My friend, Juan Pablo, lives in Colombia (South America) about an hour outside Medellín.
I’m posting on his behalf because he’s still working on his English.
Please forgive me if I make any mistakes or leave anything obvious out of this post (I’m barely a novice).
Juan Pablo has a TRAMPA Spur Gear Drive Mountainboard that was purchased in the fall of 2019.
It’s configured to run off 4 LiPO batteries of the following type…
*ZIPPY Compact 6200mAh 6s 40c Lipo Pack w/ XT90*
However, his batteries have all bit the dust, and he now has to replace them.
He was wondering if it would be cheaper for him to buy a LiON battery pack or build a LiON battery pack instead of buying new LiPo cells to replace the dead ones.
He was also wondering what he would need to do (if anything) to modify the battery box to accept a LiON battery pack.
His interest in switching to LiON cells is pretty much exclusively to try and spend less than it would cost to replace the dead LiPO batteries with new ones.
Does anyone have any thoughts or advice they can share with us?
I think it would depend on what is available in Colombia or whether or not Colombia has import restrictions on ordering them from overseas. Do you know of any in-country suppliers of Molicel P42A cells? Can you order cells from other countries? Can LIPO packs be ordered in-country (in Colombia)? The thing about making your own packs is the cost associated with getting started, and the danger associated with learning how to do it safely. A spot welder is at least 450,000.00 Colombian Peso.
There’s also the problem of sourcing the nickel stripping, which usually has to be ordered from China- Aliexpress. One must also find silicone wire for series connections, leaded solder, and heat shrink insulation.
The LiPO cells are roughly $100 USD, so replacing the set of four would be roughly $400 USD.
I believe we could also import if there were a significant cost savings to be achieved that way (or some other good reason).
Do you think there’d be some way to get the board up and running again with new batteries for much less than $400 USD, or is that pretty much what it will cost no matter what we do?
The LISHEN 21700 4000MAH 35A BATTERY (LR2170LA) is the cheapest 21700 I know of that can be used for esk8 but it’s not much cheaper than the SAMSUNG 40T 21700 4000MAH 30A BATTERY, which it is attempting to copy. The Samsung battery is what I would go with. Molicel P42A cells are currently sold out, and they cost more.
Does Juan have a battery compartment? What kind is it? 4 of the Zippy cells could be purchased here for roughly $212 USD. That’s probably his cheapest option though I don’t know what shipping would cost from The States.
We didn’t realize that the LiPOs were so much cheaper in the states now.
Back in 2019, I think they were about $80 USD each (so seeing them for $100 USD now didn’t seem too far off to me).
I’ve contacted a shipping company to make sure we can import the batteries with no concerns.
To answer your question about the battery enclosure, he has a TRAMPA top mounted Monster Box that was configured by TRAMPA in the UK (in late 2019) for the 4 LiPO batteries.
I suspect Juan Pablo can have the LiPO batteries from the US in hand for like $212 plus $20-$40 for the international shipping (I’m guessing).
Unless there’s a significantly cheaper solution, that seems like a winner!
I’m going to go pull some articles for him on battery care and battery balancing to try and help him extend the life of these ones. Any recommended resources are appreciated.
Lipos are a pretty bad choice for electric skateboards, they tend to drift and balancing then is always a pain in the ass, replacing them often will be more expensive than switching to a Li-Ion battery pack.
I understand that if the budget is low do not try to use cheaper cells, use a cheaper battery pack will less cell count such a 12s4p or 10s4p, but try to stick with P42A cells, if cost is still prohibitive get 18650 30Qs.
But my advice would be to not get cheap with batteries, select the range your friend would like and design the battery accordingly 12s6p or 12s8p is a popular choice these days, the reward, practicality and joy these machines give you outweights by far a one time battery cost.
