JohnnyCrash
1 µW
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2012
- Messages
- 4
Greetings everyone!
First post here in years, electric bike buff, always wanted to build my own BLDC motor controller to run an RC outrunner equipped with Hall sensors, build a 2- or 3-speed gearbox and power it with an ultra-lightweight battery pack good for about one kilowatt-hour. Reasonable cost but with good efficiency, compactness and lightest possible weight is the name of the game for me, so the humble RC motor with hall sensors and homebrew gearbox powered by 18650s or RC lipo packs wins hands down.
Question is, where the heck in Canada can I get hold of such cells/packs?
18650 cells are available online at Canadian shops for exorbitant prices, like $10-$15 a cell, even for old, 2.2 Ah low C-rate cells. Ouch! Lipo packs are similarly overpriced here. You can't ship Lithium-based cells/packs across the border, so you pay through the nose for Canadian stocked items. 18650s are a buck to make, why ten or fifteen to buy and have shipped?
HobbyKing Zippy packs seem like such a great deal, lightweight 8s 5800 mAh packs are $78 or so, that's about $500 per kWh and they're nicely pre-assembled packs with connectors, all you do is make parallel power and balance harnesses and plug everything in! Unfortunately, they can't ship them here, not even from the US warehouse! So, you'd have to buy Canadian stocked lipo packs for $1000 to $2000 per kWh, and they've probably been on the shelf for years.
Laptop computer batteries are much less convenient, but at least the cells have welded tabs so you can solder them into parallel blocks for pack making. Some Canadian online retailers have 12-cell packs for $60, so that's about $500 per (nominal!) kWh as well. Problem is, inexpensive off-brand laptop batteries have a notorious reputation for being old stock, very low capacity/high resistance cells with very short cycle and calendar life.
So, where do Canadian homebrew EV buffs get their tabbed 18650s or lipo packs without getting taken for a ride on the price?
Just curious,
Ian
First post here in years, electric bike buff, always wanted to build my own BLDC motor controller to run an RC outrunner equipped with Hall sensors, build a 2- or 3-speed gearbox and power it with an ultra-lightweight battery pack good for about one kilowatt-hour. Reasonable cost but with good efficiency, compactness and lightest possible weight is the name of the game for me, so the humble RC motor with hall sensors and homebrew gearbox powered by 18650s or RC lipo packs wins hands down.
Question is, where the heck in Canada can I get hold of such cells/packs?
18650 cells are available online at Canadian shops for exorbitant prices, like $10-$15 a cell, even for old, 2.2 Ah low C-rate cells. Ouch! Lipo packs are similarly overpriced here. You can't ship Lithium-based cells/packs across the border, so you pay through the nose for Canadian stocked items. 18650s are a buck to make, why ten or fifteen to buy and have shipped?
HobbyKing Zippy packs seem like such a great deal, lightweight 8s 5800 mAh packs are $78 or so, that's about $500 per kWh and they're nicely pre-assembled packs with connectors, all you do is make parallel power and balance harnesses and plug everything in! Unfortunately, they can't ship them here, not even from the US warehouse! So, you'd have to buy Canadian stocked lipo packs for $1000 to $2000 per kWh, and they've probably been on the shelf for years.
Laptop computer batteries are much less convenient, but at least the cells have welded tabs so you can solder them into parallel blocks for pack making. Some Canadian online retailers have 12-cell packs for $60, so that's about $500 per (nominal!) kWh as well. Problem is, inexpensive off-brand laptop batteries have a notorious reputation for being old stock, very low capacity/high resistance cells with very short cycle and calendar life.
So, where do Canadian homebrew EV buffs get their tabbed 18650s or lipo packs without getting taken for a ride on the price?
Just curious,
Ian
