Diamondback hardtail with ammo box LiPo

GaryMedia

1 mW
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
14
Location
Cary, NC
Perhaps some of the members of this forum would find my recent build to be interesting.

I ordered a group of eight 22.2v nominal (6s) 4Ah batteries and bundled them into two groups of 4. Each group of 4 has two 30A fuses that connect them to both pairs of the contacts in one Speakon connector in the ammo box. The ammo box also has a 7-pin XLR connector for each group of 4 to connect the balance conductors. The resulting box has two Speakon connectors with 4 pairs of 22.2v connectors.

I made a cable for the balance conductors from three braided Cat-5 UTP cables that use 24awg conductors. Each pin on the balancing conductors gets 3 conductors which works out to a bit better than 18awg per pin. Each pin in the Speakon main charging cable uses 6 [corrected from 8] 24awg conductors which works out to around 14awg conductors.

The junction box in front puts the two Speakon connectors in series for the 48v Infineon controller. It has a 30A fuse and a 50A on-off switch connected to the controller. When this same ammo box is installed on my Cyclone bike (currently being re-built), the junction box on the Cyclone will parallel the Speakon connectors to provide 24v to the controller/motor. Therefore, no changes to the internals of the ammo box, nor any changes to the charging setup are required.

Pictures below.View attachment 3
 

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Nice job! I like the no-pain dual voltage setup. Post up whenever you have some Vsag or range data, I want to compare notes on that!
 
Hi Gary,

Nice bike! I love your battery setup/charging solution. Can you charge the entire group of packs at the same time using only 1 charger? and 1 set of cables?

I am also interested in building a battery very similar to yours. Except, I am a little confused about where/how to make the connections. If it isn't too much trouble, could you draw a simple schematic (paint program would suffice) showing the wires and parallel/series groupings?

Why does your ammo box have matching pairs of connectors?


Thank you kindly,
-MHz128
 
mhz128 said:
Hi Gary,

Nice bike! I love your battery setup/charging solution. Can you charge the entire group of packs at the same time using only 1 charger? and 1 set of cables?

-MHz128

I'm guessing hes charging the packs in parallel, either 4 at a time @ 22 volts or all 8 parallel @ 22v? then
discharging them in series @ 44v?

You can charge the entire pack at 44v while in series and parallel so you dont need to change leads over if you use GGoodrums LVC boards Gary will also has custom balancer to go with these boards VERY soon...I use these myself in my 44v 20ah Turnigy lipo pack.

KiM
 
Nice job on that ammo box Gary,
I would maybe add another ammo box to the other side, just to even things out, (even without batteries, Maybe just to carry other stuff) I think it would make the bike look better, (just a thought)

Is that the Turnigy Accucel-8 150W 7A Balancer/Charger you have there, if so, I was thinking on getting one, how does it perform ?
 
I like ammo boxes and use the action packer sport boxes for lots of things and just getting one setup to hold a battery also. The bonus with them is that they are lockable and won't rust or dent.

That beige bike is a nice design that has merit for sure with the extra tubing supporting the rack. The seat post mount racks folks are using are sketchy IMHO and this is an elegant solution although not as adaptable. There is no way that bike should cost that much though. I have put a feeler out to see who makes the frame overseas and will report back if I find a source. I have never seen one like it marketed here. I can't imagine that the frame alone couldn't be had for $500 or even less which when fully kitted out with new stuff would be more like $1500 or so.
 
Wow. Thats a box full of connectors! Cant even see the batteries.
 
That is whats great about these cheap varieties of lipo. It opens up the possibilities for such small containers that non-issues become issues. With sla the batteries are so bulky you would never even worry about connector space! :p
 
Hi folks,
I'll try to answer the questions all in one shot:

All of the wiring for creating the 48v, 16Ah appearance to the controller happens inside the junction box connected by the Speakon's. Using 24v 32Ah is achieved without any internal changes to the ammo box.

There is only one charger right now, so I have to move my cables from one charge group of 4 batteries to the adjacent charging group. When the dollars are in place, I'll get a second charger and make another set of special cables so I can do a whole ammo box in one shot.

I've provided a JPG of each of the wiring schemes.
48v-wiring.jpg
24v-wiring.jpg

As for the left-side position of the ammo box, most of the time I do carry stuff in a right pannier. It made sense to me that the kick stand would be incrementally unloaded by the increasing weight of the removable pannier on the right. I am thinking of a frame modification that would allow me to place the ammo box on the centerline of the bike, but that's reserved for the full-suspension dual-disc brake bike project.

Thanks for your interest. The three weeks of silence was surprising.
 
FYI I found another version of that hard rack FS bike. I had a Kettler 28" wheeled bike with this type of suspension and it wasn't that bad a ride using it as a townie. I like the step through frame on this one though as an option.
 

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damcard said:
Do you know if its possible to split a pack of lipos to best make use of the room in the ammo box? -damcard

I'm not sure what you're asking. There are 8 lipos (6S, 4Ah each) in the .30 caliber ammo box. They're organized into two 'packs' of 4. Because of the connector clearance and the 1-inch spacer between the packs, I've not used all of the room in there. Two more lipos (total of 10) would fit in there easily with a little re-work...11 total in a squeeze, but I don't know what connector strategy would accommodate that many while still allowing the box to close.
 
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