The same guy built an e-bike using disposable vapes last year.
That guy’s got some brass ones, lol.
I’ve upcycled disposable vape batteries for lots of projects, but never anything that draws significant amounts of current. Usually powering ESP8266/ESP32 projects that draw a couple hundred mAh at most.
While I’m all for keeping thing out of the landfill, I would be absolutely terrified to put that many questionable quality lithium batteries into an array let alone try to draw any substantial amperage from them.
They put fuses on every single cell, another one between both halves of the setup, and monitor everything using a BMS. I wont claim that this thing is as safe as a commercially available product but treating this as if it where outrageously dangerous is misrepresenting things as well.
Yeah, I didn’t watch this video b/c I’m at work, but I have seen his ebike video so I’m assuming the construction is similarly well thought out.
It’s just that all the fuses and BMSs can’t protect against a dodgy cell that decides to self-immolate. For cheap, disposable devices that are only meant to be charged 5-10 times or less and then thrown away, I’m super wary of the batteries that are chosen for those. Have seen too many things burst into flames and even expensive well cared-for devices turn into spicy pillows.
Good things to do, but it still only takes on poor quality cell to go up in flames and the rest will quickly follow.
Still very interesting.
If you’re not pulling 120v AC from a 4.2v parallel lipo bank, are you even living life to it’s fullest?
Europeans: Pathetic.
/j
Ah, but can you phase-multiply 120v± into a 240v feed from the breaker? Checkmate, firestarter!
I always wondered how that works? Do you have phases 180° against each other? Our (Europe) phases are at a 60° angle to each other, so while one phase is 230v, two phase is 400v.
edit: re-reading, it should be 120°, not 60.
My understanding is commercial/industrial service is normally 3-phase but residential service is typically only single-phase. Wikipedia says that gets supplied as two 120V AC lines that are 180° out of phase with each other along with a shared neutral.
I’m no electrician, but my understanding is that the phase of 120v has two opposite polarities, given the way AC power works. By pairing up two powerlines that are out of phase, you’re getting 120v on the positive and 120v on the negative, which doubles the capacity along the parallel line. If you did this with a 110v half-line like the UK has, it increases the Amperage to an unsustainable level, while the US standard does not stress the line in the 240v configuration specifically because neither phase causes the other interference.
I normally don’t say this, but don’t trust my assessment. Google will be more accurate.
At least I’ll heat my home!
Alternate video title: “I Burned My House Down Using 500 Disposable Vapes”
“Home Insurance Companies Hate This One Simple Trick”
I know almost nothing about electronics but this sounds really dangerous given how cheap these batteries are.
If powering fails, at least you could heat it!
Stay tuned for the follow up video.
“I burned my house down using 500 disposable vapes”
