Insides of BlackVue B-124 (DIY 11,852 mAh @12.8v / 151.7 W/h + extension battery for under $50?)

[know610]

Bad idea. The cells are serio-parallel, so they should have the closest specs possible to each other (doesn't matter there is balancing circuit or feedback for overdischarge... ).

Btw: @know610 How good are you with soldering station? It requeres station/tip with pretty high heat capacity (if you don't have a welder) and the cells in B-124 seem like welded directly in pairs and there isn't much space on the sides...

Just a basic soldering guy. So I guess I shouldn’t mess with it to be safe. Thank you

 

[kamkar]

I have put solder blobs on several 18650 lipos of mine for my flashlights,,,, another "addiction" i have.
It have worked fine with my cheapo Weller station as my expensive also weller station are in deep storage.

But yeah depend on how the cells are arranged inside that thing too.

For parking i have centemplated getting a larger 12 V battery of this kind but it is PT a stranded idea.

 

[EsQueue]

Reply

@EsQueue

I have Cellink B 2nd generation. I think the battery is defective since it can only hold an hour of parking mode recording after a full charge at home all night. It is possible to open the unit and swap internal battery w/same kind? Will it be that simple just like changing a dead battery from a toy ? If it require solder, i have no issue with it.

I've actually soldered LiCoO2 cells successfully before and they are a bit more volatile than LiFePO4 cells. I don't have a picture of the Celink b but I assume that it should be similar to the Neo6/B124. You would use wires instead of the nickel strips as it heats faster with a soldering iron. Just make sure to not keep heat on the cell for too long. A high powered soldering iron will do the trick. Disassemble it and show us the insides. I doubt that it will be difficult at all and will save you quite a bit of money. I'm certain that the Celink B uses 16 1.6Ah batteries. If you have access to a 3d printer or don't mind the box looking a bit ghetto you can add almost double your capacity using 8 32700 batteries or so. If you are happy with it's previously capacity, that's fine too.

 

[justcam]

The battery holders and case were all 3D printed. I quickly drew up the case and modified the battery holder for 18650 cells to work decently for the 32700 cell. If you want the stl files I'll send them to you or post it on thingiverse and send you a link.
8mm x 0.1mm nickel strip (for spot welding) That was built and 3D printed also for very cheap.

Could you be so kind and send me a link to the stl files?
I'm also working on a similar project to replace Neo6 and not buy the expensive extended module.

 

[EsQueue]

Could you be so kind and send me a link to the stl files?
I'm also working on a similar project to replace Neo6 and not buy the expensive extended module.

32700 Battery box.zip

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[wp1]

I am following this post with interest and contemplated linking two Cellink b for longer parking mode. But I noticed both my Cellink b does not come with the expansion wire and connector so I took it apart to see it I could just solder the expansion wire in. The taking apart is easy enough, just pry at the joining part of the casing and it pops open. However, upon measurement, the pads for the expansion wire do not register a voltage! It seems that some components are also missing to enable the expansion function (as seen in the first picture around teh EXT+ and EXT-). If any brave soul could open up their Cellink b and take a high resolution picture of the pcb, it would be much appreciated.


Interestingly, the Cellink b uses 16x 3.2Ah 26650 cells in a 4s2p configuration. So it is theoretically a 6.4Ah unit, slightly higher in capacity than the advertised 6.0Ah

 

[EsQueue]

I am following this post with interest and contemplated linking two Cellink b for longer parking mode. But I noticed both my Cellink b does not come with the expansion wire and connector so I took it apart to see it I could just solder the expansion wire in. The taking apart is easy enough, just pry at the joining part of the casing and it pops open. However, upon measurement, the pads for the expansion wire do not register a voltage! It seems that some components are also missing to enable the expansion function (as seen in the first picture around teh EXT+ and EXT-). If any brave soul could open up their Cellink b and take a high resolution picture of the pcb, it would be much appreciated.


Interestingly, the Cellink b uses 16x 3.2Ah 26650 cells in a 4s2p configuration. So it is theoretically a 6.4Ah unit, slightly higher in capacity than the advertised 6.0Ah

You could always run adequate sized wire from B-1 and B+1 terminals to a XT60 or connector of your choosing. This will provide voltage but you'd need to run a separate BMS is you do so. If you are using another Cell Link with identical rated batteries, You could even cheat and use The BL1 BH1 and BM1/2 connectors to run a a cable so it will utilize the Built in BMS. I assume that the'd have to have one. I believe that the batteries are connected from B-1 to BL1 to BM1/2 (they are connected) to BH1 to B+1) and it will just function as a 4S4P battery. From what you typed, you probably already know this though.

 

[Nath]

I am following this post with interest and contemplated linking two Cellink b for longer parking mode. But I noticed both my Cellink b does not come with the expansion wire and connector so I took it apart to see it I could just solder the expansion wire in. The taking apart is easy enough, just pry at the joining part of the casing and it pops open. However, upon measurement, the pads for the expansion wire do not register a voltage! It seems that some components are also missing to enable the expansion function (as seen in the first picture around teh EXT+ and EXT-). If any brave soul could open up their Cellink b and take a high resolution picture of the pcb, it would be much appreciated.

Could you take a detailed picture of the "Q24" and about the same spot on the other side?

 

[wp1]

You could always run adequate sized wire from B-1 and B+1 terminals to a XT60 or connector of your choosing. This will provide voltage but you'd need to run a separate BMS is you do so. If you are using another Cell Link with identical rated batteries, You could even cheat and use The BL1 BH1 and BM1/2 connectors to run a a cable so it will utilize the Built in BMS. I assume that the'd have to have one. I believe that the batteries are connected from B-1 to BL1 to BM1/2 (they are connected) to BH1 to B+1) and it will just function as a 4S4P battery. From what you typed, you probably already know this though.

I would probably do that if the "OEM route" fails. Thanks!

 

[wp1]

Could you take a detailed picture of the "Q24" and about the same spot on the other side?

Here you go... as for the other side, the batteries are stuck there directly with sticky tape and there does not seem to be any components there... unless you wish to observe the traces but it would involve removal of the batteries which i wouldn't go to at this point.

 

[linsook]

I am following this post with interest and contemplated linking two Cellink b for longer parking mode. But I noticed both my Cellink b does not come with the expansion wire and connector so I took it apart to see it I could just solder the expansion wire in. The taking apart is easy enough, just pry at the joining part of the casing and it pops open. However, upon measurement, the pads for the expansion wire do not register a voltage! It seems that some components are also missing to enable the expansion function (as seen in the first picture around teh EXT+ and EXT-). If any brave soul could open up their Cellink b and take a high resolution picture of the pcb, it would be much appreciated.


Interestingly, the Cellink b uses 16x 3.2Ah 26650 cells in a 4s2p configuration. So it is theoretically a 6.4Ah unit, slightly higher in capacity than the advertised 6.0Ah

A little late coming in. I just opened mine up looking for pointers to replace my dead cells.

here are some shots of my board with the ext connections.

 

[EsQueue]

A little late coming in. I just opened mine up looking for pointers to replace my dead cells.

here are some shots of my board with the ext connections.

Here is the thing, I don't recommend soldering to these cells and I built a spot welder to avoid that but............I have done it in the past with some pretty cheap Lithium Ion cells and one did manage to fail after a few days but the replacement is still good to this day. Can be found on one of the pictures in that link. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1zXdndW8cNeakxFbHNPemN4Q2s

I assume that you don't have a spot welder, don't feel like buying or building one. The next best and fairly safe option is to purchase eight 26650 LiFePO4 (make sure that it is LiFePO4, Lithium Iron Phosphate, or LFE battery as they mean the same thing) with tabs already spot welded to them. Make sure to note the orientation of the existing cells and take lots of pictures if you don't know how they are supposed to be. The side with the large metal surface is negative while the smaller surface is the positive. If you remove the older batteries saving a good chunk of the original nickel strip, you could solder back to them. Removing BH1 and BL1 appears to be necessary to access the middle section.

These were the best deal that I could find Shipped to US. I don't know if Canada's shipping is the same. It costs $7.90 x 4 + $10.68 shipping.

 

[linsook]

thanks @EsQueue

I've removed the batteries and kept the tabs in place. Detached them from the welds pretty easily.



time to shop for some new batteries on aliexpress

 

[DarthMaul]

Bad idea. The cells are serio-parallel, so they should have the closest specs possible to each other (doesn't matter there is balancing circuit or feedback for overdischarge... ).

Btw: @know610 How good are you with soldering station? It requeres station/tip with pretty high heat capacity (if you don't have a welder) and the cells in B-124 seem like welded directly in pairs and there isn't much space on the sides...

I wouldn't advise to use heat and solder with the batteries. You'd better use a spot welder.

 

[Nath]

Sure, but he specificaly stated he's able to solder... (i doubt he'll buy a spot welder for this)

It’s not a problem if, as i’ve said, one uses soldering station powerful enough or with large capacity tip.

 

[EsQueue]

@Qubi the issue that I had taking the DIY route was actually getting a correct way to charge these batteries and to charge them at a practical speed. There are plenty of charging options but you'd have to drive the car for as many or more hours that it would take to discharge. I ended up using the Egen charger as it charges fairly quick and it automated. The only thing is that the capacity sucked so I went with what I built here and on reddit.

The problem with those batteries is that they require a special charger and I'm sure that you haven't seen the price. $1,440.00 for their PSL-BTP-121250 battery which they claim is 125 Ah. Keep in mind that I can get over 60 hours on a battery on a dual camera setup. with a little less than 18 Ah. The only DC-DC charger I can find that can safely charge these LiFePO4 batteries using a car's alternator is https://www.renogy.com/12v-dc-to-dc-on-board-battery-charger/ chich costs $130 just for the charger. The unfortunate thing is that it that it charges at 20 Amps which might be too much for many batteries to handle. Maybe you should look into getting 4 3.2v prismatic cells on Aliexpress. If you got 4 3.2v 100Ah prismatic LiFePO4 cells and ran them in series with a BMS of your choice, you can save lots of money.

 

[joe384]

I'd like to have a go at doing an extension battery for my cellink B (if I ever get time!)

However after a quick look around I'm finding it difficult to find a seller of LiFePO4 cells here in the UK that seems trustworthy and also has good prices

 

[EsQueue]

What do you mean by “special charger”? Li-Pol/-Ion/-FePo4 all of them require just constant current(depends on specs of the cell and expected stress), constant voltage(depends on end voltage of the cell according to technology)

A "special charger" as in one that your vehicle's alternator isn't. I am well versed in CC/CV charging requirements in these batteries. The DC-DC charger that in the link that I provided takes your vehicle's input and properly charges LiFePO4 in 4s configurations to the the safe 14.6v for 3.65v per cell or 14.8v for per 3.7v cell. You configure it. Unfortunately because it is a 20A charger, finding a cell or cells in parallel to handle the speed is a must. Other options take way too long to charge to be practical IMHO.

 

[joe384]

Interestingly, the Cellink b uses 16x 3.2Ah 26650 cells in a 4s2p configuration. So it is theoretically a 6.4Ah unit, slightly higher in capacity than the advertised 6.0Ah

View attachment 48478

That looks like 8 batteries in a 4s2p configuration, not 16!

 

[joe384]

Could you just put an xt60 connector on this battery and use it as an extension?

Lithium iron phosphate battery UN38.3 (96Wh) 12V 7.5Ah F6.35

Order your Lithium iron phosphate battery UN38.3 (96Wh) 12V 7.5Ah F6.35 (AML9131) at an unbeatable price from Allbatteries.co.uk.

www.allbatteries.co.uk

It has a BMS built in, it says max charge current 7.5A, my cellink b is set to 7A

I did find some 26650 cells that you can buy with tags but once you buy 8 + BMS + some kind of housing it's almost as much as this battery.