Came here to say this. Be careful @Hoodini those cheap ass chinese batteries are well, cheap for a reason. you’ll be lucky if they are 1000mah.
If you must use them, get yourself a charger that has the ability to capacity test. It’ll drain them with a known mah, then recharge them and tell you final capacity. (Sucks it only does this with one slot, but if you do 1 out of every 10 you’ll have a good sample rate.
Charger like this: http://a.co/5BjvEe8 KINDEN 18650 Smart Battery Charger Universal Intelligent 4 Slot Automatic LCD Display for Li-ion LiFePO4 Ni-MH Ni-Cd AA AAA C 26650 18350 17670 RCR123 Fire Prevention Material
Ya I’ve actually picked up everything “interchangeable” lol I should be able to run it either 3.7, 7.2, 10.9 or 14.4v which you know will work for 6v or 12v systems, but if this “powerbox” goes good (rechecked and they are US made batteries thank god) i will be building a much much bigger one to run the house on for now. . . I hope it works as well as the math says lol, thanks for the input jelly👍
Some of the DIY powerwall stuff I’d watched, with the guys building their power walls from 18650’s salvaged from laptop battery packs, said the capacity testers were invaluable so you got true math. Grouping similar performance salvaged cells together for a more consistent experience.
We probably watch the same guy lol, and ya I didn’t want to bullshit with the laptop batteries and all that “fun” so I ended up finding brand new, never been used 18650s and didnt think it would be a problem, but after the horror stories (about the cheap Chinese 18650s) I was reading earlier, I think im going to invest in one anyway
I can build this for around $20 bucks each and it’s running on a phone charger atm, so I can only run it at 3.8 volt (im pulling too many amps for the phone charger) so actual voltage will be right around 5v so thats about 20 watts lol so im hoping for an ounce per light… I would be happy af with that
I’m still going to solder the wires on, but now I only need one wire for 2 positives and one for 2 negatives, and staggering them like that gave me the space to run my wires inbetween the lights
)
