Homemade travel battery(s) from Evolve board?

Ok. So this may sound crazy. I have both the new bamboo, and carbon GTR's. I don't travel via airplane OFTEN, but i do at least [fly] twice a year. I would love to be able to bring a board with me, but I am in fear of getting the battery confiscated at check in. I have read several posts about people getting through with their boards no problem. This, however, is not guaranteed, and I'm just not sure I want to take the risk.

I know Evolve sells a travel battery for this very purpose, but i just don't fly enough to justify the money. Which brings us to my idea. Taking a standard GTR battery, and creating multiple smaller batteries. according to the Evolve website, the standard battery is a little over 3x the size of the travel battery (in terms of Ah's). This would lead me to believe that it could be split up into individual batteries. I could be, and probably am, very wrong about this. But I can't help wanting to ask those of you who are much smarter than I.

According to my research, the standard Evolve GTR battery is a 10s4p using Samsung 18650 35E cells giving 3500 mAh, per cell (14 Ah total). The travel battery is a 10s2p using sony V2 18650's giving 2100 mAh, per cell (4.2 Ah total). Mathematically, you can't get the same Ah with the 35E cells as you can with the Sony V2's (while keeping 36 volts per series). This is important because the purpose of the travel battery, is to keep the Wh/Ah under 160/4.4, respectively.

My solution: Disassembling the standard GTR battery should yield (4) packs of 36v - 3.5 Ah (126 Wh). according to several posts I've seen about bringing high powered batteries (100-160 Wh) through security, you will be given more trouble if you bring more than 2 per person. Two of the individual 3.5 Ah pack will not only fall within TSA guidelines (each), but you will still have more power than if you bought a travel battery from Evolve.

I don't know if this is practical, but it seems totally doable. if anyone has any advice, please feel free to share. Again, I am not an electrical engineer, but i do consider myself somewhat savvy in the department.

Thank you, and happy riding!

 

Malgers

I suppose this is a good thought exercise but with what the cost of the battery pack is this seems like a costly one compared to purchasing the one designed for travel. If you are breaking the GTR pack apart I suppose you are going to rebuild it with spot welds and new wiring? How about the BMS, are you using more than one? If you don’t travel by plane much is it worth it? I travel by plane every couple of months and my wife is a weekly traveler. I can say from experience that airlines take batteries seriously. Better to just bring your regular skateboard if you really want to ride. I see those all the time. Please don’t think me a naysayer, by all means give it a try if you think it worth it. Just putting in my two cents, Enjoy and Ride On!

 

xrayturner

Great points. If i didn't have a second battery already, I would definitely purchase a travel battery. since I do have that second battery (I don't ever ride my bamboo GTR), I figure the battery would do well to get some use. As for the BMS, I could be wrong, but as long as the voltage and mAh stay the same, it would work with a smaller cell? Again, I am a novice at battery modifications. So I am all ears haha. But as far as money goes, I already have the battery to fiddle with.

Thank you

 

I thought the normal battery was a 10s4p 30q not 35e but I may be wrong

 

Malgers

Got it. Frist I have to say working with batteries is fun but can be dangerous. Please read up and take every per-caution to be as safe as possible. You don’t want to burn your house down. I recommend getting this book to start with

I kind of took from your post that you would be breaking the battery up to smaller packs so more than the one BMS from the GTR pack would be needed. If that isn’t the case then you should be fine with the smaller pack. I am no battery expert but going under a BMS’s ratings shouldn’t be an issue so you should be able to match the travel packs Volts and ah. Here is a link to Nickberry’s battery rebuild project which is a great place to see what all is involve with breaking down and building up a pack. His is a full pack plus but you should get a good sense of what it takes to do something like this and adjust for your projects specs.

How I built a 12ah Battery for my BGT

On a side note you can go a cheaper route for building the spot welding. I went this route and short of charging the battery once or twice a year it has worked great.

Simple Battery Spot Welder

Enjoy ;-)

 

I would like to do the same thing travel with my board.. however, you are basically creating a homemade battery, where as you would have to convince the airline, that you used the proper number of batteries & output & thus it is safe for flying. In other words, You would be asking them to take your word for it.
as opposed to a company manufacture who takes the responsibility to post the size and output of their batteries on their label with liability in their safety design & product.
Not to mention the hazardous device you are creating? would anyone really want to put at risk an airline flight with a home made device?
I would not.. That could be an epic fail, if it did.
It is too bad that there is these restrictions, blame it all on the cheap Chinese made 2 wheel mobile devices that caught fire and was posted on youtube... I do not know if that has ever happened to an evolve board? But you never know the limits..
Even with the current legit (with permission only) Evolve travel battery.. before long you might have someone wanting to use an adapter & charge their evolve battery in flight using the planes USB charger?
*Warning* Do NOT do this!!

 

You are right, do not build batteries unless you are a battery builder and know what it takes. Electric skateboard batteries requir a lot more attention than ebikes or other PEV because of the vibrations. If you want to have a battery built to your specifications then consult this list [WIKI] Trusted Battery Builders (Serious)

 

I did not say I would not build one for my own local use.
But travel on a plane with a homemade Skateboard battery? I would not even attempt.
Is this list you provided for battery builders legit? I would like to see a list as such... but...
The 1st USA link on your list brings up a Russian language site ? page ?

 

Yes it's 100% legit, that's the biggest DIY electric skateboard forum of the internet xD. Been active for 3 years, have an electric GoKart and e-mtb with both batteries built by @tinp123 (great guy)

I clicked all the links, nothing shows Russian...? What did you click