zukster
1 kW
Here were all those promised pictures and I put them at the top here.
Pictures of my Waterproof Slide on Behind the Seat Yardworks Battery Back
Okay - here's why I went to extra lengths to waterproof the batteries with shrink tube.
They're the same size as before, but now waterproof, so they fit compactly onto the bike. The
ends of the battery are sealed with some glue gun glue. You just have to but some lines of
glue all around the ends, then when you shrink the tube with a heat gun, it melts the glue
right where the tube wraps around the ends, making watertight seals.
In these pictures, I have two attached 2x20V=40V to a slide on seat post rack. With the Keywin 36V
Infineon controller, that's all you need. Although 3x20V=60V goes a lot faster, it weighs more too.
You can see the controller taped onto the back of the tri-frame, just under the rack.
Ignore the other batteries taped to the inside of the tri-frame. I was just testing this as an even
lighter possibility, since you would not need the rack, which is about 1kg.
I prefer just using the 2 battery rack, because its lean and clean, and allows you to slip the
rack off the bike to charge them in the house.
You can see that I used a clear piece of plastic over the battery charge level button. I just used
a sturdy piece of clear plastic that was used to package some store product I bought. This way
you can still hit the button when you're out to check how low the batteries are. It works pretty
good. The controller (or battery BMS) shuts everything down shortly after all the lights go out.
The next pic shows the improved Anderson connectors. (I originally used household power cables)
The red and black are wired to the + and - pins on the battery and are for running the bike through
the controller. The red and green are wired to the + and C pins and are used for charging the with
the Yardworks battery charger as was intended.
In addition to the coloring, I flipped/polarized the way that the red and green Andersons go
together so its impossible to accidentally plug a charger into the run connection or to accidentally
plug the charging circuit into the controller.
My original thread starts here but note that the use of household electrical cords has been
corrected by the use of polarized and color coded Anderson connectors above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Batteries are waterproofed by wrapping with several layers of black tape. If you want
to see some batteries done with 5 inch shrink tube, jump ahead to
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9451&start=15#p155615
The shrink tube works much better.
Edit: These plug connectors are being changed to smaller ones that cannot be plugged
into a wall outlet accidentally. Don't do it this way if you're going to try this!
The only reason I used these was because you needed three separate wires to each pin
of the Yardworks battery. The + and - are used when running the battery. And the + and
C are used for charging the battery. So a three prong plug is convenient. You'll see what
I mean below.
I'll update these pictures with new ones with the new connectors as soon as I can.
Slides onto a rear rack tube for full suspension bikes. That's why the batteries
are pushed forward as far as possible. So the pack doesn't cantilever the bike
into doing a wheelie.
I cut out a piece of clear plastic from from some package and placed it over the battery
level readout. So its waterproof and you can still check the level!
The risk here is for someone to accidentally plug the charger into the wall because I used
these cheap plugs because I'm broke. I will be changing the plugs to waterproof connectors
with 3 prongs as soon as I can.
When the charger is plugged into the pack, only the + and C pins are used, and these
are wired accordingly under all that tape. I used the "standard plug ground" for C, and
the "standard plug live(narrow slot)", for + positive.
This cable joins the batteries into series for 20+20+20=60v before going into the controller on the bike.
The batteries are put into series by joining the wires inside the above cable. The lower picture
below shows how to put the batteries into series to add their voltages.
I have carefully always used the standard plug live(narrow slot)", for + positive, and the
standard plug neutral(wide slot)", for - negative. This seemed to be a close as you can get
to an inaccurate AC to DC standards mimic.
This is the start of my original post...
I just bought a Bafang hub motor, an Infineon 36V 20amp controller, 2 Canadian Tire Yardworks batteries
in series = 40V. Works great - until I went out in the rain yesterday.
I thought the batteries would be okay getting wet since they are made for yard work - but I was wrong.
They stop working if they get wet. At least they didn't blow up. And they were okay again when I shook
out the water.
I want to leave them in their case since they are ruggedized and also have a battery level button that tells
you the charge level with 4 lights.
Any suggestions on how to waterproof these? I know I can go with a waterproof bag. But I was thinking of
wrapping them with plastic food wrap with the wires sticking out - then dipping them in some kind of
potting paint. The idea is that you can undo it later and take them back if they burn out because they
have a 1 year warranty. I was thinking about that special paint that you dip tools in to give them
rubbery handles...
Pictures of my Waterproof Slide on Behind the Seat Yardworks Battery Back
Okay - here's why I went to extra lengths to waterproof the batteries with shrink tube.
They're the same size as before, but now waterproof, so they fit compactly onto the bike. The
ends of the battery are sealed with some glue gun glue. You just have to but some lines of
glue all around the ends, then when you shrink the tube with a heat gun, it melts the glue
right where the tube wraps around the ends, making watertight seals.
In these pictures, I have two attached 2x20V=40V to a slide on seat post rack. With the Keywin 36V
Infineon controller, that's all you need. Although 3x20V=60V goes a lot faster, it weighs more too.
You can see the controller taped onto the back of the tri-frame, just under the rack.
Ignore the other batteries taped to the inside of the tri-frame. I was just testing this as an even
lighter possibility, since you would not need the rack, which is about 1kg.
I prefer just using the 2 battery rack, because its lean and clean, and allows you to slip the
rack off the bike to charge them in the house.
You can see that I used a clear piece of plastic over the battery charge level button. I just used
a sturdy piece of clear plastic that was used to package some store product I bought. This way
you can still hit the button when you're out to check how low the batteries are. It works pretty
good. The controller (or battery BMS) shuts everything down shortly after all the lights go out.
The next pic shows the improved Anderson connectors. (I originally used household power cables)
The red and black are wired to the + and - pins on the battery and are for running the bike through
the controller. The red and green are wired to the + and C pins and are used for charging the with
the Yardworks battery charger as was intended.
In addition to the coloring, I flipped/polarized the way that the red and green Andersons go
together so its impossible to accidentally plug a charger into the run connection or to accidentally
plug the charging circuit into the controller.
My original thread starts here but note that the use of household electrical cords has been
corrected by the use of polarized and color coded Anderson connectors above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Batteries are waterproofed by wrapping with several layers of black tape. If you want
to see some batteries done with 5 inch shrink tube, jump ahead to
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9451&start=15#p155615
The shrink tube works much better.
Edit: These plug connectors are being changed to smaller ones that cannot be plugged
into a wall outlet accidentally. Don't do it this way if you're going to try this!
The only reason I used these was because you needed three separate wires to each pin
of the Yardworks battery. The + and - are used when running the battery. And the + and
C are used for charging the battery. So a three prong plug is convenient. You'll see what
I mean below.
I'll update these pictures with new ones with the new connectors as soon as I can.
Slides onto a rear rack tube for full suspension bikes. That's why the batteries
are pushed forward as far as possible. So the pack doesn't cantilever the bike
into doing a wheelie.
I cut out a piece of clear plastic from from some package and placed it over the battery
level readout. So its waterproof and you can still check the level!
The risk here is for someone to accidentally plug the charger into the wall because I used
these cheap plugs because I'm broke. I will be changing the plugs to waterproof connectors
with 3 prongs as soon as I can.
When the charger is plugged into the pack, only the + and C pins are used, and these
are wired accordingly under all that tape. I used the "standard plug ground" for C, and
the "standard plug live(narrow slot)", for + positive.
This cable joins the batteries into series for 20+20+20=60v before going into the controller on the bike.
The batteries are put into series by joining the wires inside the above cable. The lower picture
below shows how to put the batteries into series to add their voltages.
I have carefully always used the standard plug live(narrow slot)", for + positive, and the
standard plug neutral(wide slot)", for - negative. This seemed to be a close as you can get
to an inaccurate AC to DC standards mimic.
This is the start of my original post...
I just bought a Bafang hub motor, an Infineon 36V 20amp controller, 2 Canadian Tire Yardworks batteries
in series = 40V. Works great - until I went out in the rain yesterday.
I thought the batteries would be okay getting wet since they are made for yard work - but I was wrong.
They stop working if they get wet. At least they didn't blow up. And they were okay again when I shook
out the water.
I want to leave them in their case since they are ruggedized and also have a battery level button that tells
you the charge level with 4 lights.
Any suggestions on how to waterproof these? I know I can go with a waterproof bag. But I was thinking of
wrapping them with plastic food wrap with the wires sticking out - then dipping them in some kind of
potting paint. The idea is that you can undo it later and take them back if they burn out because they
have a 1 year warranty. I was thinking about that special paint that you dip tools in to give them
rubbery handles...
