can two FMA Cellpro PowerLab 8 chargers be stacked together to charge at 80A?

[miernik]

I want to use the FMA PowerLab 8 for cycling tests.

I want to test A123 AMP20M1HD-A pouch cells which are 20Ah capacity, and I want to test them at 4C, which means at 80A.

The Cellpro Powerlab 8 can only do 40A.

Is it possible to connect two of the chargers in parallel to one cell to charge/discharge it at 80A? Or will it go crazy?

This will be a cycling test, so I need the discharge function also.

If not, what other solution I might use to cycle single cells at 80A?

Maybe the firmware can be modified to go up to 80A, if I am only using 1s at 3.6V that would be only 288W anyway?

[Howard Matos]

Originally Posted by miernik

I want to use the FMA PowerLab 8 for cycling tests.

I want to test A123 AMP20M1HD-A pouch cells which are 20Ah capacity, and I want to test them at 4C, which means at 80A.

The Cellpro Powerlab 8 can only do 40A.

Is it possible to connect two of the chargers in parallel to one cell to charge/discharge it at 80A? Or will it go crazy?

This will be a cycling test, so I need the discharge function also.

If not, what other solution I might use to cycle single cells at 80A?

Maybe the firmware can be modified to go up to 80A, if I am only using 1s at 3.6V that would be only 288W anyway?

Hi,

It is not possible to hook up 2 PL8 to somehow get 80A charge current. It is also not possible to alter the firmware to get 80A charge current, even for low cell counts. FET's are rated in AMPS and VOLTS. 80A would exceed the capabilities of the selected hardware.

[SteveM732]

Originally Posted by miernik

If not, what other solution I might use to cycle single cells at 80A?

Maybe the firmware can be modified to go up to 80A, if I am only using 1s at 3.6V that would be only 288W anyway?

In another thread you mention testing 8 cells at once but being able to charge and discharge to the same voltage while tracking mAh in and out of each cell. In this thread you clearly are looking at the power of a single cell (288W). So are you testing 8 cells on one charger, or 8 cells on 8 chargers, or you just still feeling it out and trying to find the best solution? The more we know about your planned setup the better the advice will be.

To me it sounds like you're trying to do some pretty serious testing that is not going to be simple, easy, or cheap. Simply put, the amount of energy you want to sling back and forth between packs is enormous and the hardware to do that is not going to be cheap. If you really do need to test 8 cells at once then I recommend you purchase 8 PL8 chargers. If you really do need an 80A discharge then you need another solution like a set of water heater elements and a stock tank full of water. If this testing is well funded I'm sure you could pay FMA to design an 80A unit.