Building your own battery packs?

[CobraJet]

I started using Nicd cells to power my RC airplanes back in 1993. It really worked out well and much less expensive when I started making my own battery packs. I've done Nicd and Nihm cell end-end soldering. Just wanted to give a bit of my history.

Is anyone making thier own battery packs for E-bikes? Maybe using the 18650 cells?

BTW, I see there a lot of different 18650 brands. Which ones would be good for our use here?

 

[amberwolf]

There's dozens of threads (many in this section) that show people's builds, and the processes of figuring out what to build for various uses/needs. I recommend looking for threads that have 18650 in the title, but some use the word "build" or "DIY" as well. Some don't have any of those in the title, but still have the info you want. Some of the spot welder threads have necessary info in them too.

There are also many threads about specific cells, usually with the brand name (or model) in the title.

It's a lot of reading either way, but all the answers (and way more) are in there.

There are also many build threads about other formats of cells than 18650, depending on what you're after. But those are harder to search for and require more looking thru the pages of thread titles.

 

[litespeed]

End to end welding with a hammer head soldering tip is not the way with modern lithium batteries. You would need to spot weld as you don't want to heat the end caps of the cells up by soldering in any way.

Where are you? Put a location in so maybe a local can help.

As far as which cells to use you need to add details. What kit are you running or plan to run? How much current draw at what voltage? 24, 36, 48, 72, 84, ???

Tom

 

[kingjamez]

If you've been into electric RC airplanes since 1993, then did you live through the LiPoly revolution and are now running LiPoly in all your planes? I too started with Nicad's on my airplanes and like everybody, I run LiPoly now. If you know polymer cells, then you might consider going that direction instead of 18650's. I use Hobbyking Multistars in my bike and love them. Yep, you need to charge in a more stringent manner, but if you are already used to doing it that way, it's no big deal.

$ for $ it's really hard to beat the 6S 16AH Multistar batteries.

-Jim