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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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response from John - The builder of the Kan Packs..
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Hi Brett -
The cells I have are Sanyo N3000CR. This is a full 'C' sized, 3000mah, high current cell. You can probably
find full data sheets online somewhere.
I got them used; they were part of a medical device, used for battery backup. The Preventative Maintainence
procedure required that they be replaced after 1 year of age. As such, they have had very light usage.
Those packs are 11 cells, glued in a staggered formation, with thin spot welded tabs.
When I remake them into combat packs, I either separate all the cells, and glue into the desired configuration,
or use the staggered setup - which I prefer as a stronger shape. I use high temperature hot melt glue to fill the gaps and
hold the cells together, then wrap the pack with high temperature tape; Kapton, when I can get it.
Then I remove all the welded tabs, clean the ends, and solder on interconnects.
For this, I use braided copper strap - this is roughly equivalent to about 12 gauge wire.
I've made many dozens of packs and never heard of a single failure of the interconnects.
I get heat shrink tubing from a surplus source - it's really heavy duty, much stronger than the plastic wrap
commonly found on RC packs - or even what Steve Hill uses (although I do think he double wraps his packs)
The interconnect wire is usually 10 gauge wire and powerpole connectors, but this can be modified as needed
by the customer.
All packs get three cycles of discharge and recharge using my shultze charger. A few deep discharges seems
to really help these cells; the capacity goes up with these cycles.
I've lost track of how many packs I've made and sold - might be as many as a hundred. I've used the name
'K-packs' - you could search the forum for references to them. Because they aren't new, I can't give any
guarantees on them; that's part of why the price is so low. But I really haven't had any unhappy customers.
I don't see a problem with shipping to Australia - except that it sounds expensive. I'd rather do a few larger
shipments than a lot of smaller ones - maybe you guys can get together and decide what you want.
My standard pricing is essentially $3 (US) per cell in packs; and the buyer pays the shipping.
$30 for 12V
$60 for 24V... and so on.
Basically, I try to stay under half the price of Battlepacks.
I have a paypal account, that's pretty convenient for me, but if you wanted to do a mail order or other form of payment
that's fine too. It might take a bit longer, but it will take me some time to build and cycle the packs anyway.
Let me know what you think - and give me as much warning as possible, this is just a hobby for me.
John
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They sound like they might be worth giving a go, so maybe we should arrange a group buy on these as well.. I'll still get some of the new ones for comparison purposes, but I might go for a few of these.. who else wants some ? _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Sun Sep 12, 2004 2:09 pm |
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