My Personal Experience with DIY Lithium Ion Battery Packs 2006 to 2012

[Sleeping Bear]

   Bill,
        This is the charger I and several other guys around here have...http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&P=SM&I=LXAGUG    It will charge about any thing, is pretty easy to set up and has a 10 pack memory. I have charged a li-po pack followed by a nicad, a nimh and a buddies li-fe and lead acid packs one after another at the race track one day and commonly switch between my li-po and the daughters nicad. The charger can sense the difference between the li-po and the nicad and wont start if the setting is wrong. There is also a unit that will do multiple packs at once.    Worth at least looking at.....Later All.....S.B.

[Kevin Strong]

Thanks, Bill. Great info there. Cool that they're putting the PCB within the cell now! I'll definitely have to look into those for locos where I can't fit my "standard" removeable 14.8v flat pack. Does All-Battery stock the holders as well? I couldn't find them in any of the logical places on their web site.

Later,

K

[R and K RR Products]

  SB
They look to be about the same charges, just a little difference in the cases and the
Terergy is cheaper.

  Bill
I enclose my tenders for better sound and mount the Airwire board right under the coal load so I can change channels if need be. It also gives more insulation from the batteries and motor wires noise for better radio range.
Also most times when just making laps, I don't use the onboard batteries and use the axillary batteries only. But when I'm operating I use only the onboard batteries.
Next time get get over to StL, I like to come by and see you if that is OK.


Rodney

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Kevin,

Sadily All-battery does not carry the battery boxes.  I have asked Jason Li (the owner) to consider it, hopefully they will. 

Rodney and others interested:

My Missouri Western Railway is always glad to have visitors.  We just ask folks to make arrangements in advance.  An email to me is always good enough to get the ball rolling!! 

[rslater]

Hello all,

Since following this tread I have decided to build my own.  One question, after looking at all the different battery holders, are the 18650 lithium batteries the same size as AA?  They sure do look the same.  I ordered mine from the same source that Bill got his.
Now looking for the holders

Thanks

Rick   

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Rick,

the 18650 size battery is definitely not the same size as AA, they are larger. That is why battery holders or boxes are harder to find. 

If you order your battery boxes from the link I posted in the first post you will  be OK.  If you find a better or lower cost source for them please let us know.

Bill

[rslater]

Bill,

Thanks for the info.  I will start looking to the right box.  I will let you know if I find any


Rick

[rslater]

Bill,
I see in your post that you held a clinic about making these packs.  Was this online?  If it was, would you be so kind as to send me the link or any other info.  You are right, these battery holders are hard to find
Thanks once again
Rick

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Rick,

No the clinics are not online nor do I have a recording of one of them.

There really was not much to the clinics.  I demonstrated how to tin wire and solder, and the correct way to get the batteries in series, how to solder on the connector, test and wrap the final product.

  for the holders try the link i listed at the bottom of my first post.

Here it is:
http://www.ledsupermall.com/diy-battery-box-for-4-18650-battery.html

[rslater]

Bill,

Thanks for your quick reply.  I can use a couple of those flat holders but I would like to find some stack holders as well
If I find some I will let you know

Thanks
Rick

[rslater]

Bill,

I give up trying to find the 4 stack holders.  I was thinking about trying to glue the 2 battery holders (plentiful) and rewire. You would have the ability to stack 4 batteries and still change a single cell.

What's your opinion?

Rick

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Rick,

I completely agree.  It should work fine with minimal soldering involved, and it can be done while you are soldering on your connector.    The single holders could also be connected in many different configurations to fit into hard to reach or odd shaped spaces. 

Yesterday I built another pack and had a really hard time soldering the wires to the positive end.  For whatever reason the Tenergy batteries are a lot easier to solder to than the GTL batteries.  This makes the use of battery boxes even more desirable.  The negative ends of both brands are a snap.

in the future I will definitely go to using battery holders whenever they will fit into my project.

[rslater]

Bill,

Glad you agree, I will let you know how they come out

Thanks
Rick

[Loco Bill Canelos]

For information of all. 

I got my latest shipment of 12 GTL Batteries from Ebay seller "more-things'   Eleven of the batteries tested out at full charge 4.15 volts right out of the box.  One of them tested out at 3.1 volts.  Two attempts to charge it to the full 4.15 volts failed.  I have contacted the seller for a replacement.

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Well, I owe more-things an apology.  The battery that I tried to charge did not charge because I stupidly had the charger set up wrong.  I charged it up correctly and it charged to full voltage just fine.  So 12 out of twelve good ones for $38.51 and free shipping!!  Unbelievable!!