Bus Bar Question for Electric Go Kart Battery Pack

garolittle

10 kW
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Messages
509
Location
Augusta, GA U.S.A
All,

I have a question about bus bars. I am new to the forum and I have enjoyed reading many of the threads.

BACKGROUND: I previously modified a kid-sized Razor Ground Force Drifter go kart using the following:

48V/1,000 watt Motor and Charge controller
14S9P battery bank (52V nominal) using brand new INR18650-25R 2500 mAh 18650 battery cells (each cell is rated at 20 amp maximum continuous discharge)
Batteries were spot welded using .15mm x .70mm pure nickel strips (rated at 7 amps max)

Here are a few pictures of the project:
IMG_8400.jpgIMG_8274.jpg

It all worked well and my son loved the extra power and speed. Over the next year, I would like to build a faster go kart which can be driven by adults. This project would utilize a “Sprint Kart” frame with a center mounted seat and would only be used on asphalt surfaces such as parking lots. I would only use it for recreation (i.e. not competitive racing).

I am considering the following:

72v Motor.... something like this .... http://www.electricmotorsport.com/pmac-ss-me0201014201-pmac-motor-24-72v-6-hp-cont-19-hp-pk.html
72v Charge Controller:
72v battery pack using same cells referenced above

QUESTION:
Up until now, I have only used pure nickel strips for my series and parallel connections. I could "stack" the nickel strips to obtain a higher "amp" capacity but I believe using bus bars for the 72V battery pack would be advisable. I still have much research to conduct but I would appreciate any feedback from the forum. Thanks.
 
You mention nickel strips, so you have a tab welder.
The easiest would be 10awg wire (for series) soldered onto strips, parallel would be 12awg wire, and another option is copper rod or braid - https://www.amazon.com/Small-Parts-Tinned-Copper-Braid/dp/B003R501JU

Can use this as a rough guide. As series connection take more amps then the parallel.
https://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
 
marks, Thanks for the response. I do have a spot welder so I appreciate your idea. One follow up question: Would the nickel strips increase the resistance since it is not as conducive as copper? Another idea I was considering was to spot weld small fuse wire onto a copper bus bar like this.....

https://youtu.be/H_b3OJuQpEE

Any thoughts? Thanks again!
 
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