PINNED - Lithium battery conversion/info

[terry2]

A GOOD power supply should come up with clean output power at the correct voltage when you plug it in, or have protection circuitry in either the supply or what it's powering to keep it from supplying power until it is stable... (an example is the 'Power Good' signal line on a PC power supply)

Cheap power supplies often don't have the same level of protection and can do ugly things for the first couple of AC cycles while capacitors charge and so on....

Power supplies that were intended for other equipment that are being repurposed (i.e. the ones made from PC power supplies) can sometimes be an issue if the device provided the protection, so the supply didn't need it...

It is possible that this initial power on crap can damage equipment... Sometimes it can take a while for the damage to build up to the point where it becomes a failure.

It is hard to totally protect against all the potential problems, but I think it is not a bad idea to put a largish electrolytic cap of appropriate voltage (and optionally a 100K or so resistor in parallel) across the output of the supply just to soak up any spikes and surges when it turns on, especially if you are leaving the PL8 or other equipment connected to it when powering on the mains input...

ex-Gooserider

It would be great if there was a plug and play part we could buy.

[Burgerman]

There is.

[terry2]

There is.

That's about as far away as plug and play as mars.

Plug and play means that you fit something just one time. Then forget.
Not buy a multi meter and connect it every time

[Scooterman]

BM - has your VDU got a Matt display?

[Burgerman]

Not the multi meter. The power supplies. Both are good, need no checking. The problems arise when people use converted computer supplies, cheap chinese things etc. Then you need to be careful.

[shirley_hkg]

Testing to discharge @0.3C , ie 33A , to see if more Ah could be recored , compared to 15A that I used to do. Cells get warm up a bit now.

Risking my PL8 to me, hope it will survive.

[Burgerman]

Well it might well give more. Warm cells are better. But voltage sag is higher. So... will be close. I would set 2.5V end at higher current.

[Scooterman]

Is the pl8 40A regen? I can't remember

[Burgerman]

Yes. Its fine to do it too. As long as you have somewhere to send the power. I use my power supply with voltage carefully set, to run the PL8, and thie load device in the picture.

Then I set it to charge or dump its power into a lead battery at its standard voltage. Once you figure out the settings, you can discharge at 30, 0r 40A. Set it to 12V and power the PL8 at 12V and set to charge (DUMP its power at 14.4V) and you can discharge a pack at around 20A. You will need to understand whats going on, and use an adjustable power supply. Or things get complicated!

[Burgerman]

Blows hot air.

You CAN also use a bunch of car headlamp bulbs. Or A 12/24V inverter to power say a hairdryer or room heater, or kettle...

Theres many ways.

[shirley_hkg]

Bulk discharge stopped with 99,990 mAh.

Cells' actual readings @3.605V - - - 2.98V

101,212
100,971
99,998
99,990
100,511
100,680
100,561
100,606

[Burgerman]

You stopped too soon. The voltages bounced back. Thats not a full discharge. But its close. But you can see that too.

[terry2]

@BM
Could you give me a link for the pre set for my 192Ah Lifepo4 cells please.

Bloody HD went down...

I have found 2. But which one

LiFe Charge ONE 90 to 200Ah Cell.PS8

or

LiFe P04 176Ah 24V 8S 600thC T.PS8

[terry2]

Come to think of it. I think my cells are 176 Ah

[Burgerman]

LiFe Charge ONE 90 to 200Ah Cell.PS8

or

LiFe P04 176Ah 24V 8S 600thC T.PS8

Either of those.

[Burgerman]

HD failed?

You obviously have a backup though. Dont you. ?

I make a backup of this forum (2gb and 12,000 files) daily. And copy this to 3 different hard drives in 2 different PCs.

I then make a backup of all my desktops, work folders, email, etc every midnight. To 3 places.

And I make a clone of the C drive, on my desctop PC and my Laptop weekly to 3 drives on 2 different computers.

[terry2]

HD failed?

You obviously have a backup though. Dont you. ?

I make a backup of this forum (2gb and 12,000 files) daily. And copy this to 3 different hard drives in 2 different PCs.

I then make a backup of all my desktops, work folders, email, etc every midnight. To 3 places.

And I make a clone of the C drive, on my desctop PC and my Laptop weekly to 3 drives on 2 different computers.

I zipped up the files. But my memory is that bad I could not remember which one...

[terry2]

Well fuck me side ways.

When I start the charge. After about 3 mins. I get the OCP on the charger(overcurrent protection)

The PL8 lights go off. I turn off the power supply. Which takes ages for the power supply light to go off.

Any ideas?

If I unplug the leads to the cells. The power supply turn off ok.

In the supply option. Supply Low Voltage Limit= should it be 12v-24V or 48V?

My power supply says 15-30V

[terry2]

Set about 25V and 50A.

Then in PL8 set supply tab to 10 to 30V and to 47A max...

Cell 1 is much more charged than cells 234567.

So you could charge all cells 1 at a time, till full. Croc clips, no balance wire.

Searched and found that I had the same problem before.

Trying it again...

[Burgerman]

Dont know exactly what you are doing there. But power the PL8 first before connecting the balance or the power leads. And dont turn off the power supply while the battery is still connected.

You may damage the PL8.

Battery connects last. And when you have charged, disconnects first. The turn off power supply.

Your power supply may have a problem. The PL8 may have a problem. The power supply to PL8 cable may have a bad connection.

[Burgerman]

BM - has your VDU got a Matt display?

Whats a VDU?

The PL8s are kind of matt. My PC monitors are dell 30 inch in the photos above, and yes matt surface. But I got rid of those and now use an OLED gloss screen, 4k 55 inch TV in place of a monitor(s)... Its gloriousand way superior to a pair of large computer professional monitors. My laptop is 4k as well, and gloss screen. I dont like matt screen monitors. It ruins the blacks.

My new TV/monitor has got perfect blacks, because an OLED only lights up the LED you want. So blacks are infinite. And total. Super bright whites with no glow around it. You can have total black and a 100 percent on red, green, blue pixel right next to it. It just appears to be floating in space. Deep, deep, colours, and no colour or contrast shifts with angle. Even extreme angles. So I bought a 65 inch OLED for my lounge too! As PC monitors they are literally perfect. And quite mesmerising. Stupidly expensive but you are soon dead.

[Scooterman]

This looks Matt to me

Charging.jpg (29.37 KiB) Viewed 7139 times

,

My Mac has a retina display

[Burgerman]

It is. Its a single 30 inch dell pro 2560 x 1600 resolution monitor. Around 1500 pounds when new. I had 2 on my bench side by side. I am greedy.

Then I swapped them out for a single OLED LG display. Its 55 inch 4k, and is absolutely wild. Nothing gets close. Retina display?

Seriously you cannot yet buy OLED computer monitors because they apparently can suffer burn in issues with a PC usage. Well not so far. But for say gaming its just mental. For photos, they are huge and they just POP! Everything else looks muddy and lacking punch in comparison. And I have had at least a dozen high end 1k plus monitors. All of them are a joke in comparison. LCD of any kind just cannot compete with OLED. Its just not even a competition. The difference is massive.

Be warned though its not as simple as it seems. You need a specific bunch of settings, and you need to tell windows that its got a sub pixel arangement that is different to any usual PC screen or you will get funny colours around small print etc. And you need to go into the factory settings with a special remote, and change a few critical settings relating to screen dimming etc. So it doesent treat your signal like a TV picture. So its not plug and play. Well it is if you understand what you are doing. But I suspect its not for casual use. If you DO want to go through a week configuring it, then its literally another world for photo edting, movies, or even surfing. You will never understand how good this forum looks! Because you just cant see it...

You think your expensive apple high end screens are good. Trust me its like a reflection in a muddy puddle in comparison. Photos look like you are looking out of a window. You dont see the screen. In a dark room the black is gone, you just see nothing. Reds and stuff, all colours, are just vivid. Because they are pure with no backlight bleed. Not in the same way as you would get by turning up the saturation. But in a wow clarity way. No point trying to explain... You cant!

[terry2]

Dont know exactly what you are doing there. But power the PL8 first before connecting the balance or the power leads. And dont turn off the power supply while the battery is still connected.

You may damage the PL8.

Battery connects last. And when you have charged, disconnects first. The turn off power supply.

Your power supply may have a problem. The PL8 may have a problem. The power supply to PL8 cable may have a bad connection.

So for what ever reason the PL8 had reset it's self.

And after searching this thread I found the answer. All good now

[Scooterman]

It is. Its a single 30 inch dell pro 2560 x 1600 resolution monitor. Around 1500 pounds when new. I had 2 on my bench side by side. I am greedy.

Then I swapped them out for a single OLED LG display. Its 55 inch 4k, and is absolutely wild. Nothing gets close. Retina display?

Seriously you cannot yet buy OLED computer monitors because they apparently can suffer burn in issues with a PC usage. Well not so far. But for say gaming its just mental. For photos, they are huge and they just POP! Everything else looks muddy and lacking punch in comparison. And I have had at least a dozen high end 1k plus monitors. All of them are a joke in comparison. LCD of any kind just cannot compete with OLED. Its just not even a competition. The difference is massive.

Be warned though its not as simple as it seems. You need a specific bunch of settings, and you need to tell windows that its got a sub pixel arangement that is different to any usual PC screen or you will get funny colours around small print etc. And you need to go into the factory settings with a special remote, and change a few critical settings relating to screen dimming etc. So it doesent treat your signal like a TV picture. So its not plug and play. Well it is if you understand what you are doing. But I suspect its not for casual use. If you DO want to go through a week configuring it, then its literally another world for photo edting, movies, or even surfing. You will never understand how good this forum looks! Because you just cant see it...

You think your expensive apple high end screens are good. Trust me its like a reflection in a muddy puddle in comparison. Photos look like you are looking out of a window. You dont see the screen. In a dark room the black is gone, you just see nothing. Reds and stuff, all colours, are just vivid. Because they are pure with no backlight bleed. Not in the same way as you would get by turning up the saturation. But in a wow clarity way. No point trying to explain... You cant!

My macbook is only a 13" retina and I don't think their retina dispalays are particulary high resolution even compared to a lot a other make LED screens. I think the term 'Retina' is just marketing bullsh*t.

I used to prefer the old CCFL laptop screens I think they were called? Cold cathode something or other? I found them much easier on the eye. After a short while I find LED laptop and tablet screens start to give me a headache/eye strain just above my eyes. LED displays seem a very harsh light, the light seems to be more to the blue end of the spectrum?

An as for 3D video games don't get me started! It's pass the sick bucket after watching about a minute of a 3D game. I don't know how these kids play them?

[Burgerman]

Retina is just apples term for any resolution that is high enough so your eye cant see any pixels.

The apple screens I am talking about are apples large pro quality 30 inch or bigger displays costing 2k or so. Going back years. Appe gave up on monitors for now. Apples equivelent to the 30 inch + expensive truesharp DELL pro products. I have tried all of them. They work on PCs too. And returned them. Even a 3.5k pro eizo photograhy editing monitor. They are all totally blown away by the 55 inch LG OLED TV 4K screen. And at the difference is simply huge. Nothing compares to OLED for colour depth and purity and super wide gamut, and contrast ratio is literally infinite with perfect blacks. Theres no colour changes or black level changes when off axix either. Even at extreme angles. So when close to a huge 55 inch screen the corners look identical to the centre. Nothing comes close.

I have tried most of these and much more expensive others. Up to 3.5k. They all look like a small muddy picture with no proper blacks, and lack true contrast, and look odd at an angle. They just do not compare in any way. OLED is the future. Wait and see.

And 55 inch 4k is perfect resolution for windows at 3 feet sat at your desk.

[Scooterman]

Do you think all screens will eventually be OLED?

The technology has been around a while now but hasn't gone mainstream yet, it's still premium.

[Burgerman]

It "belongs" to LG. So other companies have to use their panels no matter what it says on the branding lable. Buy a sony? Its an LG panel.

So thats one thing that stops it being mainstream. And its not cheap. The biggest issue that is getting better is the chance of burn in on static bright images. But no problem if you are aware that this can happen and theres many ways to configure a computer to prevent it. No issues here at all. But it is the future. Because everything else just looks crap in comparison.

[terry2]

It "belongs" to LG. So other companies have to use their panels no matter what it says on the branding lable. Buy a sony? Its an LG panel.

So thats one thing that stops it being mainstream. And its not cheap. The biggest issue that is getting better is the chance of burn in on static bright images. But no problem if you are aware that this can happen and theres many ways to configure a computer to prevent it. No issues here at all. But it is the future. Because everything else just looks crap in comparison.

Having had a 65 inch LG OLED i have to disagree

Isent it back after 2 weeks because it had no pop when watching HDR. Dolby vision was just ok.
Screen retention\burn in was bad and banding was even worse.

My daughter got me a Sony ZD9 75 inch beast. It's FALD with the most zones.
And for watching HDR\DV it beat the OLED hands down in my opinion.

The Nits for OLED is only about 1500 at best. The ZD9 is 4000 nits.
The next TVs will have micro led.

[Burgerman]

But I am only talking about for PC monitor. OLED is totally unbeateable for this. Because you are close, dont want massive brightness, and do want the same colours and contrast in the corners as in the middle. NO LCDs do that. They change when off axis. With a 55 inch TV on your desk, all 4 corners are at an angle to you. And thats a problem. But not at all wth OLED. And of course proper blacks.

In my living room, as a TV I also tried a so called QLED which is just a high quality LCD screen. But my room is wide. Has chairs at the sides. So you look at the TV at an angle at both ends of the room. The QLED looked crap. Was bright and close to the OLED in the middle of the room on axis. But at either side was just a muddy mess and no contrast, so off axis they are rubbish.

So I sent that back and tested the 65 inch OLED. As a TV its not as bright. But its got identical colours, and true blacks REGARDLESS of viewing angle. And the difference is not small. And in a dark room it looks way better. ON axis, a QLED is better in daytime.

OLEDs get much better every year though. I think you might be surprised.

https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/tvs/best-4k-tvs

WIDE vewing angles, as on both chairs here, OLED is the only choice! It looks the same regardless of angle.