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Luckily, my source for the batteries was the same as for the charging system - Thunder Struck Motors. When I told them I had settled on 33 cells due to limited space, they said my Charger would then need to be downsized to the next level as well. I had only mounted it, and not used it, so they offered me a full refund in exchange.
As it turned out, I was getting a visit from a cousin from Denmark, and he was excited when I asked if he wanted to do a road trip down to pick up batteries in Santa Rosa. Of course we would take the long way there and back to make it worth his while (and mine).
So I made up a shopping list and boxed up the charger and hit the road. We took three days going down along the coast and then spent several worthwhile hours at the TSM shop. We loaded batteries, a new charger and many BMS components and viewed actual installations at their shop as they took time to explain everything.
We had wanted to drive back via San Francisco. My cousins dream. Definitely not mine! He had this vision of retracing Steve McQueen's street race from the movie Bullitt. Only in a Ford Explorer instead of a Mustang. A Ford Explorer full of LFP batteries no less.
That scenario was nixed when we saw on the news that the Asia Pacific conference was being held under tight security in SF. We jointly decided it probably wouldn't look good driving a car full of batteries even close to the event.
We headed across the Sonoma and Napa wine growing regions instead. Much better choice either way! We spent several more days driving home to make it a truly worthwhile road trip, paid for by the freight savings on picking up the batteries.
I tested all the cells when I got home, and while they tested out to within .02 volts of each other, TSM stressed the long discharge curve of the LFP battery and how I couldn't be sure where along that curve each battery might lay. They suggested I target 3.4v for each and start charging while I worked on other installations.
At least with the batteries in hand, I could use them to lay out terminal points and build battery boxes.
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