RC Lipo - anyone making it easy ?

[KirstinS]

Hi All,

Whilst I'm still procrastinating over how to boost my bikes speed I've been revisiting the 44v RC Lipo possibility as i should be able to hook these up to my existing setup (8fun 250 front kit) and get a speed bosst without chaning anything else

Thing is - I'm a little scared. I understand the need to be careful with voltages (the LIPO rules) and am confident I can do that.

What I'm not confident in doing is making wiring looms to connect the packs up. I'm sure I'd destroy my investment before i even get started

So my question is this - does anyone know of a business or individual who provides this service i.e sell a complete kits of Lipo packs, wiring looms and correct charger ?

Probrably this is pie in the sky wishful thinking as the £ they'd need to charge over the parts makes it economically unviable

Still - thought it worth an ask here before i write it off as an option

thanks
Kirstin

 

[Old_Dave]

The 'wiring looms' / lipo packs / chargers are all available from single sources, Hobbyking being just the first one from the top of my head, Giantshark is another

Just let us know what voltage ( number of cells in series) and total amps you fancy and I'm sure that we/I will do a shopping list for you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Hi All,

Whilst I'm still procrastinating over how to boost my bikes speed I've been revisiting the 44v RC Lipo possibility as i should be able to hook these up to my existing setup (8fun 250 front kit) and get a speed bosst without chaning anything else

Thing is - I'm a little scared. I understand the need to be careful with voltages (the LIPO rules) and am confident I can do that.

What I'm not confident in doing is making wiring looms to connect the packs up. I'm sure I'd destroy my investment before i even get started

So my question is this - does anyone know of a business or individual who provides this service i.e sell a complete kits of Lipo packs, wiring looms and correct charger ?

Probrably this is pie in the sky wishful thinking as the £ they'd need to charge over the parts makes it economically unviable

Still - thought it worth an ask here before i write it off as an option

thanks
Kirstin

There's nothing difficult about making a harness, The first thing you have to do is solder a connector to each battery pack. The imprtant thing is only tp work on one wire at a time, Strip and solder one wire to the connector and make sure that it's fully insulated before bringing the other wire anywhere near. Dead easy using Deans connectorrs: Once you've got the first one on, you can buy ready-made Deans series and parallel leads for making up your packs.
LiPo Battery Parallel Deans T-Connecter Cable C1: £3.99 | eBay
10 Pairs Deans Style T Connectors : £6.99 free P&P | eBay
Deans T Plug 2S (Series) Y- Harness Connect 2 Packs | eBay
If you want to parallel the balance leads 0f the parallel packs:
Parallel Splitter JST-XH 6S AC-PSJ6

 

[Jeremy]

There's a chap on ES who makes and sells connection looms for RC packs. Take a look at this post to see the sort of thing he offers: Endless-sphere.com • View topic - Custom Lipo Series Parallel Harnesses & More!

The snag is he's in the US, but if you don't feel happy about soldering up cables and connectors it's probably still a good way to go.

As for chargers, then I'd advise getting a good quality RC charger, the cheaper ones tend to be a bit flaky. You can either pay a premium and get one here in the UK, or buy one from a reputable RC online store overseas and probably get a better price. Iceman (the ES chap) can advise on, and supply, chargers too.

 

[KirstinS]

Thanks Dave - I understood these had to made up ( prob just me getting confused trying to follow the ES lipo for noobs thread)

I'd like 10ah or a little more (price/ease dependant ) at 44.4v nominal

Really appreciate the help. Have spent many a lunchbreak in confusion on ES and hobbyking !

Regards
Kirstin

 

[KirstinS]

Thanks all ! Seems pedelec members re like buses. None then 3 in 3 minutes

 

[Deleted member 4366]

So you want four 5000maH (or more) 6S packs.
You used to be able to get Winforce 5200mAH packs on Ebay for £30 including postage, but I haven't seen them for a while. Mine are still going after 2 years. Other than that, it's Hobbyking for Zippys. The better quality ones are a lot more expensive.

 

[Jeremy]

My vote would be for Zippy's or maybe Turnigy's. The UK HK warehouse is a reasonable bet for batteries now, they've recently had a lot of new stock in. It's hard to beat HK value, TBH.

 

[amigafan2003]

There's a chap on ES who makes and sells connection looms for RC packs

I've got one of Icecube's harnesses. I'm good at wiring but the stuff this guy creates is amazing:-

Balance connectors are Methods boards cut in half.

 

[Old_Dave]

Good deal on Turnigy 5000mAh 4S1P 14.8v 20C hardcase pack (UK Warehouse)

6 required @ GBP15.55 = £93.30 (44.3v 10Ah)

 

[Scimitar]

Deans connectors are utterly outmoded, use XT60s.

 

[Old_Dave]

Deans connectors are utterly outmoded, use XT60s.

+1 on that


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[KirstinS]

Thanks again all

Amigafan - that looks just the ticket . No way could I do anything g like that, just the sort of thing I had in mind. May I ask what it cost roughly ?

 

[amigafan2003]

Here's a better pic of my harness (I also asked for three Anderson "tails") - 2nd pic is my harness:-

Endless-sphere.com • View topic - Custom Lipo Series Parallel Harnesses & More!

Checked my paypal account and I paid $130 which was £78 at the exchange rate at the time. That included shipping (got here in 5 days).

 

[KirstinS]

Thanks vm amigafan

Hmm, at 100 for lipo, 80 for harness and c50 for charger setup plus a few bit and prices - prob 250 "on the road" cost

That's vs 48v 13ah battery and ku93 from BMS battery at 270 delivered

Not seeing much advantage in either weight or price - basically 20 quid and a few hundred grams but there is a lot more hassle


The procrastination continues..

 

[Old_Dave]

80 for harness

Which is a bit OTT and can be done for a lot less if you learn to solder (or ask a friend)

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Thanks vm amigafan

Hmm, at 100 for lipo, 80 for harness and c50 for charger setup plus a few bit and prices - prob 250 "on the road" cost

That's vs 48v 13ah battery and ku93 from BMS battery at 270 delivered

Not seeing much advantage in either weight or price - basically 20 quid and a few hundred grams but there is a lot more hassle


The procrastination continues..

Lipo isn't a cheaper option. Its main advantages are that you can get battery voltages in 3.7v steps rather than 12v steps, so you can tune the speed of your motor closer to what you want, and you can get high power out of a smaller lighter battery. So if you have a 201 rpm 500w motor, you can go about 21 mph with a 44v 10aH battery. The only practical alternative would be Headway cells that are a lot heavier and you'd still need 12aH.

 

[johnamon]

I also have an icecube57 built harness. It wasn't cheap - I asked for a harness to to allow 18s3p to allow me to run my 6 lipo bricks in either 18s2p or 12s3p - a lot of connections meant an expensive harness, but the job is neater than I would have managed.

This winter I upgraded to lipo, I needed new HK lipos, a DIY meanwell bulk charger, some cheap chinese lipo balancers, a wiring harness, a new (lyen) controller to allow / handle all the current and a new pannier to store the batteries. I've spent nearly £500 in total including shipping and getting really lucky with no customs surprises. Please don't tell my better half the total.. LOL

p.s. Please remember that you'll need a power supply to run the battery charger - they don't tend to work off mains voltage (PITA)

 

[KirstinS]

Lipo isn't a cheaper option. Its main advantages are that you can get battery voltages in 3.7v steps rather than 12v steps, so you can tune the speed of your motor closer to what you want, and you can get high power out of a smaller lighter battery. So if you have a 201 rpm 500w motor, you can go about 21 mph with a 44v 10aH battery. The only practical alternative would be Headway cells that are a lot heavier and you'd still need 12aH.

undertand the voltage increase point

but weight-wise there seems little diff. For example a 13ah LiCoMn from BMS is 3.5kg. The 6 packs needed to get a 44v 10ah will be fraction over 3kg. Add in a few more grams for a harness and the weight saving seems so low as to have no real meaning.

I'm making an assumption that a 13ah will give me around the same real world output as a 10ah LIPO due to the voltage drop off. i.e I'd get about the same distance at top speed before performace dropped off

 

[KirstinS]

I also have an icecube57 built harness. It wasn't cheap - I asked for a harness to to allow 18s3p to allow me to run my 6 lipo bricks in either 18s2p or 12s3p - a lot of connections meant an expensive harness, but the job is neater than I would have managed.

This winter I upgraded to lipo, I needed new HK lipos, a DIY meanwell bulk charger, some cheap chinese lipo balancers, a wiring harness, a new (lyen) controller to allow / handle all the current and a new pannier to store the batteries. I've spent nearly £500 in total including shipping and getting really lucky with no customs surprises. Please don't tell my better half the total.. LOL

p.s. Please remember that you'll need a power supply to run the battery charger - they don't tend to work off mains voltage (PITA)

Ahh, so the main advahtage of lipo is lots of relativley small purchases vs one big one......much easier to get under the marital radar