First post - not sure if this belongs here or in the prebuilt forum. Stoked to find this place. I’ve got a mid length (36 inch) metroboard that will be up for a battery replacement soon (it’s third battery in 9 years) and I think I’m going to need something custom. See pic below - I’m currently running the 36v 5ah standard metroboard ‘brick’ battery. The enclosure and deck are literally the only original part - I have constantly upgraded over the years with Ilan’s awesome backup support but now I see he has gone to a whole new style of board. I would like to upgrade to a longer but lower profile enclosure. Metroboard used to do a slim enclosure but they only used a single layer of cells with limited range and I reckon I have enough height / room for two layers. The board also sometimes cuts out on steep hills - I.e trips the circuit breaker that’s built into the power switch. Not sure if a better battery would fix this but it definitely happens more as it gets older.
In terms of space I have 16 inches from the back of the front truck to front of the motor, So maybe 13 or 14 inches useable. And 8,5 inches wide at the front, 9 inches wide at the back and 9.5 inches widest point.
I have no idea where to start. I’ve had the enclosure off heaps of times, replaced circuitry, battery, receivers etc but that’s about where my skills run out and it’s always been with pretty good step by step advice from Ilan. Does anyone know of someone who would build a semi-plug and play type enclosure and battery upgrade? I think building a battery might be a bit beyond my abilities and I also have no clue about charging, drivers, amp ratings for that motor etc etc.
@b264 is the shortboard expert, it looks to me like you could fit a decent sized battery in a slimmer enclosure on there for sure. What voltage and P size is it? I would have to guess something like 10s3p or something but not sure
We can definitely get you hooked up with a 10s5p 30Q battery or similar if that’s what you are looking for, if you can get exact dimensions and pictures of the interior I can tell you what other layout options you have
Ah yes apologies I haven’t done a profile or anything. I’m in Western Australia. I have no idea what a p size is but I’m sure Ilan could tell me. I’ve sent him an email asking for any specs I might need to custom build a battery so I’ll see what he says. I did dig these pics out that might help but I’m trying to go longer and thinner if I can rather than replace this one with the same thing.
Also just dug up this info out of an old email. I must have got this info from Ilan last time I was trying to find a battery in Australia:
36V 5AH LiFePO4 Battery that can handle 5C continuous discharge (meaning at least 25 Amps continuous/50 Amps peak). The physical size of the battery is 180 mm long x 70 mm high x 100 mm deep.
Yeah cheers mate. The old Aussie dollar isn’t too flash at the moment either ha ha. I’ll flick that Marsen bloke an email I think. He’s only 6 hours down the road. Practically round the corner in WA.
So I got in touch with Marsen. He can sort me out with a battery but that’s all he does. That’s half a solution at least. Anyone know how I could go about getting a new enclosure?
I’m also sort of struggling to find good basic info on all the different componentry, terminology etc. I suspect I’m gonna have to learn all that if I’m dipping into the semi-DIY space. If you know of any good guides or FAQs flick me some links or something.
If you’re getting a custom battery made and considering making your own enclosure, you very well could pick a different deck while you’re at it if you wanted to and just swap everything else over.
Hmm. Now I’m wondering how I match up the components - battery size, room and mounting for the esc and internal wiring etc. I still haven’t heard back from Ilan at metroboard either which is odd - he’s normally quick draw Mcgraw on emails.
It’s a bit hard to work out what I can and can’t do in terms of battery specs, current, circuit breaker rating, motor specs etc and from searching on here I can’t see much chatter about modding metroboards. Plenty on boost and evolve. If you know any metroboard gurus on here let me know
I could go different deck I suppose but I might not need to.
