My enclosure has been delayed for a while.
Could you measure the length and width of the “usable part” (for batteries and esc) of the enclosure I would be grateful.
Want to check the measurement before starting to build the pack.
Internal width: 18.5cm
Internal length: 59cm
That’s the usable part for a rectangular battery and ESCs, but ofc. the enclosure isn’t a perfect rectangle, so you have a bit of space (4cm) at both ends as well where all the walls come together.
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Perfect thanks!
Thanks a lot for the measurements! That sounds great! Perfect width for 21700. Then there will also be space for some rigid extra insulation in the middle of the pack between groups.
Leaves 15cm for electronics, as I thought the jbd/llt 100A bms will not fit. Will be charge only then.
Once again, thanks!
The cells are here, the fun begins!
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Update 2020-03-07
New
Cable Glands
After reading through the Show us your enclosure insides thread, I wanted to keep the build both clean and as water resistant as possible. After some shopping I arrived at a TUPARKA 50 pack of cable glands. Current plan is to run (2) holes in the enclosure, one for each motor, using a PG13.5 gland. Each will house the (3) phase wires and the sensor cables.
BMS
Committed to the Neptune 15 (although it is taking its sweet time arriving from Hong Kong). I’m currently debating adding a fuse the to charging port leads since this BMS already has short circuit protection. I will likely wire this as charge only, but as @Nikos notes there is a 100A discharge mod for this BMS. 
Battery
After gathering the feedback on battery cell selection (thanks!) and doing additional research at the following sources:
- 18650 Battery Cells Thread
- 18650 Insulator Rings - Redundant?
- What’s inside an 18650 cell? And why its important
- e-cigarette forum List of Battery Test
- Mooch’s YouTube channel
I decided on Samsung 30Q cells and will be adding an additional fish paper ring to the top of each cell before loading into my N.E.S.E. enclosures.
Arrived
Maker X GO-FOC SV6
Really impressed on the build quality here.
Since the 12AWG leads come out the side on these, they are a tight fit in the enclosure as I originally planned (see my dimensional drawing from my original post). I’ve decided that putting pressure on these leads will likely lead to a failure over time so I have altered the layout of the VESCs and BMS in the enclosure to address this:
In this configuration, the leads of the “top” VESC will need to do a 180 and run up the inside of the enclosure, reducing the pressure on the leads. This means that the phase wires will all point toward the middle of the enclosure where they will mate with the connectors from the motors before traveling through the cable glands. Hopefully this keeps cable clutter to a minimum.
Antispark
This arrived and looks good. I’ve added XT60 connectors to each end, although I may shorten these leads depending on how bad the cable clutter gets.
Changed
Nothing this time
Completed
Lugs to Main Battery Leads
I crimped and heat shrink covered the lugs to a female XT60 connector to be used as the main battery leads. I think it turned out rather well:
Charger
Pulling in the power supply, a three prong pigtail, and the CNLINKO M16 connector I was able to complete the DC charger for the board:
Additionally, I adjusted the potentiometer and leveled the charging voltage to 49.8v, which should provide a peak P-group charging voltage of 4.15v. Looking at various battery datasheets, it is suggested that 4.15v be used when charging cells which are cold (0degC - 10degC or so) to maximize battery life. Essentially, this voltage (and current) should provide optimal charging characteristics for the cells, even in the least optimal circumstances.
What’s Next
Padding
With most of the internals on-hand, it’s time to consider how to mount these components in the board. There seems to be (2) schools of thought here: mount to the board or mount to the enclosure (if the enclosure is up to it). With the eBoosted enclosure I’m not really worried about structural integrity 
so I’m heavily leaning toward mounting the hardware to the enclosure. After looking through the forum, neoprene foam and industrial Velcro appear to be the materials of choice. I’m thinking of skipping the Velcro entirely and simply using the quantity of foam which will hold everything in place and buffer the internals from vibration and impact from both the deck and enclosure.
Balance Wires
One of the great things about the N.E.S.E. enclosure is the ability to easily replace a bad cell in a P-group. Keeping the lids the N.E.S.E. modules accessible is therefore an important consideration when building the battery pack. Using the padding noted above as a launching point, I have decided to run the balancing leads behind the pack in channels made by tiling the foam. Additionally, I’m planning on using wire guides made from 100mil blank headers (drilled out) to ensure a clean wiring harness (of sorts) for the balancing leads. Leads will terminate at ring terminals connecting to the positive terminal of each P-group.
Custom XT60 Splitter
With the new component layout, the way the antispark connects with the VESCs has changed. Essentially, each VESC’s XT60 will come from opposite sides of the enclosure and the antispark will be aligned with one of those XT60 connectors. This means that I will need to run an XT60 splitter with both male (connection to antispark) and female (connection to one VESC) connectors on one end and a single female connector (connection to second VESC) on the other. I could use a standard splitter and just double back one end, but a custom splitter will reduce cable clutter and be more robust. See my updated wiring diagram above for an illustration.
Research
Wheels and Tires
The jury is still out on wheels and tires.
First, it appears that the most recent iteration of the eLofty drives ships with a Kegel adapter with fewer pins and compatibility with the TorqueBoards DD adapter dimensions on Janux hubs see here. (Thanks @visnu777) This means that there is no need to buy the special eLofy Janux hubs, and I can instead purchase the TB DD hubs (which gives me more flexibility in the future).
Second, it appears that @Arzamenable has mounted Evolve tires to the larger Janux hubs see here but I’m still waiting for final confirmation of this. If so, this would make for a really flexible hub which could use the following wheel options:
I’m hopeful this is the case. Since we are still in somewhat early days for DD + Pneumatics, having the flexibility to alter the external diameter of the wheel by this amount (without changing hubs) could be quite helpful when dialing in ride quality / torque / etc.
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With the caveat that TB DD apparently do not provide enough torque for wheels larger than 110 mm (or at maximum may be the Trampa Gummies), especially for going uphill and heavier riders (> 90 kg). At least that is what has been mentioned by several (trustworthy ;-)) people, although I have not had the chance yet to actually see for myself.
Where do you plan to drill holes for these? The widest part of the enclosure at the end are the diagonal side bits, and when I measured how much a cable gland would take up, I found it wouldn’t fit if I wanted to route all my motor wires with their bullet connectors on. (I think it was 11mm diameter minimum for all to fit)
For my build I’ve decided to drill small holes for bullet connectors, expoxy them in, and use Haggyboards sensor wire connector for the sensors.
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Good question. Here’s some shots of the enclosure with the (2) cable gland nuts and the nut for the M16 charge port. The area at the rear has a flat section which is just big enough to fit these three ports.
Foam is to simulate how deep these connectors will be into the inside of the enclosure when mounted:
Clearance for the internal vertical space:
Internal diameter of the proposed gland to use:
That said, I really like the haggy sensor connectors! 
If I end up cramped for space in these glands, this may be a good option to pull out the sensor wires…
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Will be interesting to see if having a large enough surface on the inside, but not on the outside, will still be viable. Good luck!
Following with interest! Charge connector choice and cable routing into the enclosure are my next decisions. Still waiting for the enclosure though.
Not sure what’s going on with mine not having the charge wires?
It just arrived a few days ago. Also if you didn’t order the pack converter then you might be waiting again for a long time.
After researching it actually works out because you will just use the “Loading"or"controller” wires to run to the charge port.
Update 2020-03-24
Most of the hardware has now arrived. Time to focus on integration and layout.
Arrived
BMS
The Neptune 15 arrived and as @ningning notes above, it does not come with separate charge leads. I’m wondering if these were present on an earlier version of the BMS and have since been removed to simplify manufacturing. Also, the dimensions are not perfectly accurate. The BMS comes covered in a protective plastic which adds approximately 1mm to the width. Additionally, there are screw heads on the top of the metal enclosure which (along with the plastic cover) results in a height of 14mm (as opposed to the 10mm in the specs).
BF1 Fuses
For fusing the battery leads (see below). Spec sheet here
Motors
eLofty motors and trucks arrived- heavier than I expected. These came with the new adapters (fewer pins) and (1) set screw per can.
Battery
30Q 18650 cells arrived. As noted above, I will be adding fish paper rings to each before fitting into the N.E.S.E. cases.
New
Fuse the Battery Leads
I realized that in making the battery a removable component that I had failed to protect the pack when it was disconnected with the other hardware in the enclosure. After much research I landed on the BF1 fuses linked to above. The current plan is to integrate this fuse directly into the positive battery lead and then heat shrink for protection. This should give me a pack protected from shorts even when broken down to just the N.E.S.E. modules and the main leads.
For my 12s4p battery I need coverage to at least 50.4v, and these fuses work up to 58v. Additionally, they are available in multiple current ratings which should fit all variety of packs. In looking at the spec sheet I decided to go with 60A fuses since they last for 360,000s (or 100 hours) at 100% duty. Even if I were to hit that peak current every once in a while (I’m not going to run my 30Q cells to more than 15A each) it should give me a very long life. At 200% duty it takes 3s for this to pop, and at 300% duty it pops in 0.3s. So (if I have this spec’d right) this fuse should pop before the Antispark dies down stream and well before the cells hit thermal runaway.
An interesting thought occurred to me here: if you were REALLY paranoid you could use these fuses as replacements to the bus bars in an N.E.S.E. build where each P-group would be fused individually. Since the bus bars are 22mm for 18650 and 26mm for 21700 you would only need a little extra spacing between each P group to tie these fuses in directly.
Charge Connector Wiring
In looking at the limited space I have left in the enclosure and the lower current requirement for the charing leads, I decided to use an XT30 connector between the M16 charge connector and the charge / load leads on the BMS. These leads will use smaller 18AWG wire which should save space, be easier to solder to the M16 connector, and have a tighter bend radius.
Mounting Drop Through
I’m going to try to mount the motors drop through initially. It doesn’t appear that I will have any wheel scrub but the jury is still out on motor scrub.
Changed
BMS Battery Leads
Initially I was going to connect the battery leads on the BMS directly to the M5 bolts at the edge of the pack. After realizing that each time I needed to attach / detach the BMS from the battery would require unscrewing the main battery leads, I changed my mind. Instead, I have simply soldered the BMS battery leads to the leads of the “in” side of the AntiSpark. This optimizes a few things:
- It allows for disconnection of all electronics from the battery by unplugging (1) XT60 connector
- It allows for charging of the pack regardless of the state of the AntiSpark. This allows me to continue to monitor P-groups without the VESCs being energized
- It reduces the total amount of hardware inside the enclosure
Also note that this locks me into a charge only configuration for this BMS. I’ve really tried weighing the pros and cons of this approach, and I think I have an interesting solution (see the Research section below)
Balance Wire Routing
After looking at my original plan for routing the balance wires I realized that having all the wires encapsulated between foam pads would be a safer and more robust approach. In the process I realized that I actually needed 13 wires (and not 12) for the initial wire guides. Add to that the new fuse on the battery leads and the BMS parallel connection and the newly revised routing plan looks like:
Complete
Balance Leads
Really happy with how this turned out. My process:
- Cut and attach the foam to the bottom of the N.E.S.E. cases
- Put a ring terminal on each wire and run it through to the endpoint
- Measure the approximate spacing of where the BMS will land inside the enclosure, using that measurement to give a length to the balance leads
- Mark the balance leads with a Sharpie to provide an accurate length for each lead
- Cut the leads to length
- Cut the BMS ribbon connector to length
- Detech one ring terminal at a time to provide extra length in the lead so that the heat shrink would be far away from the soldering.
- Strip, solder, and heat shrink the leads (combining the ribbon wires where necessary to make it work with a 12p pack)
- Pull the completed balance lead harness back toward the N.E.S.E. modules and re-attached the ring terminals to the correct bolts.
Custom XT60 Splitter
I started by clipping the ends off of (3) already completed XT60 pig tails. Then I joined them together with a bunch of solder, sanded off the sharp edges, and isolated using electrical tape. After the 1/2" heat shrink arrives I will likely wrap the whole connector. This allows for the best routing of wires inside the enclosure
Extend VESC XT60
I needed to extend the XT60 connector on one of the VESCs in order to plug it into the splitter correctly.
What’s Next
- Adding the fuse to the positive battery lead
- Protecting the N.E.S.E. bolts
- Binning the 30Q cells for matching voltage per P-group
- Fish paper the 30Q cells
- Dropping the 30Q cells into the N.E.S.E. cases and screwing down the lids
- Plugging in the BMS to the balance leads for test bring up and programming of the BMS
- Soldering the charing leads to the M16 connector
- Test charging the pack
- Testing drop through mounting of the trucks and motors to the deck
- Finalizing foam placement in the enclosure
- Wire routing for the motor leads and sensor wires
Research
BMS Emergency Notification
The BMS is set to cut off “downstream” power if it enters a fault state. Since I will be using the BMS in a charge only capacity, this doesn’t directly affect board behavior
however
I thought if I could use the charge leads to light an LED, I would know that the LED would be lit only when everything was in optimal health. When the light goes out then I would know the BMS had detected an error, and I could safely slow to a stop and investigate. There are some very interesting debates on these forums over how much a BMS should intervene in the case of a problem. It seems that (at least at this point) a good way to know that the BMS sees a problem without throwing the rider might be a dummy light. Research will be focused on how to implement this or (even better) how to invert it so that the light only comes on when a failure is detected.
9 Likes
Interesting approach. Doesnt the Neptune have a port for a buzzer? Auditory warnings might be more effective at quickly letting the user know of an issue in a timely manner.
Really loving the writeup, and the explanation of methodology. Great stuff 
1 Like
Clean work 
Don’t forget to use red loctite on the kegel adapter pins 
2 Likes
you have taken all the guess work out of my build using the Neptune, thank you sir
3 Likes
Please tell us how the Maker-X SV6 ride, I love the way they look and want to make a gokart-type thing with 2 of them.
1 Like
Where did you buy your motors from? And when?
I really love this build thread, it leaves nothing to the imagination 
I ordered from esk8supply on 3/9. You can check my entire Bill of Materials here.
Thanks very much- I enjoy doing documentation as part of my professional life, so to have a chance to apply that skill to a personal project is very rewarding. I’m hoping some of my learnings and mistakes can help other riders in some way. 
4 Likes
Update 2020-04-10
Part way through integration with battery pack and BMS completed. Drop through mounting also finished.
Arrived
Janux Quattro 4.25" TB DD Hubs
Yep, I know that I’m using eLofty drives, but word on the street was that the 5 pin eLofty adapters would fit the TB DD hub pattern. In addition I’m leaning heavily toward the 6" Evolve tires and wanted to validate that Evolve tires fit on these hubs. After getting the parts in I’m happy to report success on both fronts.
M5 Hardware
Rather than going with standard #10 hardware for mounting the trucks, I decided to use M5 hardware instead. This should also allow me to replace the stainless bolts on the eBoosted enclosure with black bolts (which fits the board aesthetic better). Having common hardware between the trucks and the enclosure mounts simplifies the parts list slightly.
1/2" Heat shrink
This allows me to complete the positive lead on the battery pack by giving rigidity to the in-line fuse.
Kapton Tape
It ends up that the enclosure is just a bit too narrow in the middle to fit all the N.E.S.E. caps. As such, I’ll use Kapton tape to cover the remaining bolts of the enclosures to minimize the chance of short.
XT30 Pigtails
I wanted to connectorize the charge port and since the charge current is ~4A, XT30 will be sufficient for this.
New
New Button
The Neptune 15 is a very full featured BMS. As such, it has its own power button which is required for proper function (more on this below). The button which is included is small and flimsy, so I’ll need to order a new button (latching not momentary) that is capable of panel mount and install it next to the AntiSpark button at the front of the enclosure. This button will also need to include an in-line connector to maintain N.E.S.E. maintenance access.
Changed
Button Move
Looking at how packed the rear of the enclosure is getting, I decided to relocate the AntiSpark power button to the front of the enclosure. This will require extending the leads between the button and the PCB, for which I’m considering using a simple 3 Pin ATX fan extender cable. Also note that these leads will run across the top of the battery pack, which means they must include a connector between button and PCB in order to maintain the ability to easily service the N.E.S.E. modules.
Complete
BMS Battery Leads
Completed the rebuild of the positive pack lead using the in-line fuse. The picture below is the naked lead. The heat shrink covered lead can be seen farther down.
N.E.S.E. Bolt Coverage
The eBoosed enclosure is just a little too narrow at the middle to fit the N.E.S.E. pack with the bolt covers on. As such, I’ve used some Kapton tape to cover the bolts on the pack edges in order to minimize the chance of short.
30Q Binning, Fish Paper, and Installation
I binned all the 30Q cells, but there wasn’t a single one out of the 50 that was move than 10mV out of alignment. I added fish paper rings the positive end of each 30Q and dropped them all into place in the pack.
Here’s a shot of the pack with the lid securely fastened into place.
Charge Port Soldering
I had a heck of a time getting the solder cups to behave when soldering the charing port. Finally got XT30 pigtail on and heat shrink covered the leads at the charge port:
Next was adding the XT30 pigtail to the load/charge leads of the BMS:
Finally I attached the whole charge group together:
BMS Setup and Test
Next was testing the BMS. Interestingly, the power on test only requires connection of the balance leads but also requires the connection of the power button to the BMS (latching not momentary). I had not taken this into account to this point so I ordered a panel mount button to fulfill this function. After attaching the included power button I was able to test the BMS using the Android App:
Once in the app, I customized the BMS settings. Anything not on this list I did not change from default:
| Section | Setting | Value | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Guard Bar Lowest | 38.4V | 3.2V / cell |
| Dashboard | Guard Bar Lowest Alert | 40V | 3.3V / cells |
| Dashboard | Guard Bar Highest Alert | 49.8V | 4.15V / cell |
| Dashboard | Guard Bar Highest | 50.4V | 4.2V / cell |
| Dashboard | Dashboard | Voltage | Displays Pack Voltage |
| Dashboard | Cell Bar Lowest Alert Zone | 3.2V | |
| Dashboard | Cell Bar Highest Alert Zone | 4.15V | |
| Device | Cell Number | 12 | 12s |
| Device | Battery Type | Li-ion | |
| Device | Cell Voltage High | 4.10 | Increase Cell Longevity |
| Device | Cell Voltage Low | 3.20 | Increase Cell Longevity |
| Device | Cell 0V Margin | 25mV | Threshold to prevent never-ending charing if calls cannot balance closer than this |
| Protection | Charge Current Limit | 6A | Adapter can only supply ~4A |
| Protection | Temperature Limit | 65C | Termistor will only be near cells, so temp threshold should be notably lower than 80C |
| Protection | FET Temperature Limit | 70C | Unlikely we’ll hit this in the current charge only configuration |
| Charge / Balance | Cell Balance Delta (mV) | 50 | How far apart P-groups get before balance charging kicks in |
| Charge / Balance | Stop Charging CV Current | 0.10 | Threshold to prevent never-ending charging if calls cannot balance closer than this |
Battery Pack Charging
After customizing all my BMS settings, I verified pack charging using the Android App
Drop Through Mount Test
Using the M5 hardware, I mounted the trucks to the board drop through. Will need to test for motor and wheel bite later.
Anyone used backing frames for drop through mounting before? Considering that the majority of the impact will be absorbed by the pneumatics, I’m leaning toward not using them.
What’s Next
- Finalizing foam placement in the enclosure
- Wire routing for the motor leads and sensor wires
- Testing wheel bite and purchasing tires
- Testing motor bite and (possibly) purchasing harder bushings
- VESC programming
- Remote Programming
- Bench testing of fully integrated system
Research
Nothing in addition to previous posts.
4 Likes
I use Moonbeams on my drop-through setups, but over-tightening my hardware has caused them to crack a bit, so those Riptide frames are probably the best option if you care about protecting your deck in those spots.
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