Love the server rack usage. As an IT guy, I could mount my home power storage, server, switch and patch panels all in a single rack in my garage. Geeking out hard on this one. Nice bit of kit, thank you for taking the time to review and test this.
Thanks for this video! I now own one of this batteries, I'm using it on my remote off grid cabin. I came back to the video because y want to connect the battery to my computer and I think you are the only one that shows how. Also I like that you showed your mistakes, now I know what to be careful with.
Tesla has talked about getting the price per kWh at the cell level down to the mid fifties (USD). I presume that's LFP, but don't know for sure. At any rate, that suggests there's a lot of room for home battery prices to fall.
Thank you David, I'm about a year away from putting in a off grid system, and or a backup powerwall. Finally something that doesn't say T--la, and performs right out of the box. Thank you.
Everyone has their kink and that is cool but I did some hard math on this system you built $1500 a piece for the batteries X 6, inverters and MPPT charge controllers, 6 X 300 w solar arrays all adds up to a hefty sum. Where I live there is an import fee added, so even more of a hefty sum. I run split unit inverters for cooling and my electric bill on grid is about $60 a month and the power company is not set up to accept reverse current flow into their system. So it all around is just a nope, can never do that for me. BUT: your system is amazing and seems to be well thought out, well engineered and well built, you have a slow, easy voice that you use to explain things well and thoroughly and I enjoyed the content. Thanks for the ride along showing your system and the time and effort put into this video.
@@crashoverride5107 it's still plausible to call it DIY because it's a self-assemble system and the arrangement you use, with solar and inverters can still be DIY. This isn't a self-contained powerwall like unit, it's just a battery. Sure, it isn't a bunch of 18650s, but as he points out the price is competitive for those without tonnes of free time.
@@BobHannent I personally would not call this in any way DIY. you can technically mount this on a wall (or place it on the floor)and have just 1 battery be a stand alone unit, making it basically the same thing as a powerwall, as there might be some cases(especially offgrid) where you can mount and hookup a Powerwall yourself. this does not qualify as DIY IMO, Its the same thing as buying a preconfigured rack server slapping it on a rackmount and plugging in the plugs. or buying a tv, placing it on a media center and plugging it in to the wall and cable box. sure you placed it yourself, but didn't make it yourself.
@@antibodyarmy It's only DIY if you customize an existing product like OCC, put some ape hangers on it and raked front end and glitter paint and then it's completely custom DIY.
This is truly a terrific presenter and a first class EDUCATOR. I love the integrity and style the most out of every single one of the competition. Safety, instruction with information on why you do things a certain way through a step by step technique. No nonsense approach into Facts along with a Pro's Opinion A+!
Something like this is exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully more vendors will follow suit and hopefully the maker won't cheap-out on components once they start to get sales volume like so many others have. -Matt
@Signature Solar It's an impressive looking build from this side of the camera, David does an excellent job and your reply was perfect. I'll look into your site as I'm interested in a marine environment use with recharging via a generator and shore power. Thank you for quality
@Signature Solar I need to run full off grid my 4000 sq foot home with 7 ton Mitsubishi mini splits, computers, propane tankless, propane stove, propane dryers, etc. Will these be able to handle the loads required?
Super presentation! I understood it well even at 2x speed. I don't know how yet, but I am confident that this may be part of the answer that I've been looking for a power system for my van camper. Thanks!
I just bought 2 24V 200AH LiFePo batteries to replace my 12 lead acid bank ive had since 2014. What an improvement LiFePo makes!. Wired them together for 24V @400AH since I already had a 24V inverter. They charge fully even on cloudy days with 2 panels @265W each so easily as the capacity only drops 15% overnight running my refrigerator, internet modem, CCTV system. No more Lead acid for me!! Ill be adding a couple more in the future
@@DavidPozEnergy 2021 new 5kwh 48V 100ah LiFePO4 Lithium Iron Battery Pack for BTS Solar Energy Storage Power Wall Battery $1,306.54 alot 6 x total over 7k call the cheap unless make 100k a year perfamily.
Ordered 6 of the 24V 200Ah units a month ago. Liked it so much I ordered another 6 today. My system is 48V but the only ones in stock were the 24V. So I will run 2 of them in series for 48V. I was told the 24V and 48V are identical with the difference being the 24V is divided in the middle. Time to sell my 20 Valence U27-12XP Lithium Battery's!
RS485 is a serial standard used in a lot of industrial equipment. There isn’t a preferred standard physical connector but screw terminals are very common. In this case the RJ45 socket is just a convenient commonly available connector. As there are 2 connectors on the front of the unit I would expect you would be daisy chaining from one unit to the next (with screw terminals you would usually daisy chain from just a single pair of terminals).
Hi David, I have just put a 48 volt battery together for my 1000 watt electric bicycle. I love the battery except I can't tow it behind my bike! keep up the good work. Your safety is really good.
David, this is an excellent review - you have my attention. This price is really good. I am looking forward to the next part. I think the key thin for many folks will be to use this as a home battery in a grid connected solar array, that lets you buffer your "own" power overnight - and if/when the grid goes down.
Yeah, I haven't been able to find a better price point for a pre-built 48v battery with BMS and with circuit breaker. I don't have time of use rates where I live, but I can see that being a big benefit for many viewers. Thanks for watching.
I really appreciate you explaining the price up front. I hate it when people don't quote the price. This is a pretty good battery, I'm going to consider purchasing one immediately after Christmas. Thank you David.
Man this is crazy, I remember when your channel was around 20k. Congrats on the growth of your chanel over the last 2 years. I finally got my solar shed up and running lol.
btw, you can daisy chain multiple of these packs to one single USB adapter. you just use small ethernet cables between each one. left port on one going to right port on the next one, left port on the second one going to right port on the third one and so on.
That's actually a good question. RS485 is suited to run serial connections over a long distance and daisy chain should be possible. However, is it some kind of proprietary protocol/software ? Is there a web based interface available ?
Hi David from your fellow New Englander. Great video. I own 3 of these bought them last year. So far so good. I also use a pc to monitor them. The dip switches are kind of backwards from the manual, but u can figure it out to assign each pack a unique id. Then it will show all the packs once u use that green cable to patch each serial connection of each pack. I just assigned them starting with Id 1 and worked my way up to id3. Good luck on your build, cannot wait till next video. I think I may be ordering another pack and the rack for my cabin setup.
Great test. That looks like a very well-engineered battery. I cringed when you plugged that RS485 cable into your Ethernet jack. I hope your Ethernet port is ok :) I look forward to seeing the full rack setup completed.
I just stumbled across your channel. Too bad you were not around when I was doing solar when I was younger. I might get back into it though! Love the content!
Excellent battery, thanks Dave! I think this is the best option out there as DIY'ing a battery is pretty scary, I talked to a guy the other day who DIY'd his own battery, burnt his garage and part of his house down when the battery overcharged and caught on fire. Going low-cost is great but need to be safe.
Great testing. One additional test you might want to try is a low temp cutoff test. Don’t know if you have a freezer with enough room. If not, maybe leaving the unit outside overnight would work...
I had mine running during the big Texas freeze in my uninsulated power shed they didn’t get to the discharge temperature cut off. But they did get to the charging cutoff, one started charging at 32f and the other started at 33f.
David, Hello Sir Watching a lot of your videos and wanting to ask if the Gyll battery pack would work for an enclosed trailer? It would see hot and cold weather while not in use, and wondering if the battery would last by being hot/cold while being recharged by solar….. any help would be greatly appreciated
I wish I could have seen this a week ago. I just ordered cells and bms to build my own. This certainly simplifies the precess and this battery looks awesome. Thanks for the review. I will still be buying some.
Nice find David. It is good to highlight these other options to drive competition and hopefully bring prices down for already assembled battery bank options.
That is utterly amazing. A high quality 5kwh LiFePO4 module * built with BMS/circuit breaker/enclosure* for that price... It wasn't that long ago I paid almost that much for 1/4th the capacity in DIY components with sketchy software and no real support. The world is changing before our eyes. people "outside the loop" don't realize what is happening. The biggest hinderance today is city electrical code inspectors who are generally unfamiliar with what we can do (at least where I live).
@@DavidPozEnergy I got the discount and bought 2 of them came in 5 days, hey Dave I got the 12 volt version and the pic on there web site shows a breaker and mine has none
The reason for the 2 ports of the RJ45 connectors on the unit is so you can daisy chain them together. So you'll need a patch cable for each unit connected to the string. I agree with another commenter about that it sux they didn't include the proper main patch cable to be wired correctly to the main unit->USB dongle. I understand that variable lengths could be needed, but for a "rack" mount system, the assumption that a monitoring system in the rack could be very likely. Plus different companies may wire their cables different. They could either be Brown or Blue, depending on the standard they used, A or B, wiring connections.
Wow- that's impressive! I LOVE the rack system, the compact 100Lbs. battery with breaker built in, and the communication capabilities. Looking at your 'power wall' from years of building batteries from whatevah was available- it's great but... Imagine having 6 in a rack, taking up virtually no space (well, in comparison David!), checking out cell status while eating a microwave dinner on top of the rack!!! (Are you feeling the convenience of this thing? I know I am!). Breaker, SoC, Pos. & Neg. are far apart for safety, sealed container, 103% of promised energy- what's NOT to love? It's too bad that the form factor doesn't work well for RV's, but- these folks may just consider that market as well!!! I really like this non DIY battery at $300/Kwh!!!
I know this is an old video about a battery that is probably no longer sold, but your over-load testing was a good test for any battery. It appeared the breaker is only used as a switch or was not functioning because it failed to throw at 200amps.
Alternatives in the same price category: Pylontech (e.g. 3.3 kWh @1260€) or Sunstone (e.g. 10.2 kW @ 3290€), especially for customers in Europe, when shipping costs have to be added.
After watching your videos, I am really considering going off grid… & from the rent of my properties, I am setting up a fund replacement battery unit for every 5 years… Given that I am using log burner to heat up the house & run a steam powered generator at the same time… thanks.
"Blow out the capacitors" 😲 There is no risk of damaging the capacitors in the inverter if you hook it up directly to the battery. The question is if the internal BMS or the battery's breaker will trip. I would hope that they can handle the short high in-rush current.
David, can you do a video that lays out a 5KW system using Growatt inverter and these batteries connected to grid showing how you can make a cost effective system on grid off grid. Also if possible show how we can connect a 9000 W harbor Freight generator as backup. This video done right would get over a million views. Thank you
Glad you found it. Actually, after I posted Signature Solar reached out to me. Turns out there is a pre-charge resistor built into this battery (aluminum thing right next to BMS). So I didn't need to use a resistor.
You can use a 120v incandescent light bulb to charge caps also, 40 watt and up work great, when the glow stops, the caps are charged! Nice batteries, can they be bought individual? I think I'm still at the diy level, although the 120ah LG batteries did spoil me a LOT! Building large 18650 banks get old fast!
Nobody seems to want to talk about "battery fade" over the cell's lifetimes, and how that interacts with the nameplate "number of cycles" a battery is supposed to yield. These are two important things you can only find out by using the battery, it seems. Maybe after 5 years it will fade to 4 kWh or even 3 kWh, depending on *how* you use it. It's well-known that if you don't use the full capacity (that is, charge it to maybe 90% and discharge to maybe 10%-15%) that you will slow down this "battery fade," and battery manufacturers will admit to this - but there doesn't seem to be good information on voltages, etc., to lengthen battery life. This is important to those of us who are trying to maximize battery lifetime in a working home solar system in island configuration.
That sounds like regulat battery conservation to me, just like EVs and phones. I guess you can set up a system that modifies charge and discharge behavior based on SOC?
Right right! I'm interested in this. I think there are certain parameters recommended for lifepo4s, based on the specific make and model. It's programmed into the bms and possibly the solar charge controller as well? Not sure as I haven't connected my system all together yet.
For your test rig, perhaps put a label over the previous correction value and mark the date you calibrated it? If you test it later and its changed you'll have a record.
I like the battery. I need to build one like it for my PowerWheel Race car. I am looking at a 48 volt system that will run a brushless motor system. I have a small atv chassis that I need to fit everything on. I was wonder about batteries, and you have shed a lots of knowledge to get me going on this part of my project.
I love mine in upstate ny have rack and six running my whole house i have on pc to monitor all the cells working 100% jim at signature solar is great fast shipping texas to ny in three days
I've had nothing but bad experience with signature solar. They don't stand by their products. Tried telling me GrowWatt inverter isn't made for used leaf battery packs and Sunpower panels. That made me mad. If it's true why not state that nonsense in the description. Which is not true.
@@stickersadd20hp I have to disagree they answer my calls and James walks me threw everything very helpful getting my system up and running and some parts are not from him
I like the concept, but I have some issues. They should provide the right connector for the comms package. The circuit breaker does not provide over current protection. And the cells are only rated for 7000 cycles. Newer cells have up to 20,000 cycles. This is why this unit is only warranted for 5 years. So when comparing price you should take that into account. Update: after reading the specs. you may not have run the over current test long enough.
LFP typical cycle life at 80% DOD is 6000-9000 cycles. Maybe you are thinking about LTO batteries at 20k cycles. Gyll uses cells from Jiangxi Ganfeng which is one of larger and reputable "mine to cell" manufactures.
When you’re shooting 100 amps through an AWG6... it will definitely heat up. 60 amps is max permissible on 6AWG. More copper is always a good thing, less copper is a terrible thing.
@@timballam3675 Let's get the units right shall we? It's not 16mm, it's an area we are talking here, it's 16mm2 (or 16mm^2). = 16 mm squared. mm is a distance and not a cross sectional area. Which is why the other poster is getting confused.
Data connection info. It's marked RS485 which is a specification similar to RS232. The physical plugs are RJ45 but could be anything, RJ45 is readily available. The cool thing is you DAISY CHAIN all your devices! Use those short RJ45 to connect additional batteries in the rack. Actually a lot further if you want to run 100ft cables. Those dip switches allow you to ID a device in the RS485 chain. Only one pc connection manages all the batteries.
Hi David. A request: on one of these videos, can you please use an incandescent bulb instead of the resistor to pre-charge the capacitor. Would like to see that method as well. Thanks.
Loving all your videos, David. This product looks fantastic! Do you have a favorite website that you recommend for the calculation of what sized components (batteries, solar cells, charge controllers, etc) someone needs based on their power requirements?
Will sent me your way. Great video, can this be charged solar panel and how would you connect Shore power to it to use it in an RV setting or would it be wise to use it in the RV setting
I’ve got two of these and six battle born 100 ah. I’m going to sell my battle borns and buy a couple more gylls. These things are the best bang for the buck that I’ve found.
Except James Showalter doesn't pick up the phone when you call him! Their product is a great idea but their company owner really should return his calls.
Hi David, my understanding is that the battery terminals are designed to be mounted in a rack with a flat copper bus without cuts between the individual cells. you can take 2 tires, a couple of feet long and parallelize all the batteries, about 1/2 inch wide and 1/8 thick. I propose to insulate the tires with a heat-shrinkable tube in their entire length and remove the insulation in places of contact with the battery. this is not a guide to action, these are my thoughts, as I would have done) Thank you for the interesting videos, success in everything!
It’s RS485 which is a an industrial serial protocol - other people’s ethernet patch cables wont necessarily use the same colours - so you need to make sure you are connecting to the correct pin on the rj45 connector rather than assume a particular wire colour. TBH bit crap they don’t provide suitable cable, given they provide the rs485 to usb dongle
There are 2 standard ethernet wirings, TIA 568A and TIA 568B. The difference is that the orange and green pairs are swapped, but the blues and browns are in the same location for both. So the brown wire most likely should work with any ethernet cable that seen the standard remotely. 😉 But I agree, the pinout is the reference, not the wire color - they should have provided a dongle with a jack receptacle.
Ok, #1 - Batteries out of Stock... imagine that. #2 Signature Solar - Shame that you don't have the usb cable completed for the customer. Such a small item. Poor David had to suffer.
Dude you're just going to save my life I guess. I'm going to be building a datacenter soon in the United States. And I'm kinda conservative about our budget for second backup power. I think I'ım on to something right here tho. Thanks for the amazing content! Keep on rocking!
So it's about $300 per kWh and a powerwall has 13.5kWh. Pure equivalent energy capacity is going to cost you $4,500 plus shipping. They sell a cabinet for three of these at $400. Looks like you could get a nice 48 volt inverter charger for about $2k with a 6kW output 120/240. So you could get a powerwall equivalent for around $7k. If you double up to 30kWh, the inverter/charger might be another $1k and the larger cabinet an extra $100 so you would be at $12.5k . I think about the fact that you can buy a used Nissan Leaf for about $10k with a 24kWh battery in it, albeit probably a little bit degraded. Actually, an 18kWh battery pack out of a Chevy Volt costs $3k new. That's 9kWh for $1,500. It's Lithium Ion as is the battery in the Powerwall but I think it's an interesting comparison from a price perspective. The one thing that the Powerwall has is a compact floor space footprint - You can probably put them one above the other on a wall. Guess it depends on what you have, wall space and money or floor space.
These complete package battery banks are awesome! Saves time and money from having to shop around for parts. Cant wait to see where batteries will be in five years. Eventually manufacturers will have to beat out the DIY’ers and they have to come down on prices do it.
no. a lot of people already have a usb to serial converter with the correct cable. having a standard usb to serial converter is great, you can use it for other devices to.
Actually, yes, since they used a serial port. That's only really useful for enterprise or cloud - there have not been standard serial ports on consumer laptops for a decade or more. Univeral Serial Bus (USB) would have been ok - the jank solution they include is NOT standard USB. The real question I have is, why not wifi AND/or Ethernet? Or at worst Bluetooth? That is what I would expect from a pro-sumer product. Sure, connect the devices together via serial over an RJ45 Cable so they can talk to one another. But these really should communicate either via Ethernet or wifi. Or better yet, both.
They use a serial rs485 which is perfect for this. When you buy 20 of these you dont want to have 20 usb cables or bluetoth or any other crap. Just a single rs485 where you can daisychain each unit and be able to communicate 1000 meters away. On a consumer product the use of RJ45 is probably not a good idea tho.
@Signature Solar You guys will make a mint if the quality is good and the prices stay as they are. I WILL get 10 at end of summer if these test well! Well done guys!!!!
It's always nice to get out of a product what it was rated for, instead of the usual getting less out than rated for since many companies expect most consumers to not check.
Hey Dave! Thanks for all your hard work showing us whats up out there! I noticed in the software it mentioned heat film so I was wondering if there was a heating circuit under the battery? and if it was automated to protect in frigid environment? if so what are the temp presets and are they adjustable? Also was there a auto shut off to prevent charging in the same? Maybe use the solar vendor freezer outside to test? Hey we could just build our own from ali for 1000$ with all the bells n whistles but that is a rocking case! I like em too! Thanks, Brock in Myrtle Beach SC
Love the server rack usage. As an IT guy, I could mount my home power storage, server, switch and patch panels all in a single rack in my garage. Geeking out hard on this one. Nice bit of kit, thank you for taking the time to review and test this.
You can combine that with a rackmount 48 volt inverter and you've got it made.
as IT guy u should know that u have to keeep AWAY batttery banks from data banks. risk of fire pretty high on battery banks \ ups
@@riccardoz2953 No higher than any other UPS battery, and basically every rack I've ever seen has a UPS in the bottom.
@@riccardoz2953 Yeah, people lack basic common sense these days.
@@riccardoz2953 yeah so true. If i gonna have it i will have a new rack just for solar setup keep it away for my internal network and storage. 😁😁😁
I just came across this fine u tube presentation.first of all Dave Poz is an excellent teacher,I love his sensible and no music and NO WAZZ UP BS .
I have 4 of these batteries and Solar-Ark 12k. These batteries are absolutely great!
James, what is your PV array size and configuration?
Do they work in multiple
@@d2putman I hate when you ask a question and never get an answer.
This is probably a scam.
Yes it is a scam ....😎
You should watch his other videos ...
This guy is terrific .... Almost a wizard
Thanks for this video! I now own one of this batteries, I'm using it on my remote off grid cabin.
I came back to the video because y want to connect the battery to my computer and I think you are the only one that shows how. Also I like that you showed your mistakes, now I know what to be careful with.
What an awesome battery. The construction quality looks very professional.
But they are not for sale 😂
They don’t have those batteries anymore.
Hopefully a glimpse at the future in regards to price vs capacity. A solid step in the right direction.
Tesla has talked about getting the price per kWh at the cell level down to the mid fifties (USD). I presume that's LFP, but don't know for sure. At any rate, that suggests there's a lot of room for home battery prices to fall.
Thank you David, I'm about a year away from putting in a off grid system, and or a backup powerwall. Finally something that doesn't say T--la, and performs right out of the box. Thank you.
T--la? What?
Everyone has their kink and that is cool but I did some hard math on this system you built $1500 a piece for the batteries X 6, inverters and MPPT charge controllers, 6 X 300 w solar arrays all adds up to a hefty sum. Where I live there is an import fee added, so even more of a hefty sum. I run split unit inverters for cooling and my electric bill on grid is about $60 a month and the power company is not set up to accept reverse current flow into their system. So it all around is just a nope, can never do that for me.
BUT: your system is amazing and seems to be well thought out, well engineered and well built, you have a slow, easy voice that you use to explain things well and thoroughly and I enjoyed the content. Thanks for the ride along showing your system and the time and effort put into this video.
Wow, this is probably the first all-in-one unit I would actually consider buying rather than just DIYing it all myself as I have done so far.
@@crashoverride5107 so?
@@crashoverride5107 it's still plausible to call it DIY because it's a self-assemble system and the arrangement you use, with solar and inverters can still be DIY.
This isn't a self-contained powerwall like unit, it's just a battery. Sure, it isn't a bunch of 18650s, but as he points out the price is competitive for those without tonnes of free time.
Especially when my diy's end up costing me twice as much by buying mismatched parts and blowing things up 😂
@@BobHannent I personally would not call this in any way DIY. you can technically mount this on a wall (or place it on the floor)and have just 1 battery be a stand alone unit, making it basically the same thing as a powerwall, as there might be some cases(especially offgrid) where you can mount and hookup a Powerwall yourself. this does not qualify as DIY IMO, Its the same thing as buying a preconfigured rack server slapping it on a rackmount and plugging in the plugs. or buying a tv, placing it on a media center and plugging it in to the wall and cable box. sure you placed it yourself, but didn't make it yourself.
@@antibodyarmy It's only DIY if you customize an existing product like OCC, put some ape hangers on it and raked front end and glitter paint and then it's completely custom DIY.
This is truly a terrific presenter and a first class EDUCATOR. I love the integrity and style the most out of every single one of the competition. Safety, instruction with information on why you do things a certain way through a step by step technique. No nonsense approach into Facts along with a Pro's Opinion A+!
Thank you, that means a lot.
Something like this is exactly what I was looking for. Hopefully more vendors will follow suit and hopefully the maker won't cheap-out on components once they start to get sales volume like so many others have.
-Matt
@Signature Solar
It's an impressive looking build from this side of the camera, David does an excellent job and your reply was perfect. I'll look into your site as I'm interested in a marine environment use with recharging via a generator and shore power.
Thank you for quality
@Signature Solar I need to run full off grid my 4000 sq foot home with 7 ton Mitsubishi mini splits, computers, propane tankless, propane stove, propane dryers, etc. Will these be able to handle the loads required?
The Pylontech US2000C are sold for a similar price, $750-800 for a 2.4kWh 2U rack unit.
@@Psi-Storm where? It is ~900-1100 eur anywhere I found.
@Signature Solar Electric sailboats are becoming a hot thing. How would this work in a bank of LiFePO4 batteries to power an electric motor on a boat?
Super presentation! I understood it well even at 2x speed. I don't know how yet, but I am confident that this may be part of the answer that I've been looking for a power system for my van camper. Thanks!
Great Scott had a good video on making a soft-start for inverters that automatically bypasses the resistor
@Mike Sims go back to the 7' mark
I just bought 2 24V 200AH LiFePo batteries to replace my 12 lead acid bank ive had since 2014. What an improvement LiFePo makes!. Wired them together for 24V @400AH since I already had a 24V inverter. They charge fully even on cloudy days with 2 panels @265W each so easily as the capacity only drops 15% overnight running my refrigerator, internet modem, CCTV system. No more Lead acid for me!! Ill be adding a couple more in the future
Me: “I have enough batteries.”
David: “check out this battery!”
Me: “... well another one won’t hurt”
Yes, this. LOL. I feel the same way when I see a new battery out there.
And we're so glad that you do!
enough batteries ? you can never have enough
you might be on to something.
@@DavidPozEnergy 2021 new 5kwh 48V 100ah LiFePO4 Lithium Iron Battery Pack for BTS Solar Energy Storage Power Wall Battery
$1,306.54 alot 6 x total over 7k call the cheap unless make 100k a year perfamily.
Ordered 6 of the 24V 200Ah units a month ago. Liked it so much I ordered another 6 today. My system is 48V but the only ones in stock were the 24V. So I will run 2 of them in series for 48V. I was told the 24V and 48V are identical with the difference being the 24V is divided in the middle. Time to sell my 20 Valence U27-12XP Lithium Battery's!
RS485 is a serial standard used in a lot of industrial equipment. There isn’t a preferred standard physical connector but screw terminals are very common. In this case the RJ45 socket is just a convenient commonly available connector.
As there are 2 connectors on the front of the unit I would expect you would be daisy chaining from one unit to the next (with screw terminals you would usually daisy chain from just a single pair of terminals).
Hi David, I have just put a 48 volt battery together for my 1000 watt electric bicycle. I love the battery except I can't tow it behind my bike! keep up the good work. Your safety is really good.
Have you considered one of those pull behind things they use for children or small animals? And put the battery in that and tow behind the bike?
Buy two and mount them like saddlebags on rear wheel. In a waterproof controller. You’d have. 400 mile range! Lol
David, this is an excellent review - you have my attention. This price is really good. I am looking forward to the next part. I think the key thin for many folks will be to use this as a home battery in a grid connected solar array, that lets you buffer your "own" power overnight - and if/when the grid goes down.
Yeah, I haven't been able to find a better price point for a pre-built 48v battery with BMS and with circuit breaker. I don't have time of use rates where I live, but I can see that being a big benefit for many viewers. Thanks for watching.
Congrats David!!!
You made SignatureSolar sell out of these!!!
Hope they cut you a nice check for all the great work you do!
I really appreciate you explaining the price up front. I hate it when people don't quote the price. This is a pretty good battery, I'm going to consider purchasing one immediately after Christmas. Thank you David.
Man this is crazy, I remember when your channel was around 20k. Congrats on the growth of your chanel over the last 2 years. I finally got my solar shed up and running lol.
Thank you. And Thanks for being a long-time subscriber.
btw, you can daisy chain multiple of these packs to one single USB adapter. you just use small ethernet cables between each one. left port on one going to right port on the next one, left port on the second one going to right port on the third one and so on.
That's actually a good question. RS485 is suited to run serial connections over a long distance and daisy chain should be possible.
However, is it some kind of proprietary protocol/software ? Is there a web based interface available ?
dang, this battery keeps getting more awesome. I think 4 of these for $6K would be a great little 'powerwall'.
Up to 32 devices
@Signature Solar will this support canbus?
I thought so, I should have looked at your comment before saying the same, lol
Thanks to the in-depth evaluation I just bought a 12v 400ah battery for my RV installation. Thanks for efforts David.
Cool. Did the discount work on the 12v version?
@@DavidPozEnergy Yes. And their phone sales support was outstanding.
Thanks. First time I've done a video of one of Signature Solar products, so I appreciate the feedback.
@@DavidPozEnergy My battery came without bolts for the terminals. I am sure the thread is metric. Can you tell me the specs for that thread? Thanks.
M6x1.0
Hi David from your fellow New Englander. Great video. I own 3 of these bought them last year. So far so good. I also use a pc to monitor them. The dip switches are kind of backwards from the manual, but u can figure it out to assign each pack a unique id. Then it will show all the packs once u use that green cable to patch each serial connection of each pack. I just assigned them starting with Id 1 and worked my way up to id3. Good luck on your build, cannot wait till next video. I think I may be ordering another pack and the rack for my cabin setup.
@Signature Solar How is your precharge resistor wired? Is in constantly inline and adding resistance to the output terminal?
Great test. That looks like a very well-engineered battery. I cringed when you plugged that RS485 cable into your Ethernet jack. I hope your Ethernet port is ok :) I look forward to seeing the full rack setup completed.
Thanks for watching. IDK computers well. It fit.
@@DavidPozEnergy lol @ "it fit"
@@DavidPozEnergy Don't worry about it too much. I've plugged USB cables into Ethernet ports before. And I _do_ know computers well.
I just stumbled across your channel. Too bad you were not around when I was doing solar when I was younger. I might get back into it though! Love the content!
The 24 and 48 volt Gylls are all gone. You’re a great advertising source for signaturesolar, I hope they’re paying you well!
@Signature Solar They still haven't arrived?
Excellent battery, thanks Dave! I think this is the best option out there as DIY'ing a battery is pretty scary, I talked to a guy the other day who DIY'd his own battery, burnt his garage and part of his house down when the battery overcharged and caught on fire. Going low-cost is great but need to be safe.
@Signature Solar ordered the 12 volt 400ah and they haven't got a breaker
Pretty impressive battery there... These items may finally push me over the edge into a solar system.
Great testing. One additional test you might want to try is a low temp cutoff test. Don’t know if you have a freezer with enough room. If not, maybe leaving the unit outside overnight would work...
Thanks for the suggestion.
I had mine running during the big Texas freeze in my uninsulated power shed they didn’t get to the discharge temperature cut off. But they did get to the charging cutoff, one started charging at 32f and the other started at 33f.
If the BMS screen is to be believed it may have heaters. David, can you verify if there are heat strips on the cells?
You could undo one of the temp sensors and hold it against an ice cube or dip into glass of ice water.
David, Hello Sir Watching a lot of your videos and wanting to ask if the Gyll battery pack would work for an enclosed trailer? It would see hot and cold weather while not in use, and wondering if the battery would last by being hot/cold while being recharged by solar….. any help would be greatly appreciated
I wish I could have seen this a week ago. I just ordered cells and bms to build my own. This certainly simplifies the precess and this battery looks awesome. Thanks for the review. I will still be buying some.
Your welcome. You can always parallel your DIY build with one of these. So long as your DIY build is also 16s LiFePO4.
@@DavidPozEnergy I was thinking the same thing. I was actually planning a 24V system but now I think I'll go 48v in order to do this.
Good call. 48v will make the overall system more efficient, and future compatible.
Nice find David. It is good to highlight these other options to drive competition and hopefully bring prices down for already assembled battery bank options.
That is utterly amazing. A high quality 5kwh LiFePO4 module * built with BMS/circuit breaker/enclosure* for that price... It wasn't that long ago I paid almost that much for 1/4th the capacity in DIY components with sketchy software and no real support.
The world is changing before our eyes. people "outside the loop" don't realize what is happening. The biggest hinderance today is city electrical code inspectors who are generally unfamiliar with what we can do (at least where I live).
I agree with you about the biggest hinderance.
There are tons of companies in China making these..
The 58.2V peak during charging is perfect! Love the price too. Thanks for the review and I'll definitely reach out. -dc
David, you sold me on this with your review last night. Ordered. Thank you!
Your welcome. And thanks for watching and ordering. I hope you saved 5% with the discount code DAVIDPOZ
@@DavidPozEnergy I got the discount and bought 2 of them came in 5 days, hey Dave I got the 12 volt version and the pic on there web site shows a breaker and mine has none
I'm purchasing similar 100Ah 48V lifepo4 rack mount packs from Meritsun, that also have an ethernet port supporting SNMP management for $1440/piece.
This video recommended by RUclips and I'm very happy about that.
Superb experiment.
Fantastic, exactly what I've been looking for... I think these will go into our next build! :)
The reason for the 2 ports of the RJ45 connectors on the unit is so you can daisy chain them together. So you'll need a patch cable for each unit connected to the string.
I agree with another commenter about that it sux they didn't include the proper main patch cable to be wired correctly to the main unit->USB dongle. I understand that variable lengths could be needed, but for a "rack" mount system, the assumption that a monitoring system in the rack could be very likely. Plus different companies may wire their cables different. They could either be Brown or Blue, depending on the standard they used, A or B, wiring connections.
The blues and the browns are in the same location for both TIA 568A and B. The green and orange pairs are swapped only.
I really dig the testing methods
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Wow- that's impressive! I LOVE the rack system, the compact 100Lbs. battery with breaker built in, and the communication capabilities. Looking at your 'power wall' from years of building batteries from whatevah was available- it's great but... Imagine having 6 in a rack, taking up virtually no space (well, in comparison David!), checking out cell status while eating a microwave dinner on top of the rack!!! (Are you feeling the convenience of this thing? I know I am!). Breaker, SoC, Pos. & Neg. are far apart for safety, sealed container, 103% of promised energy- what's NOT to love? It's too bad that the form factor doesn't work well for RV's, but- these folks may just consider that market as well!!! I really like this non DIY battery at $300/Kwh!!!
I know this is an old video about a battery that is probably no longer sold, but your over-load testing was a good test for any battery.
It appeared the breaker is only used as a switch or was not functioning because it failed to throw at 200amps.
Alternatives in the same price category: Pylontech (e.g. 3.3 kWh @1260€) or Sunstone (e.g. 10.2 kW @ 3290€), especially for customers in Europe, when shipping costs have to be added.
Too bad they are 0.5C rated
Thanks!
Thank you.
I bought 6 in the rack. A month ago. This thing is well built.
I purchased 4 and a rack. Excited to test them.
6 for me too, about a month or so ago, but still waiting for the off-grid house to be finished so they're still in the boxes.
Looks like a really solid unit. Anybody know if it has cold temperature shutoff?
I wish I had that kind of cash. That would be so awesome.
After watching your videos, I am really considering going off grid… & from the rent of my properties, I am setting up a fund replacement battery unit for every 5 years… Given that I am using log burner to heat up the house & run a steam powered generator at the same time… thanks.
"Blow out the capacitors" 😲 There is no risk of damaging the capacitors in the inverter if you hook it up directly to the battery. The question is if the internal BMS or the battery's breaker will trip. I would hope that they can handle the short high in-rush current.
Great report. No need to sound sheepish on sales commissions - as they allow you to buy more batteries for test and consumer reporting.
David, can you do a video that lays out a 5KW system using Growatt inverter and these batteries connected to grid showing how you can make a cost effective system on grid off grid. Also if possible show how we can connect a 9000 W harbor Freight generator as backup. This video done right would get over a million views. Thank you
Yes, Please!
I third this request!
Love those experiments o you did. Love the insights you gave. Im sold!
this is a game changer!
LOL, yeah they could have called it that and it would make more sense.
Brilliant presentation. Wish I had the benefit of this video before I had Pylon batteries installed by a con man here in the UK.
Never mind I should have known you would cover it in the resource section. Thank You. Great battery gonna go put one on reserve.
Glad you found it. Actually, after I posted Signature Solar reached out to me. Turns out there is a pre-charge resistor built into this battery (aluminum thing right next to BMS). So I didn't need to use a resistor.
Nice. It's good to see someone experimenting with electrical circuits.
You can use a 120v incandescent light bulb to charge caps also, 40 watt and up work great, when the glow stops, the caps are charged! Nice batteries, can they be bought individual? I think I'm still at the diy level, although the 120ah LG batteries did spoil me a LOT! Building large 18650 banks get old fast!
You are very professional, the battery manufacturing process is very good.
Nobody seems to want to talk about "battery fade" over the cell's lifetimes, and how that interacts with the nameplate "number of cycles" a battery is supposed to yield. These are two important things you can only find out by using the battery, it seems. Maybe after 5 years it will fade to 4 kWh or even 3 kWh, depending on *how* you use it. It's well-known that if you don't use the full capacity (that is, charge it to maybe 90% and discharge to maybe 10%-15%) that you will slow down this "battery fade," and battery manufacturers will admit to this - but there doesn't seem to be good information on voltages, etc., to lengthen battery life. This is important to those of us who are trying to maximize battery lifetime in a working home solar system in island configuration.
That sounds like regulat battery conservation to me, just like EVs and phones. I guess you can set up a system that modifies charge and discharge behavior based on SOC?
Right right! I'm interested in this. I think there are certain parameters recommended for lifepo4s, based on the specific make and model. It's programmed into the bms and possibly the solar charge controller as well? Not sure as I haven't connected my system all together yet.
The G4LL LiFePower4 batteries are rated to 7000 full charge cycles (which just means it takes 7000 cycles to reach 80% of original capacity)
Just build it bigger.
There is lots of information about it everywhere online. You just have to read it.
These look great, the 19" rackmount is just a perfect format for these batteries.
For your test rig, perhaps put a label over the previous correction value and mark the date you calibrated it? If you test it later and its changed you'll have a record.
I like the battery. I need to build one like it for my PowerWheel Race car. I am looking at a 48 volt system that will run a brushless motor system. I have a small atv chassis that I need to fit everything on. I was wonder about batteries, and you have shed a lots of knowledge to get me going on this part of my project.
I love mine in upstate ny have rack and six running my whole house i have on pc to monitor all the cells working 100% jim at signature solar is great fast shipping texas to ny in three days
Are you using these to run a minisplit for heating?
I've had nothing but bad experience with signature solar. They don't stand by their products. Tried telling me GrowWatt inverter isn't made for used leaf battery packs and Sunpower panels. That made me mad. If it's true why not state that nonsense in the description. Which is not true.
can you monitor all six racks with a single computer without unplugging and replugging the cable?
@@KyBrancaccio kind of impossible to tell you without more information, but a heat-pump minisplit for heating is no different than for coolinh
@@stickersadd20hp I have to disagree they answer my calls and James walks me threw everything very helpful getting my system up and running and some parts are not from him
Very nicely built for something that's made in China. I'm pleasantly surprised! Definitely something I'm considering now
I like the concept, but I have some issues. They should provide the right connector for the comms package. The circuit breaker does not provide over current protection. And the cells are only rated for 7000 cycles. Newer cells have up to 20,000 cycles. This is why this unit is only warranted for 5 years. So when comparing price you should take that into account. Update: after reading the specs. you may not have run the over current test long enough.
LFP typical cycle life at 80% DOD is 6000-9000 cycles. Maybe you are thinking about LTO batteries at 20k cycles. Gyll uses cells from Jiangxi Ganfeng which is one of larger and reputable "mine to cell" manufactures.
The real life limit in most power electronics is the electrolytic capacitors. If you look at cycle ratings on Digikey, they are typically horrible!
Thanks for video David, these things always intresting to watch. Keep it up my man.
When you’re shooting 100 amps through an AWG6... it will definitely heat up. 60 amps is max permissible on 6AWG.
More copper is always a good thing, less copper is a terrible thing.
100% 25mm for 100Amps 16mm for 60Amps
@@timballam3675 Let's get the units right shall we? It's not 16mm, it's an area we are talking here, it's 16mm2 (or 16mm^2).
= 16 mm squared.
mm is a distance and not a cross sectional area.
Which is why the other poster is getting confused.
Data connection info. It's marked RS485 which is a specification similar to RS232. The physical plugs are RJ45 but could be anything, RJ45 is readily available. The cool thing is you DAISY CHAIN all your devices! Use those short RJ45 to connect additional batteries in the rack. Actually a lot further if you want to run 100ft cables. Those dip switches allow you to ID a device in the RS485 chain. Only one pc connection manages all the batteries.
I’ve seen RS485 work at over a mile of cable in SCADA systems, as long as you use decent cables.
Hi David. A request:
on one of these videos, can you please use an incandescent bulb instead of the resistor to pre-charge the capacitor. Would like to see that method as well. Thanks.
Thanks for the idea.
AHAHA, loved doing this in my electronics class!
David , thanks for the experiment
Loving all your videos, David. This product looks fantastic! Do you have a favorite website that you recommend for the calculation of what sized components (batteries, solar cells, charge controllers, etc) someone needs based on their power requirements?
Generally, I like the resources at Alt-E. They are easy to understand. www.altestore.com/store/calculators/off_grid_calculator/
not too much
not too little
that IS 10 pounds of it in a 10 pound box
beautifully engineered.
the nit pic was spot on!
Will sent me your way. Great video, can this be charged solar panel and how would you connect Shore power to it to use it in an RV setting or would it be wise to use it in the RV setting
I think they grouped those temps sensors in pairs because one might be a low temp and the other a high temp.
That seems plausible.
or, it could be averaging between the two for better accuracy, or redundancy in case of probe failure.
That seems pretty unlikely. Temperature sensor chips are around $1 each and they can measure temperatures over the range of -40 C to +125 C.
I’ve got two of these and six battle born 100 ah. I’m going to sell my battle borns and buy a couple more gylls. These things are the best bang for the buck that I’ve found.
Likes like a very nice battery pack. I wish I was rich so I could buy 80kwhs of them.
That looks like a great battery & @ a great price point..!
I look forward 2 more videos on this...
Cheers & keep up ur great work.
David, Take some Acetone (finger nail polish remover) and remove your old markings from your charge box. Was a really nice trick fro calibrating it!
pięknie dziękuję za ten klip. dzięki niemu będę miał kontrolę nad moim magazynem energii
Except James Showalter doesn't pick up the phone when you call him! Their product is a great idea but their company owner really should return his calls.
Good to know
I would love to see some abuse testing on this one
He answered my call, talked my ear off.
Hi David, my understanding is that the battery terminals are designed to be mounted in a rack with a flat copper bus without cuts between the individual cells. you can take 2 tires, a couple of feet long and parallelize all the batteries, about 1/2 inch wide and 1/8 thick. I propose to insulate the tires with a heat-shrinkable tube in their entire length and remove the insulation in places of contact with the battery. this is not a guide to action, these are my thoughts, as I would have done) Thank you for the interesting videos, success in everything!
Thanks Roman, great find, now the terminals design make sense. And I agree with insulating the copper bars completely except at the terminals!
It’s RS485 which is a an industrial serial protocol - other people’s ethernet patch cables wont necessarily use the same colours - so you need to make sure you are connecting to the correct pin on the rj45 connector rather than assume a particular wire colour. TBH bit crap they don’t provide suitable cable, given they provide the rs485 to usb dongle
There are 2 standard ethernet wirings, TIA 568A and TIA 568B. The difference is that the orange and green pairs are swapped, but the blues and browns are in the same location for both. So the brown wire most likely should work with any ethernet cable that seen the standard remotely. 😉
But I agree, the pinout is the reference, not the wire color - they should have provided a dongle with a jack receptacle.
Nice gear. Seems like a quality manufacturer with attention to detail.
Ok, #1 - Batteries out of Stock... imagine that. #2 Signature Solar - Shame that you don't have the usb cable completed for the customer. Such a small item. Poor David had to suffer.
My thought exactly
Dude you're just going to save my life I guess. I'm going to be building a datacenter soon in the United States. And I'm kinda conservative about our budget for second backup power. I think I'ım on to something right here tho. Thanks for the amazing content! Keep on rocking!
Your welcome. Good Luck with your data center build.
So 60+kWh for less than the quote I got for 2 power walls, sounds great!
So it's about $300 per kWh and a powerwall has 13.5kWh. Pure equivalent energy capacity is going to cost you $4,500 plus shipping. They sell a cabinet for three of these at $400. Looks like you could get a nice 48 volt inverter charger for about $2k with a 6kW output 120/240.
So you could get a powerwall equivalent for around $7k. If you double up to 30kWh, the inverter/charger might be another $1k and the larger cabinet an extra $100 so you would be at $12.5k . I think about the fact that you can buy a used Nissan Leaf for about $10k with a 24kWh battery in it, albeit probably a little bit degraded.
Actually, an 18kWh battery pack out of a Chevy Volt costs $3k new. That's 9kWh for $1,500. It's Lithium Ion as is the battery in the Powerwall but I think it's an interesting comparison from a price perspective.
The one thing that the Powerwall has is a compact floor space footprint - You can probably put them one above the other on a wall. Guess it depends on what you have, wall space and money or floor space.
@@errcoche
The volt battery cost has doubled. I’m not sure why.
These complete package battery banks are awesome! Saves time and money from having to shop around for parts. Cant wait to see where batteries will be in five years. Eventually manufacturers will have to beat out the DIY’ers and they have to come down on prices do it.
I know the price is good but, for $1500 a correctly pre-made cable to connect to my PC is not too much to ask.
no. a lot of people already have a usb to serial converter with the correct cable. having a standard usb to serial converter is great, you can use it for other devices to.
Actually, yes, since they used a serial port. That's only really useful for enterprise or cloud - there have not been standard serial ports on consumer laptops for a decade or more. Univeral Serial Bus (USB) would have been ok - the jank solution they include is NOT standard USB. The real question I have is, why not wifi AND/or Ethernet? Or at worst Bluetooth? That is what I would expect from a pro-sumer product. Sure, connect the devices together via serial over an RJ45 Cable so they can talk to one another. But these really should communicate either via Ethernet or wifi. Or better yet, both.
They use a serial rs485 which is perfect for this. When you buy 20 of these you dont want to have 20 usb cables or bluetoth or any other crap. Just a single rs485 where you can daisychain each unit and be able to communicate 1000 meters away. On a consumer product the use of RJ45 is probably not a good idea tho.
David poz you're battery powered plan capacity is good stronger. Nice ⚡⚡👍
Oh man, the secret is out on these batteries. Hopefully Signature Solar doesn’t jack prices!
This is a car jack. Well of course it's a car, but my name is not Jack, it's Greg, and this is my sister Marsha.
@Signature Solar You guys will make a mint if the quality is good and the prices stay as they are. I WILL get 10 at end of summer if these test well! Well done guys!!!!
@Signature Solar good to hear! I plan on getting these later this year!
Looking forward for more videos on this product. Keep up the Good Work David.
Thanks. I'm working on it. Currently powering my house with it.
alll we need now is rack mount solar controllers and inverter other then modded ups's
Just get some rack shelves. They're just a sheet of steel with a few bends but they cost almost $100.
It's always nice to get out of a product what it was rated for, instead of the usual getting less out than rated for since many companies expect most consumers to not check.
If you look at the EVE LFP 280aH 3.2v batteries which are about $125 each and build out a 48V battery for around $2500!
Lishen 280ah is cheaper, $460 for 4 cells
Dang great content man. I cant wait to start my solar panel and charging bank journey someday!
Hey Dave! Thanks for all your hard work showing us whats up out there! I noticed in the software it mentioned heat film so I was wondering if there was a heating circuit under the battery? and if it was automated to protect in frigid environment? if so what are the temp presets and are they adjustable? Also was there a auto shut off to prevent charging in the same? Maybe use the solar vendor freezer outside to test?
Hey we could just build our own from ali for 1000$ with all the bells n whistles but that is a rocking case! I like em too!
Thanks, Brock in Myrtle Beach SC
Awesome as always, I may have just found my first batteries.
RS-485 is not Ethernet. It's a serial communications method. You need a USB to RS-485 converter (as you found out).
And it is clearly labeled as RS-485 as well :-)
Thanks I was curious about this model. Nice to see inside and get a look at the software , features and your testing. Cheers.
😅😅not all RJ45 are Ethernet 😅