I was hoping I wasn’t the only one doing that 
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inhale… solder while exhaling. … inhale… think about that cool fume extraction system you’re gonna have one day… solder while exhaling…
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I made a rectanglular prism out of wood with a box fan and home furnace filter as the top, duck taped plastic sheeting to the other 3 walls, and turn it on while soldering.
Unfortunately I was doing a shit ton of spray painting a while back and it got moved to my garage where it still resides. I should really be using that or make a small version with all the extra 3d printer fans I have.
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Fine extractor fan. Not sure we need a tutorial but here’s my setup. The filter kills most.od the visible fumes …
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077Q99PPV?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
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Yes perhaps you are right that it’s not so much a tutorial thread, but could be a good content thread. Different extraction options.
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Ok yall, so Im working on a battery building tutorial, and I’m kind of struggling here. Im running into info-creep, and I dont know where to draw the line on the scope of the tutorial. I dont want to start at “What is electricity” and work up from there, because a.) that would take a million years to type, b.) because other people have done a better explanation of that info, and c.) I dont think that someone who needs to be learning about volts and amps should be jumping into battery building.
Oh jesus the info-creep has spread into this reply. I’m typing too much and I dont know how to dial it back. Someone help me.
Basically what im getting at is that I want to make this a tutorial for high level builders who already know the basics of DIY, but I dont know where to draw the line on what info is inside the scope, and what is outside the scope.
What is my scope???
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@Benjamin
Are you making the tutorial about the reasons behind your choices?
If so, I’d say start with a choice of cell and why you chose it. From there you could work your way up to a finished product using it as an example along the way while explaining why one thing is better or worse based on your personal experience with building. From there, people will inherently comment and probably ask details on certain parts if you forgot to mention something…fuck, you infected me with your info-creep
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Definitely skip that, what is a p,s-group part.
What I would include:
Equipment basics
Material basics and importance of checking every batch nickel if it’s pure nickel.
Why which cell
Pack layout, cell glueing and isolation
How to do a proper serial connection
Basic bms wiring diagram
Pictures
Maybe even some recommendations how to fix packs into an enclosure to minimize vibration.
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This…so much this
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I think the most common error/possible improvement point that I see in packs is people placing their series connections incorrectly. All too often i see flat packs like this
There are several reasons I don’t like this battery, but the most important is that he essentially has series current of 5 cells running through one bit of nickel strip.
I think that an integral part of the battery design is what bits carry parallel current, what bits carry series current, and what bits carry both.
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From someone who thinks “I can build a battery if I had a spot welder” but then thinks, “where would I even start?” I’d like to see:
- how to know which size/width of nickel you’ll need
- pics of where the most amounts of current are flowing through
- mindset when planning layouts of cells (which orientations are most logical for your application)
- all the safety measures and where shorts are easy to accidentally happen
- how to wire up the bms
- good vs bad spot welds
- optional: photos of good and bad looking packs with what you do and don’t like about them like above
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Thanks y’all. Ill try to incorporate these suggestions without getting too lost in the weeds of basic DIY principals.
Here’s an example of something I’ve been struggling with:
When discussing planning your pack, how in depth should I go about how much current you design your pack to deliver? A basic level would be “find out what your cell is rated for times the number of cells in parallel.” While a full in the weeds discussion would go into real life current usage, gearing, hardware limits, the voltage/duty cycle/amp relationship in a VESC, etc.
All that info is important, but i dont know if its within the scope of how to build a battery.
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I would just focus on building to pack potential with a mention that it’s also a possibility to just work to real world expectancy.
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I’d like to see a breakdown on gearing and how it’s affected by going from 2wd -> 4wd, belt vs. gear drive, wheel size, center to center distance vs pulley diameter, etc. Seems pretty simple but I think collating various experiences could be valuable.
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Not a suggestion for your tutorial thread but I was wondering how you deal with cells with voltage that are too far apart from each other’s. Is there a cell charger that can be set to a specific voltage?
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On my balance charger (UP1200AC plus) you can select storage charge which will take all cells to (i think) 3.8v
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Is it like the hobby chargers? Can you balance charge many single cells at the same time?
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Nah 6-12s only
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If im building a pack for a customer, its with brand new cells. Most reputable suppliers all send cells at around 3.5v~3.6v and there is rarely enough difference to warrant charging the cells. If any of the cells are that different from the rest, its a pretty good indicator that its bad, so I pull it.
If I’m building a pack for myself and using salvaged cells or something, then the easiest solution is to just charge all the cells to full. This can take a very long time
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I have one nitecore intellicharger i4 I need to check if it charges each cells to the same voltage. Do you have something like that?
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