Finishing touches on the 15S1P HCBatteryPack - an Update

 

WARNING!   The following article is from a tinkerer who can't do anything the easy way.   The information provided is based on the few sources online as well are many assumptions and should not be followed too closely without your own research and testing. DO YOUR RESEARCH, TAKE PLENTY OF PRECAUTIONS , HAVE A PLAN, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY.  Any injury, critical malfunctions, explosions and death due to following elements of details or procedure contained in these articles are at the risk of anyone reading these article and attempting to follow this information without a reasonable amount of knowledge in constructing Lithium Ion batteries and a strong knowledge of electricity is doing so at your own risk!  Constructing large Lithium packs require an understanding and respecting of the dangers as well taking plenty amounts of precautions in constructing even a small pack.  Do not attempt constructing any type of battery packs without proper prior instruction or training and again, having basic electrical knowledge, a proper layout the pack is important.  This is a project that I am researching and the total amount of equipment I own would make this worth trying.  The actual expense if one were to start from scratch would out strip the amount in savings that is listed in my blogs.  The information within these blogs are starting points for what is required to construct a battery pack and does not have all the answers, such as, technical details of voltage drop issues, internal resistance considerations, charging methods or structural techniques and so on. Those details depend on the application of the battery pack and exceed the scope of these articles.  

The Holidays rolled around and I had plenty to do family wise.  The final assembly was delayed and I still have a busy month to slog through until I have time for my many projects.

So Far:

• 21700 cells configured to a more continuous "flow" - Done
• Staggered and connected cells for the upper group - Done
• Staggered and connected cells for the lower group - Done
• Hardening the jumper between cell 6 and cell 7 and moving to the bottom of the pack - Pending
• Output terminals redesigned and wires installed  - Pending
• Fish paper Final shields installed - Pending
• BMS connections to plug - Pending
• Thermistor connections to plug- Pending
• Load tested - Pending
• Shrink Wrap - Pending
• The Ride - Pending

Coming to a finish but not the end

 

WARNING!   The following article is from a tinkerer who can't do anything the easy way.   The information provided is based on many assumptions and should not be followed too closely without your own research and testing. DO YOUR RESEARCH, TAKE PLENTY OF PRECAUTIONS , HAVE A PLAN, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY.  Any injury, critical malfunctions, explosions and death due to following elements of details or procedure contained in these articles are at the risk of anyone reading these article and attempting to follow this information without a reasonable amount of knowledge in constructing Lithium Ion batteries and a strong knowledge of electricity is doing so at your own risk!  Constructing large Lithium packs require an understanding and respecting of the dangers as well taking plenty amounts of precautions in constructing even a small pack.  Do not attempt constructing any type of battery packs without proper prior instruction or training and again, having basic electrical knowledge, a proper layout the pack is important.  This is a project that I am researching and the total amount of equipment I own would make this worth trying.  The actual expense if one were to start from scratch would out strip the amount in savings that is listed in my blogs.  The information within these blogs are starting points for what is required to construct a battery pack and does not have all the answers, such as, technical details of voltage drop issues, internal resistance considerations, charging methods or structural techniques and so on. Those details depend on the application of the battery pack and exceed the scope of these articles.  

Final Connections to the cells 7 & 8

The lower group of six cells was awaiting the final connections, but I had decided to use a staggered row arrangement much like the top group.  The staggering will net about 2 millimeters more space and might get a little more wiggle room for the odd fit of cell number 7.   

I still have to settle on the details of that last cell's unusual connections and came up with an odd solution that may not look straight, but is stable enough and can carry the maximum amps.  The theory is the cell 7 not only has a odd angle from cell 8 to cell 6, but will end up being canted slightly when the two way angled nickel strip is secured.  This creates a slightly off center fit when pressed into position and is needed since the available gap to join cell 7 to cell 8 is barely enough to slip a single strip of nickel in.  

Then there is 6 & 7

Almost there, but it looks like the 'L' shape connection will have more room on bottom of the module.  The limited space and lifting the position of cell 7 high enough towards the lid will leave little margin for error from possible abrasion damage.  While testing the fit of the XT60 plug, I realized that this final connection will have to wait until I finish the XT60 part.  By not making the pack fully connected, I give myself some wiggle room for mistakes while testing out the fit of the insulator and the placement of the soldering tabs.

XT60 is the critical part

The testing of the length and the direction of the tabs are important.  The goal is to not allow for an easy path to short out the pack.  Logically, the tabs are very close to one another.  I worked out in a few illustrations so far of how it should work and look.  The fish paper separator is illustrated more precisely than is necessary.  The things that are important are the tab directions.  Should a solder or weld to battery fails, the movement towards the other output is not possible.

BMS time

   The delicate work is to populate the 24 wires to the 26 pin connector and run all the wires as neatly as possible and install the thermistors and make a choice of how much wire I can cut off of them.  Then I have to use thermal glue as well decide on the thermistors appropriate locations to best serve the monitoring of temperatures.

I am heading in the direction of how the "Board Garage" arranged the connections.  This in part was because I already describe the cells in the direction of the cells based on the "Board Garage" article.  I've read that the longest and shortest wire should not have too large a variation, not found much discussion on that yet.  I got a crimp tool that can handle 26 gauge wire and have the .3 pins and the plug itself at the ready.  The random advice is to not have too large a variation in wire lengths or just keep them the same.  I started looking at the longest run of wire and as well testing the amount of resistance for that wire.  Just in case, I'll look at a similar wire and compare the resistance.

Thermistors to locate

From the datasheets and the pinout charts, I am voting that it is not critical the polarity.  The decision is to put them were they will do their job and hopefully not get a false reading.  Seemingly the cells 1 and 15 will experience the most heating from use as well the center cells 7, 8 and 9.  So I'll look to cells 14, 13 and 10, 9 and 4, 5 and 3, 6.  The thermal glue will work best if it remains flexible after it cures.  The glue should have the consistency of a thick silicone?  If not, then it will be 2, 6, 13, 9.  The reason being that they are cells I deem as the least influence by certain high draw situations.  Not knowing the monitoring thresholds or limits.

Routing

Once the BMS wires and thermistor wires are crimped to the plug, the laborious task of making things neat will be necessary.  The final clearance for the lid to close is going to depend on a few factors.  The cardboard shims will need to be modified and coved to shield against heat.  Most likely I'll have to use some dots of hot glue to anchor the wires and if it works to do, tape it all down with the Kapton tape.    

Concept revision 6 of the pack and as of this entry, I'm up to revision 9

Insulation and Securing

I was also awaiting some supply items.  I changed my mind on taping down the fish paper as well steering away from using layers of reinforced tape.  I'm thinking of adhesive fish paper and some wide Kapton tape since the goal is to cram all of this into a tight space, layer of tape maybe cutting it too close.  Opting to leave it to the shrink wrapping the outside layer for last until I can complete the load tests.

Progress update on the battery build

WARNING!   The following article is from a tinkerer who can't do anything the easy way.   The information provided is based on many assumptions and should not be followed too closely without your own research and testing. DO YOUR RESEARCH, TAKE PLENTY OF PRECAUTIONS , HAVE A PLAN, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY.  Any injury, critical malfunctions, explosions and death due to following elements of details or procedure contained in these articles are at the risk of anyone reading these article and attempting to follow this information without a reasonable amount of knowledge in constructing Lithium Ion batteries and a strong knowledge of electricity is doing so at your own risk!  Constructing large Lithium packs require an understanding and respecting of the dangers as well taking plenty amounts of precautions in constructing even a small pack.  Do not attempt constructing any type of battery packs without proper prior instruction or training and again, having basic electrical knowledge, a proper layout the pack is important.  This is a project that I am researching and the total amount of equipment I own would make this worth trying.  The actual expense if one were to start from scratch would out strip the amount in savings that is listed in my blogs.  The information within these blogs are starting points for what is required to construct a battery pack and does not have all the answers, such as, technical details of voltage drop issues, internal resistance considerations, charging methods or structural techniques and so on. Those details depend on the application of the battery pack and exceed the scope of these articles.  

 

Line up and spot welding

The fifteen 21700 cells arrived and after some measurements, adjustments and testing I settled the manner of arrangement of the cells.  I then started to plan out how to go about the actual spot welding.  I noticed that a critical necessity was the tabs for the BMS wires.  Instead of waiting until after installing the connecting strips to then gingerly spot weld the tiny tabs, I made a jig from some cardboard scraps and hot melt glue.  I now had a consistent way to hold the tabs for spot welding a batch all at once and prevents the risk of heat effecting the jackets of the cells when attaching the tabs while on the cells.

There are nine side to side connections of the cells 8 to 15 in the part of the pack I call the upper group and three end to end connections of cells 1 to 6 in the part of the pack I call the lower group.   I made a decision make the batteries run in as much a continuous direction as possible to reduce problems that could result in shorting out from using wire jumpers.  

Commonly, the typical cylindrical cell is much like an elongated cup with a lid and the rim of the cup belongs to the negative side.  Because the nickel strips traverses from positive to the next cell's negative while passing over its own negative rim, it is a vulnerable point.  Only thing that blocks the contact is the thin PVC jacket and an insulating grommet to keep things from touching. touching.  It is easy enough to have a sharp edge of the nickel strip or a minor amount of flex from vibrations to damage this barrier.  To give a little more protection, I used the fish paper stick-on rings around the positive contacts.   The center spots also came in handy to shield the side of the cell from the sharp edge of the BMS tab.

In the above illustration is based on a typical "flat-tip", the weak point is the top part of the negative jacket or body of the cell at the top part where it is crimped and right next to the positive terminal of the cell.  Only the PVC jacket shields the possibility of short-circuit and can easily be damaged due to movement near the positive side or a connector overheating or should a connection break loose and breech the edge of the negative jacket.  The above image is based on a general diagram and most cells used to make packs have a "flat-top" positive cap that brings the nickel strips even more closer.  

It was then time to begin the arranging of the cells into the required a staggered configuration.  The offset was about 3.5mm and I pushed it to a full 4mm, but that still allowed a thin 1.5 to 2 millimeters of space to clear the lid of the module.  Strips of cardboard were glued together to form the 4mm thick shims needed for assembly.  

Illustration of the general way to clamp the cells and maintain the relative position of the offset.  I used 4 or more cardboard shims to allow for the offset while clamping the cells in the wood blocks.  When fully spot welded, the group maintains the position.

  

The actual spot welds were done with the cells standing vertical and shimmed and clamped to the offset needed, however, that image didn't work out... so included is the modeled image.  The challenge was to keep the nickel strips steady while positioning the spot welding tips.  Each connection received a minimum of six spot welds, but I went for eight each.

When both ends were welded... to the needed "flow" configuration, the group could stay in the correct offset positions without support.

Finishing the upper group of eight cells, I moved to planning the lower group that required both side to side and end to end nickel strips.  

image is upside-down compared to my counting descriptions, but I'm too lazy to flip it

 

The lower group required the end to end nickel strips to be installed first.  A simple set of wood blocks were arranged on the table and angled to hold the cells apart just enough to sneak in with the spot welding probes.  

I first spot welded the pre-bent strip to the positive end of the cell (note that all cells will have the fish paper rings installed), then the two cells were moved to the wood jig to make the negative side connection.  This "end to end" procedure was done to cells 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6.  This leaves the final connections of 2 to 3 and 4 to 5 being the "side to side"  connections later.  I had discovered that the bend applied to the strip is best round.  I used a 1.5mm wire to put a radius on the bend.  This make it a little easier to line up the cells when it comes time to book fold the connection, otherwise a sharp crease will be harder to fudge the alignment back if you were a little off during the spot weld.

The very last cell to be spot welded is cell number 7.  It requires an off set end to end strip as well an overly built 90 degree connection to cell 6 to handle high amperage as I had concerns of the distance. To make it more complicated, cell 7 has to be built on a slant by lining up to cell 8 at module floor height to cell 6 at 3.5mm height.  All this is need to clear the limited space of the cable outlet area that cell 7 must protrude into.

 

In other examples I've observed, this should be a heavy 14 to 12 gauge wire, but I decided to make essentially a bus bar like connection which will require two strips and a reinforced extra strip.  This will allow it to conform to the "flat as possible" build and to avoid the need to make an odd solder lug to from cell 6 to a just as awkward offset solder lug to cell 7.   To note again, my arrangement avoided the need for three different wire jumpers and lug to lug points.  Is that a good idea?  I don't know.  If the load test proves that this too much heat, then its back to jumpers.

So that's that for now.  I'll have to go back through and add extra spot welds that I rushed to set the positions, but not the required number of spots and finish.  

Next Time

Once I solve the cell 7 and 8 problem, I'll soon install the BMS wires, installing the pin to the socket, the installing of the thermistors, routing all that wire, attaching the main power leads to the lugs, insulating,  

The final steps are the load test to maybe 12 to 20 amps to check for problems before actually installing the pack into the Pint module. 

Few more steps to take in wiring up the Pint battery - the XT60

WARNING!   The following article is from a tinkerer who can't do anything the easy way.   The information provided is based on many assumptions and should not be followed too closely without your own research and testing. DO YOUR RESEARCH, TAKE PLENTY OF PRECAUTIONS , HAVE A PLAN, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY.  Any injury, critical malfunctions, explosions and death due to following elements of details or procedure contained in these articles are at the risk of anyone reading these article and attempting to follow this information without a reasonable amount of knowledge in constructing Lithium Ion batteries and a strong knowledge of electricity is doing so at your own risk!  Constructing large Lithium packs require an understanding and respecting of the dangers as well taking plenty amounts of precautions in constructing even a small pack.  Do not attempt constructing any type of battery packs without proper prior instruction or training and again, having basic electrical knowledge, properly layout the pack plans are important.  This is a project that I am researching and the total amount of equipment I own would make this worth trying.  The actual expense if one were to start from scratch would out strip the amount in savings that is listed in my blogs.  The information within these blogs are starting points for what is required to construct a battery pack and does not have all the answers, such as, technical details of voltage drop issues, internal resistance considerations, charging methods or structural techniques and so on. Those details depend on the application of the battery pack and exceed the scope of these articles.  

 XT60 plug... that took some practice to get a real good solder going, I had to use over 475 degrees Fahrenheit / 246 Celsius and 60/40 solder as the lead free stuff didn't take at all.  The 12 gauge wire was tricky to squeeze into the lug end to solder.  When I finished, I had a neat looking wire and it failed while testing it for routing and position.  The pack to BMS requires a 90 degree bend and the distance was less than 50mm from pack to socket, but now, the total run of wire from the source contact to plug for the positive increases from about 55mm to 130mm, and the negative goes from a long 205mm to about 140mm.  Does is matter will be the question later during the load test.  

Seems the lug was not adhering to the solder at all and chances it needed a good cleaning... acetone to something...I do know the flux works good.  The third try was a quick strip of the silicone sheath and a twist of the strands and then stuff into the lug with no buttering of either.  The 500 degree solder was on top the wire strand bundles and lug at one corner and I kept on feeding the solder into the whole thing until I could see it leak out the edges.  The third plug was complete and the test seems to show it will not separate as the second one did or not so quickly.

The high power output wires takes a paths up the side of cell 15 or 1 depending on how I should count.  Along the side of the cell, but running along the bottom of the module is the positive wire and the negative towards the lid side of the module.  Either way I should start and end the cell taps for the both wire in the optimal direction to reduce strain.

I designed a fitted fish paper protector for the high power wires and it will be the base for the separator for the upper and lower group.  At 285mm by 21mm for the main section and maybe an extra layer in the middle at 150mm by 21mm.

  

Nearing the final plans, the included BMS taps are located and worth noting that the tap should lean towards the negative end of the cell in case of trauma to the outer cover, the direction of the cells are noted and follow the pinout chart from "The Board Garage" and the indication of all the connector strips are marked.  Should the next thing to plan is build some jigs?

Update on the pint battery project

 

WARNING!   The following article is from a tinkerer who can't do anything the easy way.   The information provided is based on many assumptions and should not be followed too closely without your own research and testing. DO YOUR RESEARCH, TAKE PLENTY OF PRECAUTIONS , HAVE A PLAN, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY.  Any injury, critical malfunctions, explosions and death due to following elements of details or procedure contained in these articles are at the risk of anyone reading these article and attempting to follow this information without a reasonable amount of knowledge in constructing Lithium Ion batteries and a strong knowledge of electricity is doing so at your own risk!  Constructing large Lithium packs require an understanding and respecting of the dangers as well taking plenty amounts of precautions in constructing even a small pack.  Do not attempt constructing any type of battery packs without proper prior instruction or training and again, having basic electrical knowledge, properly layout the pack plans are important.  This is a project that I am researching and the total amount of equipment I own would make this worth trying.  The actual expense if one were to start from scratch would out strip the amount in savings that is listed in my blogs.  The information within these blogs are starting points for what is required to construct a battery pack and does not have all the answers, such as, technical details of voltage drop issues, internal resistance considerations, charging methods or structural techniques and so on. Those details depend on the application of the battery pack and exceed the scope of these articles.  

Size Up of the Battery Module

Dimensions inside the battery module is a left to right of 168mm by 137mm and up to down.  There is a slight bulge in the middle giving another 2mm or so, but it is better to work from the smallest measurements.  This is only the space that the batteries inhabit and ignores the divider that is the wire channel which is made of two plastic tabs.  

 

Real world fit

Although the max width of the module is 168mm and the 8 cells across is 168mm on paper (21x8=168), the slight thickness caused by the vinyl jackets and the cell crimps, make the total width a little more than the 21mm of the specified 21 by 700 millimeter size.

To get the top group of 8 cells to fit without the need to snip out plastic, I looked at staggering the cells. I tried adding shims under cells 9, 11, 13, 15.  The height is around 3.5mm and the remaining headroom from battery to lid will be about 1.5mm.  That means the depth of the compartment is about 25mm.

This is not the final arrangement as the polarity will still have to decided when the time comes, but it doesn't really matter negative or positive first as long as the start and end are established and comply with the BMS order of connections.

My first concept of the 21700 batteries and how they fall into position as mentioned prior.

Numbers Minor Conundrum Encountered and it's all about nothing. 

When I first started my research on the BMS layout, it was from an article by the Board Garage.  Later I found the similar published layout from someone who goes by the name "That-Canadian".  At first glance the two BMS pinout charts could not look any different.  When I gave it a closer look, I notice that they sort of run in a similar pattern.

Two Pinout Charts

Numbers Key

When I wrote out the numbers in a line with the primary ends in the same places, it is sort of easy to see that the charts are the same and only the counting directions were different.  Both the positive and negative sides start or end with the highest and lowest numbers, as well, the middle cell is the same number.  

What still remains it the question of securing the layout

To start off, the cells will have a dab of hot melt glue to position them into their groups and to make it easy to spot weld later.  Then it is the touchy strategy of joining the groups together as an example of cell 9 to cell 8 is a massive connector and possibly on both sides to handle the amperage.  Then the question of how much insulation will fit?  I won't be much or about 1 to 1.5 mm of space remains depending on where.  The lower groups of six cells could be furnished with up to 4mm of foam padding as they don't require a staggered arrangement, but the above group of seven to eight cells may not have much room. Between the groups a reasonable amount of insulation and padding can be added to divide cells 1 to 7, however a special provision to allow cell 1 with a positive wire to be well shielded from any problems or interaction with cell 15.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                            

Another thought is space needed to run all the wires

Routing for the BMS wires will have to come from three bundles.  It may be necessary to have a groups that are the eight temperature sensor wires and however best to route the 'B' numbered wires into a upper and lower group.  The goal is to not have to alter the battery module in any way.

Pint Battery So Far

Almost Ready to Build It

WARNING!   The following article is from a tinkerer who can't do anything the easy way.   The information provided is based on many assumptions and should not be followed too closely without your own research and testing. DO YOUR RESEARCH, TAKE PLENTY OF PRECAUTIONS , HAVE A PLAN, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY.  Any injury, critical malfunctions, explosions and death due to following elements of details or procedure contained in these articles are at the risk of anyone reading these article and attempting to follow this information without a reasonable amount of knowledge in constructing Lithium Ion batteries and a strong knowledge of electricity is doing so at your own risk!  Constructing large Lithium packs require an understanding and respecting of the dangers as well taking plenty amounts of precautions in constructing even a small pack.  Do not attempt constructing any type of battery packs without proper prior instruction or training and again, having basic electrical knowledge, properly layout the pack plans are important.  This is a project that I am researching and the total amount of equipment I own would make this worth trying.  The actual expense if one were to start from scratch would out strip the amount in savings that is listed in my blogs.  The information within these blogs are starting points for what is required to construct a battery pack and does not have all the answers, such as, technical details of voltage drop issues, internal resistance considerations, charging methods or structural techniques and so on. Those details depend on the application of the battery pack and exceed the scope of these articles.  

Model: Pint (not Mint, but the later sand color rails)

Hardware: 5314

Firmware: Gemini 5050

 Concept version 4

Coming from the general layout from the previous post, I have taken some liberties on the cell path or the "flow".  Here is my version of the 15S1P battery pack and one big or controversial detail is the start and end of the pack (#1 and #15) are right next to each other.  I admit I've not looked at many pack setups or access to any, but I will not hide my concern that this may pose a short circuit danger could somehow happen if the two cells touch or wires come loose and contact some other part.  This is a serious subject of, if the pack were to receive high current draw that could melt insulation or a shock that moves the cells around, there would be little to stop a unwelcomed contact and then a thermal runaway situation.

Current Facts and the Figures

The XT60 connectors are rated for a nominal around 30 amps and I believe the 12 gauge wire leads will be the same maximum at 30 amps as well.  The purported Pint amps is 10-15 during nominal movement and a max of 30 amps if in high torque situations.  So it is safe to say that the margin is narrow and the extra shielding is warranted.  The .2x10mm nickel strips were claimed to have around 25 to 35 amp handling and the limiting factor is the length of the the strips also the number of welds per contact point.  Six is recommended and I would say that is the minimum.  I read somewhere that a single spot weld would carry about 9 amps

If I were to proceed with the build in the above arrangement, the negative wire will have shielding along the length of CELL #15 and as well the positive wire secured in the same manner.  However, in the extreme scenario of failure, I would have both output wires passing along a curtain short-circuit.  And the perfect storm is the constant 30+ amp draw for a critical length of time.  The saving point is that I'm looking to race the Pint nor do I intend to go very fast.  The published peak amperage is 28 amps at 16mph while on an average maybe 7% grade.  Sadly, I my ride may have up to 12% and some small spots or at 100 feet is a elevation of 12 feet and a potential max amps of 30.

Feeling Out the Flaws

The concept of the placement of the positive lead along the side of a cell was to reduce vibration damage, as reported in a few forums.  The run of the negative lead is now longer as well and would run along the same cell, but towards the lid of the module.  A concern is the increased wire resistance due to the length, which I am very aware of even it the amount is considered negligent (0.00132 ohms per inch) or an increase from .0013 to about .003 ohms.  If I keep the positive wire short, I'll remove the potential issues of heat, but still have the issue of damage from vibration and it is true I could make a wraparound lug to solve that.  The potential heat that could melt the battery cover or even the Pint module is a consideration to solve sooner than later if it does exist at all.  This is why I will do a load test to prove these concern one way or another.

Example of a short wire to the XT60 - not to scale, but you get the idea.

Another design decision is the cells are grouped as eight cells on the upper with shielding to prevent wear and abrasion damage against the group of six cells beneath.  Cell number 7 is the odd cell due to the location and its need to jut out at the bottom of the pack that will cause some loss of rigidity of the overall pack.  

Prior to receiving the 21700 cells, I decided to modeled the pack as accurately as possible to get a sense of gap and placement of connectors and insulation.  The cells that meet end to end have folded connectors (Cell 1 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 6) and will benefit from a compression tape strategy to give increased surface contact for more stable amperage transfer.  

The last concern is the one dangling cell number 7 and although the same compression can be applied to stabilize it, the needed jumper to the lower group of six is a weak point.  The hope is to use a set of strips of nickel to form the connection instead of a wire.  This allows the connection to be flat against the cells and pack cover and removing a failure point where solder spots could push into a cells jacket.

Still pending for when the cells become available, a possibility of staggering the batteries before spot welding and reducing the width be a tiny 2 to 3 millimeters.  This will only be necessary or useful if the batteries are too tight.

Latest Supplies List:

• Nickel Tabs .2mm x 10mm
• Fish Paper rings for 21700
• Fish Paper strips for high abrasion spots
• Kapton 1/2", 1", 2", tape to secure wires
• Hot melt glue to secure cells and positions
• 15 count cells - Molicel P42A 21700 4200mAh 45A Battery
• 4 count thermal sensors- NTCLE413E2103F102L
• 1 count 26 pin plug - ZPDR-26V-S
• 26 count - SZPD-002T-P0.3 terminal pins
• 14 feet - 26 gauge silicon coated wire 
• 24 inches - 12 gauge silicon coated wire (12 inches red and black)

Onewheel Pint battery project - need more range...cheap

WARNING!   The following article is from a tinkerer who can't do anything the easy way.   The information provided is based on many assumptions and should not be followed too closely without your own research and testing. DO YOUR RESEARCH, TAKE PLENTY OF PRECAUTIONS , HAVE A PLAN, ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY.  Any injury, critical malfunctions, explosions and death due to following elements of details or procedure contained in these articles are at the risk of anyone reading these article and attempting to follow this information without a reasonable amount of knowledge in constructing Lithium Ion batteries and a strong knowledge of electricity is doing so at your own risk!  Constructing large Lithium packs require an understanding and respecting of the dangers as well taking plenty amounts of precautions in constructing even a small pack.  Do not attempt constructing any type of battery packs without proper prior instruction or training and again, having basic electrical knowledge, properly layout the pack plans are important.  This is a project that I am researching and the total amount of equipment I own would make this worth trying.  The actual expense if one were to start from scratch would out strip the amount in savings that is listed in my blogs.  The information within these blogs are starting points for what is required to construct a battery pack and does not have all the answers, such as, technical details of voltage drop issues, internal resistance considerations, charging methods or structural techniques and so on. Those details depend on the application of the battery pack and exceed the scope of these articles.  

The Pain of My Range

Although I've not done that much riding on my Onewheel Pint (less than 300 miles) for the past three years of ownership, it is time to deal with the big reason I didn't do as much riding in the first place.   At some point, I had a wild idea to ride it to work and actually tried it two times...yes, should have gotten an XR.  However, I was stopped by an unavoidable problem.  It is the well known thing called "range anxiety" and I have an obvious geographic issue that makes it so.

I live about 5.2 miles from my work as the crow flies and so the claimed range of my Pint should be close enough?  The reality is that the path deemed safest to ride is also, no surprise, longer than the "as crows fly" range and my weight does not help (192lb) either.  The best path work to home is 6.4 to 6.7 miles depending on which side of the street and how many intersections, however, all that and facing a steady incline of 125 feet elevation by the end. 

So the home to work ride, in contrast, is not the issue. When I attempted it, the Pint was left with around 15% of charge remaining upon my arrival at the front door of work.  Going home was a disappointing 5.3 miles of range with the board shutting down and more hilly terrain to go.  In fact, the last 3/4 mile leg of the trip is a long climb of maybe 40 feet before a small down hill and again a climb around 30 more feet of elevation. 

On the second try, I included a shortcut by way of a foot path that led to a pedestrian access stairs to reduce the roundabout bicycle path by nearly a quarter mile.  This gave me a slightly shorter total and less than a half mile from home before the red light bar appeared.

How Much Is the Point?

For only $300 to $400 dollars I could purchase a high capacity pack from qualified third party builders and that would be that or for $1100 buy a Pint X, but then I'm cheap remember (actually I like to build stuff).  So I looked into how much it might cost to build a high capacity battery since I already own the battery spot welder, load tester, power bench and have some knowledge about batteries.  

Napkin sketch would add up to about $115 dollars and that is the batteries, nickel tabs, fish paper, glue, tape, wires and shrink wrap.  If I'm not too far off, that is a savings of almost $200 at least.  As well, I noted that If I count up the remaining supplies, another pack could be built for a little less than $100 dollars and maybe a third.

Research So Far

My first round of digging around for battery layout diagrams originally netted the very helpful, but limited article from "The Board Garage" which was what inspired me to even write about building this battery pack.

The only thing is that the article's details seemed just a little watered down, maybe to prevent legal issues I suppose?  I noticed missing was at detailed battery wiring diagram or the information on the type of thermistors to use.  Although, to be fair the article's intent was to repair an existing pack and not build one from scratch.

This minor omission may also be a measure to prevent anyone from just slapping together the parts to "manufacture" their own battery packs to sell, but not actually know what the dangers are if done poorly.  However, from a dead pack starting point, the information would easily help anyone to piece together how to make a new pack as the original intention of the article was to reuse those existing key components.

From the article, an included pinout chart was a little tricky to understand on first glance.  It's not immediately clear the orientation of the plug by the face or looking on, but it was a little more clear when I looked up the datasheet for the 26 pin connector (ZPDR-26V-S) and maybe when I disassemble the OEM battery box to be sure.  The clues might be the locations of the unused pins and the images on the web shows that this chart was arranged in the manner to facilitate loading the connector pins (SZPD-002T-P0.3) into the plug during assembly.

Battery Planning

The original Pint OEM batteries are the 18650 size lithium Ion cells in the neighborhood of 2700 mAh each and arranged in a 15s1p configuration in a frame of eight over seven and the large capacity version to be constructed will consist of 21700 cells and not quite double at 4200 mAh each.  All fifteen 21700s must be a careful arrangement to best fit the limited space of the original module case.  The larger capacity cells claimed to deliver up to 15 miles of range, however, will effect the ability to read the power level bar on the board.  

The lack of a diagram required me to come up with one based on images out of the article and other sources.  A reasonable diagram of the battery cells looked something like the below layout, but not final.  I would say this is the common arrangement of the cells.  However, I'm not too crazy about the short positive output wire, nor the big jumper wire that is near the middle as well the next cell with a shorter jumper.  There is the argument that I should not venture too far from the seemingly standard design, but I wonder about the jumpers found in the middle of the series of cells.

This is another extract of what the common layout of the cells as found in a third party pack, but I am still not happy with the path of the cells and the jumper locations

The "Tap" markers are for the BMS wires to be attached. However, from the information I could glean, one area was an odd arrangement between taps B6, B7, B8 and in my version I arranged it slightly different.  Cell 7 and cell 8 from the article had their positive ends facing and require two longer connections to bridge to the next cluster, where I inverted cell 8 and only require one long connection and eliminated the odd bridge between cell 8 and cell 9.

At the time of this writing, I lack solid information on the type of temperature sensor or thermistors needed prompted a long search and looking at a few datasheets.  However, the correct component must match the OEM version's resistance or Ohm range or the BMS will not accurately balance the cells.  Rumored was that the sensor is NTCLE413E2103F102L and only after I build the pack will I know if this was right.

Tools I have

• Spot welder to attach the nickel strips
• Wire connection crimper tool for 26 gauge wires to .3 pins
• Temperature controlled soldering iron to attach the BMS wires to tabs
• Power supply bench for the charging via a built in battery charger mode to test
• Load tester to simulate use and inspect the performance
• Voltmeter to check all voltages of each cells during charge and discharge
• Heat gun to seal things up as well as other bit and tools.
• Lithium Ion cell charger that will take 21700 size cells to help assure that I'm starting out with all cells at the same levels.

For Sure the Firmware is Good

My version of the Pint is somewhat an early version known as a Gemini 5050.  It will have the ability to use a larger capacity pack with no known limits.  I understand that the later versions monitor the amperage and cut off the current ignoring the remaining battery power effectively treating all battery packs as a stock capacity.  However, the lack of an accurate power level bar would be a small price compared to the gains.

The article did put me on the right track for the part number of the connector and I have the makings of a list of a few other components such as wire gauges and nickel connectors for welding.

When I actually get underway, I'll then have to show some images of the actual build.

As of so far (late 2024)

Battery to BMS socket         ZPDR-26V-S            $  .61 ea.

Pins for Socket  (26 needed)  SZPD-002T-P0.3        $  .10 ea.

Thermal sensor (4 needed)     NTCLE413E2103F102L    $ 1.68 ea.

Nickel .2mm x 10mm tabs                             $ 11.00                    

Fish Paper rings 21700 size                         $  8.00

Fish Paper Sheets                                   $  4.00

26ga. Silicone coated wire (6 color set x 20 feet)  $ 16.00                  

Molicel 21700 4200mAh (15 needed)INR-21700-P42A      $ 3.95 ea.

Some Notes to Remember

• Unplugging the Power Pack from the BMS connector first and then the XT60 after.
• Arrange the 21700 cells in the battery tray and glue in the 3 groups for accurate fit.
• test possible insulation placement and the effects on fit.