Internals Mounting - Deck Mounted vs Enclosure Suspended [Serious]

This is an important point. If you want to use a properly installed VESC heatsink then building into the deck is no good.

… which reminds me of the VESC overheating issue I had on the last race event. :thinking:

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An older post with excellent suggestions! I have some ideas I can express with pictures and describe briefly here that may update and refresh this post? I thought about mounting the battery(ies) to the deck but do have some decks with a little flex and others that do not flex at all. I’m also sharing one battery between boards - as well as the ESC - so I wanted something similar with some consistency to reduce ‘swapping mistakes,’ as I like to call them.

My solution was to use double sided Velcro (that sticks to itself) bonded to the enclosure(s) with 5 or 30 minute two part epoxy as the primary method of mounting. So the Velcro is in the enclosure permanently and wraps around the battery to hold it in place at pre-determined locations. Up until now, I’ve been using what I would call traditional double-sided sticky tape to mount the battery to the enclosure. However, this has sometimes been hit or miss - not always does all of the adhesive engage the enclosure - after all, these batteries are never perfectly flat, are they? I’ve also felt that temperature changes and potholes might shift things and this would ruin an otherwise perfect group ride or evening out… Then, once you have it mounted securely, you have another issue when you want to get the battery out of the enclosure, don’t you? What was it that my mother told me about a 42 volt battery pack along with the application of a 3/8" flat bladed screwdriver to get under and pry loose tape? I forget - but there was something about women and inherent danger…

I also use latex foam rubber of either 1/4" or 1/2" thickness to cushion the battery from vibrations and other knocks - it also provides for some flex as well. The latex prevents the battery from slipping too as it’s fairly grippy. You could use the foam rubber on the top and bottom of the battery, but I’m only using it at present between the enclosure an and the battery. Here is an eBoardsPeru enclosure for a 42" Rayne Demonseed deck. I’m reaching the final stages of build where you can see two straps mounted to the bottom of the enclosure:

Preparation to accept two part epoxy is to use acetone to clean the areas you plan to bond. Also, straps are mounted ‘fuzzy’ side down so that more surface area is soaked into the epoxy. Of course, weight these things down during the curing process and use plastic Saran-type wrap during this process so you don’t have a mess.

Next is a picture of an MBoards XL Enclosure for an Interstellar. This one required using 80 grit sandpaper to prepare the surface of the plastic moulding surface for epoxy and acetone to clean it. You can see also I decided to use a wider strap:

I’ve got the foam rubber pictured there and I’m swapping a 12S3P battery between decks with two differing enclosures. The Stormcore 60d ESC has a heatsink and I’ve modified both enclosures to accept it with the 4 SHCS’s. One of the major advantages with this method is that it is possible to use this exact method on the deck as well - I would consider using short wood screws with fender washers (along with epoxy) to hold the straps to the deck, then use the latex foam rubber to protect the battery from the heads of the screws and allowing some flex on the deck (if flex can happen)…

Call it a little nuts, or OCD, or whatever, but you can see here that I have shrink tubing on the SHCS’s on the ESC. This is to prevent chafing of the threads against ANY of the wires - granted if some wire management is used, this will also prevent chafing against something. More than a clean installation, I just don’t desire surprises when I’m 15 miles out of nowhere on the Erie & Ohio canal towpath trail, at night, somewhere between Cleveland and Akron, OH.

Hope this helps give builders in this community some ideas and/or food for thought…

Ross

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I feel like what you have pictured is great for retaining east/west movement, but i’ve never come across a board that has suffered damage due to east/west movement of the battery…

North/south movement is the real fucker of things.

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Seperate compartments for an enclosure is always a good idea for the north south inertia forces. Break larger batteries up into smaller chunks. Mmmm I seem to recall a new enclosure with a nicely compartmentalised battery arrangement. :wink:

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For sure, segmented enclosures are fantastic for this :ok_hand:

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Or just fill evwry square cm of enclosre footprint with battery :wink:

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The only way to realistically do this is with prismatic batteries that would cost an arm and a leg.

Dunno what prismatic batteries have to do with anything. P42a fill up a box just fine.

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You are onto something here! I’ll work something up to address this…

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yaaaa my battereis are the worst for space use :joy:

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Thought about this some more. Do you think such a solution as I have presented precludes up and down motion - which could be considered important here? Are we in the right church so far?

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I don’t really see up/down movement as much of an issue, I always make sure to use foam between the deck and the battery to compress everything together.

I typically double sided foam adhesive the battery into the enclosure, put EVA foam on top of the battery that gets compressed when the enclosure is attached, and for east/west movement, i usually just squirt a few blobs of hot glue between battery and enclosure on either side.

So technically I don’t do anything to prevent the north/south movement and I’ve never had an issue on my boards.

I think if you used your method with some foam between battery and deck, it would likely be good enough.

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Hey glyphiks, Yep, I could see packing foam between the battery pack doing the job here. I ended up settling on an extra velcro strap to control N/S movement, along with what I’ll call here a ‘latex air bag’ to handle battery movement should there be a collision or ‘short stop.’

I’ll also put some thinner latex foam between the battery and deck during installation. This will put some tension on the bolts that hold the enclosure to the deck as well.

Eventually I’ll end up with a 12S4P battery and we’ll start over…

Ross

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