Andy just when I thought you've already helped us all out enough with your advert free videos, you go and do this selfless act for someone in need. What an absolute champion you are 🥰
Great idea to buy this man a charger for his electric buggy. I live in the UK and have an account with a Victron distributor. I could purchase this charger at a reduced price. Why add to the profits of Amazon if you don't need to. Happy to help.
As someone who has MS/Anti-Mog.. when you were talking about the story when he brought up about the batteries are just important as your legs are to you. That's so true you don't realize what you have until it's gone don't take life for granted... And what you were doing good Sir is so awesome. We need more good people like you and all of you that are helping someone elses in need.. if everyone could do that we could change the world. Make the world the way it was supposed to be !!!
Very philanthropic, love it! Still, Philips charger is beautiful craftsmanship and it would be a waste to not use it as intended. A boost/buck will indeed do the charging as good as the Victron charger (for lifepo4 that is), the BMS will make sure there’s no overcharge! Spend the money on something useful! I would go with a victron smartshunt for the the mobilityscooter instead 🤗
Hi Andy! Andrew from Calgary, Canada here. I don't trust the boost converter to feed directly into my batteries. I do, however, use it to feed into my MPPT charge controller on my camping trailer (or caravan, as you prefer) from my towing pickup (or ute, as you prefer) to charge the LiFePO4 batteries from my vehicle alternator. By boosting the 14.4V alternator output to 36V to match my solar panel output I add about 360W of charging through my regular trailer 7 pin electrical connector which is limited to 10 amps. When camping in the forests of Western Canada there is very little light at ground level under the forest canopy. Being able to recharge more while travelling between sites can be very useful to avoid having to use a generator. And we camp in winter with temperatures down to -25C, so having power for the propane furnace is vital. You can buy products that allow you to charge an auxiliary battery from an alternator, but they cost about $240 CAD compared to $10 for adding one of these connected to an existing solar MPPT.
Interesting. How does the MPPT handles the situation if the battery is full? Normally it would steer the panel in a inefficient area of the UI curve to lower charge current. But with a CV source as the input???
@Cedillallidec did you practice this method for long time...? My plan is use the boost converter to charge my 12V VRLA battery from my car's alternator (14.4v traditional alternator). Or you have any better sugestion...? Thank in advance...
What a great idea! @Philip, get a better charger! Thanks for the opportunity, looking forward to the video chat with him :) And yes, I would not mind to use the DC2DC converter myself, but I am a tinkerer, I would buy 2-3 spare. But my life does not depend on it, so it's a irrelevant opinion.
Sir, long time watcher, first time commenter. You are a great person doing great things. Now, you are spreading the great. Love your heart, GREAT SIR. Enjoy the "beers" sent to you and Philip.
You sir not only funny and entertaining you are well educated you explain things excellent for even someone who has no clue what they are doing with electronics in the first place and after watching this entire video and it's whole I have to say you are entirely a good person as well may God bless you and may you have a fruitful and long life
Thanks so much Andy! I was just looking for some Boost Converters for a Solar EV project and seeing a real-world test of just what I was planning to do was PERFECT! Your DC-DC Converter resource page in the description was excellent, I just wish I had come to your garage and that page first, it would have saved me hours digging online.
Good on ya ALL, for helping out Phil like that! I have used these cheap Chinese buck, boost & boost/buck types for different projects and voltages, they are fine for so many things, and even setup correctly could charge lithium batteries to some extent, but I agree with your comments Andy, and always go for a reasonably larger size converter than anticipated load, and fans obviously do make a big difference for higher outputs. They could be handy for cheap 48v - 5v, 12v, 24v outputs for various controls and cheap projects like LED lighting. I have used them regularly with 12v - 35v boost for LED floodlights and 12v homemade high bay LED lights too, very handy & cheap, but dont push their limits or temperature too far, we know what happens, magic smoke!
I bought the "1800w" version of that boost converter. I found the hottest part to be the cheap output capacitors, so I added a few more in parallel. Efficiency was basically the same as yours.
Yes, I have been using one of these for about 2.5 years, from a battery build by Jehu Garcia (Jag35), the BMS protects from over charging. The larger version of your converter has built in fan and stand offs 👍
Exactly! That's what the BMS is for. I don't know what kind of magic people think is in the Victron charger. It's the same technology, same chips, but with a warranty, markup and a walled garden. Oh, and if anything fails in the Victron, it's toast. Anything fails on your cheap-o converter - you can actually repair it.
@@rokask I have both, in the UK they maybe cloudy weeks, and need to charge on grid, the converter powered by HP server power supply outputs a very clean 12VDC. These power supplies are very cheap from ebay. Victron 75/10 is good kit and the app allows easy configuration. But if I had taken more time to look at my needs may have bought a Buddy Pole - POWERmini or POWERplus, which are all on screen configure. They are more robust compared to the Victron, and it irritates me that I have switch my satnav on my phone before the Connect app will switch on, if I knew that at the time of purchase I would have never bought 75/10. Buddy Pole does not track you 👍
Andy, thank you for loads of inspiration and effort! I think that charging batteries with Chinese DC/DC converters is perfectly fine if proper fuses or breakers are being used. I also think that Philip could have some more urgent idea how to spend some donation gift.
Thanks for the buck boost test, i was wondering about the claimed efficiency Better idea then just buying things is build things yourself; Reduce, reuse, recycle, re purpose and learn.
I think Philip did an awesome job building a charger for his battery pack. I have had no problems with using DC-DC modules charging any batteries I use, because the "proper charger" is only a buck converter or SMPS with a fancy software to control it and a big metal box to put it in, Phillip already did an awesome job with his charger box complete with waterproof connectors. Batteries really only degrade from high charge or discharge currents, so my argument would be that there will be no difference between a 16A DC-DC converter and the 16A Victron Charger. My reason is that he has a BMS already, so if the charger was getting hot and drifting its voltage if that is bad enough the BMS will trip and nothing bad will happen. And lastly 16A charging a bettery is 16A charging a battery, it makes no difference where it came from.
@@russellm7530 that would be a good precaution but with large currents you would not want a normal diode, instead you would want an ideal diode module. However it is not necessary if you are not going to leave the boost converter connected 24/7. The circuitry in those is very simple, the output side has a voltage divider and an indicator LED, then current flow would stop at the diodes already in the converter. Now for reverse polarity protection it could be useful but stopping the drain of a large battery through an LED and some high value resistors. So there is not much point in adding diodes just for that.
I'm thinking of buying some of these to make a battery to battery charger for my boat. If you can trust it, the AliExpress listing says "Output Counter filling: Yes, for charging plus blocking diode is not required." I take that to mean the output battery can't pass current backwards into the input battery (or solar panel), but who knows.
@@bhartley1024 Yes boost converters can only flow in one direction (part of how they are wired) The internal diode would have to fail short which would instantly destroy the converter anyway. The only extra protection you have to add is a BMS or fuses to the battery you are charging, so if the boost converter did blow up (which they definitely do as I have popped all 3 of mine at least once because the mosfet got too hot) you would need to protect the battery under charge not just the input to the converter.
Excellent idea and effort for Phillip, you are Top Man on that one Andy. As for your question regarding if I would use a Cheap DC converter to charge an LFE pack, I've seen cheap 'non-isolated' DC Buck converter based chargers fail to a higher voltage, and once a AC to DC power adapter deliver 110vac out the DC port. I would only use a DC-converter to charge an LFE battery with a secondary or even third means of reliable overcharging protection in the case of Li-On charging. I would expect that Phillip's BMS likely has over-charging protection and possibly thermal over-temp protection, but many don't recommend relying on BMS over-charging protection when using a cheap charger, especially with Li-On. So for a mission critical application like Phillip's I would think the Victron charger an almost essential precaution. Other, possible protection precautions could be installing charging fuses in-line with the charging circuit and fusing it to very slightly above the charging current, so if a dramatic increase in charging current were to occur the fuse might interrupt the circuit.Along with a charge protection fuse. I've also used reverse power blocking Diodes to protect against reverse connections and if a charger output were to latch to ground or somehow reverse polarity. There are adjustable inexpensive over/undercharging protection modules with solid-state relays for only a few $ that could be used, but if the charging current is only an amp or two, an adjustable Voltage regulator inline after the DC-Converter set to say .3 volt over the charge voltage could offer some additional protection. An AC line timer set to charge once for the expected charging time is something I've used on non float voltage chargers on Lead-Acid batteries. Many years ago before BMS systems when I was maintaining very large industrial Flooded Ni-Cad emergency power packs, and we had issues with thermal run-away and massive fires during charging that caused millions of $ of damage. I designed a simple protection system that utilized simple LM339 voltage detector circuits on cell banks, and if if any cell banks went over charge voltage it would cut the Line supply to the charger, and signal an alarm. I also connected thermocouple temperature monitors on each cell (literally dozens) in each bank that-would cut charging power if any cell experienced a temperature rise.
I've been using one of these boost converters for quite some time. Strangely enough, I did an efficiency test yesterday also. I actually use it to charge my 48v powerwalls from my 24v so I expect the efficiency to be roughly the same for overall power. Input Voltage Input Current Input Power Output Voltage Output Current Output Power Efficiency 13.26 5.09 67.49 30.06 1.88 57.51 83.73% 13.24 10.19 134.92 30.00 4.00 120.00 88.94% 13.23 15.08 199.51 29.96 5.98 179.16 89.80% 13.22 20.07 265.33 29.91 7.81 233.60 88.04% 13.19 25.28 333.44 29.81 9.8 292.14 87.61% 13.18 30 395.40 29.71 11.44 340.88 85.96%
@@diydsolar kind of... If you leave the output connected then it keeps the output capacitors charged and the led lit but that's about it... It doesn't use much energy.
Looking forward to a video on LTO batteries. It is the battery you buy for life... And your children's life... And probably your grandchildren's life. :-)
Love your enthusiasm! It makes it much more interesting. Top tutorials ❤. Cheers from Australia subbed and liked 👍. Edit: sorry mate! I forgot that you are in Australia 🇦🇺? So cheers from Brisbane.
3 ปีที่แล้ว +4
The *best* battery charger is *constant current/constant voltage* No mppt, no smartphone, no microcontrollers, absorption and other crap. (Only lead needs an absorption curve) These cheap buck converters are just fine or better than an expensive smart charger that could glitch on you from esd or random firmware corruption. The overcharge situation cannot occur because, any sane person designing a constrained electrical system takes all the steps and a few more to ensure the constrains are never exceeded. Current fuses, input and output, to prevent overcurrents and fire, adequate cooling, thermal fuses, solid contacts and plugs, *precise* voltage settings and *conservative* current settings. Charging a li-xxx battery with 0.5C or less and making sure the BMS does it's job are crucial to battery longevity and safety. Not the fancy charging curves and bluetooth connectivity. I worked in the computer/electronics domain for the last 20 years and the lesson I learned in the last 30+ years of studying electronics is that, for mission critical applications, *dumb is way better than smart.* Dumb electronics* :)
I don't see anything wrong with a buck converter for charging, but not for a long term solution. Great work uncle Andy, and a great gesture , hope you don't mind the term uncle.
A great idea to help Phillip out. But... there are countless Phillips and others with the same dilemma. The truth, in my view, is that MPPT charge controller and other Lifepo4 battery charger manufacturers are gouging the public, prices keep going up and up. This is fine in a supply/ demand economy. But, how about the Phillips? What I mean is, we should use our collective brain power to find/ make a reasonable alternative to what they want to sell us.
Absolutely agree with this. I made my own BMS for partly this reason and partly because I had specific needs as running hybrid. The brand name manufacturers are trading on the general ignorance of the battery using public and building on the inherent fear of the unknown to sell products at an inflated price that do far more than needed and often duplicate the actual required functions that are already in a BMS (as opposed to a simple battery protection system) Sites such as this are great in educating people away from reliance on the brand names and promoting understanding over blind faith.
Donation Sent, get Philip charged! :) BTW I'd say probably don't connect those cheap boost converters to something expensive, like a big battery bank. Consider what happens if just one of the potentiometers fail.
Great video. I would keep an eye when using Buck converter since the failure mode of the switching MOSFET is shorted circuit which means it will dump input Voltage to the output and damage the load. BTW, great idea on the donation.
that is true, but the big red module is actually a boost converter, and their failure mode is to direct short to ground, which will immediately bow its input fuses, leaving the output safe from a voltage spike because there are diodes pointing toward the output.
I have been doing this for years when doing a capacity test on batteries. We work very had to produce our electricity why waste it. Gave Philip 4 Beers. Why not with extra money buy Philip an extra battery. I know with with all your millions of viewers you will get a lot of donations
Thank you very much! I would like a boost converter working from 2.5V with a high current so I can test single cells. I guess I have to invest in an iCharger at some stage...
What I do is to use the boost converter to set the target charge voltage but also use those cheap cell-level monitors to watch that no individual cell exceeds 4.2v or it makes a very loud noise. (I also check both with a cheap voltmeter and cheap voltage reference).
A tip from someone who killed a lot of these things. Be careful so the battery connected to input and battery connected to output do not share common negative or common ground if ground is connected to negative. It will blow up the converter because most of these dont isolate output and input
Philip can monitor his batteries and never leaves them longer then overnight, he has the smarts, don't make things too complicated, more to go wrong and more $ Over voltage under voltage and temperature monitor is all you need, make an alarm sound
I'm not sure if you are aware of this, the constant current adjustment is for the output current, not the input current. I always use buck-boost converters which can give a constant voltage output even when you don't know what the input will be, the price is not that different. However, for using multiple solar panels in parallel, if you use a common input into a single DC converter you are going to have difficulty balancing the inputs. Similarly, if you use an individual DC converter for each panel you are going to have difficulty balancing the outputs. You can try to balance these with low value high power resistors but he only absolute way to get around this is to have converters where the output chips are synchronised with regard to the voltage, but these are expensive. Good luck with this.
I am doing similar use. Having two 1800 Watt boost converter. One adjusted to 48v and another one is 12v. meaning if we are doing offigrid camping then can charge it from either from 12v or 48v.
if i was able to have good monitoring of the buck output, id personally be very happy to use the buck-boost converter as the sole charger.. BMS-balancer should be fine to keep the battery in check 👌 love your work mate, keep it up (🍻🍻)
Oh I didnt watch until the end and didnt know there is a donation option on the website. I hit the youtube thanks button hastily … is this also going into the philipp fund? (minus apple and google fees)
I am planning to use these boost converters to use them as MPPT for a 16s (54 V) LiFePO4 battery. They only cost 14 USD , will handle two 550W panels, and no need to buy expensive MPPT devices.
The icharger can regenerative discharge a battery with 30A and tell you the Ah and Wh. The icharger is expensive, and I have not personally used one, but different videos look really promising.
I agree, I use an Icharger 4010 duo in my Garage to charge My DIY 15S E-Bike (2 separate batteries) 8S & 7S -10P. I also use an Icharger X8 which stays in the house for Charging smaller DIY battery packs. I don't use any BMS, I don't trust what I can't see, regarding Cell voltages. (Bms can fail destroying expensive cells within your battery 👎) However ofcourse I would use a very expensive BMS if I was buying 200 - 300Ah Lifepo4 Cells for an offgrid situation. The Ichargers charge & balance all my batteries within 1mV & to whatever Voltage & current I choose. 👍👌
yes i used buck/boost converter to charge my portable packs and my battery system when i was offgrid for a few years once the cc/cv voltage is set they work like any other lithium charger
I would not trust a $10 buck boost to charge my battery as something set and forget. I would trust a high quality one on the other hand if my battery has bms protection for over voltage and i was keeping an eye on it. But a charger is best. And for Phillip this is not so much a hobby thing but is a necessity and financially he needs the batteries to last as long as they can and a charger is going to achieve this.
the solar boost controller the green ones i told you about will work to charge input can be from a laptop charger or even solar i know alot whop charge ebikes like this
Bevor es noch nicht den PD Standert gab habe ich auch immer Buck Boost converters verwenden aber mit PD Standert brauchen ich es nicht mehr so of da PD 9v 12v 15v und 20v liefert und einfach fasst überall verfügbar ist
Andy just when I thought you've already helped us all out enough with your advert free videos, you go and do this selfless act for someone in need. What an absolute champion you are 🥰
Great idea to buy this man a charger for his electric buggy.
I live in the UK and have an account with a Victron distributor. I could purchase this charger at a reduced price.
Why add to the profits of Amazon if you don't need to.
Happy to help.
Vell?? Vwat happendz??? Did zee German get back to you on ziss, your propozal??
As someone who has MS/Anti-Mog.. when you were talking about the story when he brought up about the batteries are just important as your legs are to you. That's so true you don't realize what you have until it's gone don't take life for granted... And what you were doing good Sir is so awesome. We need more good people like you and all of you that are helping someone elses in need.. if everyone could do that we could change the world. Make the world the way it was supposed to be !!!
I joined MS and cancer Diagnose in the past. It is a pleasure to help here. All the best to All of you. NEVER GIVE UP
Great, thank you!
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
Very philanthropic, love it!
Still, Philips charger is beautiful craftsmanship and it would be a waste to not use it as intended. A boost/buck will indeed do the charging as good as the Victron charger (for lifepo4 that is), the BMS will make sure there’s no overcharge! Spend the money on something useful! I would go with a victron smartshunt for the the mobilityscooter instead 🤗
Love your channel Andy 🤗
Danke!
Thank you very much!
Hi Andy! Andrew from Calgary, Canada here. I don't trust the boost converter to feed directly into my batteries. I do, however, use it to feed into my MPPT charge controller on my camping trailer (or caravan, as you prefer) from my towing pickup (or ute, as you prefer) to charge the LiFePO4 batteries from my vehicle alternator. By boosting the 14.4V alternator output to 36V to match my solar panel output I add about 360W of charging through my regular trailer 7 pin electrical connector which is limited to 10 amps. When camping in the forests of Western Canada there is very little light at ground level under the forest canopy. Being able to recharge more while travelling between sites can be very useful to avoid having to use a generator. And we camp in winter with temperatures down to -25C, so having power for the propane furnace is vital. You can buy products that allow you to charge an auxiliary battery from an alternator, but they cost about $240 CAD compared to $10 for adding one of these connected to an existing solar MPPT.
Hi Neighbour, 21hrs east of you =D
Interesting. How does the MPPT handles the situation if the battery is full? Normally it would steer the panel in a inefficient area of the UI curve to lower charge current. But with a CV source as the input???
@Cedillallidec did you practice this method for long time...? My plan is use the boost converter to charge my 12V VRLA battery from my car's alternator (14.4v traditional alternator). Or you have any better sugestion...?
Thank in advance...
Bedankt
Thank you very much!
What a great idea! @Philip, get a better charger! Thanks for the opportunity, looking forward to the video chat with him :)
And yes, I would not mind to use the DC2DC converter myself, but I am a tinkerer, I would buy 2-3 spare. But my life does not depend on it, so it's a irrelevant opinion.
Thanks
Thank you very much!
Thank you Andy to do this you are a true gentleman and thank you for your show you always do very inspiring things from South Africa
Thank you very much!
Sir, long time watcher, first time commenter. You are a great person doing great things. Now, you are spreading the great. Love your heart, GREAT SIR. Enjoy the "beers" sent to you and Philip.
Thank you very much! This is appreciated!
Putting your hand on a live circuit board while wearing your wedding ring! You like to live life on the edge.
I would need to touch two life wires at the same time with the same ring and enough current. That's not gonna happen.
That's why I don't wear my wedding ring. My wife though doesn't really understand that, lol
@@OffGridGarageAustraliaBoss pisss to install do sola......👌
Excellent idea Andy!! 5 "beers" is my donation!
2 beers 🍻
Thank you very much both of you!
I had the exact same buck converter to charge me Ebike, went POP after a few months....... What a great idea Andy, love is king!
Thank you very much!
...yep, excellent idea Andy.
You sir not only funny and entertaining you are well educated you explain things excellent for even someone who has no clue what they are doing with electronics in the first place and after watching this entire video and it's whole I have to say you are entirely a good person as well may God bless you and may you have a fruitful and long life
Thanks a lot for your kind words and feedback.
Thanks so much Andy! I was just looking for some Boost Converters for a Solar EV project and seeing a real-world test of just what I was planning to do was PERFECT! Your DC-DC Converter resource page in the description was excellent, I just wish I had come to your garage and that page first, it would have saved me hours digging online.
Very welcome!
Done, great idea to help others less fortunate Andy. Gut gemacht!
Thank you very much!
@@OffGridGarageAustralia time for an update video on the fundraiser and let us know how much you were able to donate to MS Australia.😀
I have family dealing with MS as well. This is a MOST Excellent idea!
Hello Andy, i think you could order the charger soon ;-) 20 beers from me for Philip . best regards Guido
Guess he is over 100 already
Wow, thank you very much!
Good on ya ALL, for helping out Phil like that! I have used these cheap Chinese buck, boost & boost/buck types for different projects and voltages, they are fine for so many things, and even setup correctly could charge lithium batteries to some extent, but I agree with your comments Andy, and always go for a reasonably larger size converter than anticipated load, and fans obviously do make a big difference for higher outputs. They could be handy for cheap 48v - 5v, 12v, 24v outputs for various controls and cheap projects like LED lighting. I have used them regularly with 12v - 35v boost for LED floodlights and 12v homemade high bay LED lights too, very handy & cheap, but dont push their limits or temperature too far, we know what happens, magic smoke!
I bought the "1800w" version of that boost converter. I found the hottest part to be the cheap output capacitors, so I added a few more in parallel. Efficiency was basically the same as yours.
Mulțumim!
Thank you very much!
Yes, I have been using one of these for about 2.5 years, from a battery build by Jehu Garcia (Jag35), the BMS protects from over charging. The larger version of your converter has built in fan and stand offs 👍
Exactly! That's what the BMS is for. I don't know what kind of magic people think is in the Victron charger. It's the same technology, same chips, but with a warranty, markup and a walled garden. Oh, and if anything fails in the Victron, it's toast. Anything fails on your cheap-o converter - you can actually repair it.
@@rokask I have both, in the UK they maybe cloudy weeks, and need to charge on grid, the converter powered by HP server power supply outputs a very clean 12VDC. These power supplies are very cheap from ebay. Victron 75/10 is good kit and the app allows easy configuration. But if I had taken more time to look at my needs may have bought a Buddy Pole - POWERmini or POWERplus, which are all on screen configure. They are more robust compared to the Victron, and it irritates me that I have switch my satnav on my phone before the Connect app will switch on, if I knew that at the time of purchase I would have never bought 75/10. Buddy Pole does not track you 👍
Thank you for doing this Andy.
I've used boost buck converters for discharging a while back. It's great. Right now I am trucking and don't have time to play with it.
Just found your channel, your a gentleman and thx for the education waving a hand from Florida
Andy, thank you for loads of inspiration and effort!
I think that charging batteries with Chinese DC/DC converters is perfectly fine if proper fuses or breakers are being used.
I also think that Philip could have some more urgent idea how to spend some donation gift.
Andy is the man!!!!!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
i donated 5 bucks to Philip God bless Philip
Thank you very much!
The donation idea is great :)
I cannot trust this dc-dc for a critical use, even if i use them for other projects.
Philip, wish you the best and Andy you are a great man 🍻
Great idea Andy
Thank you !
Na prima.. Nicht bis zum ende geschaut... 😎... 8 Bier von mir für Philips Ladegerät...
Andy.. Hut ab... Und danke das du das hier alles machst
Danke Dir vielmals, ich reiche es weiter!
I love al the video’s and Learned a lot. 10 beers for Philip.
Wow, thanks Frank!
Thanks Andy, I think Philip needs a better charger, one you don't need to think about. I'm in (very impressed with Philip's work quality)
It's good right? I was impressed too.
Brilliant Andy just brilliant. $10 inbound.
Thank you Martin!
Andy, donation sent. Thanks for doing this.
Thank you very much!
superb idea andy - donation sent
Thank you very much!
Thanks for the buck boost test, i was wondering about the claimed efficiency
Better idea then just buying things is build things yourself;
Reduce, reuse, recycle, re purpose and learn.
What a lovely idea. 4 beers.
Wow, thanks a lot!
Brilliant Andy brilliant!
I think Philip did an awesome job building a charger for his battery pack. I have had no problems with using DC-DC modules charging any batteries I use, because the "proper charger" is only a buck converter or SMPS with a fancy software to control it and a big metal box to put it in, Phillip already did an awesome job with his charger box complete with waterproof connectors.
Batteries really only degrade from high charge or discharge currents, so my argument would be that there will be no difference between a 16A DC-DC converter and the 16A Victron Charger.
My reason is that he has a BMS already, so if the charger was getting hot and drifting its voltage if that is bad enough the BMS will trip and nothing bad will happen. And lastly 16A charging a bettery is 16A charging a battery, it makes no difference where it came from.
Should a diode be put in place to keep the battery from backflow.
@@russellm7530 that would be a good precaution but with large currents you would not want a normal diode, instead you would want an ideal diode module.
However it is not necessary if you are not going to leave the boost converter connected 24/7. The circuitry in those is very simple, the output side has a voltage divider and an indicator LED, then current flow would stop at the diodes already in the converter.
Now for reverse polarity protection it could be useful but stopping the drain of a large battery through an LED and some high value resistors. So there is not much point in adding diodes just for that.
I'm thinking of buying some of these to make a battery to battery charger for my boat.
If you can trust it, the AliExpress listing says "Output Counter filling: Yes, for charging plus blocking diode is not required."
I take that to mean the output battery can't pass current backwards into the input battery (or solar panel), but who knows.
@@bhartley1024 Yes boost converters can only flow in one direction (part of how they are wired) The internal diode would have to fail short which would instantly destroy the converter anyway.
The only extra protection you have to add is a BMS or fuses to the battery you are charging, so if the boost converter did blow up (which they definitely do as I have popped all 3 of mine at least once because the mosfet got too hot) you would need to protect the battery under charge not just the input to the converter.
And you did a Video on the best voltage for best performance for 3.2v which was 3.5v great Video !
The victron chargers, although EXPENSIVE, are worth every penny. I have 2 of them, and do not regret buying them at all! Also I bought the IP66 ones.
Excellent idea and effort for Phillip, you are Top Man on that one Andy. As for your question regarding if I would use a Cheap DC converter to charge an LFE pack, I've seen cheap 'non-isolated' DC Buck converter based chargers fail to a higher voltage, and once a AC to DC power adapter deliver 110vac out the DC port. I would only use a DC-converter to charge an LFE battery with a secondary or even third means of reliable overcharging protection in the case of Li-On charging.
I would expect that Phillip's BMS likely has over-charging protection and possibly thermal over-temp protection, but many don't recommend relying on BMS over-charging protection when using a cheap charger, especially with Li-On. So for a mission critical application like Phillip's I would think the Victron charger an almost essential precaution.
Other, possible protection precautions could be installing charging fuses in-line with the charging circuit and fusing it to very slightly above the charging current, so if a dramatic increase in charging current were to occur the fuse might interrupt the circuit.Along with a charge protection fuse.
I've also used reverse power blocking Diodes to protect against reverse connections and if a charger output were to latch to ground or somehow reverse polarity.
There are adjustable inexpensive over/undercharging protection modules with solid-state relays for only a few $ that could be used, but if the charging current is only an amp or two, an adjustable Voltage regulator inline after the DC-Converter set to say .3 volt over the charge voltage could offer some additional protection.
An AC line timer set to charge once for the expected charging time is something I've used on non float voltage chargers on Lead-Acid batteries.
Many years ago before BMS systems when I was maintaining very large industrial Flooded Ni-Cad emergency power packs, and we had issues with thermal run-away and massive fires during charging that caused millions of $ of damage. I designed a simple protection system that utilized simple LM339 voltage detector circuits on cell banks, and if if any cell banks went over charge voltage it would cut the Line supply to the charger, and signal an alarm. I also connected thermocouple temperature monitors on each cell (literally dozens) in each bank that-would cut charging power if any cell experienced a temperature rise.
Great comment and information, Jack. Thanks very much!
Great idea. A pleasure to support it.🍺
Thank you very much!
I've been using one of these boost converters for quite some time. Strangely enough, I did an efficiency test yesterday also. I actually use it to charge my 48v powerwalls from my 24v so I expect the efficiency to be roughly the same for overall power.
Input Voltage Input Current Input Power Output Voltage Output Current Output Power Efficiency
13.26 5.09 67.49 30.06 1.88 57.51 83.73%
13.24 10.19 134.92 30.00 4.00 120.00 88.94%
13.23 15.08 199.51 29.96 5.98 179.16 89.80%
13.22 20.07 265.33 29.91 7.81 233.60 88.04%
13.19 25.28 333.44 29.81 9.8 292.14 87.61%
13.18 30 395.40 29.71 11.44 340.88 85.96%
Hi, is need any diode or similar in the output not to get back current from the output battery to the boost converter when there is no input voltage ?
@@diydsolar kind of... If you leave the output connected then it keeps the output capacitors charged and the led lit but that's about it... It doesn't use much energy.
Looking forward to a video on LTO batteries. It is the battery you buy for life... And your children's life... And probably your grandchildren's life. :-)
It's not an LTO though. I stay true to LiFePO4 😁
Love your enthusiasm! It makes it much more interesting. Top tutorials ❤. Cheers from Australia subbed and liked 👍. Edit: sorry mate! I forgot that you are in Australia 🇦🇺? So cheers from Brisbane.
The *best* battery charger is *constant current/constant voltage*
No mppt, no smartphone, no microcontrollers, absorption and other crap. (Only lead needs an absorption curve)
These cheap buck converters are just fine or better than an expensive smart charger that could glitch on you from esd or random firmware corruption.
The overcharge situation cannot occur because, any sane person designing a constrained electrical system takes all the steps and a few more to ensure the constrains are never exceeded.
Current fuses, input and output, to prevent overcurrents and fire, adequate cooling, thermal fuses, solid contacts and plugs, *precise* voltage settings and *conservative* current settings.
Charging a li-xxx battery with 0.5C or less and making sure the BMS does it's job are crucial to battery longevity and safety. Not the fancy charging curves and bluetooth connectivity.
I worked in the computer/electronics domain for the last 20 years and the lesson I learned in the last 30+ years of studying electronics is that, for mission critical applications, *dumb is way better than smart.*
Dumb electronics* :)
I don't see anything wrong with a buck converter for charging, but not for a long term solution.
Great work uncle Andy, and a great gesture , hope you don't mind the term uncle.
awesome idea to help Philip and make use of you reach 🤘 beer sent.
Thank you very much!
A great idea to help Phillip out. But... there are countless Phillips and others with the same dilemma. The truth, in my view, is that MPPT charge controller and other Lifepo4 battery charger manufacturers are gouging the public, prices keep going up and up. This is fine in a supply/ demand economy. But, how about the Phillips? What I mean is, we should use our collective brain power to find/ make a reasonable alternative to what they want to sell us.
Absolutely agree with this. I made my own BMS for partly this reason and partly because I had specific needs as running hybrid. The brand name manufacturers are trading on the general ignorance of the battery using public and building on the inherent fear of the unknown to sell products at an inflated price that do far more than needed and often duplicate the actual required functions that are already in a BMS (as opposed to a simple battery protection system) Sites such as this are great in educating people away from reliance on the brand names and promoting understanding over blind faith.
What a great idea!!!!❤️
Yes, I do use buck converter to LiFePO4 battery. We do believe the converter rather than controller.
5 Beers inbound from me! I was starting to worry that Andy would have a drinking problem with all his beer donates :)
Thanks Norman, much appreciated!
Great idea!
Donation Sent, get Philip charged! :) BTW I'd say probably don't connect those cheap boost converters to something expensive, like a big battery bank. Consider what happens if just one of the potentiometers fail.
Thanks a lot Brad!
Thanks for the clarified video, useful content.
Great video. I would keep an eye when using Buck converter since the failure mode of the switching MOSFET is shorted circuit which means it will dump input Voltage to the output and damage the load.
BTW, great idea on the donation.
that is true, but the big red module is actually a boost converter, and their failure mode is to direct short to ground, which will immediately bow its input fuses, leaving the output safe from a voltage spike because there are diodes pointing toward the output.
@@SuperBrainAK Well that is why I say Buck converter as shown in Part 1 of the video. Boost converter failure mode as you described.
@@budmartin3344 yep a buck converter failure would be pretty bad, hopefully the fuses would blow before anything really bad would happen, cheers!
yay well done you !
I have been doing this for years when doing a capacity test on batteries. We work very had to produce our electricity why waste it. Gave Philip 4 Beers. Why not with extra money buy Philip an extra battery. I know with with all your millions of viewers you will get a lot of donations
Thank you very much!
I would like a boost converter working from 2.5V with a high current so I can test single cells. I guess I have to invest in an iCharger at some stage...
What I do is to use the boost converter to set the target charge voltage but also use those cheap cell-level monitors to watch that no individual cell exceeds 4.2v or it makes a very loud noise. (I also check both with a cheap voltmeter and cheap voltage reference).
Phillip is use LIFEp04 batteries not Li-Ion
90.8% why's the thumbnail say 98% love your videos!
Give the guy a break man. Andy likes to play with his thumbnail. The least we can allow him 🤣
A tip from someone who killed a lot of these things. Be careful so the battery connected to input and battery connected to output do not share common negative or common ground if ground is connected to negative. It will blow up the converter because most of these dont isolate output and input
I was wondering about that. Thanks for the warning...
Ahhh, seriously? This makes them useless for just about every project I had in mind.
Any recommendations for a similar unit that can handle battery to battery charging with a common ground?
Cheers, Mate! 2 *beers* coming your way.
Thank you. I'll pass it on!
Schöne Aktion!!!!! Spende ist unterwegs! Gibts auch eine Übersicht wieviel zusammen gekommen ist?
Danke Dir erstmal, klar gibts da noch was hinterher... 😉
Waste not want not. Nice example...
Thanks you
Sounds like a great idea
Beers sent !
Thank you very much!
Beautiful
oh! count me in in in!
Thank you!
Good idea, I use a Victron charger myself. I will go to my PC and donate (no PayPal on my tablet). Done now, 4 "beers" from me.
Thank you very much, John, much appreciated!
Philip can monitor his batteries and never leaves them longer then overnight, he has the smarts, don't make things too complicated, more to go wrong and more $
Over voltage under voltage and temperature monitor is all you need, make an alarm sound
good deal
Thanks for this very good explanation video and the super idea to Help Philipp with a Donation. Best regards Form Germany Form Mathias
I'm not sure if you are aware of this, the constant current adjustment is for the output current, not the input current. I always use buck-boost converters which can give a constant voltage output even when you don't know what the input will be, the price is not that different. However, for using multiple solar panels in parallel, if you use a common input into a single DC converter you are going to have difficulty balancing the inputs. Similarly, if you use an individual DC converter for each panel you are going to have difficulty balancing the outputs. You can try to balance these with low value high power resistors but he only absolute way to get around this is to have converters where the output chips are synchronised with regard to the voltage, but these are expensive. Good luck with this.
I am doing similar use. Having two 1800 Watt boost converter. One adjusted to 48v and another one is 12v. meaning if we are doing offigrid camping then can charge it from either from 12v or 48v.
I would use them but with protection circuits for max voltage to the battery and discharge from the battery. Thanks for sharing
Great point
Thanks for the video 👏🏾
if i was able to have good monitoring of the buck output, id personally be very happy to use the buck-boost converter as the sole charger.. BMS-balancer should be fine to keep the battery in check 👌 love your work mate, keep it up (🍻🍻)
Thanks Joel!
Would a boost converter help the efficientcy of a PWM controller?
Usually switchmode power supplies are bad efficiencies at lower power levels.
Oh I didnt watch until the end and didnt know there is a donation option on the website. I hit the youtube thanks button hastily … is this also going into the philipp fund? (minus apple and google fees)
Yes, sure. Thank you very much!
I am planning to use these boost converters to use them as MPPT for a 16s (54 V) LiFePO4 battery. They only cost 14 USD , will handle two 550W panels, and no need to buy expensive MPPT devices.
The icharger can regenerative discharge a battery with 30A and tell you the Ah and Wh. The icharger is expensive, and I have not personally used one, but different videos look really promising.
I agree, I use an Icharger 4010 duo in my Garage to charge My DIY 15S E-Bike (2 separate batteries) 8S & 7S -10P.
I also use an Icharger X8 which stays in the house for Charging smaller DIY battery packs.
I don't use any BMS, I don't trust what I can't see, regarding Cell voltages. (Bms can fail destroying expensive cells within your battery 👎)
However ofcourse I would use a very expensive BMS if I was buying 200 - 300Ah Lifepo4 Cells for an offgrid situation.
The Ichargers charge & balance all my batteries within 1mV & to whatever Voltage & current I choose. 👍👌
yes i used buck/boost converter to charge my portable packs and my battery system when i was offgrid for a few years once the cc/cv voltage is set they work like any other lithium charger
I would not trust a $10 buck boost to charge my battery as something set and forget. I would trust a high quality one on the other hand if my battery has bms protection for over voltage and i was keeping an eye on it. But a charger is best. And for Phillip this is not so much a hobby thing but is a necessity and financially he needs the batteries to last as long as they can and a charger is going to achieve this.
I'm looking at converting 48v dc 25A max input into 60v cc/cv 15A output, is it possible?
Which model do you recommend?
That is possible and I would go for the 1800W version: off-grid-garage.com/dc-dc-converters/
I finally got it, but not sure it's the 1800w version this version is claiming 1500w and CC is adjustable 0.8-22A range
Genasun solar charge controllers are the best small system boost controllers for reliablity.
I look them up. Thanks
the solar boost controller the green ones i told you about will work to charge input can be from a laptop charger or even solar i know alot whop charge ebikes like this
I have one but never used it so far, just once for a test. Awful programming and setup.
how would these connect to solar panels? solar panel to buck converter, buck converter to charge controller?
Yes, that should work.
ive charged many of batteries with buck / boost convertors, BUT only 1s batteries... if more then 1s, must have balance charger or VERY GOOD BMS
Hi Andy, The late Jack Richart od EVTV did some interisting experiments with charging Tesla battery packs!
I know, he was so good, watch almost all his videos...
Bevor es noch nicht den PD Standert gab habe ich auch immer Buck Boost converters verwenden aber mit PD Standert brauchen ich es nicht mehr so of da PD 9v 12v 15v und 20v liefert und einfach fasst überall verfügbar ist
Wait.... where are you filming from today? I like the energy usage thought process.