PINNED - ADD ON PACK Step By Step 30ah Pack build / pictures

[Burgerman]

The amount returned depends on the termination current setting. So it may well be different to yours. That doesent matter. As long as every cell was set to the same termination current. No need to redo.

[Dan]

Thats them charged using the LiFe Charge ONE 10/12/15Ah Cell preset.
Cell No. Starting voltage. Charge taken.
02 3.35V 88mAh
10 3.35V 90mAh
01 3.35V 91mAh Dropped
05 3.35V 99mAh
13 3.35V 105mAh
14 3.35V 105mAh Dropped
03 3.35V 106mAh
04 3.35V 109mAh?
11 3.35V 124mAh
16 3.34V 131mAh
18 3.34V 131mAh
12 3.35V 137mAh
17 3.34V 242mAh
08 3.35V 148mAh
06 3.34V 151mAh
15 3.35V 179mAh
07 3.34V 275mAh
09 3.33V 573mAh

Oh and I dropped one or two, theres a slim chance I forgot to charge number 9 first time around.

[Burgerman]

What is the history of these cells, thats a large spread? And no 9 at least looks suspicious? In fact any over around 150 to 200 do.

Are you sure they were all charged the same way? Same termination current etc? INITIALLY before storage.

[Dan]

They are the Headway 40152S 15ah LiFePO4 Cell bought from evassemble about 3 months ago. Charged up using the preset for a single cell that is posted in this thread somewhere then left in the same room for about nine weeks.

[Burgerman]

Well you may have had a bad connection to one or two when initially charging or when topping up. Or your power supply may be unstable and to charge rate jumping about so they terminate at random times.

Either way I would be careful with no 9. Build a pack, make each parallel group have approx equal discharge. And charge, test. Store it a week and recharge and see what the curves look like.

[Dan]

I have the graph from when they were first charged.
Cell 4. The power supply is a new Chargery S1500 V2

[Burgerman]

Forget that one. Look at these.

Volts v time
Amps v time.

[Dan]

Cell nine when I first charged it.

[Burgerman]

That shows that the line where it holds voltage steady, and where current falls, is a little uneven. So the exact point where the charger terminates the charge will vary slightly. Its caused by the power supply voltage jumping up and down slightly. Many do.

So build the pack and keep track of 9!

[Dan]

Build a pack, make each parallel group have approx equal discharge.

Just to be clear what constitutes a parallel group here. Is it four cells together?

[expresso]

i may be wrong here also but i believe its 2 cells - is one group - so 0 on the top of the pack - first Two cells is one group - 1 on the bottom of the pack is the next group - up and down so forth till the end -

would be 8 groups of 2 Cells a group - if i am correct - BM will clear it up for sure so wait for his response

[Burgerman]

The pic shows a 12v 4s battery.

[shirley_hkg]

That's 2P8S . Look closely .

[Burgerman]

Oops. Yes. Cell ends different.

[Dan]

I built my 30Ah pack just like expresso's. I have yet to add the balancing leads.
On the balancing leads coming from the PL8, the black goes to the negative and the red is positive.
For the ring terminals going to the pack it looks like the black wire is number 0, then the wire beside it is number one and so on until you get to the red which is number 8?

Is there a PL8 charge preset for the 30Ah pack alone and a preset for the 30Ah pack and the lead together?

[Burgerman]

Yes. I did those for Expresso. Who can forward it to here. If not I can do more.

[expresso]

Here are the presets BM made me and i use -

the one for the 30ah pack - its labeled 36ah - because my first pack was 36ah -

the other one i use with both lead and the 36ah pack together -

[rustyjames]

Posted by BM a few pages back:
"hyperion balance cable connection"

You can use connections 1 to 8 (7 cells) on plug A.
And connection 1 to 2 for the 8th cell.
Or you can use connections 1 to 5 on both A and B as separate "12v" battery connections.
In both cases, pin 8 on the A connector, and pin 1 on the B connector will go to the same place on the battery."

Me:
So, I bought a pair of 4S balance cables for my pack/hyperion charger connection. I'm not sure about how to make these connections to my pack. Could someone please hold my hand and explain with a bit more detail? TIA

BM:
Almost.
Theres 8 pins in each connector.
So starting from the right and counting towards the left (yes backwards) pin 0 is neg, then cell 1, 2, 3, 4 is the first socket. Then the same for the other 4 cells in the next on the left. So again 0 for neg, then 1, 2, 3, 4 again. You use 5 wires in each connector. As if you had 2 separate 4s batteries.
So, the two in reds above, go to the same place on the pack if its one big one.

Me:
I'm confused. On the Hyperion there's no 0 pin. First pin on right of A&B connectors starts with a 1. Assuming 1 is negative, and there are 10 wires total. Do I connect both positives and both negatives together on the battery? I'll stop there for now, and come back with how to connect the remaining. Working on posting a pic but it's not going so well

[rustyjames]

Figured it out. Sorry about the quality, been emailed around a bit.

[expresso]

rusty - i think on page 5 here - i have a few pics - shows where you connect the balance wires on the pack - both top and bottom side -

even doing this a few times - i always double check it myself when and if i make any new packs in the future -

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6873&start=80

[rustyjames]

Hi expresso,

Understood, but I'm using the Hyperion 1420, not the PL8 like you guys. So, I can't just use one connection since the Hyperion, each connector is limited to a 7S pack. I've have to use both the A & B plugs and that is what's confusing me. Otherwise I would continue to plagiarize your work

[expresso]

Oh ok - sorry cant help there - that confuses me also - glad i never got one of them - and went right to the PL 8 -

but you can see at least where the wires would go on the Battery end - on the charger end is a different story - but i would think once you got the correct order on the charger end - 0 - 8 - you can just follow my pictures for the battery end

[Burgerman]

On the RIGHT side connector, you have 8 wires.

The FIRST pin to the RIGHT is the negative. Thats pin 0.
The next 7 pins are cells 1,2,3,4,5,6,7...

That last pin, 7, is also pin 0 on the next connector.
So on connector 2 you use pins 0 and 1 for the last cell.

76543210 76543210
Same as each other, same point on battery. So pos cell7, neg cell8
Cell8 pos
Pos end cells 123456
Neg

[rustyjames]

Thanks BM, I appreciate your time explaining!

[expresso]

whow - that would keep me busy figuring that out for a while - glad i jumped in on this with the Pl 8 -

[Burgerman]

No its easy. Just the same, bit with 2 connectors. My last hyperion just failed... Thats 4 over 6 years. They seem to be like light bulbs. No PL8 failures yet. And used a lot.

[rustyjames]

whow - that would keep me busy figuring that out for a while - glad i jumped in on this with the Pl 8 -

Don't think that I know exactly what to do. Maybe buy a PL8

[expresso]

whow - that would keep me busy figuring that out for a while - glad i jumped in on this with the Pl 8 -

Don't think that I know exactly what to do. Maybe buy a PL8

i hear you - wish i could be more help here - its close but still no cigar - if anyone has a picture of this charger how its connected - would help i think to see it - Hey - if you can Ebay it - and get Pl 8 - not a bad idea either

[Burgerman]

Buy a couple of cheap 2 or 3 or 4S small hobby lipos.
Plug one in port A and the other in port B.

Connect the things in series. Press go!

Then copy how those are wired. I honestly cant think of any more ways to explain it. Its simple!

Treat as ONE 7S, and ONE 1S cell.
OR
Treat as 2x 4S batteries.

The hyperion was OK in its day, but trned out unreliable. The PL8 was at that time how shall we say, underdeveloped... So unusable.
But 1420 has been out of production years now. I would get a PL8 anyway after many updates and fixes, some caused by me, ebay the hyperion. The PL8 is electrically more reliable, and now functions great.

[rustyjames]

I think I'm getting there, I just spent some time studying over at Endless-Sphere.com. I really need to learn this stuff anyway, if I'm going to be fiddling around with it. My main concern at the moment is I don't want to have smoke coming out of the Hyperion