Ooooooo, looking forward to this one. Cheers in advance mate :bow

 

Hell yeah! :thumbup

 

first , u need to get the lightweight battery cell , made by a123 systems and simply called A123 battery .
u will need 8 of those cells , 2300ma/H each.
i got mine on ebay , and find it the cheapest place to get em .
most of the sellers are from china /hong kong and they get those battery cells from dewalt DC9360 battery . i got mine 12 cells from ebay store named "heli-model" .
heres the url
http://cgi.ebay.com/12-X-A123-2300-...m3a50dc636a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1205|293:1|294:50

if the url wont work , the item number is 250464723818.
or just do a search , u might find em cheaper .

at the pic below , u can see the A123 cells (u'll need 8 of those) compared to standard AA batteries.

 

subscribed.

 

each of those cells is 3.3V , so if u connect 4 cells in series ,u get 13.2V , just what we need
to get a higher cureent capability , 4 of those cells , will be connected in paralell to another 4 cells , so the current rating will be doubled .(2300mA/H x 2 =4600mA/H)
max continous discharge current for a single cell is 70A (!) , so by connecting them in paralell ,we will get a max discharge current of 140A , which is more then enough.

the diagram shows the series conection of 4 cells .

 

max continous discharge current for a single cell is 70A (!) , so by connecting them in paralell ,we will get a max discharge current of 140A , which is more then enough.

Do you think 70A (if I just use 4 in series) is enough to start an R6?

 

if u get more then 8 cells , measure the voltage on the cells u got , and use the ones which are the closest to 3.3V nominal rating .
(dont be tempted to use cells with higher voltage , just use those closest to 3.3V)


ok , the first thing i did was to remove the fugly paper cover of the cells , it simply slides out , no need to cut anything.
i used heat shrinks to isolate the batteries , but u can use that stock paper as isolation also (its pretty good) , so u guys dont need to do this exactly like i did it...
so here i will only show the way i did it .
ok , after removing the isolation , this is how the batery looks like .
VERY IMPORTANT!
i marked where is (+) and where is the (-) of the battery , as u can see , its different then simple AA batteries .the body of the cell is (+) , so , i warned u:drunk: :lol

 

as i allready told , i used heat shrinks for isolation .
i got mine here:
http://www.battlepack.com/A123.asp

u used 72mm black shrink ,and 145mm black shrink . i ordered 4 feet of each and i got planty left :crash

first , cut 75mm of the 72mm shrink , and put 2 cells inside , as shown in the pic .

 

SSS r1.... I tried that link, but it doesn't work. Could you confirm the link is correct? Maybe give us the name of the place you bought this?

I've tried googling place that sell this stuff, and I can't find anyplace that sells by the foot (only 100+ ft rolls)...

 

those are lightweight shrinks made for rc crap , u dont need to use a blower to shrink em , just use regular hair dryer (this aint mine , seriously :dundun::crash)
u can use some thicker shrinks if u want too , for extra safety , or do 2 layers of this crap .
it takes some practice to do this right , dont heat too much on one side and move to the other , do it gradually .
ok guys i'll continue a bit later , goin to have some fun :makeout

 

No, come back!!!

Subscribed

 

very nice! :thumbup

 

ok , lets continue for a few minutes before i go to sleep
as u can see in the pics before , the 2 shrinked cell bodies are touching each other , thats done intentionally for paralell connection. i'll show how to make that contact more secure later.

next

using sand paper or electric grinder ,grind the ends of the battery on each side (btw , much easier to do before the shrinking) to make the solder stick to it better .

on the (+) battery side , also grind in between the cells , as marked in red circle.

 

now do the same for the other cells , u should end up with 4 identical pairs , as can be seen.

 

Clever taking the cardboard off cause you get an automatic parallel balancing connection between the 2 positives. What you should also do is join the 2 negative terminals (parallel, red lines) before you join the pairs of cells together in series.
What Ive noticed is Lithium cells balance or equalize themselves to the same voltage in parallel but not in series, then before you fit the battery to the bike, use a 3 volt charger to charge each pair of cells individually.
The biggest prob with Lithium batteries is if the individual cell voltage becomes to varied. You might have one pair of cells at nominal 3.3 and another pair could fall to 2.5.
read all of this.
http://www.1000rr.us/forums/showthread.php?t=1024

 

Clever taking the cardboard off cause you get an automatic parallel balancing connection between the 2 positives. What you should also do is join the 2 negative terminals (parallel, red lines) before you join the pairs of cells together in series.
What Ive noticed is Lithium cells balance or equalize themselves to the same voltage in parallel but not in series, then before you fit the battery to the bike, use a 3 volt charger to charge each pair of cells individually.
The biggest prob with Lithium batteries is if the individual cell voltage becomes to varied. You might have one pair of cells at nominal 3.3 and another pair could fall to 2.5.
read all of this.
http://www.1000rr.us/forums/showthread.php?t=1024

no worries rip , i will make an automatic balance circuit which would keep the cells balanced later

 

now comes the hardest part , soldering all those batteries together .
if u want to use a wire for the connection between the cells , use something thick enough , so it wont burn.
i used special battery bars which made for that purpose , they made by hyperion (search for hyperion A123 2300ma/h battery bars) and for some reason are out of stock almost everywhere .
u will need 8 of those .if u wont be able to get em , i will post an email of a guy which i bought those from tommorow.
this is how the bars look like

 

now , for the soldering part , u will need some thick tip high power solder iron.
dont use something like 20W solder iron!
those batteries dont like heat too much , u wont see any physical damage on the cell , but if u heat them too much , the capacity of the battry will be lower then nominal .but dont worry about that too much , it will still work :hammer:
unfortunately ,i was too lazy to get a bigger solder iron , so i used my hakko , which is 130W (i think) but the tip was too thin , this made the soldering very ugly and i heated the batteries too much , i think . i have no patiance most of the time :crash
after each soldering , i put the batteries on my air conditioner to let them cool quick .
u will also need solder flux , and solder obviously.
put flux on anyhing u are soldering , this will make it a bit easier and the solder will stick better to the alu cells.
this is the iron my lazy ass used.

 

first , put a thin layer of solder on each side of the battery contact, the (-) side shown in the pic , do the same for (+) side.(dont forget to use flux on the surface before soldering)

then , do the same for the bottom of the hyperion battery bar , or any other wire / battery bar u want to use for this.
this can bee seen in the sec pic.

 

Those bars are chunky
That thing will start a car

 

ok , now arrange the 4 pairs as shown in the diagrams and use some zip ties to hold em all together .
at first u can do just 2 pairs , after done ,add the others .

make sure not to make any short circuits and be carefull !!!

also , make sure to arrange the (+) and the (-) same way as in the diagrams!

note that the battery bars are marked grey in both diagrams.
one diagram is side view and the other is bottom view.

 

Wonder if this stuff will handle the amps
might be better than soldering

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/b70c/?cpg=ab

 

Wonder if this stuff will handle the amps
might be better than soldering

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/b70c/?cpg=ab

nice ! will check that later

 

i wont make a"top view" diagram , i think its pretty obvious what should be done , but if not , let me know and i will make one also

did u notice the 2 red lines connecting between each paralell (+)'s ?
u dont have to do that , i did it anyway to make sure the paralell connection is firm (the 2 paralell cells are touching each other anyway , but just in case i made that connection also)
thats why i grind in between the batteries before ...
(if u are gonna do this , do it also to the 2 bars on top of the pack)
this is how it looks (yeah , i know , the soldering looks ugly :crash but it works lol)
make sure the connections are firm ! thats why i used so much solder . also , if u can , put the pack on an air conditioner (or near it), or in the freezer chair to let it cool down quicker :lol.

 

no need to connect in between each (-) , as the bars are allready connected between them .there wont be a high current in between the paralell cells.

 

now , for the top side .
u will need to connect a (-) cable to the 2 paralell cells on the edge .
i've done this with another batery bar , but before u do that , u need to cover the area between the cells (it is +) for safety .
i used high temp duct tape . u can use any electric tape also .
see pic and u will know what i mean.

 

then put a bar over those 2 (-) connectors and solder your main (-) cable to that bar.

next , use another bar to connect in between the 2 paralell (+)'s and connect the main (+) cable to that bar.
make sure to cover the edges of the main cables so they wont accidentally touch each other.

btw , i used 4 gauge red and black wires for the main cables , i think 8 gauge will be enough also .u can get those cables any any car audio instalation shop .

here's the pic of the complete top side .
note the battery bars under each main cable connection. also note the isolation tape under the battery bar on the (-) side...
also , as u can see , i wrapped the tape around the whole pack , but its not necessary

 

basically thats it .just use the 145mm shrink (i covered the battery 2 times with it for extra safety) and cover the whole thing

for advanced users , wait for tomorrow and i will show how to add wires to balance each parallel cells ,and monitor their voltage.
later , i will make a permanent circuit which will be connected to those wires and balance the pack automatically . but i will do that after i'll assemble my engine , it takes me forever allready , as some of u know :lol

 

suscribed! I may have to do this for the fun of it. The weight savings is nice, but its also a neat little project.