Anyone ever built their own battery pack?

[jwb96]

The battery pack for my L&M ARC (NiMH) is on its way out and rather than pay L&M's replacement price I was thinking of going with a generic battery, or even building my own pack. The reason for the latter is that I also have some cordless tools that have NiCad batteries and I have this grand vision of upgrading all of them to LiIon and being able to use a single, quality charger for all my charging duties. Net-net: better battery quality and less clutter.

Wondering if any of the DYIers here have attempted such a thing, starting with the light battery. Seems like the trickiest part is getting the various battery packs and their unique formats/shapes to be able to work from a single charger. Since I have the old chargers, I'm hoping I can hack the bases and wire into/adapt the new LiIon charger I'd need. Assuming that a single charger could handle the range of voltages for the various packs.

As if I needed another project . . . but that's another conversation.

Thanks,
Jim

[Dekonick]

Obviously you can make your own - you can even get Li cells, etc...

BUT - is the effort and cost worth it?

[William]

Forget batteries, all you need is Lemons.


http://www.quantumbalancing.com/images/lembat9.jpg




William ;)

[MarcusPless]

The battery pack for my L&M ARC (NiMH) is on its way out and rather than pay L&M's replacement price I was thinking of going with a generic battery, or even building my own pack. The reason for the latter is that I also have some cordless tools that have NiCad batteries and I have this grand vision of upgrading all of them to LiIon and being able to use a single, quality charger for all my charging duties. Net-net: better battery quality and less clutter.

Wondering if any of the DYIers here have attempted such a thing, starting with the light battery. Seems like the trickiest part is getting the various battery packs and their unique formats/shapes to be able to work from a single charger. Since I have the old chargers, I'm hoping I can hack the bases and wire into/adapt the new LiIon charger I'd need. Assuming that a single charger could handle the range of voltages for the various packs.

As if I needed another project . . . but that's another conversation.

Thanks,
Jim

I've (re)built a variety of multi cell batteries over the years (I used to do a lot of RC car stuff with my son) and I've also replaced bad cells in bike lights (including L&M) a couple of times. Possibly the hardest part with bike lights is getting the battery case opened without destroying it. :D Most recently I've purchased individual cells from the Nicad Lady's web site (http://www.nicdlady.com/) (watch the spelling in the URL, www.nicadlady.com takes you to a domain squatter). I believe her company also rebuilds battery packs if you don't want to do it yourself. I've got a Maha C777 PLUS-II (http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mh-c777plus.htm) multi-chemistry/multi-voltage charger that I bought in January 2005 that I'm still happy with. I haven't chopped connectors on any batteries yet; I just hook up the charger with alligator clips (and paper clips, if necessary) and it does a great job with all of my batteries. I do sort out the polarity in advance with a meter, but this charger will even through an error if you reverse the wires, allowing you to simply flip a switch to get the polarity straight. I don't believe I've ever charged a Lithium Ion battery with the Maha; all of my current batteries are NiCad or NiMH, so I can't vouch for the charger's Lithium Ion capabilities.

Hope this helps.

--Marcus

[Kervin]

I've done it with my Turbo Cat (http://www.turbocatusa.com/products.html) system. Their connectors are very simple so it was easy to do. Cost wise, it was about 20% less than getting the battery replacement from them.

[John]

I've done some light building with the kids in the school bike club. I found that the battery packs purchased are packaged quite well, and are easily wired in. The link below has lots of light and RC related stuff that makes great projects.

Link: http://www.batteryspace.com/

good luck!

[dekindy]

A biking buddy goes to the local store of a national battery retailer and gets replacement battery packs made up. I think it is Batteries Plus or some such. You could probably call them and get a quote. They might require using your existing connectors if they are proprietary.