Yes i think so.
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- Battery building supplies:
Well what do you know I’ve found everything you’ve asked for @will_manners 
And some more:
- 21700 fish paper rings: 100pcs/lot 21700 Lithium Battery Positive Insulation Gasket
- 0.2mm * 50mm nickel: 0.2mm x 50mm 99.96% Pure Nickel Plate Strap Strip Sheets
- Adhesive fish paper: 100mm width insulation paper fish paper
- Fibreglass tape: 50M fiber tape strong glass fiberglass tape
- Main battery leads: 10 meters/lot wire silicone 10 AWG
- Series connections: 10 meters/lot wire silicone 14 AWG
- Balance leads: 10 meters/lot wire silicone 26 AWG
Yes I know the nickel has the dreaded word plate in the listing. But everything else about the listing points towards pure nickel, including 99.3% positive seller rating and all 5 star reviews, hopefully this results in an accurately described product. But as we all know Aliexpress is generally more of a risk compared to known, trusted sources.
Is 26 AWG what most people use for balance leads?
- Battery building supply tutorial?
Is it just me or is there a complete lack of succinct documentation for the DIY’ers who are starting out on battery building. Yes there is the battery thread here, but that has over 10000 replies and doesn’t contain a whole heap of structure.
There are also plenty of examples of what a good pack looks like and thus how it should be built @Skyart @ZachTetra I’m lookin at u 
There’s also DRI’s battery building supplies, but they don’t seem to stock reels of nickel and thus that limits the design of your pack.
What I hope to happen is that the products I’ve purchased above and documented here turn out to be legit and thus can help someone who’s starting out get an idea of where to buy the supplies they’ll need.
If there are any objections to the supplies I’ve purchased above then suck it. Lmao kidding, let me know if some of this shit looks sketch aye.
- Spot welder:
After much deliberation and turmoil I have henceforth decided to dump my life savings into this damn thing:
It’s fuckoff expensive that’s the only problem…
The way I’ve tricked my brain into justifying this is it doesn’t really cost much more than the less sophisticated DIY alternatives such as the Boss and Maeletrics welder. The Kweld also has the benefit of being locally stocked and available at hiketech.com.au. List of parts purchased:
- Kweld Aus source: kWeld Complete Battery Spot Welder Kit
- Housing: kWeld – Laser Cut Housing Kit
- Battery: Turnigy Nano-Tech Plus 5000mAh 3S 70C
- 3s Charger: DC-4S Balance Charger & Cell Checker 30w
These just rocked up. They look so tasty
That’s it for now. Next update will probs be when more shit starts rocking up at the post office and the ladies there get hella pissed at all the heavy ass dangerous goods shit that keeps piling up.
Aight peace 
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The problem is that all batteries are different…in order to make a catch all for the basics of battery building would take FOREVER, but typically here is the order that you do things, its really not that bad
- insulation rings and check cells
- determine layout, leave space for tolerance and all the nickel/wires/insulation
- glue up cells OR insert in holders
- weld parallel groups (and series connections if it’s a brick or folded pack)
- insulate (not if using holders)
- series connections
- balance leads
- pack termination
- final wrapping
ALWAYS check your polarity and stuff, and make sure you don’t leave a chance for things to short out
Also 26awg is a little on the thin side, the standard is 22awg, but it will work as long as the BMS doesn’t have hella balance current
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Totally agree and thanks for the write-up!
However my post specifically talks about the lack of supplier suggestions related to battery building. There are plenty of tutorials around for building batteries, hell I’m sure someone could build an excellent pack based upon your build photos alone, but my previous frustration specifically pertains to the lack of recommendations for merchants selling building supplies.
Perhaps I’m not searching the forum hard enough?
Cool I’ll order 22 awg as well. Although isn’t the balancing current mostly in the ~80ma range anyway? Or do you use thicker gauge for durability reasons as opposed to the higher amp rating?
I know the flashlight guys on blf regularly pull 10+ amps on 22 awg so I can’t see 26 gauge being a concern?
I think we all source materials from many different places, I get a lot of things from Amazon (BNTechGo wire, Kester solder, shrink wrap, AMASS connectors, insulation rings) and AliExpress (Daly and LTT BMSs, Steel City nickel, shrink wrap, cell spacers/holders), and a few things from eBay (bullets, braided copper)
22awg is just what comes standard on the BMSs I believe, in terms of current you can use 28awg for sure for most cases but its easy to break
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Parts Update:
-
FlexiBMS Lite
So far there’s been no perfect solution that was readily available for a smart BMS.
I’ve known about @SimosMCmuffin’s FlexiBMS for a long time but it was always an unattainable dream, until now of course! Simo opened up 25 units for the Flexi BMS and I knew I had to get on it. The Google form opened up at 4:00 am Sydney Australian time so I woke up on the dot and filled it out the moment it was posted 
Apart from it being developed by a standup guy from the DIY community, there are major benefits over other off-the-shelf offerings. For me it was a choice between this or using the LLT BMS externally.
Pro’s of the FlexiBMS:
- So small!
- Integrates into other management and telemetry systems over CAN (VESC, metr pro etc)
- Ongoing software and hardware development, allowing for more sophisticated integration.
- Open source and developed by our favourite muffin @SimosMCmuffin
- Looks tasty af
- Charge only
Pro’s for LLT Smart BMS:
- Affordable.
- Can’t think of any other pro’s lol.
For me, the biggest priority is to be able to check individual cell voltages over bluetooth. Which means I overlooked the fact that the FlexiBMS doesn’t come with bluetooth functionality out of the box (at least I don’t think so…) But not to worry since it automatically integrates into the Metr Pro module.
Total cost comparison USD: (incl. shipping)
- LLT Smart BMS = $58.20 USD
- FlexiBMS + Metr Pro = $152.70 USD
For me the price difference is totally worth the smaller footprint, not to mention the enormous uplift in functionality with the Flexi + Metr integration!
Seriously can’t contain my excitement over the Flexi + Metr integration! Absolute game changer! The next big step in development is direct VESC integration over CAN, allowing the vesc to read individual p groups and slowly ramp down power draw if voltages are too low for a particular p group, doesn’t seem complicated to implement in theory but I know less than zero about that sorta stuff!
Battery Supplier update:
Have finally placed an order for 52 Molicel P42A’s from Vapcell. Customer service has been great so far. They don’t list the Molicel or its price on their website so email them for a quote and an invoice if interested, so far they have been very pleasant to deal with. Eva from Vapcell usually responds within 1 hour or max 24 hours. Will update when batteries start shipping and how long they take to get here.
XTLA SR Mounts:
Super fast shipping from @XTLA! He got them out extremely quick and they arrived in Australia within three days. Only issue is I wasn’t at home when DHL delivered them so they’ve been at their holding office since then, will be re-delivered tomorrow!
Wheel choice:
Have been kick pushing some kegels on the SR RKP’s and Loaded Vanguard. Quite the odd combo, love the grip of the new kegels, but RKP’s are obviously not designed for low speed carving Still having so much fun just dicking around bombing small hills. I really want to learn how to slide within the coming weeks, lets see how that goes…
Some booty pics of the analog setup.
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You can run the trucks wayyy looser when ur riding manual, is better to learn slides aswell like that!
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Wow, awesome shot . Can’t wait…
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Haven’t posted the video yet! But it’s simply an overview of the motor mounts. Gotta hand it to @XTLA. He’s been an absolute dream throughout the entire process of shipping and communication. They came wrapped up in 27 different boxes, nothing short of a nuke could have damaged these during shipping, the finish is superb and they sound so satisfying when you pick them up Legit the sound of Aluminium gently twanging gets me hard 
Parts Update:
Decisions, decisions. I’ve come across @elitejarcool (Imperium Boards) and turns out they’re a local seller who stock a whole lot of parts at very reasonable prices. Stumbled across the new Flipsky 6374’s as well as more interestingly the new Go-FOC DV6 at extremely attractive prices and local shipping!
Imperium Boards: GO-FOC DV6 DUAL 100A
Choice between either:
- Stormcore 60D vs Go-FOC DV6
- Lacroix 6374 vs Flipsky hardened 6374
I’m definitely leaning towards the Stormcore despite it costing almost double factoring in shipping and exchange rate, but the motors, not too sure. There’s literally no information on the Lacroix 6374’s and I recall reading somewhere here that they have non-standard mounting holes.
Could anyone comment on the Lacroix motors?
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I think lacroix motors are likely 10mm shafts so just be aware of that
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The 6389 motors are 10mm but the 6374’s are 8mm.
From my experience with the smaller eboosted enclosure space is at such a premium in the stormcore won’t even fit. I’m slowly in the process of building another pack for myself in his larger enclosure but still not a whole lot of room.
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The Stormcore is only 4mm thicker so hopefully it should squeeze in. Perhaps a thicker gasket will help?
The unity is 116×66×20 the SC is 126×70×24. You’ll also have to deal with an xt90 dead square in the front of the SC. I can place a unity in the larger enclosure and see what it looks like as well. That should have extra room, maybe spin the ESC backwards and loop everything over? I’d imagine it can be made to work but it will be a challange.
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Thanks for the dimensions! Yeah it’ll definitely be a pain to deal with the limited space.
That’s a good point about the XT90 in the center, however I don’t think that will be a huge issue at all since the connector is completely resessed into the housing, so the only additional depth that will be taken up will be the wires coming out of the Stormcore. Not sure how much stress the wires would be subject to when bent to fit, but I guess there’s ways to mitigate that.
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Don’t forget the extra cabling and remote receiver. Mine barely fit in the enclosure, unless you move the bms to the front.
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Yeah it’s definitely gonna be super tight. I’ve ordered the FlexiBMS which is the lowest profile smart bms going so hopefully that fits in. Wish there were internal dimensions listed for the enclosure!
Aight got some bad news fellas, I added up all of my expenses in a google sheet.
Then proceeded to have a stroke…
Total materials + Equipment cost - Google Sheet
The most interesting thing is the total cost of the battery build. I was optimistic that all of the raw materials, as well as the equipment, would total slightly less than buying a pack. But as you’d see from the Google sheet, the total materials cost including the KWeld add up to ~770 usd. Which to be honest is quite good taking into account that the cost of build materials are enough for a few more packs down the road.
The biggest money culprit is shipping to Australia and Paypal’s exchange rate. All in all the shipping cost for everything adds up to an additional 500 Aussie bucks, which is too depressing to know. In future I’ve decided it’s best not to think about it…
I still have yet to buy the Stormcore and motors since I can’t find out if their 6374’s have standard mounting holes. I’ve been looking at Flip-‘rust’ battle-hardened motors but they seem to rust like a mutherfucker.
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