Making an RC Battery Pack - A Primary How-To
If you like RC, you realize the importance of a battery pack. The kind of batteries you select, how very well your pack is assembled And just how competently you cost them are all critical areas to powering your RC car or truck. Absolutely sure, You should buy a battery pack pre-assembled, but You may also Establish your very own and have the satisfaction of designing and powering your own private auto.
The very first thing you should do is when you select to put together a battery pack is what you're powering and exactly how much juice you require. Additionally you will need to think about the subsequent:
one. Consider the chassis of your respective motor vehicle. The sort of car or truck doesn't matter as much as the amount of Place in which It's important to maneuver. The batteries might have to be oriented inside of a flat pack, a clustered pack or as both. It's also Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) Battery wise to think about the distribution of body weight in the automobile - if the battery body weight will probably be distributed in a very side to facet or again to front method. Sometimes your chassis House for your battery pack will not be adaptable, so concentrate on those constraints before you start.
2. Think about the motor powering your RC car or truck. Depending upon the electric power necessities, you'll establish what number of batteries or cells you'll need. This is also if you can choose the sort of batteries you are going to use - if you would like keep your NiMH batteries or upgrade to LiPo.
three. Pinpointing your voltage is known as a simple matter of addition. A typical cell voltage is one.2v, so wired within a sequence - twelve batteries will incorporate approximately fourteen.4v - which would electric power an fourteen.four volt RC electric motor.
Following, You will need to gather your battery pack materials - so Here is a sample procuring record. Recall, we're assuming we're making a battery pack with 14.4v, as in the example earlier mentioned:
o twelve Batteries or Battery Cells
o twelve Battery Bars (you can buy battery bars in bulk if you intend to make more than one pack and help save $)
o Wire: You'll want a greater high quality twelve gage using a significant strand rely. This sort of wire, Using these characteristics will likely be far more versatile which is good together with remaining extra efficient for energy transmission.
o 80-100 Watt Soldering Gun. You'll be wanting a gun as you may be additional specific and more rapidly - this is necessary due to heat sensitivity of batteries. The quicker and more precise you could be, the more unlikely You will be to wreck the battery.
o sixty/forty Solder. This is greater top quality - also crucial for rapid and exact perform and avoiding battery destruction.
o Flux. This is the chemical cleaning agent that eliminates oxidation from metal to aid soldering. You may use liquid or paste flux when assembling a battery pack.
o Shoo Goo or Goop. This quick drying adhesive is going to be accustomed to bundle the batteries together.
o Battery Pack Assembly Jig - optional. These assembly devices align the batteries appropriately and aid a tidy battery pack. The batteries find yourself generally seeking like wire wood - tidily bundled.
o Soldering "Encouraging Palms" - optional. These gadgets assist you to hold issues in position Whilst you solder.
o An additional optional timesaver is to secure a "Assisting Fingers" accessory for the soldering station.
o Multi Meter. You'll need a good multimeter to test voltage and polarity.
o Wire strippers and Wire Cutters. These applications will assist you to handle, strip and effectively Slice your twelve gage wire.
o The ultimate element would be the shrink wrap that can go within the whole assembly and continue to keep it tidy. You can expect to also need a warmth gun to heat and shrink the wrap.
So, you have recognized tips on how to orient your batteries and the quantity of you require - now you will get to operate on assembly. For this example, we are assembling twelve battery cells - 6 down a person aspect and six down one other.
When you finally determine wherever the batteries are likely in relation towards your chassis And exactly how they are going to generally be laid out, you'll be able to commence. For this instance, as an instance we are doing 6 down a person side and six down the other facet.
Just to make sure we're on exactly the same page, the ultimate aim here is to generally be running wire through the optimistic terminal within your initially battery to the optimistic terminal on the electrical RC motor and then operating a wire through the damaging terminal on the last battery within your pack towards the constructive terminal of your other battery pack, thus developing a finished circuit.
This suggest you must have sufficient wire to reach through the positive terminal of your respective very first battery to that terminal and Furthermore with the adverse to finish the circuit with the other battery pack so bear that in mind.
Orientation. Align your to start with mobile to make sure that beneficial is pointing "upwards" and destructive is pointing "downwards" then reverse the subsequent battery so It can be reverse on down the line. If you purchased the battery assembly jig, That is once you'd utilize it to align your cells and hold them set up.
Adhere. Adhere each of the batteries along with your speedy drying adhesive to They may be as a way and aligned effectively.
Flux. Use your flux now within the relationship points.
Connection - Make use of your battery bars to connect your cells. You will need to heat up your soldering gun and warmth up the battery bar. Using the bar shields the battery and once the flux begins to bubble, you utilize your usage of solder. The objective is not to warmth the battery by itself. Heating the battery is not only counterproductive, considering the fact that for those who hurt the battery it won't function, but additionally risky because the mobile could explode if overheated.
You will need to complete the identical methods for your remaining battery connections. You are connecting the damaging for the positive time and again once again. You'll then be Completely ready to connect wiring to your battery pack.
The wires must be pre-tinned which mean you should strip off a quarter inch from the protective plastic wiring sheath, make use of the flux to scrub them - use the flux liberally - warmth your solder gun after which heat the wire and flow the solder into your wire until finally totally saturated. You will also want solder around the batteries And so the solder will act since the connector With all the battery.
As soon as the two, six cell battery packs are entire, you will need to use the shrink wrap to protected them - and you'll have your comprehensive battery pack! Now you'll ability and fly your RC helicopter, aircraft, boat, car or truck without issues!