PowerPaul Australia in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Home improvement

PowerPaul Australia

Locality: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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• Home improvement
• Solar energy services
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25.01.2022 PSA regarding the battery builds... The internal cells for the Scout 280 PC "should" be arriving in the Melbourne port May 31st. SO all being well, I should have them within a week from then. Building will begin immediately and they should start going out the door within 3-4 days from when I get them. As these are a different batch of cells, I will be doing some extra testing to confirm capacity. I haven't had any further news regarding the CALB cells yet, I'll be checking ...up on those during the week. As there's no landing date just yet, I expect the Mercury 330 PC to be slightly delayed compared to the Scout. I'm hoping for them to be ready before the end of June, however it's out of my hands at this stage. As always, if you've paid a deposit or pre-payment, and I'm unable to fulfill your order in time for your needs, I'll have no issue providing a full refund. And a reminder that at this stage, the Pre-Order discount ends Friday May 28th (this Friday). This helps me cover costs without struggling, and it gives the end user up to $100 off, so it's a nice deal for everyone (even though I make less overall).

22.01.2022 Mercury and Cabin design improvements/updates... Just like the experience with the Scout battery, the battery cell delivery delays have provided me with some extra time to step back and review my design. The Bus Bars in the Scout are awesome, they drop losses down a a very low figure due to their size 4 x 20mm. The Mercury and Cabin batteries were going to use the same profile of Bus Bar, but due to the length being less than half, the losses were also less than half. ... For the B- connection, the Scout has a piece of metal, crimped to a wire, then that wire crimped to another piece of metal, then that screwed to the Bus Bar joining the two cells, then screwed to the battery terminal, this is 5 connections and each of them introduces a resistance point, and a failure point. I figure I can do better. I've always said I'll make the best I can, within reason, so I designed a one piece Bus Bar for this B- connection, resulting in just 2 connection points. However it's long, about twice the length of one of the Bus Bars in the Scout. While overall it's still much better regarding losses, I want better again. So I've decided to make it 6mm thick. 150% more material, means 150% better conductivity, and less heat. To preserve the simplicity of manufacturing, I'll also be getting the other Bus Bars for these batteries made from 6mm material too. It'll cost me more, but the extra reliability and efficiency is something that I think is worth it. I won't be passing this cost onto the customer, at least not for the ones who have already ordered. However I will re-assess the costing after I complete the first few batteries to see if it's still viable. I will (hopefully) be passing these files back to the laser cutter tomorrow so they can get them in line to be made. From there it should be 1-2 weeks, and I can start assembly. With a bit of luck the cells should have arrived by then too. Still to be finalised are the Bus Bar covers, and case Terminal Covers. These will provide some extra safety and security in the event that someone really damages the case.

21.01.2022 Back to making these cables again... Ughhh! However this time I'm not doing them all at once, last time I ended up with blisters from using the hydraulic crimper so much! Once again I'm using 50mm2 double insulated welding cable. This stuff is super capable, and will handle the current required easily. ... But there's a difference between the Scout and Mercury/Cabin batteries. The case terminal on the Scout is flipped, but not on these ones. Instead I keep it the same way up, and a chamfer one side of the mounting post on the case lid. This provides me with more than 10mm of reduced height. And I also countersink the connection bolt, once again this saves some extra height. I still ensure the natural cable bend is used to my advantage. The terminals are double crimped and then covered with marine grade glue lined heatshrink. Making sure you align the terminals the right way is a very handy thing to do when possible. This is especially important when the cable is such a short length, as it can be tricky to twist to the right position. It means the cable and terminals of batteries or cases, are not permanently under any stress. And it looks super neat too :)

21.01.2022 Hey people, I'm on the hunt for a cheap isolation transformer (not an autotransformer). It needs to be rated for 240v @50Hz and around 1500VA or more. I'd prefer 2nd hand, but if you know of someone selling one cheap and new, that may be ok. I'm not fussed about if it's in a case or just a raw transformer, as long as it works and is in Australia. This is going to be used to help make some of my testing a bit safer, and a couple of other fiddly uses, especially when switchmode power supplies don't play nice with each other.

18.01.2022 The other day I mentioned about the PowerPaul batteries not being possible without 3D printing, well that's only partly true. The better description is that the quality, finish, design and size wouldn't be possible without 3D printing. Two nights ago I did a test fit to check clearances for the lid connections, and just like the Scout, they're super close! I made some changes to the cable lugs used on the Scout to improve clearance, and adjusted the angles they sit at, and i...t's all happy now. However the Mercury is even closer, and the connections that are super close, are the ones that would be most dangerous if something went very wrong... To me, this isn't acceptable! So off to bed I went and let the mind think of options overnight. The next day I got back home from work with an idea, by 7pm I had the idea drawn up and I emailed that to my CAD man. By a little after 9pm, he'd already replied and my inbox had the file to do a test print. This print will take me an hour to print this morning. The idea with this is that I ditch the B- cable assembly completely, and also the bus bar that joins the negative battery terminals. This saves me about 10mm of height, which should be ideal to keep things fitting nicely. I may even be able to keep the same battery height as the Scout! (But don't plan on that, I think it'll still be a bit too tight for that) This has some other benefits too. Between the BMS B- connection, and the negative terminal of the battery, there are 5 actual connection points, and every connection point is resistance, plus it's a possible failure point. This change reduces that to just 2 points, which is an enormous difference. One solid bus bar to join the battery to the BMS. It also reduces work time a little, the quantity of parts, and it's super neat. It does mean I'm relying on yet another laser cut item, but the aim here is to produce the best I can, within reason. More updates to come in the comments later today.

17.01.2022 As most of you know, I live in Melbourne. We've just had confirmation that our current lockdown period has been extended 7 more days, so it's due to end late next week. This will most likely have an effect on delivery of the battery cells for both the Scout and the Mercury/Cabin batteries. How much of an effect, is something I'm not sure of yet. The cells were due to arrive in Oz over the past few days, and then they need to be unpacked from the ship and freighted from the d...ocks to my suppliers. Normally that takes about a week until I can collect them. If you're waiting for one of my batteries, and you think this may mean it will arrive too late for you to use it, please get in touch with me and I'll pay closer attention to your order to try have it completed ASAP. Or offer a refund. Orders are normally done in the order that they're paid for, but with some kindness from various customers, I've been able to switch some positions to help those in dire need sooner. That's the situation as it stands right now, I will of course post further updates as soon as I'm able to.

16.01.2022 Torture test time. Running the 3000w inverter at full power until it stops. So with 233A load, the voltage has dropped to 12.6v, that's impressive! I actually had it pushing 3250w at first, but I figure I'll be stressing the inverter a bit much. This will be a discharge in just over an hour, so once that's done, I'll put it back on a relatively slow charge to let everything settle nicely. These CALB cells should handle this easily, so I'll be looking for any excessive heat ...or bulging. I also had the bus bars and bus bar covers drawn up today, so they're on the 3D printer to double check everything before sending the files off to the laser cutter. I need to try puch this order through pretty quickly so when the cells are available, I can get them out the door ASAP. There's a lot of money tied up in these, and it's not so fun running my own account so low right now.

14.01.2022 Without 3D printing, the Scout, Mercury and Cabin batteries wouldn't be a viable task for such a small operation. This kind of rapid prototyping is a total game changer. I can draw a rough sketch on paper, a friend of mine puts it into a CAD program, I can print it on the 3D printer in a couple of hours and test fit things in real life, and for just a few dollars as opposed to hundreds or thousands to get injection molds made and waiting weeks. These parts finished printing ...this morning, and I already have a few changes to make. So by tomorrow morning I should have a new set printed, and be able to send the CAD files off to get the bus bars laser cut. The amount of tiny differences that make all the difference, is astonishing. In this case the internal corner fillets are a bit too big, making it not quite fit over the battery terminals. I use fillets instead of square corners because it's easier to print, it's neater and is also significantly stronger whilst using less material. And my first print is way stronger than it needs to be, so the next print can be done lighter, faster, neater and cheaper without any sacrifice in function.

11.01.2022 Different battery, different internals, different layout, means a different solution... The Scout had the Pre-Charge resistor nestled between the case side and the positive terminal post. The resistor connected directly to the M8 lug and the M6 screw. This was neat, easy and compact. But the Mercury and Cabin will have covers over the terminal posts, so it's not neat to fit the resistor in the same spot. I also wanted to make assembly "nicer". Doing up the M8 bolt with the ...small eye terminal under it was pretty fiddly, so I wanted to eliminate that process. So instead of that, the resistor will (unless I change my mind overnight) be mounted on the positive cable. Wires will extend out to M6 lugs on each end, and that means no mixing of the high current and low (Pre-Charge) current connections. The engineer in me immediately arks up and asks all the "what if?" questions. So after a while of pondering, I think this is a solution that works very well. However the engineer doesn't sleep well, so there's every possibility that tomorrow morning I be changing the setup once again :P The Scout was a lot more design work than I first expected, but I'm very glad to have that experience and knowledge backing me up for this next design. Tolerances and potential problems increase exponentially as we pack more power into less space. This is once again a challenge to the bigger manufacturers... Why aren't you making batteries of this capacity, and this size, at this quality?

11.01.2022 Customer Feedback time :) It's probably about time I call on a few of my "customers" (whether that be someone I've sold something to, or someone I've helped with system design for free or paid advice), to voice their opinion on the service they've received. Or perhaps you're just someone who's been following the page and has learned enough to find your way through the minefield that we all go through whilst setting up this equipment. So if you're one of these people, I'd re...ally appreciate hearing about what you thought was good or bad about the product you purchased, or the service received. Did it perform as expected, better or worse? Were there any problems with ordering, paying or freight? Was I honest, helpful, reasonably priced, and quick to respond to any problems or questions you may have had? If you've purchased a battery and haven't yet used it, please hold off providing feedback about the battery, because I don't want reviews which aren't qualified with real life experience. Not only does this feedback show others what to expect, it develops my reputation, and shows me where I may need to improve. If the feedback is no so good, please still post it. There are plenty of places who won't allow bad or even neutral feedback on their own pages, but I don't want to be one of them. That's not honest, and not ultimately helpful for anyone. I'll send a PM to some people I've dealt with mentioning this post.

10.01.2022 Test number 2 of the Mercury battery is complete. I was hoping to achieve the often mentioned 170Ah per cell, to continue with the notion that it's a 340Ah battery. However I'm er-ing on the cautious side to avoid disappointing anyone. So I will call it a 330Ah battery to be safe. The pictures below show the results. ... The end result was 335Ah. This is the point where the inverter cut off. However the battery will still supply power, there's just not much left in it. The second picture is when the inverter started complaining of low battery with a lower load. And the third picture is when the inverter started complaining of a low battery with a 70A load. These results are good, perfectly in line with what I've read on spec sheets, and seen elsewhere. The heat buildup of the batteries was very minimal, and that helps everything a lot. Tomorrow afternoon after another full charge, I'll run a full 250A load test. This will be the final test I need to do for this battery. I'm busy drawing up the revised bus bar covers, and bus bars, as well as looking into how much higher the lid needs to be. There will be between 5-10mm extra height compared to the Scout. I realise this may possibly make it more difficult for some people to fit in certain locations, but it's still much much smaller than anything else on the market for its capacity. The Mercury is 230Wh/L, and the next closest is the Solarking 240Ah at 186Wh/L. I'm very impressed with the consistency so far. So it'll be good to see result of the high current discharge. The terminals and overall quality are so much better than anything else I've used so far. So the price per Ah difference over the Scout, is well worth it in my opinion. This is especially true for people who will use these batteries a lot, for example those who are living in their vans. The cycle life of these cells means that you can comfortably drain them basically flat, every single day for 10 years, and still not see any huge degradation. Not many batteries can claim that, and certainly no AGM or Lead Acid battery will manage even 10% of that number of cycles. I'm also looking into changing the way I connect the Pre-Charge resistor. Assembling the Scout battery is fiddly, and I'd like to remove one awkward aspect of it if possible.

03.01.2022 Well I'm going to call it... It's reached the point where there's no real chance of supplying any of these batteries by mid June as expected. Unfortunately there are delays in shipping items almost everywhere right now, and even though I built in a bigger time buffer than the last batch, this one has once again blown out. This is the down side of making items to order, rather than purchasing off-the-shelf items. As far as I'm aware, the 280Ah cells for the Scout batteries a...re in Oz, but I'm not sure of their status. The CALB cells fo the Mercury and Cabin batteries, are still in transit from my last communication. I am hoping that this will just add a couple of weeks to the expected timing. And of course if I'll turn the production around as quickly as possible to get them on the way. As I've always said, if this affects your timeline and ability to purchase, and you've pre-paid or paid a deposit, I have no issue providing a refund. However if you're ok to continue to wait, then I appreciate that too. I'll be in touch by messenger with everyone who's paid by the end of today.