacitors, into packs should be a common skill.
US has such good business laws compared to mine. I don't think you should make it free though. This would revolves too much around money for that. I just meant that you could make your product more acceptable by lowering the cost for the diyer that does not have a 3d printer by not including the patent and the following cost. But you have already figured that out 👍
Where do you hail from Michael? This simple product believe it or not was over two years in the inventing. I have two 55 gallon drums filled with rejected prototype ideas! I have learned a lot about how making it complex is easy, making it simple is hard. But once it is done, everyone looks at it and goes "what a simple idea" I appreciate your comments.
Sorry I missed your comment. The magnets are Neodymium. They are stuck to the zinc plated 1010 steel plates and held in place with 3d printed magnetic retainers I call "potato chips."
True Bob, Vruzend kits are cheaper. BatteryBlocs carry large amounts of current and are a snap to assemble and disassemble. Vruzend is made in India, Battery Blocs in the USA. Vruzend is good for smaller odd shaped batteries- the kits are more flexible. BatteryBlocs excel at home Power Walls or other larger or high current applications.
The sparking was caused because the wrench I was holding against the nut contacted the BatteryBloc metal plate behind it. So there was a momentary short between two the cell groups. Good eyes!
No. But they are all very similar. If the BMS is good and the cells just need to be replaced it is pretty straightforward to spot weld new cells in any configuration. IS the battery made of 18650's?
No, they were built with the Molicel IMR-2900mAh 3.8 volt with 11 Wh is what ZERO used in their 2009X. I have been on the electricvehicle blog and Dr Bass is a Zero nut and has prescribed Nissan Leaf batteries. There is also a BMS. What I really find exciting, and if I wait long enough, is that the guy who invented the Li-Ion battery (94 years old now) has created a Solid State battery that is a several times more powerful and cheaper with stable chemicals inside. Is the trick to match the voltage for the BMS?
Sean, the exchange rate is terrible!!! So waiting for post BREXIT recovery. What the world is coming to I don't know?! I want to buy up to 48volt kit so your large plus a small bolt on, unless you felt to split the pack in two even packs. Have been focused on your method as eg +JehuGarcia uses fuses etc, but feel your monitor method @ little soldering is my way forward. Hopefully GBpound sorts itself out very soon so I can get rolling. Talk later.
Hello over the pond friend. My son just bought a 250 year old house in Germany for just 2500 Euros and is busy remodeling it. Yes I see the pound is just .77 cents against the dollar, ouch.
+Shawn McCarty sorry I've not been in touch, I'm going to go to your page / eshop & let you know what all I'm ordering. I've been really busy is all! Saw your notification & am only getting responding now. Talk soon !
It' never a good idea to use nylon screws or bolts for electrical connections because nylon, like all polymers, relaxes over time. That means the connections eventually always become loose. See "stress relaxation" on wikipedia.
In practice this is true. It does give some elasticity to the plates. If the battery is opened and inspected yearly and the nuts tightened slightly all is fine. Can you suggest a better common non-conducting bolt?
I think the main problem is the flat plates. If the plates are not perfectly flat, or the batteries are not all the same length, then you could have a bad connection. It's like a table that wobbles because one of the legs is short. If you replace the magnets with spring contacts, that would solve this tolerance problem, and perhaps also solve the relaxation problem. I hope this is helpful.
The plates have some spring and this aids in the connections. I rejected springs because they are made of spring steel and have high amounts of carbon and resistance. Thank you for your comments and suggestions! GOod thinking!
Hi Greg, Go to my website www.batteryblocs.com You will find all the bloc sizes there. There is a calculator or you can email me for help sizing the battery and chosing the blocs.
i saw the spark in ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aKvpcOYkI_c.html. is this kit safe under 10s 36 volt? i want to build the electric longboard. could you provide the waterproof idea about this kit
Yes, it's been pointed out. When I was tightening I touched the wrench to two positives. One of the things about building a battery! I don't think these are well suited for electric longboards because the battery packs as I know them are just one cell flat. BatteryBlocs are always two cells wide, so they are too tall. Sorry!
