I hope you guys enjoyed my How to Build a Lithium Battery tutorial series. If you want to learn even more, I hope you'll consider checking out my Amazon #1 Bestselling book, DIY Lithium Batteries, available in paperback and ebook formats. a.co/iDtWdPX
Awesome video series! learned a lot from you. I don't understand something, would appreciate it if you could help. I thought all the time that the BMS was taking care of charging the batteries equally. From this video it seems that this is actually the purpose of the charger. So what is the BMS for?
Dude, you got some knowledge. I should've check this out sooner. I've been doing research for quite a while of how to convert a bicycle to a ebike. I did great converting gas power bicycle, and still ride it today. Now I'm going to do electric. Getting resources together first. Now here's the important question. When you charge 24, 52, and 72v 18650 lithium batteries. How can you balance them as well?
How are these batteries and chargers DIY?! All you did is putting prefab parts together, that you bought from a manufacturer.. That's not DIY, that's consumerism.
Hi Micah, great book, and terrific videos, thank you. Can you look at the graphic on page 120 of the book? Not to be a smart-@ss but it looks wrong, two negatives? I'm a newbie so I apologize if it's just my lack of knowledge.
I'm glad you mentioned the adjustable voltage charger later in the video. It's really not advisable to charge the Li-ion cells to 4.2 volts as this will significantly decrease the battery life and safety factor. 4.1V is best, as the 4.2 doesn't play any effectual role in power output as the voltage drops immediately upon initial use to 4.1, stabilizes around 3.7 until the capacity is low, and then drops to cutout voltage. This is Tesla's secret behind their unprecedented 8-year battery life warranty. Just thought it would be good to mention that to your viewers. It isn't commonly known, even manufacturer's spec sheets will state 4.2v / cell as charge level, when they themselves don't actually utilize that methodology.
Outstanding series, and I'll definitely be hitting you up for advice, as I carefully work out my plan for my bucket list adventure, building and riding an e-bike with custom built sidecar from coast to coast! I'm a 58 year old single Veteran starting life all over again, and I've dreamed of my epic sojourn for many years. Cheers, and thanks again for a very professional production!👍🇺🇸
Loved this entire series! I have absolutely no kind of engineering background and electrical related formal education, but this entire series was pretty easy to follow and intriguing as well! Thanks for detailed and clear explanations!
Fantastic series Mikey !! thanks so so much for that. I wish you had made one more though on the testing and demonstrated the balancing. But exellent stuff and really informative.
Thank you for this video, charging the battery has been the one thing I haven't known about, so many videos on how to build them but not how to maintained them. Great video.
Thank you Micah! I simply needed to replace a broken charger, the video and links were very helpful. my first order on ali express.Thanks for sharing this crucial information.
Really good video series, very well explained, but you need to make this point: The battery you built should always be charged to 100%. Charging to 90% will increase cell life, but the BMS only balances the cells at 100%, so at 90%, it'll go out of balance and lose capacity. Too many people have misunderstood the effect of 90% charging and wonder why there battery comes to early problems The balancing only happens when the cell-group bleed resistors open, which is at something like 4.17v. The BMS will allow a single cell-group to go to about 4.25v before it cuts the charging. Then, all the cells above say 4.17v bleed down to 4.17v, which is how the balancing works. Without that process, the discrepancies between the cell-groups gradually increases, The greater the discrepancy, the less usable capacity you have.
Any battery with good quality cells should only need to be balance charged (or charged to 100% so the BMS can balance) occasionally. Once every 10 or 15 charge cycles is plenty. Good quality cells inherently stay very closely balanced. If you are building a battery from recycled or random cells then yes, you should always charge to 100% to allow the battery to balance, just like you said.
Well, that is true for new cells and for the first year, possibly a bit longer. The truth is, we don't live in a perfect world and the issue with your approach is that even very minor differences get amplified. The reason I think you should always charge to 100% (100% being the voltage at which balancing starts) is that if you don't and the balancers don't do their work, you'll always slightly overcharge a few cells in the series. This makes them age faster than other cells, causing them to be overcharged a little more next time and so on. Eventually, you'll end up with quite a big difference and could end up destroying your pack if you only balance every 10 or 15 cycles. That being said, if you want to get the most of your battery pack, you'd do well to get a BMS with balancers that kick in at 4.1V per cell (and set the charge voltage accordingly, of course). That way, you can always charge the battery pack completely (from the pack design point of view) and always have the pack balanced. The slightly lowered charging voltage will also greatly increase the number of cycles you can get out of the pack (easily double the cycles, depending on how you use the cells). The price is slightly reduced capacity, which is somewhere in the area of 5 to 10%, depending on the cell chemistry.
It really depends on your use case. For high current applications, you will want cells with very low internal resistance. For very high current, you may go for LiMn (look for IMR at the beginning of the cell name, LG has some pretty good ones) cell chemistry, which has generally low capacity but can deliver very high currents in the order of 20C. A good balance between capacity, cycle life and max current per cell is achieved with Li(NiMnCo)O2 chemistry (look for INR at the beginning of the cell name. Samsung and LG both have good cells here, for instance the INR18650-29E). These types of cells are generally more tolerant to misuse and thermal runaway than the LiCoO2 cells. Also very good are Panasonic Li(NiAlCo)O2 cells (look for the Panasonic specific NCR in the beginning of the cell name). They have different variants, but you generally trade capacity for max current, but they all have good cycle life. They are a little bit less tolerant to misuse, but still better than LiCoO2.
i live like 15 min away from grin tech Vancouver warehouse, so i would occationaly walk in and check out what the are offering, they actually sold me a second hand satiator, worth it
I use an old PC power supply to get 12V at about 18amps max to which I connect a $20 chinese ebay "1200 watt" boost converter that lets me set voltage but also constant current up to a maximum charging rate that is slightly less than the 12v x 15a 180w input rate recommended. I also don't charge to 4.2v/cell but rather 4.0 or 4.1v For a 15S battery that might be a charge rate of 2.5a or for a 10S battery up to 4 amps.
Hey good job Rhian, that's exactly right and what Tesla themselves do to guarantee their 8-year warranty. PC power supplies are absolute goldmines for electronics benches, I have 11 that have been altered to suit one purpose or another, from 250w ones up to 900watt supplies.
Bought it, Satiator, 72 volts! what a hassle these batteries are! I had to (force) charge the battery. Not sure why, I could use the plastic no fan hoover board charger, get it to 50 volts. But the power was gone, as appossed to brand new. 4$13P style. It’s charging now at 0.02ampes I will give it 3.5 hrs, to make it to 55volts (overcharge)! Hopefully small amps will bring the scooter back, and make all this time worth while. Buying your book by the way.
Hello Mica and thanks for being there for us. Please, what VOLT AND CURRENT RATED charger do I NEED TO USE FOR A 3P 10 S LITHIUM ION BATTERY [4.1V EACH CELL] ?
Mica, I saw a E Bike build where he somehow added a charger plug like you have on a car for level II charging. He did this so he could take advantage of the free chargers at the public library and other free charger locations. I am planning on building a 72 volt system for a 50 miles round trip commute. That would work for me as I cannot easily remove such a large battery and would prefer to leave it installed
I appreciated this series on building batteries. I am preparing to build my first pack using lifepo4 cells. Before I buy another BMS and possibly do something foolish, is there a "got'cha" I am missing if I build two identical packs and harnesses to allow series or parallel connection of the PACKS - all I come up with is they need to be charged to exactly the same voltage before (parallel) connection and would need to be disconnected and charged separately. This idea is very attractive for many reasons but I've not seen it addressed anywhere. Cheers!
I hope you read my post. Here in the US we love camping and many people bring generators. I tried using mine , which is a 3000w , to charge my lithium ion batteries but my chargers were damaged and I had to get new ones. If a generator is supposed to put out 120 like a house wall socket , why did it burn them out. Also my sister has a 700w generator and in those instructions it says not safe for laptops and electronic equipment like that. Do you have any idea of what the heck happened? Is it possible to charge those batteries at all with a generator? Thank you for any help.
Excellent series learnt a lot from it. Have been pondering about a power pack but no idea how or where to start. My purpose is powering amateur radios, tablets and laptop on the go. I bought a power bank that does this but wanted to build my own with more power for longer time. Also bought your book for further reading before I start my project. One question, is it better to spot weld or use the Vrusend system? Your welder not too expensive but us it easy to use/setup? Perhaps a video series on the tools you use, why, how, when and any configuration etc would be good follow on. Thank you. Leeds UK.
Excellent as always ...but what if you don't use a BMS and you have batteries in parallel that the recommended charge is at .5C. You could use a charger that puts out higher amperage ...correct? For instance you had a 4s4p battery built with 3AH 18650 batteries rated for .5C charge means you can use a charger rated at 6 amps and as high as 16V ...right? Of course it would need to be a balance charger when no BMS is involved.
Hey Ebike guy, I am at a stand still. I cannot find a video that discusses different types of charging connectors coming off the BMS. As well, I am entertaining either XLR or IEC connector. However, your BMS diagram shows 2 wires going to charging connector, but both XLR and IEC require 3 wires. I also purchased your book, but cannot get a specific answer there either. How do I connect either XLR or IEC to charging side of BMS/battery pack
For bigger S batteries you need a good charger that will handle. I have a skyRC I'ma b6Aac and works well up to 6s which is nice and great charging currents and all you can choose. Can also discharge for storage long term that uses CC/CV up or down to 3.8v which is perfect for liion and lipo. Using either will change the max cc/cv you go to. Lipo will be 4.1 i think and lipo is 4.2. so you can save some life. Also you have a computer programmer that i think you can change the top voltages and aruff but i cant remember its been forever. Also doubkes as NiMh and even leadacid and can charge your car battery.
Micah I LOVE your channel and recommend it all the time. Really appreciate all you do. Will certainly be buying your book and attempting my own build. Any thoughts on the cheaper spot welders, 20-30 range please? Also contemplating buying old ebike batteries and salvaging cells, any thoughts?? Thankyou Micah
Hey Micah thanks for sharing your knowledge with the TH-cam gang. Question about bms combined versus separate charge ports. Will scooters with regen breaking work with either option? Is there a preference?
Question: I am upgrading my RV which had 12v conventional lead acid car battery. I bought the 4-up lifepo4 batteries and a BMS to go with it. Can I use the existing charger, a WF8955 SMART charger which changes the voltage according to battery state? it does 1) bulk charge 14.4v for a depleted condition, then 2) absorption mode 13.6V for mid-charge, then 3) float charge 13.2V. In other words, can the BMS (Walfrontvth9zscx12) handle the varying input voltage, or does that create problems for the BMS? Do BMS's need a fixed, 14.6 volts?
Thanks for posting. I am looking for suggestions for a battery charger. I am currently converting a gas moped to electric. I am building a 72V (20S9P) battery using Samsung 50E 21700 5000mAh 9.8A cells. I am using a 100A BMS for a controller that will draw 60A. It looks like standard charging is 3-5 Amps, but was thinking it might be better to go for higher current 10-20A. I know that faster charging is not always good, but given the battery size, trying to figure out the best option for charger. Any suggestions on size or actual charger would be appreciated.
Hello, a question: I have a 13S10P battery. a cell has 2,500mAh. So can I calculate 10x2.5A and charge with 25A? how high could i go?? The original charger has 2A.
Thanks for the great 5 part series, very helpful indeed. Do you have a video on a large capacity 12v battery (for a motorhome), say 100AH or larger. I ideally would like a 200AH battery for my motorhome to replace my lead acid batteries. I have taken lots of info from your videos, but still struggling to work out how many cells id need, what budget cells I should buy, and which BMS I should buy for the battery/batteries. If you dont have a video, it would be a great one to make, there are lots of people with motorhomes in the same situation as me. Thank you Ryan
Very knowledgeable, thanks. Is it possible to balance charge my ebike lipo ion battery rated at 48v, 20Ah, 35A BMS? By charging/balancing it from both ends. With two 54.6v 2Amp chargers. 1st charger is a size 2.5 charging connector and the 2nd opposite side Dean's T connector? Learned this from my RC Truck Chargers adding multiple charging board. Thank-You.
Thanks a lot!!! Amazing and Informative Video!!! I have a question though........ How do I charge two or three of those battery packs in my EV with one charger at the same time??
Hi Firstly thanks very much for making these video's your presentation and knowledge is awesome, I am looking to build my first ebike and will be purchasing your ultimate ebike video course this week for some guidence in the design stage, I am also looking at your battery building book, my question is I am looking at the kindle version ( as I live in NZ ) but see there has been issues with the diagrams not showing in the book in Kindle format, is this still an issue please as it is going to cost me more than the book to get a paperback one shipped. Sorry for the stupid question. Cheers Dave
I would like to build my own 12v 3s10p battery pack for use at home, now when it comes to charging it can I use a solar panel to charge my battery pack?
Hi Mikey, I have a question for you, how to connect my lithium battery that came with only iec 320 c14 male plug on my ebike? Is iec 320 c14 plug for charging and dis-charging?
I found your videos very helpful and informative. I am working on my 48V 10Ah E-bike battery. I would appreciate any info on where to purchase some INR 18650 2500Mah cells of good quality at a decent price. Thanks
I am new to the battery building subculture. I would like to know what the advantages are of building your own batteries for an e-bike versus just buying a premade battery online?
I've been seeing a lot of folks take old tesla battery packs and rebuild them into new packs. I'm actually thinking about doing the same and dealing w/ removing the spot welded fuses. 600 bucks for 308 cells seems pretty good. but my application is different since it's automotive house battery that needs to be able to charge from 3 sources (alternator, solar, wall charger). I'm planning to make a 4s136p battery that gives me ~102 AH at 14.8v -- Would I need to buy 34 BMS boards or are there other solutions out there? I've been reading that the best chargers are individual cell chargers, but that seems a bit complicated. And I guess I'll also need to figure out how I want to wire in a battery separator.
Hi, I'm in the middle stages of my e-motor cycle build. The motor is rated at 11500kw (72v 200a) and I'm making a 20s52p pack (72v with each cell lowest spec being 2000mah) it basically comes out to about 7kw/h. Is there any charger you know of that can charge at those specs and have the battery fully charged in about 8 hours more or less?
Hi. I have a 6 cell 12600 mAh Lithium Ion battery pack with a 22.2V (06S) 60A BMS. It does not have a C- port. When I connect the battery to a balance charger and charge it on charging mode it shows an error. How can I charge the battery? Should I directly connect it to a SMPS (Set the SMPS it to the required V and I rating and then charge the battery)?
Hi Micah How can i charge my battery pack not together for example 6s8p ? It means instead of 25.2v with 4.2V ? Can i separate the battery pack for the charging time with a switch somehow for 1s8p? At this case i can charge it with less Watts.Thanks
What a great guide, I have a Question, Is there a way to incorporate in the battery pack build something to read / monitor the charge level of the pack? when you're in the field would be great to see how much charge is left in battery (without having to read the volts). Something like a a little screen with a % or a LED color indicator? If so, how are those devices called and how do you wire them to the battery? Thank you
A Bluetooth BMS is about the best you can get, you can see the amp draw voltage etc, the ones that show battery pack heat is helpful too, and some even keep logs, and all this is shown on your Phone! I really like the "Battery Medic" good price shows much more than most that cost 10 times as much, and it has the best precision I have seen, take a look, hope it helps. :) hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingtm-battery-medic-system-2s-6s.html
Does the charger connector have 3 pins? It appears to be an XLR audio or DMX lighting connector. They are similar in appearance but they are shielded differently.
Hi, thank you for the video. I did not quite understand: will it actually cause a trouble/damage if the charger provides 150 A, but the charger only rated for 100A? Thank you.
im gona restore a 36v bottle ebike kit,, as far i checked has 42 cells and it is 10s . but i cant find not smart charger for 10s , what you recommend? buy 2 6s smart chargers and split the 10s to 2 of 5s and delete the bms or find the 10s smart charger ,, they are sold out or i cant find a online shop that sells 1
Hi. I'm will be building my own charger using a 36 volt switching power supply at 400 watts. I will connect that to a DC DC boost converter that lets me adjust voltage and amperage. What are your honest concerns or warnings or advise ? Btw my battery will be a 13s 4p using Samsung30q. Your willingness to share your knowledge is awesome with your vids.
1:37 Humm, I'm not sure if this is a good idea, it may be a terrible idea in fact. If your charger is capable of 15A and the BMS wants 20A, the BMS will try to pull 20A this will overload your charger, it may cause a fire or not work at all because the voltage will drop if you overload your charger. The smart way is to buy a power supply with the same or with a higher power, and use a 20A fuse to make sure things don't go south. Your BMS is not smart enough to know how much power your power supply can handle unless you tell it.
You never mention cell current and voltage monitoring modules. Don't you think it's a good idea to monitor the status of each cell? Then you can pinpoint problems early? It's just a question.
I was surprised you did not talk about the charging profile of these chargers. Are these chargers specifically designed for lithium ion batteries? The way a lead acid battery is charged is different than the way a lithium ion battery is charged. A lot of the battery chargers are designed solely for lead acid and at the end of the charge they do a float charge which is detrimental to the life of the lithium ion battery.
Yes, these are all li-ion specific chargers, which are CC-CV (constant current- constant voltage) profile chargers. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that that was obvious.
Hi Micah, I've seen in one of your videos that you mentioned that it is possible to mod the basic aluminum chargers to reduce the voltage or the current to don't charge our batteries to its 100%. I've been looking for tutorials through the web and TH-cam but no results... Do you know if there is any tutorial on how to do it? Thanks mate.
Hy mike, I am working on a solar electric bike project and I have a question. can we charge the battery pack on small amps while discharging it at higher rate?
Hi Micah, i have bin watching your vids for a while now.. like your content and what your'e doing i think helping people diy building batteries packs for all kind of uses helps reduce the strain we are all putting on this tiny blue ball we call earth.. i just bought two nice high end ebikes to do sum touring with my wife.. to be honest they are on the top if not a bit over my budget lets just say Riese&Muller is not cheap.. ah well i hope to be using them for years&years to come..only question i have is should i be using the provided charger or try to get an other one that chargers the batteries at a slower rate ?? They are using the new Bosh tube batteries.. i know that in the future i will be trying to put in new cells but that's after i buy a spare pack i'm hoping that's in 5yrs at least.. i don't think there is a way to hack the charger to charge at a slower rate.. Greetings from The Netherlands..
I have a 48V battery pack that I'm pretty sure is good But the circuit board likey has a crack. It started having issues while I was riding. It would stop powering the bike if I hit much of a bump. I could restart by again bumping the bike. It got progressively worse until it no longer works at all. That happened when the bike was two years old. The bike manufacturer no longer uses that battery. The dealer checked the bike & battery and confirmed it no longer worked. $540 for a new battery. The battery will charge but will not power the bike. All connections look good. For the last year I've been pedalling my old Treck. Over winter I hope to find the problem and fix it. I know nothing about the system! Hope this site helps.
I hope you guys enjoyed my How to Build a Lithium Battery tutorial series. If you want to learn even more, I hope you'll consider checking out my Amazon #1 Bestselling book, DIY Lithium Batteries, available in paperback and ebook formats. a.co/iDtWdPX
Awesome video series! learned a lot from you.
I don't understand something, would appreciate it if you could help.
I thought all the time that the BMS was taking care of charging the batteries equally. From this video it seems that this is actually the purpose of the charger.
So what is the BMS for?
Dude, you got some knowledge. I should've check this out sooner. I've been doing research for quite a while of how to convert a bicycle to a ebike. I did great converting gas power bicycle, and still ride it today. Now I'm going to do electric. Getting resources together first. Now here's the important question. When you charge 24, 52, and 72v 18650 lithium batteries. How can you balance them as well?
How are these batteries and chargers DIY?! All you did is putting prefab parts together, that you bought from a manufacturer.. That's not DIY, that's consumerism.
Sir fast charging how its work
Hi Micah, great book, and terrific videos, thank you. Can you look at the graphic on page 120 of the book? Not to be a smart-@ss but it looks wrong, two negatives? I'm a newbie so I apologize if it's just my lack of knowledge.
I hope you are a professor. Your teaching style is what everyone needs; straight forward, practical and no pretense. Very good series.
I'm glad you mentioned the adjustable voltage charger later in the video. It's really not advisable to charge the Li-ion cells to 4.2 volts as this will significantly decrease the battery life and safety factor. 4.1V is best, as the 4.2 doesn't play any effectual role in power output as the voltage drops immediately upon initial use to 4.1, stabilizes around 3.7 until the capacity is low, and then drops to cutout voltage. This is Tesla's secret behind their unprecedented 8-year battery life warranty. Just thought it would be good to mention that to your viewers. It isn't commonly known, even manufacturer's spec sheets will state 4.2v / cell as charge level, when they themselves don't actually utilize that methodology.
Outstanding series, and I'll definitely be hitting you up for advice, as I carefully work out my plan for my bucket list adventure, building and riding an e-bike with custom built sidecar from coast to coast!
I'm a 58 year old single Veteran starting life all over again, and I've dreamed of my epic sojourn for many years.
Cheers, and thanks again for a very professional production!👍🇺🇸
Loved this entire series! I have absolutely no kind of engineering background and electrical related formal education, but this entire series was pretty easy to follow and intriguing as well! Thanks for detailed and clear explanations!
Fantastic series Mikey !! thanks so so much for that. I wish you had made one more though on the testing and demonstrated the balancing. But exellent stuff and really informative.
Thank you for this video, charging the battery has been the one thing I haven't known about, so many videos on how to build them but not how to maintained them. Great video.
Thank you Micah! I simply needed to replace a broken charger, the video and links were very helpful. my first order on ali express.Thanks for sharing this crucial information.
thank you, loved learning about the Grin Cycle Satiator, probably getting one!
Really good video series, very well explained, but you need to make this point: The battery you built should always be charged to 100%. Charging to 90% will increase cell life, but the BMS only balances the cells at 100%, so at 90%, it'll go out of balance and lose capacity. Too many people have misunderstood the effect of 90% charging and wonder why there battery comes to early problems
The balancing only happens when the cell-group bleed resistors open, which is at something like 4.17v. The BMS will allow a single cell-group to go to about 4.25v before it cuts the charging. Then, all the cells above say 4.17v bleed down to 4.17v, which is how the balancing works. Without that process, the discrepancies between the cell-groups gradually increases, The greater the discrepancy, the less usable capacity you have.
Any battery with good quality cells should only need to be balance charged (or charged to 100% so the BMS can balance) occasionally. Once every 10 or 15 charge cycles is plenty. Good quality cells inherently stay very closely balanced. If you are building a battery from recycled or random cells then yes, you should always charge to 100% to allow the battery to balance, just like you said.
EbikeSchool.com how you know that batteries are charged (with bms)?
Well, that is true for new cells and for the first year, possibly a bit longer. The truth is, we don't live in a perfect world and the issue with your approach is that even very minor differences get amplified.
The reason I think you should always charge to 100% (100% being the voltage at which balancing starts) is that if you don't and the balancers don't do their work, you'll always slightly overcharge a few cells in the series. This makes them age faster than other cells, causing them to be overcharged a little more next time and so on. Eventually, you'll end up with quite a big difference and could end up destroying your pack if you only balance every 10 or 15 cycles.
That being said, if you want to get the most of your battery pack, you'd do well to get a BMS with balancers that kick in at 4.1V per cell (and set the charge voltage accordingly, of course). That way, you can always charge the battery pack completely (from the pack design point of view) and always have the pack balanced. The slightly lowered charging voltage will also greatly increase the number of cycles you can get out of the pack (easily double the cycles, depending on how you use the cells). The price is slightly reduced capacity, which is somewhere in the area of 5 to 10%, depending on the cell chemistry.
What batteries do you recommend for these kind of projects ? there are hundreds of choices online
It really depends on your use case. For high current applications, you will want cells with very low internal resistance. For very high current, you may go for LiMn (look for IMR at the beginning of the cell name, LG has some pretty good ones) cell chemistry, which has generally low capacity but can deliver very high currents in the order of 20C.
A good balance between capacity, cycle life and max current per cell is achieved with Li(NiMnCo)O2 chemistry (look for INR at the beginning of the cell name. Samsung and LG both have good cells here, for instance the INR18650-29E). These types of cells are generally more tolerant to misuse and thermal runaway than the LiCoO2 cells.
Also very good are Panasonic Li(NiAlCo)O2 cells (look for the Panasonic specific NCR in the beginning of the cell name). They have different variants, but you generally trade capacity for max current, but they all have good cycle life. They are a little bit less tolerant to misuse, but still better than LiCoO2.
i live like 15 min away from grin tech Vancouver warehouse, so i would occationaly walk in and check out what the are offering, they actually sold me a second hand satiator, worth it
Thanks for everything and also regarding chargers.God bless you.
I use an old PC power supply to get 12V at about 18amps max to which I connect a $20 chinese ebay "1200 watt" boost converter that lets me set voltage but also constant current up to a maximum charging rate that is slightly less than the 12v x 15a 180w input rate recommended. I also don't charge to 4.2v/cell but rather 4.0 or 4.1v For a 15S battery that might be a charge rate of 2.5a or for a 10S battery up to 4 amps.
Hey good job Rhian, that's exactly right and what Tesla themselves do to guarantee their 8-year warranty. PC power supplies are absolute goldmines for electronics benches, I have 11 that have been altered to suit one purpose or another, from 250w ones up to 900watt supplies.
Bought it, Satiator, 72 volts! what a hassle these batteries are! I had to (force) charge the battery. Not sure why, I could use the plastic no fan hoover board charger, get it to 50 volts. But the power was gone, as appossed to brand new. 4$13P style. It’s charging now at 0.02ampes I will give it 3.5 hrs, to make it to 55volts (overcharge)! Hopefully small amps will bring the scooter back, and make all this time worth while. Buying your book by the way.
I watched all the 5 parts and am confused as to where you would plug the power supply/charger into the kit to charge the battery kit.
lawl.. you sure you watched all 5? go back to the bms video and watch at around 3:00mins.. you're welcome.
Great videos. Any recommendations for a 24 pack of 18650 batteries all in parallel. A simple charger
Thanks for the video series Micah. Love that Satiator.
Hello Mica and thanks for being there for us. Please, what VOLT AND CURRENT RATED charger do I NEED TO USE FOR A 3P 10 S LITHIUM ION BATTERY [4.1V EACH CELL] ?
Dude thank you! Im gonna buy your book and make my own battery.
Mica, I saw a E Bike build where he somehow added a charger plug like you have on a car for level II charging. He did this so he could take advantage of the free chargers at the public library and other free charger locations. I am planning on building a 72 volt system for a 50 miles round trip commute. That would work for me as I cannot easily remove such a large battery and would prefer to leave it installed
Bro,
U explained very well and simple way to understand....
Great video dude. I use a 10 amp charger and bms limits 2-3 depending on what bms I’m using BUT I have a monster cooling system i custom made
That was one really good series on Li batteries ..
can i use lion phaspors battery charger for lifepo4 cell charging
The connecter is called IEC lead or some people call them kettle lead
Awesome series! Thank you very much for sharing and creating it. Excellent presentation style as well.
I appreciated this series on building batteries. I am preparing to build my first pack using lifepo4 cells. Before I buy another BMS and possibly do something foolish, is there a "got'cha" I am missing if I build two identical packs and harnesses to allow series or parallel connection of the PACKS - all I come up with is they need to be charged to exactly the same voltage before (parallel) connection and would need to be disconnected and charged separately. This idea is very attractive for many reasons but I've not seen it addressed anywhere. Cheers!
I hope you read my post. Here in the US we love camping and many people bring generators. I tried using mine , which is a 3000w , to charge my lithium ion batteries but my chargers were damaged and I had to get new ones. If a generator is supposed to put out 120 like a house wall socket , why did it burn them out. Also my sister has a 700w generator and in those instructions it says not safe for laptops and electronic equipment like that. Do you have any idea of what the heck happened? Is it possible to charge those batteries at all with a generator? Thank you for any help.
Hope u notice,,,some say that lithiun charger are not that good if u used lead acid charger? False or not? Thanks godblesa
Excellent series learnt a lot from it. Have been pondering about a power pack but no idea how or where to start. My purpose is powering amateur radios, tablets and laptop on the go. I bought a power bank that does this but wanted to build my own with more power for longer time. Also bought your book for further reading before I start my project. One question, is it better to spot weld or use the Vrusend system? Your welder not too expensive but us it easy to use/setup? Perhaps a video series on the tools you use, why, how, when and any configuration etc would be good follow on. Thank you. Leeds UK.
Excellent as always ...but what if you don't use a BMS and you have batteries in parallel that the recommended charge is at .5C. You could use a charger that puts out higher amperage ...correct? For instance you had a 4s4p battery built with 3AH 18650 batteries rated for .5C charge means you can use a charger rated at 6 amps and as high as 16V ...right? Of course it would need to be a balance charger when no BMS is involved.
Hey Ebike guy, I am at a stand still. I cannot find a video that discusses different types of charging connectors coming off the BMS. As well, I am entertaining either XLR or IEC connector. However, your BMS diagram shows 2 wires going to charging connector, but both XLR and IEC require 3 wires. I also purchased your book, but cannot get a specific answer there either. How do I connect either XLR or IEC to charging side of BMS/battery pack
For bigger S batteries you need a good charger that will handle.
I have a skyRC I'ma b6Aac and works well up to 6s which is nice and great charging currents and all you can choose. Can also discharge for storage long term that uses CC/CV up or down to 3.8v which is perfect for liion and lipo.
Using either will change the max cc/cv you go to. Lipo will be 4.1 i think and lipo is 4.2. so you can save some life. Also you have a computer programmer that i think you can change the top voltages and aruff but i cant remember its been forever.
Also doubkes as NiMh and even leadacid and can charge your car battery.
Micah I LOVE your channel and recommend it all the time.
Really appreciate all you do.
Will certainly be buying your book and attempting my own build.
Any thoughts on the cheaper spot welders, 20-30 range please?
Also contemplating buying old ebike batteries and salvaging cells, any thoughts??
Thankyou Micah
I am doing a 36v lifepo4 golf cart battery. What do you recommend for that?
Hey Micah thanks for sharing your knowledge with the TH-cam gang. Question about bms combined versus separate charge ports. Will scooters with regen breaking work with either option? Is there a preference?
Question: I am upgrading my RV which had 12v conventional lead acid car battery. I bought the 4-up lifepo4 batteries and a BMS to go with it. Can I use the existing charger, a WF8955 SMART charger which changes the voltage according to battery state? it does 1) bulk charge 14.4v for a depleted condition, then 2) absorption mode 13.6V for mid-charge, then 3) float charge 13.2V. In other words, can the BMS (Walfrontvth9zscx12) handle the varying input voltage, or does that create problems for the BMS? Do BMS's need a fixed, 14.6 volts?
Thanks for posting. I am looking for suggestions for a battery charger. I am currently converting a gas moped to electric. I am building a 72V (20S9P) battery using Samsung 50E 21700 5000mAh 9.8A cells. I am using a 100A BMS for a controller that will draw 60A. It looks like standard charging is 3-5 Amps, but was thinking it might be better to go for higher current 10-20A. I know that faster charging is not always good, but given the battery size, trying to figure out the best option for charger. Any suggestions on size or actual charger would be appreciated.
Just got a Grin satiator the best A1 like no other ! $500 Australian !
Hello, a question: I have a 13S10P battery. a cell has 2,500mAh. So can I calculate 10x2.5A and charge with 25A? how high could i go?? The original charger has 2A.
The plug for the PC is called IEC c13
Thanks for the great 5 part series, very helpful indeed.
Do you have a video on a large capacity 12v battery (for a motorhome), say 100AH or larger.
I ideally would like a 200AH battery for my motorhome to replace my lead acid batteries.
I have taken lots of info from your videos, but still struggling to work out how many cells id need, what budget cells I should buy, and which BMS I should buy for the battery/batteries.
If you dont have a video, it would be a great one to make, there are lots of people with motorhomes in the same situation as me.
Thank you Ryan
Very knowledgeable, thanks. Is it possible to balance charge my ebike lipo ion battery rated at 48v, 20Ah, 35A BMS? By charging/balancing it from both ends. With two 54.6v 2Amp chargers. 1st charger is a size 2.5 charging connector and the 2nd opposite side Dean's T connector? Learned this from my RC Truck Chargers adding multiple charging board. Thank-You.
Thank you for the great videos. I have a Hialong battery. Does the battery power switch need to be on to charge it ?
Thanks a lot!!! Amazing and Informative Video!!!
I have a question though........
How do I charge two or three of those battery packs in my EV with one charger at the same time??
Hi Firstly thanks very much for making these video's your presentation and knowledge is awesome, I am looking to build my first ebike and will be purchasing your ultimate ebike video course this week for some guidence in the design stage, I am also looking at your battery building book, my question is I am looking at the kindle version ( as I live in NZ ) but see there has been issues with the diagrams not showing in the book in Kindle format, is this still an issue please as it is going to cost me more than the book to get a paperback one shipped. Sorry for the stupid question. Cheers Dave
I have wavecrest Ebike, I am trying to convert it to LiFe battery. Do you have video on it?
Can i use my original ebike charger on my external, custom made ebike battery?
I would like to build my own 12v 3s10p battery pack for use at home, now when it comes to charging it can I use a solar panel to charge my battery pack?
Hi Mikey, I have a question for you, how to connect my lithium battery that came with only iec 320 c14 male plug on my ebike? Is iec 320 c14 plug for charging and dis-charging?
Great Video Micha. Could you please add more links to reference Israeli made batteries? Thanks,
I found your videos very helpful and informative. I am working on my 48V 10Ah E-bike battery. I would appreciate any info on where to purchase some INR 18650 2500Mah cells of good quality at a decent price. Thanks
Hi Nice video, I m building 7s 7p 24v battery. With 7s 30A, which charger is best for this?
are the charges anything more than a power supply because I might just make my own
Can you use Electric vehicle charging station to charge your lithium battery?
So for a 12v battery, do you go with. 11.1v or 14.8v? Because 3.7v does not divide evenly, or even close to 12v.
I am new to the battery building subculture. I would like to know what the advantages are of building your own batteries for an e-bike versus just buying a premade battery online?
I've been seeing a lot of folks take old tesla battery packs and rebuild them into new packs. I'm actually thinking about doing the same and dealing w/ removing the spot welded fuses. 600 bucks for 308 cells seems pretty good. but my application is different since it's automotive house battery that needs to be able to charge from 3 sources (alternator, solar, wall charger).
I'm planning to make a 4s136p battery that gives me ~102 AH at 14.8v -- Would I need to buy 34 BMS boards or are there other solutions out there? I've been reading that the best chargers are individual cell chargers, but that seems a bit complicated. And I guess I'll also need to figure out how I want to wire in a battery separator.
where on the spec sheet should I find the charge rate of my bms? Is it just the discharge rate? Or should I look at the max chargerate of my cells?
A lot of your videos have broken links to 18650 batteries :/
Hi, I'm in the middle stages of my e-motor cycle build. The motor is rated at 11500kw (72v 200a) and I'm making a 20s52p pack (72v with each cell lowest spec being 2000mah) it basically comes out to about 7kw/h. Is there any charger you know of that can charge at those specs and have the battery fully charged in about 8 hours more or less?
Why do you limit the size of the charger? I thought the BMS would limit the voltage and charge current so the charger does not need to.
What are your thoughts on the GRIN Cycle Satiator..? My 52v hailong battery pack shows a limit of 4amps.
Hi. I have a 6 cell 12600 mAh Lithium Ion battery pack with a 22.2V (06S) 60A BMS. It does not have a C- port. When I connect the battery to a balance charger and charge it on charging mode it shows an error. How can I charge the battery? Should I directly connect it to a SMPS (Set the SMPS it to the required V and I rating and then charge the battery)?
Dear Mr. EBikeSchool,
Does the indicator light on your vruzend battery charger turn from red to green when the battery is fully charged?
So its safe to use an adapter i bought a used ebike with a two pin gx16 charger and wanted to go from 3a to 5a charger
Can I use this same battery as powerbank with the right output adapters?
Do you know about bottom balancing to make the best possible balancing?
Can I make my 48v charger work on my 52v triangular battery that I have just built.
David UK
Hi Micah How can i charge my battery pack not together for example 6s8p ? It means instead of 25.2v with 4.2V ? Can i separate the battery pack for the charging time with a switch somehow for 1s8p? At this case i can charge it with less Watts.Thanks
Great Video Micah.
I have your Book.
What a great guide, I have a Question,
Is there a way to incorporate in the battery pack build something to read / monitor the charge level of the pack? when you're in the field would be great to see how much charge is left in battery (without having to read the volts). Something like a a little screen with a % or a LED color indicator? If so, how are those devices called and how do you wire them to the battery?
Thank you
A Bluetooth BMS is about the best you can get, you can see the amp draw voltage etc, the ones that show battery pack heat is helpful too, and some even keep logs, and all this is shown on your Phone! I really like the "Battery Medic" good price shows much more than most that cost 10 times as much, and it has the best precision I have seen, take a look, hope it helps. :) hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingtm-battery-medic-system-2s-6s.html
Does the charger connector have 3 pins? It appears to be an XLR audio or DMX lighting connector. They are similar in appearance but they are shielded differently.
Sir were i can buy ur book
I'm bringing again on your vids. Could you give more details on your adapters?
could I use these batteries to store power from a solar panel.
Hi, thank you for the video. I did not quite understand: will it actually cause a trouble/damage if the charger provides 150 A, but the charger only rated for 100A? Thank you.
Thanks for this info, much needed.
im gona restore a 36v bottle ebike kit,, as far i checked has 42 cells and it is 10s . but i cant find not smart charger for 10s , what you recommend? buy 2 6s smart chargers and split the 10s to 2 of 5s and delete the bms or find the 10s smart charger ,, they are sold out or i cant find a online shop that sells 1
Connector you're looking for at 5m43s is a C13 connector (PC power cord)
thanks!
Hi. I'm will be building my own charger using a 36 volt switching power supply at 400 watts. I will connect that to a DC DC boost converter that lets me adjust voltage and amperage. What are your honest concerns or warnings or advise ? Btw my battery will be a 13s 4p using Samsung30q. Your willingness to share your knowledge is awesome with your vids.
i have a bms for 4s can i use a laptop charger 19v 2.1a to charge cells or it's dangerous
1:37 Humm, I'm not sure if this is a good idea, it may be a terrible idea in fact.
If your charger is capable of 15A and the BMS wants 20A, the BMS will try to pull 20A this will overload your charger, it may cause a fire or not work at all because the voltage will drop if you overload your charger.
The smart way is to buy a power supply with the same or with a higher power, and use a 20A fuse to make sure things don't go south.
Your BMS is not smart enough to know how much power your power supply can handle unless you tell it.
You never mention cell current and voltage monitoring modules.
Don't you think it's a good idea to monitor the status of each cell?
Then you can pinpoint problems early?
It's just a question.
Can I just use a voltage and ampere controller for charging?
LiFEPO4 is 3.65v - 3.2v nominal and I seen as low as 2v discharge but I always say 2.5 to 2.8
I was surprised you did not talk about the charging profile of these chargers. Are these chargers specifically designed for lithium ion batteries? The way a lead acid battery is charged is different than the way a lithium ion battery is charged. A lot of the battery chargers are designed solely for lead acid and at the end of the charge they do a float charge which is detrimental to the life of the lithium ion battery.
Yes, these are all li-ion specific chargers, which are CC-CV (constant current- constant voltage) profile chargers. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that that was obvious.
Hi Micah,
I've seen in one of your videos that you mentioned that it is possible to mod the basic aluminum chargers to reduce the voltage or the current to don't charge our batteries to its 100%.
I've been looking for tutorials through the web and TH-cam but no results... Do you know if there is any tutorial on how to do it? Thanks mate.
Thank you for very informative videos, will be using a lot of your ideas when re-building mine.
Hy mike, I am working on a solar electric bike project and I have a question. can we charge the battery pack on small amps while discharging it at higher rate?
Hi Micah, i have bin watching your vids for a while now.. like your content and what your'e doing i think helping people diy building batteries packs for all kind of uses helps reduce the strain we are all putting on this tiny blue ball we call earth..
i just bought two nice high end ebikes to do sum touring with my wife.. to be honest they are on the top if not a bit over my budget lets just say Riese&Muller is not cheap.. ah well i hope to be using them for years&years to come..only question i have is should i be using the provided charger or try to get an other one that chargers the batteries at a slower rate ?? They are using the new Bosh tube batteries.. i know that in the future i will be trying to put in new cells but that's after i buy a spare pack i'm hoping that's in 5yrs at least.. i don't think there is a way to hack the charger to charge at a slower rate..
Greetings from The Netherlands..
An excellent series ! Thanks!
Where can i get 42v and 30A charger from 235V whitaut balancing
You the man son!
Hi, could you update your links, please. Some of them are out of date. Thanks
I have a 48V battery pack that I'm pretty sure is good But the circuit board likey has a crack. It started having issues while I was riding. It would stop powering the bike if I hit much of a bump. I could restart by again bumping the bike. It got progressively worse until it no longer works at all. That happened when the bike was two years old. The bike manufacturer no longer uses that battery. The dealer checked the bike & battery and confirmed it no longer worked. $540 for a new battery. The battery will charge but will not power the bike. All connections look good. For the last year I've been pedalling my old Treck. Over winter I hope to find the problem and fix it. I know nothing about the system! Hope this site helps.
What about make it yourself chargers?
I have a battery with xt60 outlet. I'm unable to find a 36v charger with that outlet. Any tips on that
Can I charge a lithium ion battery 48v with a car battery charger?
Well car battery chargers output roughly 13-14v so it wouldn't be enough.
Sir, can I use my 42v 2A charger to my 48v lithium battery pack?...thank for your answer