I think this is a fine place for it and comes with the benefit of pagination on posts. Makes reading a lot easier.

-Ben S.

I made a previous request to Ben which may have gotten caught up in the discussion on the comments to the article. In light of the 14.0v BMS triggers, has anyone done a capacity test using 13.8v with presumably balanced cells?

This would give data to show how much, if any, capacity is lost by not going to 14.2 and fully absorbing to a balanced (3.55v each cell) battery.

For all I know, the Epoch 460 yields 460Ah with 14.0v and is under-spec’d based on the engineering decision to cap the batt charging at 14.0V. 

Ideally, a first capacity test would be done before doing one with balanced cells (my definition of balanced cells is fully absorbed—no time or tail current limits—at absorption voltage for all 4 cells simultaneously). Often, battery tests don’t have a 30 min rest or float prior to discharge to xx voltage but if documented, it is still a good test. This first test is to see/show the effect of using curtailed charging criteria (eg, 2 hour max, or 5%C end of absorption) 

I won’t conflate this post with the worth of a good manual. (Someone please start another thread😉)

I really hope this conversation is constructive. That’s my intent and please call me out (privately would be nice) if you see it differently. 

Jim

What does “awaiting moderation” mean? Did I break a rule or do all posts need approval before they are published?

Jim