battery

Replaced battery terminals

Submitted by Pedro on Wed, 2021-07-07

Sometimes you need to go back some steps to make sure you're happy with the build. That's what happened with my battery terminals and bus bars.

After a mock up with cardboard, I fabricated the aluminium battery box base and screw it to the body. I do enjoy working with sheet metal and its workspace in FreeCAD. I also invested a bit in the Technical Drawing workspace to send nice instructions to the laser cut and bending guys.

Battery terminal covers in place

Submitted by Pedro on Sat, 2021-04-24

I finally got some time to apply the MDF layers to the battery terminal covers.

And it was very satisfying to know that it was a very nice fit. The only exception was of a couple of extra centimeters in width, which were promptly cut away easily.

The entire cover is made of three MDF layers. The first two are 10mm thick whereas the last one is 5mm thick.

Battery terminal covers

Submitted by Pedro on Thu, 2021-04-01

Things are slower with the new lock-down and travel restrictions. But I was able to move on with the battery terminal covers.

I'm mimicking the original Nissan ones, albeit using MDF as insulation (3D printing was too expensive) and 5mm aluminium bus bars (copper laser cutting was too expensive too).

This was the plan:

First battery stack

Submitted by Pedro on Thu, 2021-03-18

I've just assembled the full stack of battery modules on a quick visit to the shop. Here's the result.

Battery box trial

Submitted by Pedro on Sun, 2021-02-21

I received the sheet metal parts for the first version of the battery box and started assembling it.

Battery box plan

Submitted by Pedro on Sat, 2021-01-30

Having the battery modules on hand, I started building a structure to secure them on the Samurai, using 3mm aluminium.

Sourcing Nissan Leaf batteries

Submitted by Pedro on Mon, 2021-01-25

Just before a new lock down, I was able to source some used Nissan Leaf batteries!

First electric centimeters!

Submitted by Pedro on Sat, 2020-12-19

Big milestone achieved! The Samurai crawled its first centimeters on electric power alone!

More surprising was the fact that is was using a "battery pack" made of five 20V batteries from Parkside (Lidl), rated at 4Ah each! :D

Parkside 20V battery adapter

Submitted by Pedro on Fri, 2020-11-13

While I read more about high voltage batteries but I don't commit to one yet, I'm playing with some cheaper alternatives. This time, I'm planning to use five 20V batteries from Parkside/Lidl, which are easy to get (if you're lucky with their timing), relatively cheap, can be used with a number of tools and easily charged/replaced.