[willholloway]

Jehu Garcia's Youtube videos are definitely worth checking out, the guy is doing cool things with 18650 lithium ion cells. He converted a VW bus into an electric vehicle. My main takeaway after watching his videos and others in the same vein is that lithium ion battery packs are the gasoline of the 21st century.

You can build 18650 packs for electric bikes, scooters, boats etc... or build your own Power Wall type home electric energy storage.

The costs of these cells coming out of China have gotten down to $1 each in some cases of excess inventory...

[Frogolocalypse]

I'm going to look myself, but do you have any links about the 18650 packs?

Edit:cheapest aliexpress ones i see are about usd$2.00 each. That's not bad though.

[willholloway]

Check ebay, packs from hover boards that got recalled are available.

The cost can be $1 a cell, a pack might have 20. Each cell might be 10-12 watt hours. It takes 3 cells to produce 12 volts.

[Frogolocalypse]

Indeed. I hadn't actually reviewed ebay for electronics things for a couple of years, because any of the products I used to see there were significantly more expensive than anything I could get from aliexpress. It looks like, at least in this instance, that has turned around. I could even see individual 18650 cells for $1.

Great stuff.

[lathiat]

HBPowerWall is also good. Australian guy with a 40KwH wall made from old laptop batteries. Lots of good content.

[agumonkey]

He's trending hard, took me a few seconds to realize he was the 18650 dude I watch every week on youtube.

I'd love to emulate his work.

ecobot ! assemble !