Mastodawn

it's interesting to see the first #sodium ion batteries show up on alie, they're still more expensive than lifepo4 right now, but they already have the advantage of working in low temperatures like -40C without any differences, having a decently high discharge rate (5S pulse and 20C continuous), and being intrinsically more stable and safe than anything with lithium .. tempted to get some and do some torture testing to see if they catch on fire or whatever if you stab them like with #lithium 🤔

Anthropy Feb 28

darn me and my big mouth x3 fine! I bought the lot, and a fiberglass fire blanket to do the testing on. I'm honestly curious how they'll hold up, as being solid core cells they should be much more stable.

If Sodium can prove itself being as safe as NiMH and such that would be a huge win for safety in a lot of areas.

Anthropy Feb 28

it's worth noting there are also prismatic cells available in a more traditional format with higher (75Ah) power levels. A quick search on google seems to imply Varicore is a decent budget option for these kinda cells.. but I don't want to get these chunky 200Wh+ ones for violent testing lol

@anthropy Are there BMSes available suitable for that chemistry?

Anthropy Feb 28

@davep I mean, it should just be a matter of changing the voltage limits I think? it may confuse some specific ones that aren't used to the discharge curve, and same for inverters if e.g 8/16/24/32v is too low for a 12/2436/48v inverter to work, perhaps worth adding extra cell(s) or something so it's 5/10/15/20s instead of 4/8/12/16s gives too little?

@anthropy I guess so. I've forgotten the sodium ion charge/discharge signature tbh. IIRC it can basically go down to zero volts though.

Generally you tell a BMS which chemistry you're using and it sets the various parameters, but there's nothing stopping you changing them. Maybe the thing to look at is the minimum voltage as there may not be any chemistries similar enough to allow deep discharge.

CD Castillo Feb 28

@davep @anthropy Wow, like human cells… Na+ powered

Anthropy Feb 28

@neurologo @davep actually, it would be interesting if we could somehow incorporate biological or similar sodium ion channels into a sort of "flow" batteries or fuel cells, that you feed with a solution to keep the ion flow going

I wonder if anyone tried that already

Anthropy Feb 28

@davep these cells have their cutoff voltages between 2 and 4v seemingly, so not all the way down to 0 .. but that won't prevent me from trying to go from 0 to 10v with a lab power supply and seeing if they blow up

@anthropy Mwahahaha!

Film or it didn't happen 😎

Anthropy Feb 28

@davep definitely

Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi Feb 28

@anthropy @davep *waits*

Anthropy Mar 18

the batteries arrived! in a completely non compliant packaging without any markings haha, and the cells are larger than I thought! but completely in tact.

Now to do some uh, Very Rigorous Testing and see how they hold up

Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi Mar 18

@anthropy Sodium, for potatoes. Yummy!

celeste_hearts_disability_pride

@anthropy

Go on then, you know you want to.
If you survive, please share your findings, interesting developments.

Anthropy Feb 28

Tisha Tiger / Neliger Feb 28

@anthropy I want to know the result.