Using twenty 18650 lithium-Ion cells, I created a battery pack that would be used in a (then) future project of a custom electronic skateboard. Using a battery spot welder and nickel strips, we can create a 36 nominal volt battery pack.

First thing is to gather the parts needed:

• (20) 18650 cells
• 0.2mm Nickel Strip
• Kapton tape
• 36V Battery Management System

The cells were arranged so that the anode from one cell would be next to the proceeding cells cathode, in a head to toe configuration:

Now with the cells welded together, we can add the BMS. The negative wire from the BMS gets soldered to the cathode of the first cell in the series along with the black balancing wire. Then adding one red balancing wire to each cell’s cathode. Finally, we solder a red wire to the last cell’s anode.

The thinner black wire on the BMS is the negative connection for charging, and the blue wire is the connection for the system negative connections. All that was left to do was test for the voltage, let it charge up and hope we charge up to 42V.

Thank you for following along! I’ll be adding the next post where I use this battery in a custom electric skateboard! Please check out my recent posts to the right and thanks for following along!