got A123s for free!!!

[fechter]

... A friend of mine talked to the folks at the DeWalt Service Center in Fresno, Calif and were told they were REQUIRED to send the warranty packs back and could not donate them to our mad scientist e-bike experiments.
-Mike

Hmmm... they must be sending all of them somewhere?

There must be a big pile of them at that place. Follow the batteries.....

We can offer a 'free' recycling service.

[Jozzer]

I think someone has already found the dumping place...and is selling the bad packs to me on ebay!!

[Doctorbass]

I like this man:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1417353

Doc

[bobmcree]

when i first became interested in using the a123 cells to build a pack for my bike i contacted them and tried to convince them that it would be in their best interest to make the developers packs available for a more reasonable price than the $18-$20 per cell they get for the developer's kits. I tried to buy 100 or even 1000 of the 6 cell kits and they would not come down on the price.

i argued that i could get the cells for $9 each new by purchasing dewalt packs on ebay, disassembling them, and throwing away perfectly good bms units and packaging. i asked them "how many cells do i have to buy to get them for the same $9 each?" they refused to give me a price unless i would commit to a large number as an annual requirement. i do not lie to manufacturers and tell them i will buy a million cells if they will give me a deal on 100. i don't sleep well if i behave that way....

a123 has a valid argument; they do not want some fly-by-night operation to buy a bunch of their cells, put together a shoddy product that fails or injures someone, and disappear, leaving a123 with a bad reputation.

they are starting out by selling the cells to rc users who will abuse them and not complain if one fails. they are supporting this use, but at this time they do not seem to be interested in the ebike market. it is certainly true that this industry has had some problems with manufacturers who rushed to the e-bike market with immature products. it would be a shame if gm or chrysler decided not to use a123 cells in their products because some fool sold a bunch of poorly designed ebike batteries that developed a negative reputation.

we can only hope that somebody at a123 will realize that we are a viable market, and get together with somebody in the ebike business who is not too greedy to build packs for us at a price we can afford.

i volunteer

[xyster]

Bob,
Michael Charles already has such a relationship with A123 and Molicell, and has said he's happy to sell big, custom packs to us ebikers.
http://bigerc.com/index.php?cPath=21&os ... d759ab6f54

[bobmcree]

great to know... of course i don't expect them to have somebody like me who is retired take on the business. i was kidding of course about volunteering...

i could never afford the product liability insurance. even as safe as these cells are it must be a lot of money

[bobmcree]

i took a look at the a123 packs big-e-rc is selling. a 10 cell pack with no bms is $200. that is more expensive than the developers kits a123 sells directly, and the smaller packs are more expensive still. all their packs are more than twice the cost of buying dewalt power tool packs and disassembling them. not the kind of deal i was hoping for. i'll stick to the drill packs for now.

[Jozzer]

Idd, it looks like it will be a while before we can really start playing with these cells. if they are now supplying all the 18v packs too I guess it will be even longer before they start looking for other markets to sell in
Lets hope drill packs get very cheap and fast!

[tomv]

I have no idea why a123 sells their cells the way they do. With packs going for $100 for 10 cells, the price they are getting for cells from tool makers must be at most $5-$6 per cell.

I called them and they quoted me the usual $20 per cell in dev kit, or $16 per cell for oder of 2000. Doesn't make any sense. I wonder why they do that.

[cadstarsucks]

I have no idea why a123 sells their cells the way they do. With packs going for $100 for 10 cells, the price they are getting for cells from tool makers must be at most $5-$6 per cell.

I called them and they quoted me the usual $20 per cell in dev kit, or $16 per cell for oder of 2000. Doesn't make any sense. I wonder why they do that.

They are currently selling to the auto industry as well. Any industry can purchase them at the $16/cell @1k, but it is more like $20 since you need the tabs welded on.

http://nexergy.com/ sells them new in custom packs

As for charging 3.6V @ 3A CCCV for 45 minutes standard charge, 3.6V @ 10A for 12 minutes fast charge, or 3.3V float charge

Sorry this is a bit hod-podge but I am new to this forum and am trying to lump all that is useful into a short statement from work.

They also now have an 18650.

Dan