Help me clean up this spaghetti mess

[mistercrash]

Once a week, I balance charge this 20S20P battery I made out of Sony Konion cells. Underneath the shrink wrap, the battery is split into four 5S bricks with positive, negative and balance wires coming up under the seat. I used to charge with two 10S chargers that could take two 5S packs each, that is why I made the battery split in four 5S packs. I would like to use two Hyperion 1420i chargers instead that way I could get rid of a pair of positive and negative wires. I would love to clean up this mess under the seat of my scooter. I'm thinking of some heavy duty 32 pin connectors much like these.

https://www.asi-ez.com/member/~2010322101.asp?Dept_ID=357
https://www.asi-ez.com/member/~2010322201.asp?Dept_ID=357

Or is there something better or cheaper out there?

Also I was thinking of using IDE cables but I wonder if the little wires are big enough to handle the 1420i's. The two chargers are plugged in a power supply I made out of two 12V 47Ah server power supplies from ebay. They're wired in series.

 

[mistercrash]

I did some more digging and it seems like IDE cable is 28AWG and should not be used for voltages greater than 30V and each little wire is good for 225mah.

 

[kfong]

Hasn't been a problem, balanced packs really don't require much current. The brunt of the current is through the heavy charge wires.

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6348&start=135

 

[mistercrash]

Now that's just what I need. I see you only use the IDE cable for the balance wires which would work great for me also. Thanks a lot. I gotta get to work on this.

 

[mistercrash]

I just ordered two of these

One of these with female connectors at both ends.

And I already had a few of these for the power wires. They're 6 mm.

 

[sn0wchyld]

I just ordered two of these

One of these with female connectors at both ends.

And I already had a few of these for the power wires. They're 6 mm.

link to the top product please? looks like it'd make wiring it up a breeze compared to soldering!!

IDE cables can work pretty well, they'll handle an amp or two for a short period, ive tested a single length of ribbon cable (28g) at 3.5A, about 1m wound around a temp probe about 20-30 times, and then encased in insulating foam to get a worst case scenario. They got to 60degC in about 10 minutes, at about 1.5A they were still climbing (very slowly) above 50degC after about 45 minutes. Balancing is unlikely to top 1A (even my 1400W cellpro doesnt balance higher than that) and if its lasting more than 45 minutes at that rate, you've probably got bigger problems than warm balance wires. 225mA would be their continuous rating in 'any reasonable conditions' - ie in a metal box in the sun. Just avoid tangling them around themselves to be safe. As to the 30v, that sounds very low. the stuff I had was rated at 300v. perhaps hunt around for some higher rated stuff to be safe.

 

[kfong]

From the looks of it. The pcb seems to be just a simple breakout board. You need parrallel sets to keep the wiring simple.

 

[mistercrash]

This is where I found those breakout boards.

http://www.winfordeng.com/products/brksd25.php

 

[kfong]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Standard breakout board. When you parallel two or more packs, they will have to use the same terminal. Not ideal since it will fill up when adding three or more.

 

[mistercrash]

I don't understand the problem of me using those boards, they will be much better for my application since I run 20S20P of Sony Konion 18650 cells that I put together myself. I'm not running hobby lipos from Hobby King. I have 24 balance wires coming out of my battery and the boards have 26 slots for wires. One board on the battery and one to make an adapter to connect to the two 1420i chargers. The IDE cable to link the boards together for balance charging. I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[Nanoha]

I think that parallel board is a great idea for all the connections coming out of the controller ie. throttle, CA, ebrakes etc.