Articles & Resources
Check out our guides and thoughts on DIY battery building. We will update this page as often as we can with new content, guides, and news.
Can you spot weld copper?
When dealing with large current battery packs sometimes nickel isn't feasible to use. Running 3 or more layers of nickel introduces complexity, weight, and more points of failure. Luckily you can spot-weld copper, you just need to have a really good spot welder and some tips we go over in this article.
How to Increase 12 volts to 24 volts
A lot of times when building a battery pack you may have some devices that run directly off the pack and some that need a voltage boost. We go over ways to boost 12v up to 24v so you can run 24v devices off your 12v pack. Sometimes certain things run even better off 24v compared to 12v for instance most UDB-C PD boards.
Converting Watt Hours to Amp hours
Battery pack capacity is measured in either watt-hours or amp-hours. Some people prefer to use Wh while others prefer to use Ah. If you have a pack that is in Wh it's important to know how to take Wh and convert it to Ah, the good news is it's just a simple formula which we go into depth on here.
How To Calculate 18650 Battery Run Time
Learning how to calculate run time on any battery or cell is crucial knowledge to have. Learning and understanding these formulas give a solid foundation for understanding battery capacity. Once you understand the capacity of a battery or cell its very easy to figure out the run time it will have on a given load.
Can I Connect A Solar Panel Directly to A Battery?
Setting up a solar system for the first time comes with a lot of questions and things to figure out. One of the most common is whether can you charge a battery directly from a solar panel. Well, the short answer is NO but you can do other things with power coming directly off a solar panel.
How Do You Check Internal Resistance With A Multimeter?
If you only have a handful of cells or packs to test learning how to test IR with a multimeter can come in handy. It's a pretty straightforward and simple process to do so. However, if you need to test in large quantities we highly recommend buying a dedicated IR tester.
How Do You Calculate Which BMS for LiFePO4?
Picking the best-suited BMS for any battery build can be a little confusing. For larger-sized battery packs like those used in DIY powerwalls, this can get more complicated due to higher amperage requirements. We lay out in this article all the major considerations to help you pick the right BMS the first time.
Which Battery Chemistry Is Best?
The two main lithium chemistries of choice are NMC and LFP. Determining which is best really comes down to what your application is. In this article, we go over which is best in our opinion and in what application each excels at.
What is Stronger Than 18650?
Picking the strongest cells to meet very high current demands can be a complex task. You have to factor in chemistry and cell format when picking. These factors will allow you to make sure the choice will work best for your build. We break this all down within this article.