Homemade battery cases

I have noticed that most people make the cases for their batteries using a really tight wrap of heat shrink and other insulating material. Some even put the whole thing in a fireproof case. I have been thinking of doing mine a little differently, and would like some input on it.

I am thinking of using a construction glue or cement, something that can be cut with a razor knife if you need to change an individual cell for any reason, and connecting them together in a Hex shape.
If I do it that way and insert them into a PVC or HPVC tube, I could use the screw in end caps and make both ends slotted for cooling air passage with a small PC cooling fan on one end. I could use a shield or shroud to keep rain out.

I seems to me as if this would make mounting it on my USX Hd20 trike pretty easy and clean looking, and if I needed to work on it I could just slide the battery out the end of the tube with the connections on it. since the batteries wouldn't be wrapped in Shrink I could even set it up with contact plates between the cells and make the tube long enough for my 10s 18650's and use the end caps to also create pressure on the contact plates so I wouldn't have to worry about losing connections under vibration or heating the batteries up with soldering on wires.

Schedule 80 pvc is pretty tough.

Anyway, it is a thought I have so please let me know any cons you see in doing it this way?

You might want to look at the "your creation's beofre and after pics" thread, and at the "show us your homemade battery housing" thread, as something like that has been done--you can see the results and how they did it.

Thanks, I didn't find it when I looked the other day, I will look again.

Well, it's possible it's not in those threads, but there are so many types in them it's pretty likely. If not, you might just search on some of the terms used to describe your parts to build it from, because I know that someone's build thread also has it in there. I just can't remember who.

Stout boxes to carry the battery are good. Make sure they have some chafe protection though, so you might even consider an inner liner that fits the pack even tighter, then insert in the box with whatever shims prevent as much movement in there as possible.

One interesting trick I've seen, is soda bottles used like shrink wrap.

I found three different people making them the way I was thinking. But after looking around for supplies I was quite dissappointed with what I found available.

I seem to remember one of my buds has some US Army metal boxes that look like big flat ammo cans. around 14x14x4 inches, gonna go see him tomorrow and see if that part of my memory still works.

If worse comes to worse I will just make a wood form and fire up the Vaccum former and form one just the right size.

Ammo cans can be good. For carrying on a rear rack, I liked using old vintage metal tackle boxes. They happened to fit my pingbattery perfect.

Now I have this longtail with a big space in the triangle. I tried the battery bag from EM3ev, and really like it. Very well made for a soft container. Inside the soft bag, I still have some hard protection around the pouch cells.

My 36v 20ah battery fits the 50 cal. ammo case very well. I use it for charging only. I think you could mount it to a bike with some added padding around the battery.. I have a dedicated battery box mounted to my columbia trike.
I also was concerned with puncturing the shrink wrap on the battery, so I found this backer material used in auto and boat seats. They put this over the springs before the foam so it prevents chaffing. I used contact cement and just wrapped it like a present. It has the look and feel like canvas so it took the fear of the battery slipping out of my hands............jack


Mounted in the bike

I use a 50-cal ammocan strapped (with pallet straps plus a big hose clamp for alternate security) to the underseat rails of CrazyBike2, for 14s 1p 20Ah of EIG NMC cells, and there's room in there for at least another 3s, maybe 4s, I think. I have all of the space inside around the pack filled with old mousepads, which are fairly dense (neoprene?) foam, and I have htem packed in tightly (as in, pretty hard to get the pack out of the can) so it can't move around from vibration/etc. I had planned to actually bolt or clamp the pack to the case but this works just as well as far as I can tell, and helps keep vibrations (at least a little) from the cells themselves.

It's the white box (with pink top from a previous experimental ride) just under the seat on the right side:




I use a 7.62 ammocan strapped in the center frame of the same bike for an extra 14s 2p 10Ah of RC LiPo packs, packed similarly inside.


See this thread:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=36811
for more info on the venting mods and why to do them.

Both cans have a venting groove at the edge of the case where it meets the lid, and the wires also route thru that, to help keep rain/etc out.

More discussion of safety of cases:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43552&

"Show us your home-made battery housing" (13 pages)
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12847

"Your creations before and after pics" (44 pages)
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=235

Looks good, just the info I needed. Never knew about the vent, gonna have to look at the can closer I guess. The can I was given is an old 7.62 machine gun ammo can, the same ones we used strapped to the gun mount on our Slicks in Nam.

I also needed to see the "Kennel on a Trailer", since that is exactly what I have been thinking of building for my Chesapeake

Original kennel trailer thread is here. I learned a lot with that one, on how NOT to do it.
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18671

Now I have a new version for the new dog, having lost the dogs and the other kennel/crates etc in the house fire.
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=54323

I've still got a lot of things to do to make this new one the way it needs to be, and I'd really like to build a trailer specifically for the kennel/crate I'm using on it, but this one does work for the 94-pound Tiny, at least so far, even if it's less than ideal.

All the ammo cans are sealed, and you don't want to keep it sealed with a battery in there, cuz it's gotta vent somehow if the battery fails in some dramatic way for whatever reason.

Best is to make it so only the hot gases can come out, and new oxygen can't get in to make things worse. Hence, the small hole around the wiring in my case, and the little grommets around Stochastic's, which are larger holes than the wire actualy needs, leaving room for expanding gases. Other methods are discussed in the threads about that.

I seem to remember running across some 5psi trip one way vent valves with a 1/4' Pipe thread mount that I put into one of my Hydrogen Chloride Control panels for basically the same reason. Gonna have to see if I can find them again.