DIY Power Supply UPGRADE, "POWERFUL" Headway 38120 Cells!

[@tedk2814]

great video, you did a lot of work there and put in some time I'm sure. very neat setup. Thanks

[@izifaddag8221]

Nice video. I have bought 16 of these 38120s from Alarmhookup via ebay the same as you did. I have them configured in 4 x 4S formats. So 4 battery packs all paralleled. I have 4 BMS boards. They will allow 100A either in or out. They balance charge at 55ma so it will take a while to charge them off solar. The nice thing about 38120 is that each cell packs a punch unlike 18650s. That means that each cell can have individual management. Therefore 4 packs with 4 BMS boards all paralleled and each and every one of the cells is charged and monitored individually. I intend mounting 4 x 250 watt solar panels on my camper roof with another 200 on a portable setup. At the same time I have a Honda EU2000i generator with a separate charger so they can be charged when I run the AC. When driving, the car alternator is used to top them up. I like the case you mounted them in - Harbor Freight right? Are you concerned about heat? Lastly you are right that inverter is way to small for what you are doing. You need 1000w at least or even 1500w. You have a current bottleneck at that inverter. The batteries will kick ass but not if you throttle them back due to the inverter.

[@allabouthim03]

Wow, you really know your stuff. I'm not that deep but I proud I finally got it to work for me. I had a high school graduation shoot on Friday so that was my first time "officially" using it in the field. It worked like a charm. HEAT, that's a good question...I think I'll do a test with a heat probe in the box and see what happens. I don't think it's going to make much difference. I've seen videos of people making huge packs and using them to run the sound systems in their vehicles. Yes the box came from HF.

[@Zeppelinlv2007]

Is it possible to hook these up with that same BMS and use it as a starter battery for a car or truck? I know it can start a car up because it has enough power to do so, but what I am trying to figure out is a proper BMS set up.

[@barneymerrill3188]

Get yourself 4 more and configure your battery to a 4s2p and you'll have double the amps to 16...will last lot longer!!!🤠👍

[@ericklein5097]

Max charge voltage is technically 14.6V (3.65V per cell, however the "safe" max charge voltage of LiFeP04 can be as high as 4.2V but there is ZERO capacity to be gained past 3.6V so do not charge past 3.7V). LiFePO4 will rest at about 3.40V to 3.55V per cell depending on the cell (the larger prismatics tend to rest a bit lower, the smaller cylindrical cells tend to rest a bit higher). So after you pull the charger off the battery you might see your pack drop from 14.4'ish volts to 13.8V or 13.4V The absolute minimum you want to see is 13.30 or 13.20 volts. The voltage will rapidly drop from 14'ish volts down to the 13.30V area and then it will SLOWLY creep down towards 12.6V. Then things will slowly start to pick up and once you hit 12V things start to go downhill pretty fast. Not much point in taking these cells below 2.8V each or so.

[@Zeppelinlv2007]

Popular cells wouldn't stay inexpensive for long. October 2018, $13.75 per cell . As of June 2019, now they are $25.75. Good old fashion supply and demand. Still a good deal for powerful lifepo4 batteries. What BMS did you use? What charger are you using?

[@hing983]

I like yr setup 38120. Can you show me how wire 38120 battery

[@popularDIY]

Does puresine inverter is necessary?

[@allabouthim03]

Depends on what you want to use your power supply for. If you are powering light bulbs, electric drills, tools, kitchen appliances etc.. a regular inverter is fine. But for sensitive "electronics" a regular inverter could cause them to fail. My power pack will be primarily used withy moonlights so I don't want to have them malfunction while our on a shoot due to a "nasty" energy signal coming from a regular inverter.

[@popularDIY]

@@allabouthim03 Thank you sir, I need to use with SK300II like you,with lifepo4 15Ah 12v. 1600w inverter ,from your experience 8Ah of lifepo4 ,how long or how many shoot of flash can it take?

[@allabouthim03]

@@popularDIY that's a question I honestly don't have an answer for. As you know all of that will depend on your power setting of your light. My shoots are usually only about an hour weather it by portrait, family or sports. I've never ran into a problem with it lasting long enough. The only issue I had once was I had the modeling light ON during a shot, and I was set at 3/4 to 1/1 power....it didn't like that at all. I don't think the cells were the issue, I think the problem was my power supply. Which is why I recommend everyone to use at least a 800w or better PSW inverter.

[@popularDIY]

@@allabouthim03 Thank you for more Idea from your channel.

[@izifaddag8221]

Really like those endcaps but Rasputin isn't selling them. Where did you get them? Otherwise stuck with the orange ones.

[@allabouthim03]

My friend printed them for me. I found the program on thingeverse.

[@VivekMishra_1904]

sir nice video but i don't know about this type of batteries. can you tell me this batteries can be charged from direct solar panels. thanks

[@allabouthim03]

I no nothing about charging batteries with solar panels. But there are KZbin videos showing how to do that.

[@standbyme6395]

That is all relative to your battery voltage and your solar output. Short and simple not recommended. You need to run the numbers on your panels and your cells. These headways are supposed to charge at 2a for each cell. Of course you will also need your charge controller circuits and bms for peace of mind. In theory you can charge directly from panels if the numbers match.