EditoralsJanuary 1, 1970

This is just a temporary place where text that has not been added to another page can sit. Maybe some day it'll see the light of day, maybe not. Put stream of consciousness stuff here, current events, etc and see if any of it is worthy to make it to the blog.

Don't rush it, things should be well thought out before making their way even to a separate draft page. Know what you're going to say then draft it, tweak it, and let 'er fly when it's fully cooked..

BYD is now the largest EV maker, taking the reins from Tesla. GM and Ford swear they're going to do it too but they're off to a rocky start. Ford, of course, has the F150 Lightning and the Mach-E but still they have quite the hill to climb.

Monro and Assocs took a structural pack apart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXpfU6I_T3w&t=1s I'm really not all that impressed with the whole idea of a structural pack. But, it sounds to be reasonably light weight. It seems like it won't make our job of DIY trying to get batteries any easier. In fact, their most recent video seems to suggest that we're really not going to be able to use the sub modules at all. It will be all or nothing. We may want to see about Leaf and Bolt packs as they are still selling those and the newer packs for either are 60kwh+. People probably aren't as crazy about them either for pricing. Munro is continuing to release more videos. Keep an eye on that.

Tesla is making decent headway toward allowing more cars to use the super chargers. Already in Europe this is possible. Recently it was announced that later this year a pilot program will begin in the US too. This could be a good thing for drivers and a money source for Tesla. This should probably be the topic of the next post (April 2023). Magic Dock will allow people to charge at superchargers with a CCS adapter. Tesla would do this because of government subsidies.

A Word of Caution:

The standard configuration for the V2 is to have groups of 2 modules each paralleled to every other set of 2 modules. For instance, if you have 10 modules you would group them into 2's and then parallel the 5 sets of modules. This gives you 22 * 2 = 44v and 5 * 220 = 1100AH of capacity. This is fine to do but one should periodically monitor all of the modules to ensure that they're in good condition. Our Raspberry Pi display can be used to monitor the cell voltages of all modules as well as the system state (whether the contactors are closed, etc). This can be used to quickly visually check that everything is OK.

A problem can arise with parallel modules. If one module goes bad (or a set of cells therein goes bad) it may sink in voltage. But, this module is in parallel with other modules. They do not want to lower in voltage but they will be pulled down by the bad module. Effectively the good modules will try to charge the bad module to keep the voltage equalized across all the parallel modules. Over time this can cause wasted power and excess heating. Taken to the extreme, one bad module can begin to damage the other modules. The V2 will open the contactors and cease all charging and discharging if such a situation occurs. However, nothing will stop the paralleled modules from still being in parallel. As such, they may attempt to equalize each other outside the control of our V2.

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