Battery location

[whiteturbo]

Hi,Where do you mount your battery's?I am looking for ideas to mount my battery's.At the moment i have them flopping about in my panniers wrapped up in my waterproof trousers, so less than ideal. I use LiPo's so its usually six times 5000mah 5s. Three in each panniers wired up in parallel then connected both sides in series so i end up with 15amp 10s(36v) but i feel i can do better.
Best idea so far seems like two Turnigy pick n pull hard cases from hobbyking at about £25 including postage. Trunk box's looks good but not sure about it being so high up.
What are your suggestions for a neat stealthy way of mounting LiPo's, a triangle bag is out because i ride a ladies bike(cant get leg over crossbar due to an accident).Everything else looks pro/not Diy and i feel the battery setup is letting things down a bit.

 

[anotherkiwi]

This goes in a 9.95€ pannier from Decathlon. I have already broken one pannier. At the moment there is 20 Ah of LiPo in the case which makes it a bit heavy.

New in frame battery box will be built soon which will hold either 10 Ah LiPo or a 9 Ah 18650 Vruzend kit battery.

 

[whiteturbo]

@anotherkiwi Thanks for the photo's. Case looks good but huge, what i was thinking was something similar but divided in two and put in two panniers. I have also looked at laptop neoprene sleeves packed with foam between the lipo's but it would be a bit messy taking them out and repacking again for charging,inspection etc but have decided to go that way for my emergency 8 amp setup which will be a get home if things go wrong kit.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Football boot bag plus plywood base:

 

[whiteturbo]

@d8veh Hey, looks good! How much does it weigh and how does it handle being so high up.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The weight is OK as long as you get the battery as close to the wheel as possible and as far forward as possible. to achieve that, I make my own racks out of aluminium tube from Wickes. That's a 20Ah battery that weighs about 4.5kg and the bike handled perfectly.

What battery do you have?

 

[Nealh]

When I use lipo I have two options, carry them in a pannier or the Additive V2 bike bag which is pannier that straddles the cross bar. I can fit up to 50ah of lipo inside.
http://www.additive-bikes.com/de/ADDITIVE-BAG-V2.html

In the rear panniers I place them in pairs and have made a snug sleeve for them to fit in out of old butyl pond liner, this gives them good protection from rubbing / abrasion.

 

[anotherkiwi]

In the pannier I use plastic washing powder boxes to protect them when only using 2.

Case looks good but huge, what i was thinking was something similar but divided in two and put in two panniers. I have also looked at laptop neoprene sleeves packed with foam between the lipo's but it would be a bit messy taking them out and repacking again for charging,inspection etc but have decided to go that way for my emergency 8 amp setup which will be a get home if things go wrong kit.

Huge is the word but it holds everything, even an emergency charger. Those cases exist in smaller versions. I picked it because it was the exact size of the pannier.

 

[whiteturbo]

So this is what i have gone with.
1 For short distance rides like going down town or local trips.



Its just a cheap neoprene ipad case with the corner cut off. inside is a Multistar 8000mah 6s 10c and a Multistar 8000mah 4s 10c(bubble wrapped)in series so 36v(42v) 8 amp its 9 x 6 inch and weighs 1.75 kg.
usually just thrown in pannier or sometimes in my backpack.


2 For longer runs and better protection.





Two of these Turnigy boxes from Hobbyking(£9.91 each) which come with sponge that you can cut/pick to suit the contents. So each box has 2 x 5000mah 5s 20c and a nano tec 5000mah 5s 25-50c wired in parallel, one in each pannier and connected in series so: 36v(42) 15 amp each box weighs 2.25 kg so 4.5 kg total. I can also add another nano tech to make it up to 20 amps with an extra series wire i made up, i haven't discovered how far i can go yet so am a bit paranoid about running out especially as the last three miles to home is all uphill about 20% in places.

 

[anotherkiwi]

You will find that the 8000 mAh Multistar will give you about 6.8 Ah in real conditions. It will sag but just about 1 V on your steep hill. I don't see the LiPo alarms? Set to 3.6 V for the cheap ones and 3.65 V for the better ones.

Your 20 Ah (16 Ah) battery will sag a lot less, mine sags about 0.6 V in the worst climbs at full assistance: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/number-two.23568/page-3#post-331791 is a 62 km ride, with hills , where I measured 467 Wh used.

 

[whiteturbo]

I find LVA's unreliable and as i always balance charge my Lipos so i know when one cell is on its way out, i charge to 4.16v and dont go lower than 3.6v(36v for pack). I am so paranoid about running my Lipos too low i carry a spare pack if im going any distance.

 

[anotherkiwi]

This one is very good, as accurate as a battery medic or the voltage reading on the LCD

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingtm-cellmeter-6-lipo-life-li-ion-cell-checker-alarm.html