from Hacker News

Series and parallel: How not to add capacity to a lithium battery pack

by janosch_123 on 11/12/24, 5:02 PM with 1 comments

  • by janosch_123 on 11/12/24, 5:02 PM

    From 2018 - 2023 I built custom electric cars. Now I am recording a series of videos for you where I explain the concepts I taught myself for you to learn faster than me.

    People get confused by series & parallel battery configurations (including me when I started out), so this is my 7th video on basic EV concepts. Questions like the following I had, and others ask me now:

    - How can I merge two battery packs?

    - I want to add capacity, why can't I just put it in parallel when I need the extra capacity like a range extender

    - ...

    It seems intuitive but isn't always.

    I also made a little widget where you can move the sliders and see sample battery packs.

    I hope this is worthwhile and easily digestible. I animate as much as I can to make the concepts clear to understand.

    Let me know if this helps.