Mounting the 18650 Blocks - 12v Solar Shed

I'm short on space so I need to get the 18650 battery bank mounted to the wall. In this video I finish building the packs and mount them to a bit of DIN rail.
❗️These links are affiliated and I may earn a small commission if you purchase❗️
Big Cutters: ebay.to/2HIsecq
Big Crimper: ebay.to/2y4cO2F
8AWG Crimp Connectors: ebay.to/2JxnPyZ
4x5 18650 Cell Holders: ebay.to/2sPBB5G
Din Rail: ebay.to/2JyRgAq
3d Printed 4x5 18650 Cell Holder Din Rail Mount (stl): bit.ly/2JSFIY6

[@JasonSimpson1966]

As soon as I get back to my pack building, I intend to do something similar. I, however, plan on orienting the packs differently. I plan on mounting them with the negative terminals towards the wall and positive terminals into the room. This concept is simply based on the idea that if any one cell enters thermal runaway, it will not be setting off a chain reaction by venting/flaming into another pack.

[@Venomator.]

Impressed, I am, with your mounting system and printed bracketry, nicely done Adam! ... 👍🏻 We look forward to seeing that lot progress into beneficial usage... 💡 🧐 🐍

[@AdamWelchUK]

Thankful I am :-)

[@Venomator.]

Adam Welch 👽 🐍

[@totesdev4363]

Good job 👏 luv the 3D printed brackets.

[@GroovyVideo2]

real nice bracket setup

[@AdamWelchUK]

Cheers

[@annanmanpaul101]

love your video going and do the same thing but with 26650 batteries

[@Chickey]

Looking good, brackets look great.

[@bostjantrancar9605]

Excellent video 👍

[@cirelefebure5485]

Great video/content, thank you sir.

[@SuperBrainAK]

crimp and solder always, lookin good though!! maybe some larger heatshrink over those exposed terminals?

[@AdamWelchUK]

I knew this would come up. I've heard arguments for both. I don't want to heat the crimps enough to solder them now they are attached to packs. I should have made my buss bars and crimped them before attaching them to the block in hindsight. I might add more heat shrink, if only to make it look more pretty

[@SuperBrainAK]

as long as you are quick it shouldnt hurt anything it might melt the heatshrink a little but that will be fine. In my opinion the best thing to do is crimp and solder, but just crimping as long as it actually forms the metal inside it is ok, but for me knowing how soft copper is I dont want it to ever work loose.

[@nigeldolman954]

Nice project. I have been watching your channel for ages. It worries me what happens to 18650’s in a van or in a shed when it’s sub zero outside. Likely get a good charge coming in, for example, if there is snow on the ground. But the cells cannot accept charge safely below 5C. What are your thoughts on this Adam??

[@pleasecho2]

Solder crimped connections - just in case

[@MikesDIYTeslaPowerwall]

only problem with using that bracket is you need to slide them all off to get to the middle packs if one fails or needs work.Which might be a big pain once its all wired up /setup with bms

[@AdamWelchUK]

The blocks just pull out from the bracket. I can pull out a block and leave the bracket behind.

[@stephenbeer2850]

Been looking at doing a similar project, please could you tell me where to find the 18650's? Thank you

[@electronic7979]

Excellent

[@bren106]

Tidy sheds are a sign of too much time on your hands.

[@AdamWelchUK]

I’ll tidy it when I retire then. :-)

[@SuperBrainAK]

it mostly depends on where your priorities lie, I tend to keep a clean workspace, at least after a project is finished.

[@timrauscher3965]

How soon are you going to do a followup on how it is working and the balance?

[@AdamWelchUK]

It shouldn’t be too long.

[@chris9h1bw]

I am having difficulty in uploading the software of the battery capacity tester. Can you help me in any way?

[@CrankyCoder]

How's the BMS modules coming along? :) I have all my parts and my buddies and I built our reflow oven last weekend.

[@AdamWelchUK]

Excellent. The next step is probably to wire them up to my blocks and provision the modules. Still not 100% on what discharge resister to go with though.

[@CrankyCoder]

very cool!!! i am excited to start playing with them. My packs are 80p and i would feel alot more comfortable with the bms monitoring them before i hook them up in series. I don't think im going to do the emoncms integration on mine. I think grafana since i have a bunch of other stuff that way. But also thinking of throwing some hooks in there to post some updates to my openhab system too since I can do updates via rest

[@AdamWelchUK]

Colin Hickey has forked the diyBMS code and is outputting stats to grafana. Check out his channel for the history and (hopefully) some updates.

[@CrankyCoder]

Yep. I have been waiting for his updates to come out too :)

[@russellgilchrist3951]

Is this going to be your limit, or are you thing of extending the wall.

[@AdamWelchUK]

I think this will be my limit, but never say never!

[@lisamlisak]

OK... now I know how you mounted them... count me in... but I cannot get to the Link for the Cell Holder... ...

[@viocaia]

Nice!

[@elginsteve124]

Would you sell some of the din clips on eBay?

[@johnarmstrong3782]

Enjoyed the vid as always. But I am not yet persuaded over 12v car batteries. Are you intending to buck the voltage down to 12v or invert it to 240v AC? Everything seems to to works off 12v DC or 240v AC.

[@AdamWelchUK]

I agree with this. There are less things compatible with 24v then there are 12v. I *think* this may become power for an inverter (which should be a little more efficient than 12 volt) but I have a few devices in the shed which will work up to 30 volts (my bench power supply for example). I intend to keep my 12 volt system. The end game is less well planned than the design and build :-)

[@ahaveland]

Adam, I'm pretty sure you'll end up going for a 14S 48V system eventually, especially as you collect more cells, so keep that in mind. You'll be able to run the house too. Edit: I got an old APC1000 which will happily run off 7S and drive 600W for a few hours. You may be able to pick one up from the tip or an IT scrap dealer.

[@johnarmstrong3782]

Andy Lee Robinson 600w wouldn’t run my house? It wouldn’t even boil an egg. But 12v charges all our phones and laptops, lights my kitchen, patio and conservatory etc, lets me play music, supply’s power for me to play with all my electronics projects etc and it’s fun and safe? Just can’t see the point in inverting anything under 1000w or more to AC. Electricity from the mains is cheap. Solar is expensive.

[@ahaveland]

John, I know, but you miss my point. 12V is useful for hobby things, but useless for anything that requires real power because you need cables as thick as your arm to carry the current required. 48V is still considered safe and has the advantage of needing 1/4 of the current to drive an inverter. *I* use an APC1000 to keep my computers up during an extended outage in a country that has frequent power cuts and 24V draws just 25 amps instead of 50 amps for 12V meaning I can get away with 10AWG cable. 600W is good enough for Adam's shed and appropriate for the 7S system he currently has. When he or you get a 14S320P system you could run everything in your houses with a 12kW inverter during a power cut, or with many more solar panels export energy or go off grid and never pay another electricity bill, ever - this is my eventual goal. Electricity from the mains is still an expense however cheap it may be for you. Solar is not expensive and is getting cheaper all the time.

[@johnarmstrong3782]

Andy Lee Robinson Well I don’t know where you live but the mains are the cheapest source of electricity here. Plus we don’t get much sun. Subsidies have now been cut to the point where household solar cannot compete with a three pin plug.

[@bereal1251]

Is each pack 12 volts or 3.7volts?

[@AdamWelchUK]

Each pack is 3.7 nominal - in series they create a 25.9 volt nominal pack.

[@bereal1251]

@@AdamWelchUK thanks for clarifying :) I'm still a newbie trying to build a small 12v power wall for a 12v inverter I have

[@thomasfeyerholm1956]

Can’t open the battery holder File

[@trickyriky1]

uwww i could do with some of those brackets...

[@AdamWelchUK]

Link in the description. Inspired by Paul Kennet, but it is my own design.

[@trickyriky1]

I guess i could also do with a 3D printer too. :(

[@AdamWelchUK]

Ah - the crucial component!

[@spikeydapikey1483]

FabLab, Hackspace, Collage may be able to print some for you??

[@metamud8686]

There is a 'g' in Length.

[@lolokiki4218]

No 12v 🤣🤣

[@djmorodaraye4313]

I'm doing a 12 volt system . Not as good as you're s but still kik ass thanks a lot go vegan save the world!!!

[@chuxxsss]

What a great idea. I wonder if a server rack is good. Upping your state.