4.4kW Crosskart/gokart battery build

[Jacka98]

24S17P Samsung 30T battery pack. I hope this is helpful to someone. I used 0.15 mm nickel-plated steel strips with 0.15 mm copper strips underneath.

This is the best technique I’ve used so far, and it’s cheaper than ready-made nickel-copper strips. I made little youtube video from the build.

I’m planning to 3D-print an enclosure for it next.

 

[BlueSwordM]

Holy crap, I never thought to actually mechanically preweld the sheets/strips to make welding a lot easier.

Thanks a lot for this video, I really appreciate it.

 

[A-DamW]

24S17P Samsung 30T battery pack. I hope this is helpful to someone. I used 0.15 mm nickel-plated steel strips with 0.15 mm copper strips underneath.

Very nice! that is professional level quality.

Love how you use the nickle as a template for the copper.

Will this go in a rigid frame/case? you can see the cell frame flex a bit when you flip it over.

This is a dinky 14s14p 1.7kWh pack I am building;

 

[Jacka98]

Very nice! that is professional level quality.

Love how you use the nickle as a template for the copper.

Will this go in a rigid frame/case? you can see the cell frame flex a bit when you flip it over.

This is a dinky 14s14p 1.7kWh pack I am building;

View attachment 384182

Yes, the battery enclosure will make the battery pack much stiffer. 21700 honeycomb cell holders are quite flexible and with large battery the pack is not very rigid on its own. Your battery pack is looking good

 

[Zambam]

I used 0.15 mm nickel-plated steel strips with 0.15 mm copper strips underneath.

This is the best technique I’ve used so far, and it’s cheaper than ready-made nickel-copper strips.

Nice work!

Did you make or buy the 0.15 mm nickel-plated strips?

Have you tested 0.10 mm 304 stainless strips (in lieu of the 0.15 nickel-plated strips) before choosing the nickel-plated?

My 22S2P 30 Ah LFP battery (built by following your soldering procedure) is still performing fine btw.

 

[Jacka98]

Nice work!

Did you make or buy the 0.15 mm nickel-plated strips?

Have you tested 0.10 mm 304 stainless strips (in lieu of the 0.15 nickel-plated strips) before choosing the nickel-plated?

My 22S2P 30 Ah LFP battery (built by following your soldering procedure) is still performing fine btw.

I bought the nickel strip. It cost 58€ 1kg from aliexpress. Only 0.25kg was used for the battery. I didn't even think about stainless strip. I think it would be more expensive? But at least it wouldn't rust.

Good to hear that your battery still works I have also no problem with my soldered batteries. Now that I have the glitter spot welder I don't solder anymore. Its much easier to spotweld.

 

[Zambam]

Now that I have the glitter spot welder I don't solder anymore. Its much easier to spotweld.

Definitely much easier to spot weld! No stinky smoke from the solder too. I bought an AwithZ UF20B spot welder ($139) that works compared to the $13 aliexpress welder which blew up before I got much use out of it. The UF20B consistently make good welds with 0.10mm 304 stainless/ 0.20mm copper sandwich on 18650 cells, w/o flux. It won't weld the 32135 cells that I soldered, but I didn't buy it for that.

Have you done tests on how many amps the 0.15mm copper will carry? Your Glitter should easily weld 0.40mm copper.

 

[Jacka98]

Definitely much easier to spot weld! No stinky smoke from the solder too. I bought an AwithZ UF20B spot welder ($139) that works compared to the $13 aliexpress welder which blew up before I got much use out of it. The UF20B consistently make good welds with 0.10mm 304 stainless/ 0.20mm copper sandwich on 18650 cells, w/o flux. It won't weld the 32135 cells that I soldered, but I didn't buy it for that.

Have you done tests on how many amps the 0.15mm copper will carry? Your Glitter should easily weld 0.40mm copper.

Thickest copper that I have tested is 0.3mm. It probably could also weld 0.4mm. I think 0.15mm is good enough for this battery pack. The copper strip is fairly long so it should be able to carry good amount of current

AWithZ UF20B looks like compact machine. And quite capable if it can weld 0.2mm copper.

 

[Zambam]

AWithZ UF20B looks like compact machine. And quite capable if it can weld 0.2mm copper.

Nice and compact 3 x 3.5 x 7", 3 lbs 3 oz. Very happy with it.