There Be Batteries Here

I’ve been waiting, tracking and agonizing over the arrival of the new battery order. Another delivery debacle like the first one could not be tolerated so this time I ordered from California. (Remember that the first order was still waiting to be unloaded from the slow boat from China.) (And is still reported as such.)
On Tuesday, the tracking showed the second order (from California) would be on time. Sure enough, UPS came through. Two boxes were waiting for me at the office! Woot! I was grinning from ear to ear.

All smiles.

Wait, what? Two boxes? It should have been just one, the long lost first order was in two. Oh.

Back at the boat I quickly discovered these were indeed the lost-at-sea batteries, 2 1/2 months after ordering them.

An hour later I get a call from the office. You guessed it, the NEW order of cells had also shown up. (In one box this time.)

What do you do with twice as many LiFePO4 cells as you planned for? Well, you just build a bigger battery of course. 
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500Ah of Capacity Nirvana

Want to know more? 
Get ready for a lot of posts. Here is what I’ll cover:
Buying vs assembling.
What size BMS did I use.
What cell configuration and why.
Cell balancing.
Charge and discharge rates.
Why not return one of the sets.
What other devices did I need and why.
Best on-line reference.
​Startup report and testing results.
What size inverter do we have and will I upgrade that?
Would I do this again? Recommend it?
Some misconceptions that will confuse you.
Safety.