A123 Battery Pack Photos (Plus Kyleservicetechs 51 Amp Onboard Monitor)

[kyleservicetech]

Take a look at my 5S2P A123 4600 MaHr pack just put together last night. The battery pack has #12 leadwires for plus and minus, with a second four wire ribbon wire set up as two paralleled to handle the 10 Ampere charging rate I use. This will drive a Hacker A40-10L with 16/12 APC prop, and Castle Creations Phoenix 60 Amp ESC. The model is getting 6 1/2 minute flights, taking 2/3 capacity out of the battery, leaving 1/3 for go-arounds, and emergencys.

The balance cable and connector is from Digikey. I bought my cables from Digikey several years ago before retiring. Tried to find these cables on line, couldn't find them, they may have been discontinued. But, page 184 in the Digikey catalog shows the connectors and pins. Per the attached JPG's of the Digikey web page, the parts are made by Molex. Looking at the attached JPG, Digikey part number WM2806-ND is the "shell for an 8 pin flat connector. And, the Digikey part number WM2510-ND is the part number for the female pin. Take a look at either these attached JPG photos or Digikey on line to determine if these connectors are what you require. (NEW) Current price for the housing is $0.93 for an 8 pin housing, and $0.92 for 10 pins. (Order 100 pins, they are cheap enough!) Just order a connector housing wider than you need. Its easy to cut off extra unused plastic from these housings.

The Astroflight "Blinky" will plug directly into these Digikey connector parts.

You will also require a crimper for these terminals. Radio Shack in the USA sells one.

If you log into www.digikey.com, look for the "Interactive Catalog" on their web page. You will find their entire catalog on line. Its several THOUSAND pages. Anyone can order from them, all you need is a credit card number. Another Internet site is www.mouser.com, also very good, also sell to anyone. Before retiring, I ordered thousands of dollars worth of stuff from Digikey and Mouser. They are good companies to work with.

The "Shrink Wrap" is from a grocery store one liter "selzer" white soda bottle that measures 10.5 inches in circumference. The right hand side is a spacer to balance the model. It has a blind nut that allows bolting the front end of the battery pack to the firewall. (Don't need to remove A123 cells during charging!)

Try those plastic bottles as shrink wrap. These are FAR more durable than the thin stuff usually used. I simply shrunk the plastic bottle around the 1/4 lite ply at the left side. That will NEVER come apart! That stuff is difficult to cut, even with a sharp box cutter knife.

The attached photos show following:
Authors Onboard monitor, shows total AmpHours is 1.25
Authors Onboard monitor, shows total flying time of 535 Hours, 8 Minutes (Got to set this to zero!)
Authors Onboard monitor, shows authors onboard monitor circuit board side

Onboard monitor shows total flights, total AmpHours for flying season, total flying time for season, Amphours for current flight/or actual amps for current flight. It's suitable for upto 30 VDC, and top range is currently 100 Amps. (That little PicChip is BUSY!)

I've built 8 of these units, all work well. Accuracy is about 2% or so. All parts except circuit board were purchased through www.mouser.com. The PicChip was programmed by kyleservicetech.

[Larry3215]

Nice job kyle! You're a much neater pack builder than I am. I have to use opaque shrink on mine to avoid embarrassment

[pd1]

I have purchased some A123 cells, but I haven't made a pack yet.
I like the looks of yours.
If it's not too much, could you get me the Digikey part number for the balance tap?

Paul

[Larry3215]

does that digikey part fit the standard tp or hyperion balancer conectors?

[cyclops2]

For the GWS stuff. For being charged on a FMA Cell Pro 4 .
1100 mahr cells VPX. The charge plugs are from FMA. Nice wires to solder.

[dcwebaccount]

nice job !