I’m planning a second budget board. It’s for a shortboard (16.5" wheelbase) and hubs. I have all parts except battery (10S) and am having trouble making a battery decision.
I’m mainly debating 18650 and LiPo. If I go 18650 I would want to build a DIY spot welder and build the pack myself (unless I can find a cheap used 10S pack for sale). If I go LiPo I would buy the individual LiPo cells and construct my own flattened pack.
I use two 5S LiPo’s on my primary board and they are amazing so far (cheap and super powerful) but are bulky and made my enclosure selection very difficult (I opt’d for DIY).
For this new budget build, I’m weighing between greatest value and size. The price of the LiPo’s appeal to me but the flexibility of size/shape with 18650 might sway me. Whichever route I go, I want the flexibility to rebuild/extend the battery pack in the future.
I know I’m rambling and I know that there is enough searchable information on this forum to help me decide but I’m feeling a bit indecisive and would greatly value your opinions, especially on DIY spot-welders and DIY 18650 battery pack construction.
Stay away from this, too much work and time needed to make it, in the end money compared to buying a malelectrics/boss level welder or paying someone like me to weld you a battery.
Go li-ion or lifepo4. Won’t regret it. You don’t need to be confined to the 18650 size of cell as the larger the cell typically the greater ‘bang for buck’ of the cell price to performance wise. You don’t need a spot welder, many guys here just have like 15 boards so can justify purchasing one. You can go compression cell holding, or maybe even soldering if your really going that cheap (not recommended)
You need to figure costs of the battery your building including any extras as they quickly add up. I honestly would consult someone who is experienced and can help, or even build a pack for you.
Wow, those look awesome. If I wanted to use those ANR26650 batteries, 10x of them would make a 10S1P pack? They seem pretty big. What’s the key difference with18650? Do they have a higher capacity/output?
I mean these cells are rated to have 2.5ah at 50amp continuous each. Granted those are peak conditions and they have for sure aged. I wouldn’t run them at that 50 amps to avoid temps and sag, but I will have them in a 14s3p pack, so plenty of headroom for my single drive build lol. They handle the temps very well and have insane cell life cycles. Li-ion are more energy dense, but don’t have near the same Amp output or cell cycle life as a lifepo4.
Just look around for what ya like
I know very little in this field so best to ask someone else more qualified
Not really fare considering your not incorporating the cost of nickel strip, wire, etc. Sure you might spend 50$ on hardware and tabs for nese. But that’s halfway to a spot welder, not counting the 30$+ of nickel you then have to buy. Not worth it if your reasonable and only will be building 1-2 boards at the max.
The are also great for making flexible or interchangeable battery packs, whereas solid spot welded packs, are not.
You are missing the point of NESE. Its not consumable, its a tool. Cells are consumable and NESE is forever
Let me add one more thing to the cost of spotwelding: time. Spotwelding is 10 times more involving at least. @Rob, what height have you got your 26650 modules scaled to? I got 26650 modules cad’ed if you are interested.
I just picked up some A123 cells (48). Planning to build a 12s1p pack for a small shortboard build. Also want to build a 12s2p pack but first have to figure out what board I can fit it under. These cells seem to be decent as 12s1p packs for low-range budget builds.
Unless you’ve been soldering for 20 years, I would not recommend this. I’ve soldered on lithium cells.
Those that know they can do it, know they can do it. I also tend to avoid doing this at all costs.
There is no reason to let noobs think this is a viable and cheap option, because it will only cause them heartache and possibly endanger people’s safety.
I think mentioning this on a public forum does more harm than good.
TL;DR: if you don’t already know, then don’t solder on lithium cells.
