All right Battery Time! Today's video is sponsored by PCB Way. Let's build a battery module out of raw cells. This right here is a battery module that we've been making and selling in our website for a little while. but I've been holding back and releasing the files because every batch that I keep ordering I keep changing things, just improving, improving it slightly right? Uh, and I think now we're ready to release it.

So uh, I don't have the first one here. there was another one. There's many iterations in between these here, but eventually we figure out the best way to do these so that it's easy to build. Let's go to the drawing software so that I can show you how we made this thing.

Okay, so the first things you have to decide here is how many cells You're Gonna Want to put in this module. And we decided to do 56 because the boxes in which these cells Austin cells come in are in boxes 56, right? So then it just makes sense to use one box per module and that makes a module that is somewhat manageable. It's not too big, it's not too small. It allows you to do uh in 7s, right? Because that's uh.

you put seven cells in series 3.7 volts. then that becomes a perfect voltage for 7 24 volts. and then you can put two of these modules together in series. Then that makes it 14s which is 48 volts, right? So that kind of just works out.

And so here are the holes that we're going to make for the cells. We figure out. the cell spacings and then we just drew them in here and then we just multiply them around and then we just drew this and this is the spacing right here. That was uh, hard to get because I kept getting it wrong.

I kept moving, shifting things around and the cells are not as easy to measure. They're not once you lay them in there as a module. you know, uh, it works good here on on paper but once in real life they they were a bit off and so I kept uh changing them and adjusting them and stuff and until we finally got it. So once you got that, what you have to do is uh, put the traces.

these are what are gonna carry. This is what's gonna be exposed, current carrying places on the PCB right and so what happens is that then what we do. On top of this we put uh, nickel strips and then here in these places here and then here we spot weld that into the actual PCB board and that's how that nickel strip is going to be connected to the board here and then from the opposite side through this hole here. Then you can do the nickel strip and weld it right into the top of the cell into the anode or the castle.

So then after that what you'd have to do do the layers. So here's the top layer and so essentially what's going to happen. Let's do the bottom layer first so you can see it. This is what's gonna happen is this is the B minus so the most negative right? So all of these cells are connected to the negative node of the cells and now this becomes the negative and then the cell is going to go on the opposite side is going to connect the positive side to the negative side of this next cell.

and then this cell is going to connect all these positives into these negatives. and then uh, this same board could be used on the opposite side just flipped around and then this is going to be the most negative and then the opposite side that's going to be over here. Uh, it's going to be the most positive right? and I ended up doing an A and A B on this design just because it worked better. These holes right here are so that you can put screws uh, going all the way through and then you can sandwich these two boards together for further stability.

So it could be like really rigid structure. So the thing about these boards is that they are here's the the top layer right and so then we can see the three the 3D rendering of this board here and then these little Vias here are to connect this side right because it's got copper layer and then this side also has copper layer. But if this one is not connected to this side then it's not going to help you carry the load, carry all that current and so by doing these little Vias here it connects the top layer to the bottom layer. Now this becomes also current carrying capabilities and obviously the electrons.

Uh, choose the the path of leaves resistance so it's going to be like right here. It's going to create kind of small hot spots, but because you have eight different uh Pathways in which you connect, this thing could care easily carry like a hundred and over 100 amps and so that is pretty cool. It exceeds the capacity of the cells. so this bus bar is to carry the current right.

It carries the the serious connections between all these 56 cells, but it also doubles as a mechanical. or you know, uh yeah, it's a mechanical structural piece of the of the module. It actually holds the module together so holds all the 66 cells together as a module. Essay: You know, rectangular squares module like this and so I Haven't seen too many people use Pcbs this way.

I'm starting to do it and you know there's some people who don't think this is a good idea. Uh, but like every one of my projects every, there's an naysayers that you know they get entrenched in doing things one way. and whenever someone comes in and starts doing something different, then there's always pushback, right? There's always like no, that's not a good idea I Like the the way I chose you know that they have, they're invested in whatever way they decided to build batteries and so when someone comes around and says oh there's another way they're usually are like not open to that and so that's what ends up happening. So this is the A version of this board that this side and then we're gonna look at the B So this is a B and it's basically the same thing.

It's just backwards right? so it's just a little bit backwards. and then the thing that I did is I marked them like CB plus C5 C3 C1 That's just to make it easier for us to know and the people. And you know our guys in-house here when they're building batteries and even you guys when you guys are building batteries again, those little things are going to help you. This right here long is to let you know that this uh strip you need to leave it long so that it could wrap around the top because then that's what is going to make the connections for the balance leads right and that is going to come at the top.

Let's look at the top version or the top board that goes on to that one and as you can see when you do the rendering here then these are C1 C2 C3 C4 c567 Uh six and then this is seven right? So those are the actual pads that are used to be able to connect the cells into a BMS right? So these are the intermediate Taps between the cells and so that's why you have to leave the Um nickel strip go past and then you just wrap it around here and then you you just spot weld it on top of this thing and then this is the one that carries all the current. This is the end the B plus and that's why this whole top right here is that copper board right and so that carries it all the way up here and then this one carries it here. So this is your your plus and your negative and your positive right here. and then these are just uh Trace fuses.

So in case you ever make a a mistake and you connect this backwards or you connect is wrong or you short it out or whatever. Then instead of melting all your cables, melting all your things then these little fuses will go off now. then it becomes really hard to replace these right. You just have to like put a little cable from there to here and stuff.

but at least what happens is that you don't It's it's very little damage that happens here Now it becomes kind of an inconvenience but as opposed to having just everything melt down and then cause a fire and all this other stuff. So these are for security purposes in here. If you make a mistake, it's just this little Trace right here blows and it doesn't go further than that. And so it has worked.

These are incredibly safe. All these PCB modules that I've designed over the years? Um, well, they haven't caught fire. Uh, you know. and there's hundreds of thousands of these already.

Uh, at least on those seven as the original module that we designed it. That's where we started using these and they have helped quite a bit. for first timers that are building batteries. Uh, and when they make mistakes, it just blows this little fuses up.

So that's the three main boards. Now let's let's go and then to the table and then show you how to put this together. Okay, the very first thing you have to do is go to Pcbway.com and then you can either, uh, just purchase the boards there or download the file so that you can order those somewhere else on another website, right? But it's easier to just put purchase in here. and then after that, you have to come in here and then start ordering all these other stuff.

This is all the other components that you will need to finish this project and I have links in there and you just go to the links and then you purchase all that stuff. Then you can start your project. Okay, once you get your boards the first thing to do is to start spot welding the nickel strip on the PCB boards right and I have marked the back of those boards with a measurement. It has like 165 millimeters or 110 something like that and so you just measure that amount and then cut your nickel strip to that amount and then you put them in there right? and you see some of those ones that are sticking past.

Those are the ones you're going to fold over in a later step, right? So just start populating your your boards. Uh, and start using that spot welder that you have or the spot weld that I recommend and the links and the project links there and then start spot welding foreign boards. done. Now you have to start paying attention and then placing the cells on top of your board, right? You have to pay attention to the positive and the negative so that you don't make a mistake here and then after that you're gonna need some way of compressing the cells a tiny bit.

Not a lot, just so that it can hold the exact dimensions of the board. I Didn't want to make the board with too much slack because then the cells would have room to move. but also they're not too small so that they would have to be super tight, right? It's just they're small enough so that they'll fit and in order to get it right, you have to compress them using something like this. These are just pieces of wood and what I'm going to do is put them right here, two on the edge here on all four sites and then what I'm gonna do is use one of these.

This is like a clamp that you can find on Amazon and it's to just hold uh to clamp stuff that is just square like this or rectangular. I'll put a link on this in the description so you can see it and you can order one if you want to make one of these foreign. After you line it up, you have to line up the top with the top of the cells there. let the sides overhang equal amount and after you do that then we start spot welding.

Next there's a top and bottom plate. This one goes on the bottom but also on the top. so you put it on there and it goes. Those little notches go right where those nickel strips come out.

Then we put our top plate. Here's our top plate now with the IDC connector installed. So now you put that in there right on top of that. Now we should be able to bend this.

nickel strips bend them. We go go. Okay and the last part now we install the bottom uh piece that does to protect the cells from the bottom. So you just put it like that and these have these little notches in here that will secure it there and it will not let it move.

So the way you install this is you just put tape around like this and then we'll use PVC shrink tube to encase the whole battery and that's pretty much it. This is actually a very simple project. It's easy to make modules once it's all worked out like this. Here, you can see that I installed a BMS and I've made a full video on how to do this exact thing.

Uh, here's a whole lineup of them that I built and then you can even use racks to Uh systems so that you can install them and permanently and wherever you're going to use to put this battery of storage. This are designed for storage applications, right? So batteries that are going to sit somewhere in a place where you charge them and discharge them at regular intervals? Uh, and uh, they don't. They're not going to be moving too much around, right? So that's the primary design for these storage systems. These batteries are very compact.

They're very high quality because they're like medical grade and so there's a lot of benefits of uh using these for that purpose. All right, and with that I Want to thank you for watching this video If you want to support me and my sponsored uh, we'll just go ahead and build this project right. And you click on the links down below and then you buy all the parts and you build this battery if you don't. Also don't just want to build it and you just watch this video.

Uh well, thank you for watching the video and if you just want to buy this module, you can just go to Jack35.com and then you can buy it there right? So this is a DIY project but you know there's different levels and I want to offer the different levels for all kinds of different people so that you can decide just how far in the DIY world you want to dive into, right? So thank you once again. we'll see you guys on the next video. Bye.