Nothing to see here. Team Tesla

[Joelwdryden]

I made the busbars out of braided copper wire, bent them and a jig, then crimped with terminal lugs.

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[Joelwdryden]

Opus BT - C3100 V2.2 Digital Intelligent 4 Slots LCD Battery Charger Compatible with Li-ion NiCd NiMh Batteries - US Plug (PURPLISH BLUE) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01852TBOU..._5xSzCb0ZM778D


These are how i checked the batteries capacity. If they were under 2000mah they either went to other projects, or were sold off.

To speed up the process of charging a multitude of batteries, i built a rack of buck chargers that each just charge one battery, and I'd charge them all before putting them in the opus tester. It saved a lot of time.

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[izzybird]

Nice work!

[Fairtax4me]

Don't drop a wrench in that one...

I hate to say cover all that work up, but are the wires epoxy coated or anything? Don't need something accidentally dropping in there and shorting the packs together.

[BBBHC]

Great work! Thanks for sharing the information!

[Joelwdryden]

Fairtax that's a legitimate concern. I do have them coated, but i still don't trust it, lol. The metal rods holding them in place are shrink wrapped to prevent contact while taking them in or out. I considered boxing them in, but honestly i don't think I'd gain anything as the only time a wrench is going to be in that area would be when I'd have the box removed anyway.

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[BobBoyce]

Those chemistry cells are dangerous, as evidenced by the pack fires in the Tesla EVs. If only one cell fails and goes thermal, it will initiate a chain reaction that will spread through the entire pack until every cell burns/explodes. Other than that, Well Done!

[BBBHC]

Originally Posted by BobBoyce

Those chemistry cells are dangerous, as evidenced by the pack fires in the Tesla EVs. If only one cell fails and goes thermal, it will initiate a chain reaction that will spread through the entire pack until every cell burns/explodes. Other than that, Well Done!

Doing my research into swapping to lithium, I ran across this channel. This guy rebuilds Tesla cars that are otherwise total losses and Tesla will not support them for any repairs. As I stated earlier, I briefly considered the possibility of using 18650 cells. However, with my very limited knowledge and experience with electrical, I decided it was beyond my capability. Here are a couple videos where he took parts of the Tesla battery packs and put them into an electric vehicle similar to a golf cart. It did not end well. The second video he explains what went wrong.


These can be used safely, and are all over the place the way you have done here, for vehicles and power walls. I'm just posting this for informational purposes for anyone who might consider such a project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdDi1haA71Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of01p0Q-yUM

[Volt_Ampere]

Tesla cells are not any more dangerous than Leaf or Volt cells. It's all about how you handle and charge them. The fire in that video was caused by stupidly overcharging those cells with no BMS. Tesla car fires are very rare and the ones I have read about were caused by running over something that punctured the battery. They have since beefed up the battery protection - it's under the whole car very low to the ground by the way.
I would use Tesla modules in a golf cart in a heartbeat if they were not so expensive and hard to acquire.

[Joelwdryden]

I would disagree to some extent, i do think Tesla cells are a little more dangerous, but i completely agree that they were misused and not charged correctly. You have to have a charger that knows what it's doing. End of story. To combat the runaway pack, i fused each cell individually. That's my hopes in letting one fizz it before they all go. The charging is the second issue, and those two combined is how i hope that my safety is much higher than this.

I do understand there's risk, i hope it never comes to this.

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