Show Us Your Homemade Battery Housing

[Hardcarve1]

I posted this before but it should be added to this thread
I have 16S9P A123 which gives me 53V 20.7 Ah mounted on a stainless rack I made and all waterproof.

 

[oatnet]

I don't know if this counts as "home-made", as much as re-purposed, but there you have it. A Pelican 1300nf case, with 4 aluminum clamps that bolt it directly to the triple-crown fork's stanchions. It holds a 1,000+wh of a123 (20s1p 16ah cells). I put a power switch on each lead, and threw a resistor around one, so I can throw the non-resistered switch and pre-charge the caps in the controller without a surge.

Carrying the weight on the forks makes a much more responsive bike, I am attacking corners like never before. With the pack mounted in the center or rear, the frame functions as a lever between the handlebars and the battery/motor. With it mounted up front, the weight rests between your hands, so response is instantaneous and you feel the balance better. It also loads the front wheel, which is dangerously unloaded in a rear motor/rear batt configuration.

-JD

Link to the clamps:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200344689577&viewitem=

 

[ambroseliao]

JD,

Can you show us what's inside that Pelican case? I'd love to see the layout.

Thanks,
Ambrose

 

[Skippic]

Hey JD,

do you think it's preferable to have it directly on the fork or would it be just as good fixed in the same position on the frame with a normal fork?

Thanks,
Emil

 

[oatnet]

Can you show us what's inside that Pelican case? I'd love to see the layout.

Sure! I forgot I had pics of it... But rather than flood this thread with my tangent, I posted it on the Enduro build thread:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24329&p=444078#p444078

do you think it's preferable to have it directly on the fork or would it be just as good fixed in the same position on the frame with a normal fork?

On a suspension frame, that area has the best dampening of the bike. If you can mount it to the frame - weld on hardpoints or something - that might work. I couldn't devise a good permanent mount with the tools and skills I have, YMMV. In my experiments with temporary mounts, I built packs that also extended behind the headtube, but I found that I could only go so far before I'd bang my knees. Maybe is my long legs, I've seen others be just fine with it.

However, you are now transitioning the load of the batteries from being directly connect to the stanchions/fork, to the headtube. Dunno if that is cause for concern.

-JD

 

[gm6046]

Here are my homemade battery housings. They are made of fibreglass and each side bolts on seperately.

 

[fractal]

Here are my homemade battery housings. They are made of fibreglass and each side bolts on seperately.

Very nice!!! Can you show us the inside?

 

[veloman]

These are some really well done cases.

Here's my current $6 plastic file holder, secured with a metal angle. Cheap, and it's been working great. The main downside is I can't remove the battery easily and it's not water resistent. Holds my 36v 11ah lifepoe4 in a very well handling position.

 

[gm6046]

Very nice!!! Can you show us the inside?

Here is the battery and controller inside. The battery tray is folded up from aluminium sheet and lined with spongy rubber to cushion it, it's bolted down to the drink bottle mounting points as well as a few cable ties. The controller mounts onto another alloy bracket that I made.

When making the fibreglass panels I included an alloy locating spigot at each bolt hole, so bolting them up is pretty straight forward and you don't need to muck around getting everything lined up.

 

[AlanArm2]

Here is a left pannier set up for a Ping 48 volt 20 Ah battery using two-part urethane foam to hold the battery stable in the pannier.

The Ping battery is a two part battery which I have put in a vertical configuration with a 'U' shaped plexiglass spine to hold the two pieces tightly together. Packing tape holds the plexiglass tightly to the battery pieces. The plexiglass is to keep the upper battery part from putting too much pressure on the lower cells when hitting bumps in the road.

Once the battery was in the pannier I poured in the two-part marine foam (4 lb density) to hold the battery assembly stable in the pannier.





Here is a video of the bike with pannier mounted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sScW02fZs0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

The foam level needs to stay below the BMS to allow heat to escape during charging.

 

[kmxtornado]

Props to everyone's fiberglass enclosures. And I also really like the repurposed front mount bag/box thing too. Those look excellent.

 

[mxer]

Just found this, So here you go, Drainpipe pringle topper :lol: :lol: ................Not finished yet still got to colour code .

22.2v 10ah, or 44.4 5 ah, going to make two 44.4v 5ah packs quick change

 

[Farfle]

Heres the one in the race bike, the last pic is the cover on the bike before the battery housing went in.:

 

[www.recumbents.com]

Here's the battery box for my latest build. It is made from hand bent Lexan (polycarbonate) and a bunch of pop rivets. It's about 3.5" x 23" x 9", and feels pretty solid. The controller is mounted to the top of the inside of the box. I still need to figure out where the wires will exit the box. The split pack Ping 48V 20Ah battery weighs about 20lbs, so the brackets on the bike will need to be fairly heavy duty.

-Warren.

 

[LHelge]

This is my battery bag, custom made for keeping 4 Turnigy 6S 5A batteries in my frame.






For some more info, look here

 

[Xanda2260]

Here's my repurposed fuel can!

 

[veloman]

This holds a 52v 9.2ah a123 cellman battery. The side strap opens on a hinge for easy and secure battery removal. I need to add a metal loop that I can hook my ulock through for real security.

Cost about $13 and weighs <2lbs. No welding, just counter sunk the screw heads where necessary.

 

[whereswally606]

here is a 18s 2p battery with balance taps top and bottom. It gets charged as two subpacks on a 1420i hyperion and 2 hp server supplies. I also have a 73v bulk charger but no battery balancers only bvm8 to check the voltages. Subpacks are 9s2p so only really expensive balance chargers will do.

The casing is just a manrose rectangular pvc section from B&Q and the fittings were from the same aisle. as you can see the plastic clips hold the weight but when riding its secured with a luggage tie strap. going to make some velcro straps to make this easier. box was cheap, fits 3s zippy flight max 40c 4ah pack 4 in a section, and 3 along the length you see here.

going to make another to go on the front of the forks as i've 4 more packs to take me to 24s2p.

anyway this took me 10 miles yesterday from 4.2v down to 3.75v average. even raced a horse called Jango (girlfriend's shared horse). the norco won. horse loved it, and liked riding alongside it.




this is how i managed to eek out 10 miles. 10k pot to limit the throttles top speed.



this is the bike as it stand after going down some muddy track. It feels definitely offroad capable.

 

[veloman]

Nice design, wally. You can't get a better position that than for battery weight. It's cool to see a successful DH frame holding batteries without any triangle space.

 

[Gordo]

I just chopped the rear racks up and mounted them in the "V".
Huge change in balance for a little work.

 

[smudger1956]

Mine from the 110mm x 55mm PVC ducting, to house 8 x 5s1p 5000mah lipo, 2 steel bars bonded in 'top' with 4 mounting points to make it take off and onable.

View attachment 2

 

[oatnet]

Mine from the 110mm x 55mm PVC ducting, to house 8 x 5s1p 5000mah lipo, 2 steel bars bonded in 'top' with 4 mounting points to make it take off and onable.

Hey that is pretty slick, and it looks like it also serves as your controller mount. I have not seen duct like that before, what was it sourced from?

Anyhow, elegant solution, good use of space. I like how the color is similar to your bike, but I wonder if you painted it flat back, it would 'disappear' to the casual viewer, like the controller does now. Do that, dress the cables a bit, and this would be a totally stealth ride!

-JD

 

[smudger1956]

Mine from the 110mm x 55mm PVC ducting, to house 8 x 5s1p 5000mah lipo, 2 steel bars bonded in 'top' with 4 mounting points to make it take off and onable.

Hey that is pretty slick, and it looks like it also serves as your controller mount. I have not seen duct like that before, what was it sourced from?

Anyhow, elegant solution, good use of space. I like how the color is similar to your bike, but I wonder if you painted it flat back, it would 'disappear' to the casual viewer, like the controller does now. Do that, dress the cables a bit, and this would be a totally stealth ride!

-JD

Hi oatnet.

The ducting is just classed as 'ventilation ducting', you can get it 'over here' at any decent builders merchant/DIY store/Hardware store, I thinks its pretty universal, I think Hyena used some on one of his builds.
Did not think about using Black for the lipo box, what a good idea that is, that bike will soon be 'de-commissioned'..I have a Kona Coiler to build, everything will go in the frame on that one, and it will all be finished in Satin Black.
Cheers.
Tony.

 

[dnmun]

never seen it. it looks like the kinda square poly tubing used to make plastic fences. not sure what the dimensions are for that stuff.

 

[Gordo]

I think you mean rectangular poly fence rails? Miles of the stuff around your neck of the woods.