V2.0: Building the Lithium battery pack

So the pack building has begun. It was delayed because earlier last month a few people needed some cells ASAP, so I sent them some of my cells since I didn’t need them at the moment. I ended up selling all but 6 cells of my original 200 cells. Well, last week, the order came in and Chris Bakken (who is involved with Synkromotive) was traveling up to pick up some cells for a project and offered to pick mine up as well. All 200 cells are on hand, as well as some pack hardware. The extra cells will be used for spares and an aux battery pack.

When I first planned on doing my own pack, I was going to CNC some holders and plates. Once I saw the building blocks from headway, and the 4-hole buss plates, I decided that I’d use their hardware to assemble my pack. I had Dave Kois throw some on my invoice and give them to Chris. I decided to go get them at the Synkromotive shop last night.

I was actually impressed of the quality of the building blocks and buss plates.

cell building blocks
buss bars
 

I found that the fit was a little tight on the positive end of the cell, so I cut about 1/2″ of the heat shrink off the end of the positive end. The fit was great. I need to heat it up to see if the shrink tubing pulls back at all. Here are some more pics of the 6-cell sub-pack being built:

headway cell covering removed
2 cells in the building block
2 cells with 2 building blocks
2 cells with 2 building blocks
6 cell sub pack with buss bar and building blocks
6 cell sub pack with buss bar and building blocks
 

I also got a 200W 48VDC power supply along with a 75W 48V to 3.7V DC-DC converter. This will serve as a charger for a single sub pack to ensure all my batteries are charged to the same voltage. I can also use it later to bring up any low sub packs if they go too far out of range.

Vicor Power supply and DC-DC converter
 
 

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2 Comments

  • By Bretspot, October 30, 2009 @ 1:27 pm

    Have you looked into having the battery built for you, or is that half the fun?
    :)

  • By Travis, October 30, 2009 @ 3:38 pm

    Thats half of the fun! I need to get the enclosure built, thats for sure, but the pack in side I can do in an afternoon. I just haven’t had a ton of time and I’m waiting on BMS. November should be a good month. Its rainy for the rest of the year here in Portland, so I’ve got until like March until its nice again.

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