Blog / Batteries
Today I was finally able to start making the battery boxes. Here are the definitive drawings of how I'll be making them. With 4 battery boxes, should all fit nicely. Just still have to see where to place the sensor plate for the display and the fuse with fuse holder. Will probably be as close as possible to the emergency switch so I can keep the cables short.
I started with the biggest box. It'll be the most difficult so I just want to get it done and over with. Here are the plates, nicely tailor-made with my table saw. Only the back plate (as it'll be in the frame) and cover are slightly bigger so I have some play. This will be evened out later on.
I glued two of the plates now, will have to wait untill this is hardened.
Tomorrow I'll continue with the other 2 plates. I just still need to make holes on one side for the cable glands.
Posted on 26 May 2013 at 05:23 pm (CET)
Category: Batteries, Controller
Posted on 26 May 2013 at 05:23 pm (CET)
Category: Batteries, Controller
Just tried fitting the batteries, I have good news and bad news.
First the bad news, they don't fit the way I've drawn them.
And then the good news, they fit even better. Instead of 5 battery boxes I will only need 4 since I could still fit 1 more battery where the radiator used to be.
The battery box with just the one battery will no longer be needed which I'm very happy about. I had no idea how to place the cable glands to let the orange cables pass through. On the top and side the frame would be in the way and pointing it towards the ground didn't seem like a good idea either.
So they all fit perfectly and there's still 6 mm of space everywhere as well for the battery boxes to go around the batteries. Here are some pictures again.
The big empty space in the middle of the frame is where the charger will come and on the sides of it probably some smaller parts of the BMS, display and main fuse.
I also hung up the controller's enclosure with cable ties. I want to have mounts made for this that will come down from those 4 points where the exhaust silencers used the hang from. But I'm not sure yet how I want to have this.
That was it for today.
Some more news today. I went inside to get something and suddenly heard a van stop outside. So I went to look at the door and it was the delivery man with 2 heavy packages from Amsterdam. What could be in there?
Was a surprise since I didn't even get a message yet that they were actually sent. But the batteries are finally here. And with connection plates, bolts and Nord-lock rings included.
Just not from that official dealer where I still had to wait 8 weeks but from New Electric here in the Netherlands which did have them on stock.
Here are some more pictures.
Also measured and numbered them all. As far as I could see there are no defects. And they're all charged at the same level. There are 11 batteries at 3.286V and the other 13 at 3.287V. For now I put them back in the box again. Will first have to try and fit them in the frame and then start making the battery boxes.
Posted on 4 May 2013 at 09:32 pm (CET)
Posted on 4 May 2013 at 09:32 pm (CET)
Very bad news today, there's a problem with the delivery of the batteries. Supplier in China was acting up and because of that there's a now a very long delay, the batteries will be shipped to the company I bought them from on monday. Then it'll take another 8 weeks before they actually arrive I think.
Also not really nice of the company I bought them from to not tell me anything at all about this 8 weeks ago. I could get my money back if I'd find the batteries somewhere else but they're the only official dealer in Europe. I could maybe get them from the US, but I'll have to check the price because I don't think it'll get any cheaper.
Here in the Netherlands is also a company selling them but I have to pay 500 euros more in total so I don't think I'll do that. Rather wait another 8 weeks. If it actually remains 8 weeks that is.
I also got the blocks for the motor mount back this week but one of the blocks doesn't fit very well and can't be welded like this. So this has to be modified again and will probably take another week.
I already removed the rear swing arm so the blocks can get welded on there soon. Didn't have to detach a lot so this went rather easily. I only came to the conclusion that the swing arm hasn't really been welded straight by the Chinese, because of this the motor mount won't sit perfectly flat on there. Will still have to get those blocks modified anyway so I'll have to see what can be done to even this out. Seems better to me if it's completely flat for welding, don't want any welding defects because of it. Space between the mount and the swing arm isn't really much though, maybe not even half a mm, but still.
The 2 bottom mounting holes aren't aligned well either of that one block on the right making it impossible to attach. No idea how this happened since I can clearly see the correct marks for these holes yet they were still drilled too high. To fix this either the 2 holes in the mount itself have to be made a bit larger or a new block has to be made.
Both of the blocks still have to be modified anyway, I asked for them to be sloped on the rear but now they just go straight. Doesn't really look so good.
But there is one good thing today. I received a sample piece of the material I want to use for the battery boxes, 3mm thick ABS plastic.
In any case it's very sturdy so I think 3mm will be enough. Just still want to see if it's easy to weld and try some other things. If all goes well I can order a few plates.
Posted on 19 April 2013 at 12:35 am (CET)
Drawing is pretty much done now. There should still be a few little things added but I don't know if I will actually draw them. Was already annoying enough to get the orange cables like this.
Here with all the battery boxes opened.
And here with all battery boxes closed.
It'll be like that pretty much. The 2 darker orange cables are just the positive and negative of the whole battery pack and go towards the controller. These are the thicker cables with mesh shielding inside of them. The cables that are between the battery boxes are a bit smaller and a bit more flexible. And the gray box is just the outside size of the charger just to see if it would fit next to the cable glands and orange cables.
I just hope it all actually fits like this in the frame. I'm not entirely sure about the 2 batteries that are sitting at an angle in front of the steering shaft and the 1 battery at the bottom. Can't really know for sure untill I actually receive the batteries. They should have arrived already at the company I ordered them from, will still wait some more untill next week.