Midwest a123 group buy

[ohzee]

Sounds fine here. I think a lot of people who would probably have gotten in on this buy bought theirs direct.

I know I have 20 coming next week , but also want to get some on this group buy.

[999zip999]

Is that 30usd. plus shipping to 92629 ?

[johnrobholmes]

The $30 price is only after all the group buy cells are shipped out, only the "left over" cells. Right now they are $25 during the group buy. Shipping from me to you not included.


Ok, I will wait a few days and place the order. I'm getting ancy for some cells!

[johnrobholmes]

Order placed for 180 cells, which includes 10% buffer. I have reduced online inventory to zero to end the purchases. Now we wait for response and payment!

[999zip999]

My money is in. Go for it. It will stop your itching.

[ohzee]

Sounds good - let me know when you need shipping.

[999zip999]

Are they going to get a Docbass style testing ? Take your time. Thanks

[johnrobholmes]

I'm just testing resting voltage.

Cells should land mid next week to late next week. 4 to 6 days from now.

[Fishmasterdan]

Dont forget to make mine in 6s configurations

[Harold in CR]

Definitely want 13, shipped to Fl. 32967. Por Favor.

[johnrobholmes]

If you didn't get in on the buy (I'm not at work to check), I do have an extra 18 in the shipment that will first cover any duds and then be available.

[Harold in CR]

Not in the buy. Will take 13 of the ones you have extra, if they check out very close to same voltage.

[johnrobholmes]

Delivery! I'll start going through them tomorrow afternoon when I get back to work. Nothing else to report, I wasn't at the shop when they came in.

[kfong]

Yeah

[ohzee]

Delivery! I'll start going through them tomorrow afternoon when I get back to work. Nothing else to report, I wasn't at the shop when they came in.

Nice pretty prompt. Can I ask how they were shipped ? Just curious as I have seen DHL and UPS used so far for the US by them.

[johnrobholmes]

Judging by the delivery time it was DHL. UPS runs earlier in the day. Like I said, I wasn't there and I haven't been by to look at them yet.

[ohzee]

Judging by the delivery time it was DHL. UPS runs earlier in the day. Like I said, I wasn't there and I haven't been by to look at them yet.

NP I knew you left work just meant it as a tomorrow questions. Still i am impressed with how fast they got to you.

[johnrobholmes]

First few boxes are sorted through, one puffy cell. All cells are measuring 3.3 or 3.2v. My meter only has one decimal resolution so its hard to say much variance is in the lot.

This is why group buy is good. Instead of one person paying for a dud cell, everybody just pays a few pennies and doesn't have to deal with it!

[ohzee]

Not to mention having one of the board's finest and well trusted doing the buy. Thanks for taking this on.

[johnrobholmes]

ten boxes down, three more to go. So far two total cells I won't certify as good enough. The second dud slipped out of the packaging a bit and got bent.

About 50 cents buffer was built into the $25 purchase price, so hopefully we won't need to ask for any more per cell! Right now I think it is about .13 cents additional on each cell, for each dud I find. I'll do the final calculations at the end, but so far it looks good!

[johnrobholmes]

All checked. Two more cells slipped out of the plastic holder and got bent up enough that I'm going to declare them too bad to use. Maybe they could be sent off for destructive testing?

[johnrobholmes]

Final tally is done, the small buffer I added to the cell costs just cover the duds! Sweet!


Now time for boxing em up and getting shipping. Look forwards to emails in the next 24 hours. Looks like I may need to construct or buy boxes for these. I'll be putting plenty of materials in the packages to prevent the issues we had with the shipment to me.

[johnrobholmes]

All boxed up, it looks like most folks have already responded to emails and purchased shipping. They will be in tomorrow's mail.

[deVries]

Hi John, thanks for doing this group buy.

For those of us that are interested in possibly buying these in the future but don't know enough to judge this form factor, etc. can you or someone post about these questions...

If you intend to buy from this source again is there more background info on these pouches on ES? Such as best methods for testing and assembly for connections & packaging?

What is the weight savings by using these vs 26650 cells? Other main advantages? Cost? or ?

Is this a "trusted" well known source for these batteries? I know cell_man in the past had some spot sourcing of these that seemed like some kind of backdoor deal that came & went in the night & was gone by daylight. Is this whole mystery sourcing scenario now a thing of the past?

Or, is A123 finally opening its doors just in case GM ain't going to play nice as their fiat source of cash infusions barring bankruptcy? It's really fracking psycho that they don't sell cheap in small quantities at least through 3rd parties or off-brand.

What entities really control A123? Just GM or ?

[johnrobholmes]

I really don't have any good answers on the supply chain, besides what I have already posted here. Methods has also bought cells from Victpower, all his findings are in his thread. This are bigger and heavier than hobby city type packs, but there are less connections and they are CHEAP! I have never used the cells, but I fully intend to! There are some people working on building solutions for the cells on ES, search the forums and see who is doing what. I'm half tempted to make some crude bar clamps and be done with it, I won't pull more than 80a from the pack.


I bet what happened (me just guessing) was that the cells were destined for pack building, then the whole GM bailout happened. a123 probably got a cut of the bailout for the product that was already made, and the homeless cells got sold through factory contacts back into china. Now they are absorbing the cells into their own supply chain and there are cottage industry businesses picking up on the grey market need for cells elsewhere in the world. A grade? B grade? How will we know until years down the road? Doesn't matter and i don't care, I'm willing to take a gamble that I can get a year of use at 4c bursts and 1c average rate.