EEL Solar Battery Build Mistakes

[@chrisnortheast888]

A Gridbuster upload once a month would be the perfect pace for me. But it's been a while now and I'm starting to miss you.

[@daveingram9240]

you aren't a proper "sparky" until you've had a spark (or 2) !! Good video, nice to see an entire end-to-end build in one video...

[@LincolnshireRose]

Good to see another lady spark, theres not too many of us around. Anyway, very interesting and informative video. So glad to see you kept the bloopers in, thank you

[@olafschermann1592]

Assembling my first battery i wore gloves, covered everything and watched with the thermal camera every 5min. On my second battery i was confident. So no gloves, everything open and then i kicked my tools with my foot and was lucky it fell down beside the battery and not ontop.

[@ThePykon]

The teaser at the beginning actually looks scary. I'm happy that you didn't injure yourself.

[@SoundzAlive1]

I like this instruction video. Suggestion to use 4 newton metres as Andy from YT Off-Grid Garage found that some studs on batteries strip their threads which is a world of pain to fix. He has tested some EEL battery boxes as well and that is why I bought them. Also it's a good idea to cover the cells you are not working on so they cannot short when something accidentally falls on them. André in Sydney

[@MiniLuv-1984]

I really know the feeling when something sparks unexpectedly! Nice work. See you next time.

[@lennieadi]

Great video. Glad you weren’t hurt. Scary stuff. Maximum respect for showing us the errors.

[@Deuxiit]

it blows my mind some people do battery work with watches, rings, no protective eyewear.

[@SirHackaL0t.]

Was shouting at the iPad ‘NO!’ When you connected that link. Lol

[@Mike-01234]

Reminded me of when take two old 9V batteries plug them together see how warm they get.

[@girltechsteader]

Haven't seen a video lately. Hope all is well and you post soon.

[@TheRonskiman]

You can use the little mounting screws which hold the Lynx busbars in place for connecting the Cerbo, just use small ring terminals. You need to torque the connections on all the breakers, for my large breakers I cut an Allen key down, then a socket will fit on the end. When I see the way you tightened some of them screws I cringed, one slip and the screwdriver will be in your hand, or worse still your leg. As I said in another comment, it's great that you included the mistakes, it helps others see the potential traps.

[@fernanddecarvalho3935]

Superbe installation!!!

[@cdonuts7335]

Everything you build i find myself saying out loud " that doesn't look right!" But this one was like a jump scare!

[@amowatt01]

Absolutely awesome vid tutorial ........... many many thks

[@offgriddreaming5403]

Safety glasses or visor, insulated gloves are highly recommended. Just saying 😊

[@PhysicsViolator]

Grid busters , that’s a genius name 😂, you got a new sub.

[@VYR1985]

With regards to the "it's so heavy I doubt it will move", lot's of heavy equipment transporters tought that as well. All ended up with a couple tons worth of load next to the truck at the slightest inclined bend going at a crawl, instead of on it. Heavy stuff will move 😅

[@MrElofix]

Thanks for demonstrating the whole process of building with all the errors witch can happen eventually. As an elektrician i could see the spark comming as you put on the first bar on the right side wrong....but i would defenitely suggest to all of you out there not to build these boxes by yourself. Especially because there are still many possibuilities that your basement or whereever you place these boxes, and in case of multiple ones the risk becomes higher, catches fire. I have seen by myself, as member of hometown fire brigade, a villa with had a fire caused by self made battery boxes. The worst thing is...EVERY insurance will refuse to pay a single cent! Keep that in mind ;)

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

We had several fires caused by battery systems sold by well known brands... But i agree, she is doing almost everything how it should not be done.

[@dbutt-rv5eh]

Bla bla bla shut it

[@BrindleBrown]

I continue to enjoy your videos, warts and all. I held my breath when you turned on the breaker to connect the new battery to the rest of the pack, because you did not check the voltage of the live battery relative to the new battery! If the voltages aren’t close, there will be current flow from the battery with the higher voltage to the one with the lower voltage. If the voltage difference is large, the current can be very large as well. I was hoping you would clamp on an amp meter on the leads going to the new battery after connecting it to the pack to see how much equalization current was flowing.

[@eelbatteryofficial]

The battery display reads voltage and current. And the BMS will limit this current to 100A.

[@awbean5254]

Great Job Sarah!

[@SylwerDragon]

haha that was interesting. I'm glad you didn't screw those yet..it was close one.. and yes you have to be very careful ofc if there wasn't any permanent damage it is fine. short or such is not a problem. as it isn't likely to happen with just normally placing those bus bars. So that is fine. Ofc these experiences are very good for personal growth. We will learn a lot by doing something wrong. With luck not catastrophic bad..just bad :)

[@lldragon]

good it didnt hapen at the end, it could be more sparky :-). Keep those cells monitored if they are working fine. And of course great video as always. Its a good reminder to be careful with this electric stuff

[@showme360]

Hello Sarah, one thing I would suggest the next time to build a battery is to wear protective glasses, as those spark were flying everywhere, and you only have an eye once! The fire brigade recommend fire blankets for battery fires as well, so make sure you have some to hand. Plus at the higher voltage junction I would also recommend wearing gloves. Otherwise great video, and good that you included your mistakes. I had a similar one, when one of the small balancing terminals shorted across, and nearly welded itself to the cell terminal. I too have fitted NEEY to my Seplos Mason battery packs.

[@boringsoftware2093]

GALS playin' with batteries 😎👍🏻

[@Leksi80]

Great and fun video. Entertaining and instructional if the best combination. I would have loved to see a "stop to check and measure" section in you video at the end. For the newcomers, like Andy always does. Never connect a balancer connection to the BMS or the external balancer if the other ends aren't connected to the cells AND MEASURED with a multimeter for each 16 connections for the correct order. You did mention this at the start, but would have love to have seen it in the video as well. "Monkey see, monkey do" when other people use your video as a step by step guide building their own...

[@ricardolimongi6518]

Good scare, that is the worst moment that one would never want to live, keep moving forward

[@michaelolowojesiku391]

Quite fortunately, you haven't made a 25.6V system before the spark. That was a learning curve. Good one at last!

[@dc1544]

every battery you add lowers the C rating which is good for life cycles. I have 4 of those and my Max C rating is 0.2C. I am thinking of adding another battery which would give me 5 banks. I pull max 10kw but usually even in these hot days I pull 3kw. So many people when hooking up batteries do it wrong and their current goes through every battery which causes C rating to go way up and also imbalance between batteries(banks). Good job in doing it right.

[@Franky6767]

Very good video, thank you very much! 😊

[@seppm64]

I really like your videos as you are down to earth and not shy of making a few errors (which help others to avoid them). It’s difficult to judge by video but to me your screws on the circuit breaker seem not to be as well screwed as a connection with up to 200 Amps might require. Even very little resistance there will heat up the connector and make it worse over time. Actually the lil screwdriver you used seemed far to small to allow a proper force. On top its also recommended to make all contacts free from any fat with some like ethanol or isopropanol etc. It’s reducing the unwanted resistance significantly and avoids future problems when things are in „motion“.

[@The-JMartian]

Always use a multimeter and the brain, forget about manuals, I build my own batteries with the JBD BMS and an active balancer's

[@olafschermann1592]

Reminds me to wear gloves and safety glasses when i assemble my batteries.

[@Mike-01234]

Yeah see that ring on her finger while using that ratchet torque wrench probably 400 plus amps on that busbar I see two breakers turned on the new one turned off.

[@RobinRastle]

put a bit of leccy rad tape to mark positive, on everything, have a rubber mat to lay on top of those cells - too easy to drop something onto the terminals - double check volts in your balance plug before you plug it into the bms - safety first

[@Pim57]

You were lucky to not burn your fingers😮, as the busbars will heat up very quickly on a dead short! You accidentally shorted cel 9 and 10.

[@TheRonskiman]

It's great the error was included in the video, we all makes mistakes, but an explanation would have been good, not everyone will realise she connected two cells in a dead short by putting the buss bars in the wrong place.

The orange plastic on the buss bar most likely saved her fingers from injury.. Good thing it did not weld itself to the terminals because LiFePo4 batteries at charge have the potential to explode like a grenade when the current exceeds a certain point because the cell pouches get glowing hot.. In my experience working with electricity I have seen many "luck" events.. The biggest was when I worked on a subcontractor crew for Texas Power and Light.. A rookie lineman in a high reach turned the boom and pushed two 14.4kw phases close enough for them to start an arc.. That arc ball rolled up and down the lines between the two poles several times before the fuses blew.. Another lineman with years of experience got lazy when he was hooking up a transformer and dropped the hot jumper on the neutral.. Good thing he was wearing his protective sunglasses or he would have been blinded..

[@davidgalea430]

Great tutorial, thank you

[@damianhla]

Nice video. Just a few advice. When the LFP cells are shipped, for safety reasons they are only partially charged. Building a 24v or 48v battery will require series connection with multiple cells. You may want to consider top balancing these cells first before installing into your system. Get each cell's voltage as close to each other as possible, before connecting them in series. JK BMS, assuming is active balancer and depending on model, offers 0.6A to 5A balancing current. NEEY 4th-gen Active Balancer can handle higher, depending on the model, up to 15A. But these are small current in comparison to the typical inflow charging current. The Victron Lynx bus bars are capable of 1000A. Typical 120Ah LFP can handle 100A to 120A charging and 150A discharge current. If you rely solely on the Active Balancer to balance all the cells, it might have a hard time achieving this if the cells are of different State of charge. And with LFP chemistry, it is hard to accurately determine the state of charge just by measuring the cell voltage, as the voltage remains fairly flat until it reaches the extreme ends of fully charged or discharged. So the only sure way to determine align each cell's SoC is to charge them until they are closed to fully charged. I personally just use a safe voltage like 3.65v. Also you can be pretty sure when connecting these cells together with a bus bar in parallel that, since the voltage is closely matched, the in rush current would be minimal and you won't get a spark that shocks you. Of course, to be safe i always use a shunt resistor to establish the initial contact first. This way, should there be any differences, the resistor will dissapate this energy safely in much lower current, as opposed to the almost zero resistance of the busbar. 😊👍

[@olayinkaolatunde3028]

Nice video! I like the way you take precautions especially the part where you were bolting the nuts on the MCCB. Normal me would’ve just used my thumb to get the nut set before using the racket. Can you add links to the tools you used in coupling the batteries?

[@solarforfuture]

EG4 server rack . batteries, welded buss bars. grade A cells . 100/ 200 amp hrs. pro assembled. BMS readout and rs484 link. $1,500 delivered newest ones have heater and fire suppressors.. no sparks needed. signature solar in texas.. good product. add a victron smart MPPT...or 2. for redundancy and multi arrays... thanks

[@keyem4504]

The Seplos BMS' don't move charges around for balancing. They simply burn current off the highest cells to bring their voltage down. Furthermore, the more important function of the cables is measuring the voltage on each cell and not so much balancing.

[@TheRonskiman]

This is why I think it's a problem connecting the Neeeey to the balance boards, the BMS voltage readings will be lower when the Neeey is balancing, hence the need for separate cables to the cells.

[@Handy-Harry]

I bought a EEL case straight from EEL in China. It took 99 days to arrive in Europe. I think 3 weeks is a litttle optimistic.

[@rafamalinowski1290]

Nie myli się tylko ten, co nic nie robi ;-)

[@seppm64]

I don’t think its good to cut the balancer cables to make them fit. There is a reason they have the same length, and I would assume its mentioned in the manual somewhere. The reason is not good is that on this low voltage per cell, the cabling will be part of the measurement, so you will have different voltages per definition on the cabling because of there different resistance., So the further away a cell is, the voltage measured by the balancer appears to be lower as the cell really is. That will cause per definition an unbalanced set of cells.

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

You are wrong. Cable length dosn't affect. The Neey balancer reads the voltage while no current is transfered.

[@seppm64]

@@Juergen_Miessmer Good to know!

[@olafschermann1592]

@@Juergen_Miessmer and in JK BMS you can configure balance cable resistance

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

@@olafschermann1592 She has no JKBMS in her batteries.

[@Mike-01234]

Please wear safety glasses only have one set of eyes. I cover the battery terminals with the caps that they supplied, or use electrical tape until ready to install the busbars. Your also wearing a ring and bolting in a wire to an active busbar I see two other breakers that are switched on. I know someone who lost a finger after they grounded a car battery with a ring on their finger. I would remove the ring and put electrician gloves on.

[@Eric-xq4dy]

Great video!

[@retrozmachine1189]

That was a bit scary. Fortunately looks like it blew clear rather than spot welding on and getting a low impedance link and everything going south quickly.

[@stationfarm7561]

wow you so good

[@CrazedCrittic]

Really shows what could happen when you have no electrical qualifications yet make social media videos on stuff you have no idea about. If the lithium cell had caught fire/exploded it could have been a very different story.

[@sidperry7748]

Thanks for the video it was very good, I want to buy some cells before I buy the inverter etc,. Do you know how long the cells will be OK to store without charge

[@seppm64]

Normally 3 month is the max recommended. Temp shall be 10 to 35 C. Charge state shall be at least 50%, higher is better though 100% is not needed. Discharge is 1-3% per month, but still after 3 month it should have a discharge/charge round to keep the battery in best condition. Use a charger which is capable of charging LiFePO4

[@sidperry7748]

@@seppm64 thanks 👍

[@DodgyFPV]

sparklers not included, also if you cut the balance wires shorter the resistance of the wires can cause a small voltage drop, so the cells further away will be seen as lower than they actually are when balancing.

[@Stijn_Dhondt]

Sorry to say but you should NEVER be working on a hot installation! You are running power while connecting the battery and should never be doing this. The impact of shorting the battery's and or incomming solar is WAY bigger than just shorting the 2 battery's. PLEASE BE SAVE AND TURN OFF ALL POWER before working on your setup.

[@PhilippeCJR]

you cant turn off the cell....

[@Stijn_Dhondt]

@@PhilippeCJR but you can turn of the setup when connecting the extra unit. She is working on a live bussbar! Please read my post before reacting...

[@PhilippeCJR]

@@Stijn_Dhondt she just shorted 2 cells. This was during build process if i see correct. Now way to prevent this. Probably one cell was misplaced in the box when building. The pack was not connected so you are wrong.

[@Stijn_Dhondt]

@@PhilippeCJR when connecting the 2 cables from the disconnect switch to the victron busbar she was working while the whole setup was under power. I am not wrong! i was not talking about the shorting of the 2 cells.

[@caserio323]

THE SHE JUST VIOLATE THE FIRST RULE?. DO NOT MAKE A CLOSE CIRCUIT ON A BATTERY TERMINALS... YOU LUCKY !!! THE TERMINALS DID NOT WELD ON THE BUSBAR , THIS WILL BE A CATASTROPHE VIDEO IF THAT BUSBAR WELDED TO THE TERMINAL... I WAS NO, NOOO,,,, NOOOOOOOOO !!! DAMM !! SHE DID!!! JE JE JE JE

[@markusviel6440]

Safty First !?!

[@mineyourgpu8966]

Sometimes you watch videos and you realize you're starting to get to the deep end of the KZbin D.I.Y. pool.

[@leonardoalvesqueiroz4476]

Boa noite qual valor de cada celulas ? E para seu Pais voces pagar imposto na importação?

[@ovchannelag5238]

👍👍

[@PhilippeCJR]

I saw ones a picture on a aliexpress product where they mentioned that an external balancer can mess up the BMS. Because the balancer is fluctuating and producing voltages to work on the balancing. The sample voltage towards the BMS is at the moment incorrect, so the BMS gets wrong cell voltage reads. Not sure if this is true and/or important.

[@eelbatteryofficial]

It does, so we think it's best to work alone and turn it off when it's not needed.

[@5885ronny]

Hallo habe auch lifepo4 Akkus 👍

[@rtsrts2317]

The issue I have is the lack of PPE. These batteries in 48v configuration can discharge 1000 amps if a dead shorted. Molten slag jumping off the buss bar and on to your skin or in your eyes would be a very bad day. Please use electrically protected tools, gloves and face protection when directly working on cells.

[@sale666]

whats the app and little screen you got there?

[@typxxilps]

EEL Verion IV Box should be bought with JK BMS instead of seplos cause that doesnt need an additional neey acctive balancer

[@martinwinlow]

(Foam spacers...) Just use all the yellow and foam spacers and use longer screws on the compression plate. Put all the cells, yellow and foam spacers all in and screw up the screws to compress everything...?!

[@jensschroder8214]

57:21 The first balancer cable goes to the minus of the first cell. The second cable goes to the plus of the first cell. The third cable to the plus of the second cell. And so on. The last cable goes to the plus on the 16th cell. I'm not sure if you did that correctly.

[@PhilippeCJR]

you have a link for the trollys?

[@classiccrypto]

I like your videos. Do you know that solder corrodes? My brother was a aircraft mechanic and soldered joints are against FAA rules in an airplane.

[@retrozmachine1189]

In moist environments it is a concern but in this application it's not an issue. Even residual electronics grade flux isn't really an issue. Refer to the endless products you have in your house with soldered wires, PCBs coated with components soldered on etc.

[@PhilippeCJR]

is it not the plan to have all same lengths for the balance leads to avoid misreading by the balancer cause of different impedance?

[@BrindleBrown]

The length of the balance leads don’t matter in this case because no current (or more precisely, negligible current) is flowing in the lead while the voltage is being measured. This means there is no voltage drop from one end of the lead to the other.

[@PhilippeCJR]

@@BrindleBrown but a balancer is putting 2a or 4a on the leads or what :p

[@BrindleBrown]

@@PhilippeCJR It is a two step process. 1. Measure the voltage. 2. Transfer the energy. While transferring energy, there is definitely current flowing through the leads, and it will waste a tiny amount more energy on the long leads due to increased resistance, but that doesn’t matter. But during the measurement step, no significant current is flowing.

[@fellpower]

People without knowledge shouldnt do this things.........

[@olvano]

wow🤐🤐🤑😇

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

You had big luck... Do you really know what you are doing there? You are looking on a manual how to place the bridges, do it different than recommended and even do not recognize that you are going to short two cells....? Really ? Where were your thoughts at that moment? You do not protect yourself espacialy your eyes and you use non isolated tools.... Wow, this is a video showing how it should never been done !

Looks like the cells were not topped and at full charge potential but just had their 30% shipping charge on them.. The don't do this videos are a teaching moment but I would imagine that was not her goal or intent.. I was tempted to get a couple of the kit boxes but the shipping and import tax for those and cells were quite high to the USA.. Having a bonded import license is not on my list of too do's so I bought from a Chinese company that had a US import house and they include all the fees in the price.. New EVE cells shipped to your door for $97 each but they wanted far too much for the kits and completed 15kw boxes..

[@chrislewis3247]

why are u makng the battery so near to the box ones u could of move untl u make it done

[@cptjohn1143]

Please stop promoting such overpriced trash. Whoever needs an active balancer with the lifepo4 cells has either bad cells or a bad bms. You can get a proper housing from local metall companys and chose better quality cells. And for currents above 100A these busbars are dangerous and not certified, that is the reason why EVE changed them...