Bought 3, 2 were bad, seller sent replacements but didn’t want the bad ones back. All the packs are the same, I think just like yours. There’s some kind of plate. It’s just bulging out a bit.
The AS150 connectors, one of my batteries had the antispark end. Reading instructions and watching youtube videos, the intended application is antispark at the esc (and I guess the charger). As you said, the connectors are sweeeeet. I think there’s a AN150 without antispark, but hard to find. Bit overkill though maybe? Been reading the giant Graphene thread at rcgroups.com, sounds like the connector tabs and other internals of a lipo pack are probably not able to handle 150A.
@patrocks remember @flywithgriff in your idler thread? He sold me most of his powertrain (thanks man!) Trucks, mounts, idlers, motors. Somehow I’m dangerously close to cloning your build. I’m pondering the 12s vs 190kv motor question.
4 phones? Maybe use separate bluetooth modules on each vesc, then u can just switch between them on the app to look at battery voltage or what not. Or just clone your App and use multi window to view front and rear axle specs on screen simultaneously .
Is there a reason you cant charge 4 batteries with one charger? I assume you can just make a 4 way split adaptor and plug them all in unless there is a large voltage differential between packs.
For the app, one of the things I look for is fault codes if something blips. Canbus is nice for that. You’ve blown a bunch of transceivers trying to hook up 4 vesc on canbus? Honestly I’d almost prefer pure serial data logging to something like a RPI onboard, and have it auto post process and upload via wifi. Maybe some day I’ll take a crack at it.
Have you tried cloning and splitscreening the app? Lol 4 way clone and build a mini tablet into the deck ftw.
I was mostly kidding about the 4 phones and chargers. At the most ideal extreme we balance charge everything at 1p, perhaps to 4.1v/cell to extend life (another reason I haven’t tried BMS). At the other extreme, bulk parallel charge.
Yep, the pic I posted above is of the cloned app and non cloned app both being displayed on my phone screen at the same time.
Yeah Ive lost many CAN transceivers with 4 way CAN bus. It definitely works, but randomly fails and takes a couple transceivers with it. I kept thinking something came loose but the last couple times I found no possible explanation.
Be VERYx10e1000 careful. ITs stupid easy to ruin an entire everything when doing this.
Desoldering the tabs from the PCBs will be extremely difficult. ITs going to take torch surgery to keep the solder hot while you bend the tabs up and then try to slip them through the notches on the PCB. If you have a rework station with a heat gun that may do it. A ftat wide tip on a high heat solder gun may do it too. I don’t have that particular item but after this experience i will be aquiring it.
The cell tabs are crimped to copper core tabs, but the cell tabs themselves are not solderable. And if you cut it down that far you won’t have enough to crimp anyway. Ruined.
Ultimately what i ended up doing was something interesting. I took a brand new exacto blade and doomed it to cutting copper. i razored the tab out of the pcb right at the hole, as close as humanly possible to the opposide side of the solder joint to get as much copper as possible.
What that did was leave a long, thin edge of copper that i was able to flux and tin, then solder directly to a tinned length of 16 guage superworm wire with which i could then work when trying to tie these up in series.
it took me all goddamned day to do this. Its slow, tedious, difficult, and gives you plenty of oppportunity to ruin a $200+ “smart” lipo pack.
I then ran it through the balancing side of one of my typical BMSs and bypassed discharge to let the ESCs handle the LVC.
Anyway, very impressive work as per usual. I am going to leave them be for the foreseeable future, as I am approaching the 100-hours of labor mark on this thing (though you wouldn’t know by looking at it, lol). Spent all last night soldering sensor wire extensions together. The results are worth it, but MY GOD, that shit sucks sometimes.
they’re only as long as they are in the pic for convenience. They were much, much shorter lengths than that when the final pack was assembled. less than a quarter inch between tabs. And the jumpers between the two 6S sides were actually 10 gauge because they were a few inches long, and 10 awg throughout the rest of the board as well.
Okay, so I am starting a new phase of evolution in my build: CAPACITORS!!!
Everything I’ve read suggests that adding additional capacitors inline between batteries and esc’s is good. Not only for smoothing ripple current, or current spikes, improving r/f signal clarity, and extending esc lifetimes, but also for supplying more power on demand!! So I’m giving it a go.
I found a ridiculously high performance cap pack from EMPERFORMANCE for $55 on ebay. At 23.5 Farads, and an operating voltage of 50V, I think I have a good candidate
I’ll try, but the conclusion I’ve come to is derived from a lot of little forum posts that aren’t entirely conclusive. Within THIS forum, I saw a post from both @Nowind and @okp (i think) which mentioned capacitors… I’ll update this reply shortly
In this thread,
…I found enough information to warrant a personal experiment. Various search results and links which I didn’t think to keep track of until now, are what lead me to purchase a cap-pack.
At this point, the only thing I’m not sure of, is if a capacitor will add to the performance capabilities
Update: Capacitors are in. No noticeable change in performance (as I predicted), however, it seems it may be a little more crisp in responsiveness… maybe placebo effect .
After thinking about it all day at work (when I should have been working lol), I don’t think this cap-pack will make a noticeable difference in “power-on-demand” because the capabilities of my batteries are so insane already: 22Ah 25c.
I think that the main benefit I will take from the CP is longer fbox life, and better remote reception (maybe). I feel as though the configuration that would benefit the most from adding a huge capacitor bank ( 23.5 Capitol-Farads) is one with limited amp-delivery.
More to follow soon…
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You’ve been heroic in your explorations, thanks for sharing everything.
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After thinking about it all day at work (when I should have been working lol), I don’t think this cap-pack will make a noticeable difference in “power-on-demand” because the capabilities of my batteries are so insane already: 22Ah 25c.
I think that the main benefit I will take from the CP is longer fbox life, and better remote reception (maybe). I feel as though the configuration that would benefit the most from adding a huge capacitor bank ( 23.5 Capitol-Farads) is one with limited amp-delivery.
More to follow soon…