After a lot of research and some failed attempts, I've finally got the right battery to run my NightSun away from home - preferably somewhere in the boonedocks. I wasted a little money and time on buying some Nissan Leaf EV battery modules. 180 Ah of 8S LiMn of which I used only 7S. Unfortunately, the wide Voltage discharge curve and more importantly, the high initial Voltage drop of the pack very soon had my Voltage supply to the light at below 28 Volts. The light will run on anything from 26.5 to 29 however, it is not regulated so less Voltage, less Lumens. It's spec'd at a nominal 27.5VDC. So I sold those off losing a bit of cash. But I had fun experimenting with them so it was sort of worth it. I have always wanted to go with the safer chemistry of LiFeP04 so I did a lot of research on the Plastic housed LiFeP04 Prismatic bricks. Not to be confused with the "pouch" style. There are no individually wrapped pouches inside. Just layered Anode and cathode sheets and some separators. After looking at a lot of high current discharge graphs of different brands of bricks, I settled on 9 each, 100 Ah units on Ebay. These are rated at up to 5C with 3C being rated for continuous duty. I only need 63 amps, not 300. I was hoping to get 45 minutes of run time with them being used at .63C. The graphs indicated that I could get up to 90% Depth of Discharge before the cell Voltage fell below 3.0 at a full 1C discharge. I figured I'd cut them off at 3.1 VPC or 27.9 pack Volts which is about 80 DOD. That's just about right to treat them nicely. They arrived today and I immediately charged two of them to do some testing. The graphs were not lying. I have an old Lectra-Load IIB which is an variable electronic load bank good for up to 1250 watts but at 29 Volts, it will only pull about 825 Watts (28 Amps) due to internal controls. So I tested with only two cells so I could pull the full 85 initial Amps, tapering down to 63 Amps over 45 seconds. The results:
Starting pack............29.76V - immediately dialed in 85 Amps and tapered down to 63 over 45 seconds
At 5 minutes.............28.67
At 10 minutes...........28.58
At 20 minutes...........28.49
At 30 minutes...........28.43
At 40 minutes...........28.35
At 50 minutes...........28.24
At 60 minutes...........28.06
At 63 minutes...........28.0
At 67 minutes...........27.9V - 3.1 VPC
This is at the end of the test at 67 minutes. Two cells in Series so cut the Volts in half for 3.1 or pack Voltage of 27.9
Each cell weighs just under 8lbs so the total 9 cells packs weighs a total of 72 lbs. I'm going to split them into two Pelican cases so about 40 and 32 lbs each. A single pole quick connect Anderson Power Pole terminated cable between the two packs will bring them up to the full 9S configuration. Now I just have to find the right long-distance spot to do some beam shots, undisturbed by passers-by and aircraft, hopefully.
Starting pack............29.76V - immediately dialed in 85 Amps and tapered down to 63 over 45 seconds
At 5 minutes.............28.67
At 10 minutes...........28.58
At 20 minutes...........28.49
At 30 minutes...........28.43
At 40 minutes...........28.35
At 50 minutes...........28.24
At 60 minutes...........28.06
At 63 minutes...........28.0
At 67 minutes...........27.9V - 3.1 VPC
This is at the end of the test at 67 minutes. Two cells in Series so cut the Volts in half for 3.1 or pack Voltage of 27.9
Each cell weighs just under 8lbs so the total 9 cells packs weighs a total of 72 lbs. I'm going to split them into two Pelican cases so about 40 and 32 lbs each. A single pole quick connect Anderson Power Pole terminated cable between the two packs will bring them up to the full 9S configuration. Now I just have to find the right long-distance spot to do some beam shots, undisturbed by passers-by and aircraft, hopefully.