I edited it with links to what I used. These are mostly US based links, and might not be the best or cheapest, but they worked for me.
As noted in the post, I remixed @Lee_Wright’s glue guide as his was just a tad too small. I’ll try to remember to post the .STL later, I’m not home until Monday.
This is all the awesomes. Thanks for the write up @BenjaminF! Also great design @DerelictRobot. Will be using this when I finally get sick and tired of my commuter board and decide to nut up and build a decent nummie rig.
You can wire in whatever BMS you want. There’s a 13 pin header that exposes B0- through B12+ and 2x M5 slug terminals for the main battery leads.
Very soon:
No, because the PCB copper isn’t supposed to carry any of the main current; it’s mostly for structural + balance cable organization. Nickel is overlapped so that it carries the current directly between P-groups.
Totally. It becomes a brick pack at a certain point though and you lose any flexibility whatsoever- which might not be a bad thing for most builds. The 12S4P model see here is based on the one I did with @torqueboards for the TB40 deck.
Is there interest in a 10S/12S, more compact version? I can always do a small run of 10 PCBs if there’s some interest.
PS: I am waiting on some more inventory to arrive but I’ll be putting together $5 cable/connector kits to go with these so that people can get 95% of whats needed to build these and just add solder/fishpaper.
Okay scratch that- I went and updated the remaining inventory I have of these kits today to expand out what comes with them- I was going to make this a separate add-on kit but I’ve decided to just include it in the base kit to make it a bit more comprehensive. Price remains the same.
I don’t have any of those type of cells on hand, but the FlexPCB + the nickel tabs have drawings/dimensions published so you’re welcome to see what could work.
Likewise, the same layout could be used for a 12s7p or even 12s8p double stack with some additional nickel strips and creativity.
I’ll have a 3d model of this battery up by Monday.
@DerelictRobot, sorry, I should have given you more information for my question.
26650 cells (26mm diameter 65 mm length) are same length as 18650 cells (18mm diameter 65mm length) but have larger diameter.
Based on the dimensions, I think 26650 cells (I’m thinking A123 LiFePo4) should fit, but in a 3p configuration instead of 4p to account for the larger diameter. I’m starting to research battery building and for my first pack I would like to use your PCB kit (convenient, thanks to this how-to) with the A123’s which are dirt cheap compared to Samsung 30t cells.
Sorry for long winded blah blah… to the point, do you see anything wrong (fatal flaw I’m not seeing) with me trying to use A123 26650’s in a 3p with your PCB?
I’m gonna give that a solid “sure, maybe?” Id have to model it without the cells on hand to know for sure.
these are DIY kits, so you’re encouraged to trim some nickel or even add additional nickel as needed. So long as the cell footprint works you can usually figure out a solution on the nickel connection.
@DerelictRobot if you need another build guide, just leave your back window unlocked again and turn off that security system you installed after my last “visit.” I’ll come by and “grab” some more supplies. I promise not to steal your dog this time.