Need Cheap Battery Trays
 

Been looking at the Novak Battery Trays for $24 shipped for a pair, and was thinking, will the Turnigy's I'm ordering fit?

After asking Mike (eovnu) for the ID, it's a no go.

Inside dimensions are:
Longways - 5" 9/16
Height (Up and down) - 2" 13/16
Depth - 1 Inch

The Turnigy's are these:
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/s..._15C_Lipo_Pack

Somebody from the HC staff (Jason I think.. Not from MaxCraps, I hope at least) has confirmed that the stickers are false, and indeed 20-30C...

Anyways, I was looking for something a bit longer, but real cheap, as I'll be using these on my eSavage TVP's, which will be hit by many rocks, and nonsense, so I don't want to spend so much on the trays, as they'll most likely be disposable over x amount of runs, this is an as-if, and overall, just don't have that much cash..

Mike's trays are beastly, but a bit too much from what I was thinking about.

I looked at the Kyosho Twin Force trays, but apparently they'll fit 6.4" across, 7 cells, which isn't cutting it.

Anyways, if anyone finds em, let me know!

How much work are you willing to do?

Depends really.

Stuff like removing TONS of plastic, I'm not too fond of, as I don't want to destroy the tray, but I might do a lot of work.

What do you have in mind?

Maybe PIF trays? :neutral::whistle:

Well my original idea was a e-revo chassis and battery doors, cut the battery compartments out of the chassis. But if this is going on a savage why not try this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-FLUX-SAVAGE-...lenotsupported

Haha, funny, I JUST thought about the Flux's body boxes.

Main problem is, 8 NiMH Cell Packs?
Isn't that nearly 8 inches?

I don't know if I can fit a 8inch box on both sides of my TVP's.

I don't know how the Flux boxes mount, is it like a hanging L, like the standard eSavage trays?

Or is it just a screw and bolt on both sides..

:X

Any other options anyone?

EDIT: I'll keep the Flux boxes in mind for sure though!

I have no idea how they mount, I'm sure a flux owner could tell you though

I always make my own trays from ABS electronics boxes from Radio shack. About $5 and quite sturdy.

You do need to do a bit of work, namely remove the screw standoffs from the inside (for mounting the cover, which you will not need) then a couple cuts thru the plastic lengthwise to trim the width down (this is nice so you can make custom sizes.) I cut them down in a way so there is a lot of overlap, for which you apply black ABS cement ($3 from plumbing section at hardware store,) press together, let dry 15 min, then trim down height w/ a saw (whatever you need) then they are basically ready to install into chassis. I add a thin layer of batt tray foam as well.

On trugs I countersink flathead screws and mount directly to chassis. I mount straps over them, directly bolted to chassis. The trays are extremly durable and tough. ~1/8" ABS. Never have broken one yet, and can be made to be very protective of the lipo.

Here are two mounted in the hyperSt and the .5:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...4/IMG_5961.jpg

Wah!?

I'm lost there...

Otherwise, looks interesting.

Since the above quote may be talking about this, how'd you get the specific lengths?

Looks like the boxes mount by "ears" on the long ways side, like servos.

They screw into standoffs, and the standoffs go into the TVPs.

Neat design, might have to try that, but looks like the Radio Shack Project Box is appealing more to me.

Finnster, do you think High Temp hot glue would be enough for the ABS plastics?

I guess you cut it off, lengthways, until you reach where you want it to be at, then you glue a piece to stop it, like on the sides, right?

I know, I'm confusing..

I'll draw up a crude picture real quick.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g6...BatteryBox.jpg

Basically, the color key is: black box and lines are the base of the box, the white inside of the black, is the box.
Red dotted line, you snip that off.
2: Green line, you glue that into the missing side, so it's a box, and not a OPEN box.
3: Green line is now part of the box.
3: The blue spray paint is where you glue, so it's stable.

Is this right Finn?

Here's a better pic. One where I cut a little notch for exit wires.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...4/IMG_0629.jpg

Sweet, did you not have to trim the box for that battery?

Can you take a look at the above post?

Didn't read the whole thread, so this might have already been mentioned, but if you need a longer tray, simply cut one in half and spread them apart. Chances are you only need no more than 1", and a gap that big is no big deal.

And instead of cutting out a notch for the wires (which weakens the tray), consider putting in a dense foam spacer in the big enough to allow room for the wires to exit.

Sweet, I think I'm gonna order me up two trays from Radio Shack once I sell some stuff! Yay..

Sry, I was busy...
On the cuts:

No, I buy them the length of the batt I have (least the longest in the fleet for that truck.) If you browse their site you can see the lengths. Basically 3,4,5,6,7,8". I buy one that is long enough, and then cut it down lengthwise. They are very wide, so several inches may need to be removed from the centerline.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25.../battbox-1.jpg

Hard to explain, but I cut all the way down the sides, then stop at the bottom plate. Remove the amt of material from the sides equal to how much you need to narrow the box.

The bottom plate is left, and cut once to leave "ears" on the now separated pieces. One of these should be roughly equal to the desired width for the tray (ie 50mm or whatever.) the other side can be just shorter, but not too short, as you will overlap these pieces and apply cement to lock the halves together in a strong bond.

When I make these for truggies, I make them so the bottom does not so all the way across, so it leaves a space for the mud guards. (illustrated in diagram.) This would have to be roughly measured for the trug its going in for how much width is needed. The thicker bottom plate is helpful too to countersink the screws and have a strong base to attach screws. If need be, a small scrap is cut for the end walls and is cemented in. You don't want to just cement edges together or it will never hold. Foam blocks can be added for batts as needed (seen in the box for the .5)

Don't get too wrapped up in exact measurements, it just needs to be close, and test fit the pieces on your batt before cementing. trim where needed first. If an edge is not totally straight, doesn't matter as that's the overlapping is for. Once its all together and cemented, I then use a hacksaw (good for plastic) to cut the box down to the desired height. Lastly notch out a slit for power wires if needed.


If you need to, I would cut them in half width wise to make two "cups" but a single piece is better. The one above is a 7" box to fit a 165mm Neu lipo. Its tight.

You want to use ABS, nothing less. ABS cement will melt and rebond the plastic together as a single piece. Glue is just sticky and will come apart in a hard crash. A hacksaw, a knife, ABS cement and perhaps a drill (easy to remove standoffs w/ drill) is all that's needed. A sharp wood chisel is also helpful to trim the plastic in places if you have one.

Empty box:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...4/IMG_0628.jpg

Some of the boxes are quite wide (depends on length) but the overlapping cut uses much of it for the bottom plate. Mostly the end walls are cut out.

The notch really does not weaken it if you cut it right. Don't cut at the exact corner, and don't go all the way to the bottom. Putting the notch in the rear is advisable, as most crashes are head on. As described, I use a small scrap and cement it in on the end to overlap the cut in the wall, so here the tray is ~.25" thick. Its quite tough, even with a notch.

I have yet to break any boxes even after a couple years of abuse. The only one that came apart is one I tried to use testor's ABS model cement (for models) as my plumbing ABS had dried out and I didn't feel like going to the store. Glue did not bond the same, and only lasted a few crashes.

That was a 7" box, fits the 165mm Neu tight. I have some shorter but wider zippies as well, so I made the box 50mm inside so it fits both. This would be about the most universal size.

The Zips then have about 15mm space on the ends. Hard foam blocks fills in and cushions nicely. The above posts should explain things nicely, but if there are any more Q's I'll LYK.

Ahh, I think I'm getting it.

So when you shrink it down, width wise, you'll cut the sidewalls, but leave the bottom portion on.

Then you'll glue the half with the bottom portion sticking out, with the sidewalls cut short, under, or on top of the other half of the bottom portion.

Use ABS (How about PVC?) Cement, my dad has a few bottles laying around IIRC, and glue that together.

Sounds like it'd be pretty stiff.

So one half, of the box, will be higher than the other half, right?

Then you'll wanna sand it down, so it doesn't look all retarded, and voila, a box?

Hmm, very interesting...

LMK if I'm off track.

PVC and abs are different materials as the products used to bond them. Pvc/abs cement chemically bonds the plastics and makes a PERMANENT bond between two pieces of plastic. It's impossible to dissasemble a spud gun,(or battery tray) because the cement makes it one single piece of plastic. PVC cement probably won't work with abs.

Good point is PVC usually recommends a primer before cement, hence those double packs of primer/cement. Primer makes the plastic ready to accept the cement. Abs doesn't use a primer that I can fnd.

Ah, gotcha, I'll see if pops has any ABS cement.

If you are talking about the top, then yes, once the halves are back together, one side will be higher than the other on the top. However, the boxes are quite tall, so you will chop the box down once its together so it will all even out. Lemme see if I can get some better pix.

you could get the new era aluminum ones, there like 12 bucks and they are as long as you want them to be

A New Era Aluminum box?
Sounds expensive.
And if they're $12, shouldn't they be quite small?

Couldn't find anything off google.

--

Finnster: Thanks, that's exactly what I was talking about, anymore pictures you have? :]

go to new era's website and search battery box

here ya go

http://www.neweramodels.com/item.cgi?part_id=1952

Hmm, I would, but TVPs, will be vertical, and those look like they would either get bent, or just plain, break. I'm not sure, I think the ABS boxes are perfect for my needs, for now.

i ran one of those in my truggy for a year and didnt ever bend em, they worked pretty well, but if ya got something else why not

Yeah, alright, I'll keep those in mind!

Also, how am I going to secure the batteries.
Since the TVPs are vertical, I can't have something like the truggy style.
Maybe something to go around the box? But that'd leave the battery enough room to bounce around in the box.

Gah, maybe I can use the original standoff on all 4 sides, and have diagonal straps?
Finnster, how'd you strap yours down?

Let me post some pix and answer Q's in a little bit, takes some time I don't have atm.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...f/battbox2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...f/battbox3.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...ff/battbox.jpg

Just noticed, that, I got the 3", wish I would've gotten the 4"

I could cut the whole box, in half, and screw the half side (the lid) into the side, and theoretically, have two trays, from one.

Is this possible, have you tried it Finnster?
Sounds like something that would work quite well.

This would let both sides have standoffs on all four corners, and can use GMaxx straps diagonally, or is that not safe?

I guess I could do two straps on one tray..

Also, width wise, I'm not gonna cut it, I have to little space to cut, so even if I do cut it, it wouldn't be stable as I'd like it.

I'll just put some foam in, and let it have some cushion.
Oh, and I need to buy some velcro.
Grr

Well now that we know of some cheap trays, what are some cheap straps? Velcro tape stuff?

How about the Hyper9e battery tray? Cheap and clean...

http://www.nitrohouse.com/catalog/images/ofn29304.jpg

Ok, sry that took a few days, but have been busy. The pics above are my old tray I removed. Orig it was for a 140mm long pack, then I cut it up in half width wise to extend it for Zippies. Ran that for over a yr w/ no problems. Its a bit dirty :) Cemented a little ABS scrap on the side for extra protection

I have Neus now, and the other tray I showed is the new one and all one piece. I don't want to remove it, so posted the other pics so you could see the bottom and the overlap I was talking about.

I would remove the standoffs personally. They tend to get in the way really, but you can keep them if you want. As far as making two trays from one, IDK. You would want to make the one wall really strong, but I can't see how you would attach the side in a very durable way. With my method above, using overlapping material and ABS cement, the bonds are extremely strong. Seems like just attaching along the 1/8" wall would be not that strong, plus you would have to make a very straight cut to you don't have gaps. My way can be pretty sloppy and it doesn't matter.

As far as attching to a TVP. Its a bit harder, but I had some ideas. I was going to conv my sav XL, and bought stuff, btu never did it so its not tested. My plan was to make a tray as usual. If I couldnt have one tray inside the TVPs, I was going to make two trays and bolt them on the sides. I bought some small alu stand offs to use. Then I was going to cut up part of the lid as reinforcement and cement to side to increase thickness around the mounting areas. Then I would countersink the bolt holes (in reinforced areas) and mount the trays into the tvps with panhead screws (so they are flush inside the box.)
The bolts would pass thru standoffs (maybe 4mm tall) and into the TVPs where I would drill and tap a screw hole into. Could put a nut behind too. Thinking 6 bolts per side. If I felt it needed it, I would get the flux tray mounts and use two on the bottom to extra support.

All my trays use a single strap down the center. In the hyper they are mounted to the chassis. Since the .5 uses a small batt, I used CA glue to bond the strap to the box itself. Has stayed tight for over a year. Not sure if I'd do this for the big batts tho. Then again, CA is used on tires, so maybe it would work. Wide strap and enough glue it shouldn't go anywhere.

For the Sav, attaching straps (2 straps IMO) width wise may make more sence, then I'm sure teh CA glue trick would work. You could screw mount them, but that's a pain, and the straps tend to rip around screws if a lg washer isn't used.

CHEAP STRAPS

McMaster Carr has great straps, and they are like $1ea. See pic.


It may or may not make sence for you to make these. The big advantage they are cheap, reconfigurable and can be made to ANY size. Some of the OEM trays are ok (like novaks, tekno etc) but they are limited in range of sizes. There are no trays for the 110mm sized 2100mah batts like I have in my .5. Most OEM trays don't fit 50mm wide batts either, let alone A123s or such.

Plus making custom stuff is a fun part of the hobby (for me anyways.)

BTW, if you get straps from MMC, make sure to order the std straps, not the heavy duty. The HDs sound like a good idea, but the velcro is only rated for 100 cycles, and doesn't hold itself well.

Thanks for the info man! I'm really looking forward to working with abs... It should be a lot different then pvc. :lol:

Not to say I don't like it though. I love it. :smile:

I wonder if they have project boxes at mcmaster? They would probably be cheaper then radioshack, am I right?

For straps, I use this stuff. It's cheap, lasts a long time, and works well. After I cut and drill the mounting hole, I singe the edges with a lighter. All my non-RCM trays use this.

I have 15ft of cheap eBay Velcro, held up very well actually.
12Ft for about $7 bucks.

It has the adhesive backing, but I put them together, and make a full strap.