This is EXPERIMENTAL
Please DO NOT attempt this solderless build method unless you have alot of experience with building battery packs
Before you comment what most people already can figure out… YES It is not a super solid battery pack - It works for me and my requirements
I needed to build a battery pack with some SONY NC1 cells I`ve had sitting in a box for the past 2 years…
BUT
I didnt want to spend couple hundred dollars on a spot welder and
hardware… so I made due with readily available materials.
This is my 2nd attempt… the 1st try worked great even outdoors in sub-zero temps… The reason I re-built it was to add 2 more cell per parallel string…
Also… I carry the battery in a backpack and have recently taken some big wipeouts… the cells are tightly bound between polycarbonate…
also not likely to be friendly to vibrations and bumps on an e-board. you don’t want cells constantly being disconnected and potentially becoming unbalanced.
I want to build something one day with strong spring loaded 3d printed cartridges for each one. It would be cool if they made cases of different sizes that you just slide them in and you could have different configurations of packs (12s4p, 10s4p, etc.)
I think the issue with spring loaded cases and why we dont see them for sale… is they cant handle high currents… erosion of springs and materials… springs losing their spring etc… A case needs to be proven to work for 2000 hours without any degredation. Otherwise the seller has liability.
The primary advantage of these 18650 type cell packs is their low weight
and compact size for any given capacity, and anything you add will
detract from that.
Very well said. If I ever try to do anything I’ll research the concept a great deal and see if I can built it directly into the deck itself so it doesn’t add much size and weight. You gave me great things to consider.
Sorry if my initial post came across overly critical.
Cool build - good ingenuity and obviously some skill involved!
Still think it’s not durable enough for the moderately crappy roads i ride sometimes, but if it works for you - awesome! It would be great to swap to a cell config i want more easily, or if you kill a cell swap in a replacement… I also liked a few of the builds they’ve done w/ neo magnets. More options and ideas are always cool to have!
@solarcross this is a great concept and you’ve got some serious tape skills! I think that we need more options for developing battery packs without a spot-welder, since many folks don’t have (or want) one. I know for myself I bought a low-cost spot welder and I’ve used it a few times to make packs, but honestly it just sorta sits there looking cool and not being used a lot.
some improvements I plan on making
conductive grease
individual cell level fusing for thermal runway… but Im reading the failure rate of 18650 is 0.00001%…
Points brought out by another forum…
fish paper - gasket material any place a wire comes in close contact with the cell can…
Maybe use fibreglass circuit board chunks instead of wood… file down edges…
So Ive been using the pack for 2 weeks without issue… However I want to try and see If I can bring the IR down to Nanotech battery levels… which is 1 Ohm… My pack with just bare wire pressed against the cell is ranging from 7-11 Ohms…I will be trying a silver based product…
