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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Decided to go with the 6380’s because why not. XTLA’s mounts have a total motor spacing of 174mm, so in theory there should be no issues.
Charging solution update:
There are two use cases I wish to fulfill when choosing a charger:
- High amp bench power supply for 10A fast charging.
- Durable and compact solution at 5A charge current.
Ideally I wanted to fast charge at 1C (4.2ah * 4p = 16.8A) but the FlexiBMS is limited to ‘only’ 10A.
As previously detailed I’ve chosen the RDTech line of PSU’s for their affordability, flexibility and high current. The problem is that these units are quite loud and certainly aren’t very portable.
I arrived on this LED power supply through this thread and decided that the Meanwell HLG line of power supplies were perfect due to their durable fanless design and constantly praised reliability.
I was definitely sceptical at first purely due to the name and the fact that it’s a led power supply and not strictly speaking a charger. However, after reading multiple accounts on this forum, endless sphere, youtube, EEVblog, etc it was clear that they are well designed. I found that Mouser was the cheapest since express global shipping is free on orders over $60.
Meanwell product naming designations:
If you’re purchasing one of the Meanwell’s as a charger they have multiple current options available from 180W to 600W. Here’s what the naming scheme means:
- HLG = Product series type
- 240H = Power rating (240W)
- 48 = Rated Voltage output
- A = Adjustable voltage/amperage output
Note the rated voltage of 48V is adjustable from 44.8 ~ 51.2V making it perfect for setting exactly the voltage you want to charge to for a 12s pack. Note that as a power supply the unit won’t automatically shut off once the desired voltage is reached, you need a BMS for that or measure the volts and unplug when finished.
Here’s the datasheet.
I’ve seen these chargers from YZPower mentioned farely often. They’re affordable and with many size and amperage options. However, many have reported the amperage ratings are generally overstated as well as unreliable. They also aren’t fanless or IP65 rated like the Meanwell HLG series are.
Charging connectors:
Down the rabbit hole again… After another afternoon spent researching I’ve finally settled on the panel mount Amass XT60E-M. Why? Simply because of its compact size and high current capability. This thread has copious amounts of suggestion on various GX type plugs most of which are either hard to find, have a metal casing and thus short more easily, are far too bulky, and or do not have enough amperage capability.
Shoutout to @Creavenger for the Thingiverse XT60 cover:
I need your opinion!
How much build documentation is too much?
I realise most won’t document to the same extent but I feel like having my thought process written down on the forum will possibly help someone down the road when they’re searching for the same problems that I’ve come across. I’ve been heavily inspired to do so based on @love2scoot’s amazing switchblade build thread.
But on the Flipsky (lol I see myself out) too many words is simply that, too much! Additionally, if someone is searching for a 12s charging solution they would generally look for keywords in the title of a thread as opposed to a specific post on someones build log…
Thoughts?
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Could have those behind hidden text tabs. That way, people get a general view of your list of items and those who need better details can just tap the
Reasoning
Tab for those juicy details
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I see now
Only just worked out how to do this 
Will use in future 
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They are rated pretty conservatively. I have the 150w one and it cranks up to almost 200w.
Voltage range is wider than specs too, can be used on both 10s and 12s
Not really.
While it doesn’t shut off, when the battery charges all the way to the output voltage of the power supply, the current will just taper to near-zero.
The only way to screw up is to set the voltage too high and charge without a BMS.
Don’t have to babysit it otherwise.
PS. The only thing I hate is how heavy it is 
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Some shits arrived:
52 Molicel P42A’s
The customer service from Vapcell was quite good. The cells were delivered in two weeks and they have one of the best prices I’ve found @ 4.70 usd/cell. Haven’t tested each cell but I’m confident based on their reputation that they are genuine. They are Mooch approved according to their website 
Meanwell HLG-240H-48A:
The fit and finish on this is superb. Simply based on its construction, weight and brushed metal enclosure it feels extremely solid and well built. Arrived in country Australia from Mouser in Texas in around three days. Extremely happy with the $87 Australian dollars I paid and with free shipping!
That’s the only stuff arrived so far, you can check the Google sheet to see what’s still yet to be delivered, basically everything 
On an unrelated note:
Acton Blink resurrection:
I’ve had this Acton Blink I bought for 100 bucks just sitting here for 2 years or so. Thought that I may as well get this up and running again in the jankiest way possible. It’s never worked hence why it was so cheap, but the only issue is simply a dead esc. I chucked the whole electronics enclosure and stuck the old parts in from my Bao build:
- Acton hubs
- Maytech ‘vesc’s’ (yeah those old ones from 2017)
- 9s4p 25R (one of the p packs got squashed by a bmw driver…)
Activate jank as fuck duct tape:
The battery has been sitting in my closet for the better part of three years. Surprisingly the house hasn’t burned down but even more surprisingly all the cells still perfectly match. Down the road I’ll most likely repurpose it to a 12s3p in a light kicktail commuter board.
I tried updating the firmware in the VESC Tool but that did not work… I assumed that they got bricked since that’s what the VESC tool said. Dug up the old BLDC tool and everything worked perfectly! I have no idea what these hubs can take but I’ve set both of them to 20A motor and battery amps. The Acton only uses shit ass MR30 connectors and an xt30 connector for the battery…
To avoid soldering too much (because I’m a lazy shit) I simply soldered 5.5mm bullets to the existing mr30 on the motors, since the vesc’s already have 5.5mm bullets.
Went up and down the driveway in the rain and was quite surprised at the amount of pull they had all things considering, nothing blew up and nothing shorted, yet…
There really needs to be a thread dedicated to the jankiest shit that people put together, I bet there’s someone out there with way more fucked up builds than this!
Can’t wait to start building something that’s not a fire hazard 
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“Mooch Approved”…an oft abused phrase. Good cells though.
Just make sure there is a “K” as the second character of the date code if you want 2020-manufactured cells. “I” = 2018 and “J” = 2019.
2018 cells aren’t a guarantee of worse performance but the authorized vendors usually have the 2020 cells and unauthorized vendors have the older cells. You’re going to pay more buying from an authorized vendor though…always a frakkin’ tradeoff.
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Thanks so much for the info Mooch! Just checked the date code, definitely 2018 by the looks of it… Ah well, hopefully there’s no noticeable performance issues with these.
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I did some 2020 vs 2018 comparison testing here recently and saw about a 100mAh drop in capacity but very little increase in DC IR. The 2018 cells won’t run for as long but only if you run the cells below 3.1V or so, where capacity differences really show up. Since the DC IR is about the same there’s no increased voltage sag with the older cells that can affect run time.
Definitely post if you feel these older cells aren’t performing as expected!
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The logo is WONK af but I’m fine with it. @Arch
Seriously though I really can’t praise Lacroix’s customer service enough. I ordered the Stormcore and immediately realised that I entered my shipping details incorrectly, emailed support and they rectified it within hours! Shipping took around three days from Canada so way quicker than expected (I guess it better be with shipping costing 68 usd lol).
The shipping and exchange rate are a real killer with anything outside of Australia unfortunately… All up it cost me $550 AUD to get this here, nothing on Lacroix, but if you’re in Australia I highly recommend to NEVER add up all of your shipping expenses, I did and it’s depressing AF.
@elitejarcool Any chance of stocking Stormcore’s on your website? Would love to be able to order stockpiles of these from a local dealer 
8/8 would definitely sink my life savings into this again
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Definatly would but currently they won’t sell any to me to stock unfortunately
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I wouldn’t add the kWeld to the cost of the battery unless that’s the only battery you’re planning to making with the tool.
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Yeah fair enough.
At this point I’m planning on building more battery packs, but not anytime soon. I’ve got many build ideas but cannot justify buying more parts after spending as much as I already have.
In an ideal world I’ve identified three boards that I want to build:
- Versatile ‘Urban carver’ (this build)
- eMTB (for jumps and off-roading)
- Light commuter board (Omakase deck)
I’m sure I’m in a similar position to many, way too many amazing builds on here to get inspiration from, but no means to justify the cost of another build 
With this build I want it to fulfill as many functions as possible.
The electronics components are very similar to that of the Lacroix Jaws board, same battery config, same esc, and similarly sized motors. Combined with the flexy deck I’m imagining it to be fairly similar to an urban carver, but with the flexibility of having both pneumie and urethane options. Additionally, I want the option to use a stiffer deck for more stability, hence why I’ve also ordered the eBoosted Switchblade enclosure.
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I’m working on a new “$1k” build; the “Biohazard“.
-Skateshred deck
-crushed bottle-glass epoxy grip
-Focbox (conflict free) Unity - I’ll show the receipt
-Kahua trucks
-Bergmeister hubs
-12S5P P42A
-Metr
-Hoyt St Puck
I duct-taped it all together and threw-in my saved Lacroix Unity settings to the Unity. I had my son test it out because- as he says- “I’ll heal faster than you, Dad”. He loved the ride so much he wants to build one just like it.
Shout-out to @ThermalChild for pointing out the deck was backwards. 
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noice.
But my dood what tf is going on in this photo?
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Demonstrating the just how grippy the glass is.
(it’s ketchup)
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