I'll throw in my two cents on the Chinese thing.
As an air conditioning contractor I've installed a lot of mini-split units. Some are made in Japan, some are made in China, and some are made in Korea. Very few are made in the USA, and those are a Japanese brand made in Texas that are not widely available unless you're part of their dealership network and they are more expensive.
It has been my experience that the Japanese brands have the highest quality, which makes sense, they invented the things, but the Chinese brands come in a very close second and there are more problems with the Korean brands than either of the others. But the Korean brands are the cheapest. (Think Toyota vs Hyundai)
When I built the Arc I made it a point to source everything I could, Made in America, and it wasn't easy and certainly wasn't the cheapest way to go but felt compelled to do it just to support our domestic industries. One thing that was very disappointing was I learned after receiving it that my Outback inverter was actually Made in China. Even though they are an American company they are off shoring much of their manufacturing.
We have gutted our industrial capacity in this country and there will be a price to pay for this short sightedness.
Capt. Carter
www.shipofimagination.com
On Friday, June 11, 2021, 04:44:02 PM EDT, Jeff LaCoursiere <jeff@stratustalk.com> wrote:
I'll add a quick note to this. Most of the "bad press" Chinese parts and cells have received I think are due to less scrupulous distributors on Amazon, Ebay, and even Alibaba. You must be very careful who you deal with. We have found a very good supplier in "Basen", I can highly recommend. We have imported several hundred cells now, have yet to actually receive a bad one. The stories of missing or altered QR codes, obviously used cells, or "grade B" grey market stuff we have managed to avoid.
I won't say they are cheap, but if you want to buy some cells without waiting 8 weeks, that have been tested, certified, and warehoused in Chicago in temp controlled space, check out our site... www.aquasparc.com. Still getting on our feet, may actually be opening a storefront on St Thomas in the nearish future with fully built packs, in a customized Pelican case...
Cheers,
Jeff LaCoursiere
s/v Angels Quest
St Thomas, USVI
On 6/11/21 3:34 PM, Ryan Sweet wrote:
Thank you Halden. I contemplated the same reply and had decided to wait. But in general what I've seen in my work yields the same sentiments you are expressing below. Specifically - over the last year I've moved from working with Chinese shops on SW to working with them on hardware and the collaboration is fruitful and grounded in quality.
While from previous posts we do know that Carsten has a LOT of experience on this particular topic, and deserves respect for that - I think that in the last few years an accelerating convergence of several trends has forced many Chinese manufacturers to change their approaches to quality, and it shows. Maybe not across the entire range of available goods but in many areas. This is largely due to increased pressure from a Chinese domestic market (growing faster than the export market), dramatic improvements in the Chinese domestic regulatory regime (including a government focus on rooting out fake goods and substandard manufacturing), as well as increased expectations from global partners. In some cases quality improvements have been at the cost of industrial espionage and losses to global firms as a result, but the net improvement in available quality goods is apparent regardless.
On Jun 11, 2021, at 13:03, HF via groups.io <incorridge=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:
Hi Carsten,
I wrote a long rant in response to your brief one:
>Remember, in these days, everything you buy, produced in China, is solely controlled by local chinese supervisors !!!
>There are virtually NO western inspectors in China to check export goods anymore, due to very hard quarantine restrictions when entering China. No one wants to go to China >now, just to sit quarantined alone in an appointed hotel room for 4 weeks.
but I'll just summarize it. This has nothing to do with China or Chinese. This is short-term thinking driving the global race to the bottom. None of us likes it, but many of us support it by purchasing products made in a factory. But lest your statement be read as saying that western quality inspectors are superior to Chinese ones, I'll just say it ain't so. They're all just doing their job, following instructions. Short-term thinking dominates industry today and this is part of what has shifted factories to China. In my travels in China, I have found Chinese people to be just as compassionate, thoughtful, kind, loving, caring, attentive, creative, passionate, intelligent, etc. as people in other places in the world. I'm very sad about the pollution and constraints on freedoms that they have to endure both at the workplace and in their personal time. Reasons for avoiding China travel vary; my main one is that I don't want to risk my freedom taken away without due process as retaliation for some action taken elsewhere with due process, against a person with connections to the government of China. Alright, it's longer than your rant, but at least it's shorter than it was! :-)
Using a salvaged EV battery for your boat motor is a great idea, in my opinion, because it doesn't generate another order at a factory that oppresses its workers, community, and environment. It also avoids causing an associated amount of mining which does approximately the same things. If I could find a suitable EV battery, I would use it. Of course, I would evaluate its capacity and ask questions about its history as part of the acquisition. Power electronics are good, efficient, and cheap these days so you will probably be able to engineer a way to match or configure your battery to provide electricity at the voltage(s) your motor needs. As for choice of chemistry: Li-ion has a larger range of discharge voltages than LiFePO4 and NiMH. As long as your electronics can accommodate this, it should work fine. Check that the battery capacity, mass, and temperature requirements fit your situation and needs. I'd love to read your report of how it works out on this forum.
Cheers,
Halden
-- Jeff LaCoursiere StratusTalk, Inc. 703 496 4990 x108 815 546 6599 cell
--
Jeff LaCoursiere
s/v Angels Quest
St Thomas USVI
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