On 5/26/2012 3:42 PM, Jonathan Hallameyer wrote: > On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Dwayne Reid wro= te: > >> At 11:52 AM 5/21/2012, David VanHorn wrote: >>> I've been meaning to chime in on this. >>> >>> These days, my jumper cables are a normal pair of gator clips for the >>> "victim" and a powerpole which connects both leads at the same time to >>> a matching powerpole in my car, several feet from the battery, >>> avoiding the sparky-boom problem on both ends, and making it less >>> likely for someone to swipe my jumper cables. >> I do something similar for one setup I have: its a largish 12V AGM >> battery (something on the order of 75 AH) in a carrying bag, along >> with AGM charger, a 400W power inverter and a set of jumper cables. >> >> The Anderson Power Pole connectors I am using are rated at 60A and >> they have been reliable for at least 10 years now. The wire is 6 AWG >> from the battery but only 8 AWG to the jumper clips. However, it works >> well. >> >> Gets used for jump-starting vehicles only a few times per year and >> has seen a LOT of use over the past couple of years for testing a >> couple of pipeline Injection Pump controllers that we manufacture. >> >> dwayne >> >> -- >> Dwayne Reid >> Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA >> (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax >> www.trinity-electronics.com >> Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing >> >> > Since I think at least some of the people on here could appreciate the > excess, I'll post it here. I built myself a 12v jumper pack using 16X > (4s4p) Olevin power 26650 LiFePO4 cells. Olevin power is Chinese made A12= 3 > cells (I.e. A123 had manufacturing moved to china, not just whatever > LiFePO4 cell a chinese factory could come up with) if the RC car websites= I > browed had their facts straight. Some 120A 4AWG Power poles, a 150A > breaker (200A on the way, both good for 4x rated for 10 s before popping)= , > a distribution block and a pelican case, and I have something that can > start a car on its own that I can hold with a pinky :o) > > http://i.imgur.com/9v5lu.jpg > http://i.imgur.com/hamV3.jpg > > I installed balance leads on the cells when I built the packs, for a > balancing circuit in the future, but 4S LiFePO4 matches up really well wi= th > a 6S Pb battery system. (14.6V max charge voltage, ~12.0V open circuit i= s > dead, a bulk of the discharge at 12.8V.) So its safe enough for storage a= nd > jumpstarting stuff now I just wont let it sit too long on a vehicle with = an > unknown quality charging system. Maintenance charging is done via the > balance leads with a hobby charger. > > I hooked it up to my buddies Grand Cherokee V8 with 6foot of 4 AWG jumper > cables, and it successfully started the cold engine on a ~45F day with th= e > original starting battery disconnected. It was definitely a lot more > labored sounding starting up then the normal FLA battery, but if it start= s > it, it will most certainly put some charge into a dead battery :) > > -Jon H. How would it compare in price and performance with this battery on ebay? It's a Tenergy LiFePO4 12V 10Ah 128Wh Rechargeable Battery for 160 USD. http://r.ebay.com/CqfXtv I've been looking around to build a 28V 288 Wh battery for the Ford=20 thinkbike, but can't really justify the cost until I try the thing out. =20 Almost ready to fire it up with the 18 lb VRLA battery. Joe W --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .