A123 20AHr Pouch Cell Battery Build & Info Thread

I think those cells where meant for commercial builds that went bankrupt or b grade maybe for capacity, like 17.50 ah and not the 18.5 or 19ah, may perform well. And so on.
 
Oh I have heard so many bad things about victpower check the vid on you tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMEkzZfg5Eo&sns=em
 
PLease people do not buy anything from Victpower, I bought a load of A123 36v and 48v 20Ah battery packs from them. All of them had the copper + power lead solder to aluminium lol...of course the solder would not take and every single pack (over 15 of them) the power lead had fallen off in transit.

I have thrown all the cells that came from a certain batch, which was over half of them. The other half came from a better batch and are all ok and just sat there in my workshop doing nothing. I hope they go out of business as conning and scamming people is just out of order.

Maybe I will build a massive battery pack for my solar panel and pop it in my VW T4 Transporter for charging ebikes. I would sell them on to people if I had no morals ....but I just can't do it.... so sat with a very very costly mistake.

Bad Victpower very bad stay clear. Pretty sure I was one of the first peeps to highlight those muppets on this forum, it is worth reposting about them as I belive they are still trying to sell bad cells to people.
 
I moved the ad for the kit to a new thread in the for sale section:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=990842#p990842
 
fiskar pack showing date of manufacture, might be useful to decode date of manufacture serial numbers

serial code a123.jpg
 
regarding serial numbers, I went through various search engines and grabed some serial numbers for usa made packs, should be a fairly random set of numbers.
If anyone likes puzzles maybe they can find a pattern for date of manufacture.

SHA 10 H 15 00 225
SHB 11 F 05 82 123
SHA 10 G 12 00 356
SHD 11 J 12 01 837
SHA 10 M 21 00 824
SHB 11 C 31 01 196
SHB 11 D 11 01 274
SHC 11 H 12 00 109
SHA 11 G 08 03 506
SHC 11 E 18 00 970
SHB 11 D 20 01 449
SHA 10 H 02 00 436
SHA 11 H 09 00 166
SHA 11 H 03 00 900
SHA 12 C 09 00 272
SHD 11 J 12 01 837
SHB 11 H 07 03 282

I cant really find a pattern, apart from the first two numbers ( after the first three letters) are either 10,11 or 12 for this
sample, maybe it indicates year of manufacture.
 
Does anyone recognize this tab hole arrangement?

163wk9[1].jpg


There is someone on Ebay in the US selling these cells at a decent price and he has no negative feedback complaining about the quality of the cells.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/24x-New-LiF...tteries_Power_Accessories&hash=item2c887ed23d


I've sent him a message asking him some questions about where the cells came from but I hear he has the communication skills of a dead corpse so I'm not sure how well that will work out.
 
themadhatter106 said:
Does anyone recognize this tab hole arrangement?
Click to expand...
They're obviously made for a parallel connected module, with those top bolted type connections, whose I don't know, best to Google like A123 module, eg 100Ah prismatic module, not standard practice with A123 that I've seen before, maybe with Calb Thundersky or Winston.
 
Interesting. My Agnius 12S pack used 3 holes and full tabs. I was a very early Victpower set of cells and is still working fine. I think the first 3 letters have the quality of the pack, either A, B or C. Just a guess.
otherDoc
 
docnjoj said:
Interesting. My Agnius 12S pack used 3 holes and full tabs. I was a very early Victpower set of cells and is still working fine. I think the first 3 letters have the quality of the pack, either A, B or C. Just a guess.
otherDoc
Click to expand...
I had my Victpower/Agnius 12S pack on the back steps charging. Uupps! Turned my back and it was gone! WTF! Got some good use out of it, but no, would not get A123 cells from Victpower. My current 4x 8S 24V 20ah AMP20 pack is from OSNPower using their kit. A very easy build.

All this talk about deciphering the serial numbers for information is rubbish - just not possible. Listen to wb9k on this and stop wasting time.
 
I think also after gathering another 30 or so, serial numbers for a123 20ah cells, that it would be very difficult to decipher
the date of manufacture. Especially if letters are used to denote the year of manufacture.
Looking at how other lithium battery date of manufacture codes ( an example on this page
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19236-01/816-7326-23/ch04_battery.html)
Once its worked out it will probably seem very obvious, its certainly a challenge trying to crack the code, nothing wrong with a bit of a challenge.
 
whatever said:
If anyone likes puzzles maybe they can find a pattern for date of manufacture.

SHA 10 H 15 00 225

I cant really find a pattern, apart from the first two numbers ( after the first three letters) are either 10,11 or 12 for this
sample, maybe it indicates year of manufacture.
Click to expand...

Keeping in line with the code from the other 56 cells I have ... and other cell serial #s I've seen floating around the web ... using the above as an example.

My guesses are bellow ?? but they are just guesses.

SH = Location code of production

A = the quarter of the year ... all the cells I've ever seen have always had this 3rd character as an A, B , C, or D.. and I've never seen someone with one ahead of the quarter they got it.

10 = Year of manufacture .. all the cells I've seen have always had this as a 2 digit number .. and one that seems to be reasonably after the point if it were a year , meaning The cells I got in 2012 all had 10 and 11 for those two digits... Also I am not aware of anyone who has ever gotten cells that would be ahead of this quarterly than yearly sequence... AFAIK no one in 2012 got ones with a 13 ... AFAIK no one in 2013 got ones with a 14 ... etc.

H1500225 = Production sequences serial number of the cell ... ie what order was the cell made in that year of production... although ... for example ... A0000001 then A0000002 ... eventually rolling over the Letter to B0000001 .. etc... If correct .. I suspect this number is not repeated for at least the entire quarter of that year ... maybe not for the entire year...no idea what % of those produced end up as 'rejects' or 'scrap'... given global sales... my guess would be yearly reset.
 
the SH is always SH is made in usa
you could be right about the A,B,C or D or it might represent which welding machine used, as there were four machines used when the fiskar deparkle occured, there are some cells have a p1,p2,p3 and p4 as a separate code, but not visible on all cells.
But I agree with the year code, I think I've cracked it though, month is letters going up to M ( probably the 'i' is not used)), butseems to be common method to represent month ( letters from A to M , sometime A to L,
but the "i" is not used, as can be mistaken for a '1'), also the next two numbers after month, go up to 31, so should be day code.
The last 5 numbers pretty sure are the cell number for that day, the first of those 5 is always 0, they have left space, so they can go up to 99,999 cells per day ( not likely number). Feeling pretty confident code is cracked.
made a new thread
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=66267&p=996189&hilit=a123#p996189
date code a123 20ahr.jpg

the korean made cells the codes have changed over time, will tackle that later when I have a good sample of serials for korean cells.
 
Month codes

A Jan
B Feb
c March
D April
E May
F June
G July
H August
I --- not used
J September
K October
L November
M December
 
came across some fake cells
http://www.dhgate.com/store/product/16pcs-lot-high-drain-amp20m1hd-a-a123-20ah/189081762.html
 
regarding possible fake cells
have came across the same serial code used on a number of different sites, theres nothing on the face of the cell, only
a serial at the top
serial used is SHD 11 J 12 01837
fake.jpg

looks pretty dodgey
 
madhatter and others,
regarding this eBay listing.
Holes?
there is problem with his listing:
Simply he modified those cells so he must sell them for less.
He writes in listing "ready to be place/inserted in packs..."
Are you sure they were not dismantled from low usage packs?
Very important - picture in his listing does NOT show what he is selling, his cells are all with holes in tabs, right? - so picture mispresent.
And he is not alone, looks like eBay sellers are NOT showing actual pictures what they sell , but pull pictures of cell from A123 website or from other sources.

I will the first as far as I know who bought 20Ah pouches from "buyA123.com" company. Obviously will report here.
I don't however expect them to be much better electrically than A0 grade /yes it is a grade/ I bought from Victpower,
yes visually they should be much better, but only visually. Erik assured me that they will not have any mechanical defects like creases, scratches, etc., just ideal surface.
We must remember that many of Victpower cells are QC rejects for only MECHANICAL reasons, folds, etc. and 95% of Victpower cells I bought yelded over 19Ah , 20A, until 2.5V cut off on CBA analizer. But again they all have "A0" printed in the middle.
 
miro13car said:
I guess I would be first on this ES forums who buys from "buyA123.com" company. Obviously will report here.
Click to expand...
I have bought cells from http://www.buya123batteries.com/ and have posted on my experience. IT IS THE ONLY place to purchase genuine A123 cells retail. The other, I consider reputable, source is OSNPower.
 
does anyone know the list of grade stamps and what they mean?
A0 etc
 
arkmundi,
but you did not buy pouches from buya123, did you?
I cannot find any of your experience with buya123 pouch cells in this subforum.
You bought round cells, right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top