New Ground Up DIY for Mark

MJ1 Cells and lots of other stuff has arrived and battery pack construction has commenced

The battery will be a 10S 6P configuration.
First thing is check voltage of all cells - all are within 3.5Vto 3.6V so all good.

Has some spare 18650 cell heatshrinks so used that on outside cells in eack pack ( for additional inter-pack insulation).

Then hot glue 3 cell packs together.

Then 3 cell cardboard insulators on all +v ends.

Ready for nickel strips to be added

 

Looking the business buddy!

 

Bit of a post on the various bits and bobs needed for this build.

BATTERY PACK

Battery Cells 60 x 18650 LG MJ1
3 cell cardboard stick-on insulators
Nickel Strip 10 x 0.15mm
Hot Glue
Kapton Hi Temp tape
Fibreglass Tape
18 awg silicon wire( balance leads)
30mm x 5mm rubber strips
Neoprene 2mm foam
170mm heat shrink
12 awg silicon wire ( power leads)
velcrose strips for battery pack to enclosure fixing
12 pin balance header socket and plug
5A wire fuses( balance leads)

CHARGER/BMS BOX

PVC Enclosure
10x mini LED voltmeters
Smart BMS and data cable
Charger socket
LCD Combo Voltmeter/ Ammeter
12 pin weatherproof plug
terminal block
18 awg silicon wire
cable gland

ENCLOSURE

Custom ABS Enclosure ( Psychotiller special for double row cells)
ABS Glue
12mm x 10mm rubber strip ( for weatherproof sealing enclosure)
Charger Socket
Headlight switch
Strip RGB LED strips ( 2 off)
mini usb weatherproof sockets ( for VESC data connection)
XT60 panel socket and fuse plug
Battery Cell monitor/alarm
Enclosure deck fixings

VESC PANEL
2x VESC HW 4.12
VESC heatsinks
14 awg silicon wire ( motor leads)
MT30 sockets ( motor power leads )
Adaptor cable for motor Hall effect sensors
Aluminium plate
CAN Bus data cable
Anti-spark switch
Weatherproof on/off illuminated push button switch
Photon 2.4 GHz receiver and whip antenna
RC back-up 2.4 GHz receiver and antenna
Servo male to male lead
Photon UART data cable
42V to 8V step down converter ( for heads lights and RGB LED strips) and 8V fuse
METR Bluetooth UART module ( for IPhone telemetry)
Rubber vibration isolation mounts

GENERAL
Front LED headlights
Photon Remote
RC Remote
2x Racestar 140 KV 5065 motors

 

Wow! Sexy Build! I did consider building one before buying my gtx. Decided I couldn't wait. Maybe number 2 will be a self built....

Can I ask what sort of range you would expect to get out of 60x 18650's?

That seems like a lot of battery! Like crazy shed loads of battery....

Cheers

Dan

 

Ignore last message, just saw diagram 2

Holy Beeeejusus 50km is pretty epic.

 

First nickel strip layer completed

Racestar motors fitted

Few ideas discussed with Mark re enclosure mounting , position of fittings to suit and VESC plate mounting.

 

Hats off.. board is stunning

 

Battery pack building continued - photos show:

• each 6 cell pack wrapped in Kapton hi-temperature tape and then with fibreglass tape
• mock up of series connection with 2x 12 awg flexible silicon wire and showing current sharing on packs
• additional insulation for inter-pack cell outer skin insulation
• packs taped together to form 2 x 5S blocks

ready for final nickel strip welding and series wire connections

 

Started on VESC panel - use Aluminium 2mm sheet as baseplate and heat sink then mount equipment on plate.
VESCs , anti-spark switch and RC receiver mounted
Powered up with 42V supply (limited to 0.1A for initial testing) connected to anti-spark switch input
2.4Gz RC receiver binded OK to remote - and connection to VESCs tested OK. Note that this receiver has a wire antenna which provides a very strong connection signal ( Evolve remotes do not have this)
No CANBUS connection yet

Function over Form inside the enclosure for my builds

 

Mark's very neat handy-work in BMS enclosure cut-outs

 

Roger has almost finished the battery, now for the test charge followed by a load test. I’m getting a little excited!

 

a few pictures of battery construction -
series connection between packs are 2 x 12 awg silicon flexible wire (pre-tinned) with two solder points per lead giving four current sharing paths between the series packs.
Balance leads are soldered on to one of the cross nickel strips and all leads bought out to a header plug

 

First charge was a leisurely 2A directly onto +42V and 0V ( no BMS) . Packs were sitting at 3.65 shipped and all were within range 3.61 to 3.65V . First charge took hours ( a good sign) and the pack was charged to 41.7 V ( with packs sitting between 4.15V and 4.20V ) . Next step is a discharge test using an eight ohm 100W resistor hanging over a fan. This provides approx. 4.5A load ( varies with voltage)
The discharge test objective is to confirm cell capacity ( Wh and Ah) from full charge to 30V
Discharge test took four hours with data checked every 30 minutes
Final readings at discharge test conclusion were
30.0V
690Wh
18.5Ah
with a cells within 0.1V

These are slightly better than estimated ( Ah capacity of 18Ah and Wh 648) - so cells are all good.!

 

Next step is to finish off battery with a 2mm neoprene foam wrapping followed by heat shrink. The foam provides padding for the battery pack and the heat shrink holds it all in place and provides dust/moisture protection.

 

Recharged battery and its all ready to mount in enclosure

 

Battery Tray now mounted and it’s back to Roger for some electronic magic!

 

Following on from Mark's handy work on enclosure mounting - time to fit it out with the good stuff.
First job is to bash some holes in enclosure for the various switches and other stuff.

Mark had an excellent idea to avoid any mounting bolts heads protruding on bottom of enclosure - basically to stick a rubber strip on bottom of enclosure and have bolts protruding from the strip to hold down the aluminium plate containing electronics.

After a few trips to Clark Rubber and tries - pinch weld was selected for the enclosure lip and sealing to the rubber strip stuck on bottom of deck. This looks very neat and should be good structurally long term.

 

Further work on electronics tray - have fitted heat sink directly to aluminium plate for bottom mosfets and individual heat sinks on top mosfets. Anti-spark switch is small rectangle at top and space for REC is for Photon remote receiver ( still under test at the moment)

 

tray mounted in enclosure




View attachment 3364

 

Looking great guys!!!