Got my printed battery case

Way to go! Surveyors are amazingly resourceful

What is this battery case for? Looks awesome, btw!

I have a couple of older Trimble/Geodimeter robots with the external battery. I want to un-mothball them as things are picking up. This is to replace the large Geodimeter NiCD batteries which we were re-celling to NiMH. This is designed to a LiPo 10 amp direct replacement. Other thread is here https://surveyorconnect.com/index.php?mode=thread&id=234143

Did get it dyed, when I have a moment, I will solder it up and place it in service

But does it taste good with butter and maple syrup? 😀

Finished it up and will place it in service for a test. The screws I could not remember were 4 - 1/8" x 1" and 2 - 1/8" x 1/2". I actually sized them for metric, but, these worked too.

This is a picture with just the blanking plates in that are printed inside and come with the print. These will give me versatility for the future as I just need to install connectors into these plates and slide them in. If they look familiar they are copies of the Geodimeter plates used on their "big" batteries and it is those plates that I am using for now.

Even if I only get 8 amp out I will be happy as it is very light and unmistakeably orange

Ummm, ... waffle, ...

Second day in service ...

I just got a call from the crew that had the battery. A contractor named "Lumpy" backed over the instrument with a dump truck. Sounds like the instrument is fairly F'ed up and will be going back to mother Trimble. The new battery case hit hard enough to break one of the leg hanging tabs off. Thankfully there is one on the other side

> Second day in service ...
>
> ...... A contractor named "Lumpy" backed over the instrument with a dump truck....

YIKES!:excruciating:

I hope everyone is OK.....

That's the trouble with accidents, you never know when they will happen....

No one was hurt they were using it as a robot and the cones were not able to stop the dump truck. Maybe I need tougher cones. I have the instrument now. Not as bad as the initial assessment led me to believe. Definitely is going to need new parts and repair, but, it is repairable. I already super glued the tab back on the battery case

I hope "Lumpy" has some insurance or deep pockets.

Only 2 days and damaged new equipment! I'd be a bit concerned about safety procedures.

We normally don't review safety procedures when we implement new batteries, LOL. The real funny part is my guys were having trouble reporting it to anyone on site as they were all at a safety meeting. Well except for Lumpy.

Yes, Lumpy works for a very large company that will not even notice this as a cost and will be mainly concerned that no one was hurt.

It was as I thought it would be, they are stepping to the plate and covering our repair and time costs and we are all moving forward. I am sure that some of you, like me, have had the ones where they trying to spin the blame. Those suck! What is the last thing a robot sees in its useful life? The back of a dump truck. Hopefully that isn't true. Dump trucks still have more instruments to hit to catch up to the Post Office for me though.

This is going to be a success. The battery "fat" part is at a lower voltage than I am used too with other chemistries. For instance the crew has been using it most of the week and at the end of a long day they are getting the low voltage indicator. I almost printed a window for an inline voltage meter and stopped myself because that was just too much. We haven't pushed this to shutdown yet, but, I have been placing 3.5 to 4.0 amps in every night. Peter Kozub stated in this thread http://tinyurl.com/ld2wvjm that he was getting a useful 9 amps out of the same batteries (they were five years old). Another big thank you for his input!

This battery is so light and portable that the crew doesn't just use it because I am having them test it. This arrangement was set up for a Geodimeter / Trimble set up, do I need to make the side plates bigger for anything else? It fits the standard Geod plates with two Hirosi on one side and a fuse and 5.5mm charge port on the other.

The detail below are the charge plates that are printed with the case. One on each side, drill through them and plug in whatever. They are 1.9 mm thick

To close this. Capacity that we can use is 9.5 amps, so, even though the voltage ratings are different we can get most of the cells capacity. Very cool!!

I can't edit my posts to add more information ...

Final results:

Operating range 10.6 to 12.6 volts with a 12v instrument attached
Amperage delivered in operating range 9.5 amps
3 LiPo cells http://tinyurl.com/l7w2nda
Weight 636 grams (22.4oz) with batteries but w/o connections

Added a protection circuit module (PCM) so I don't have to run an expensive balance charger, but, more so the crew does not have any buttons. Just a wall charger and the battery now. I also added a stepping regulator to take the output from 11.1v to wherever I want. I have it currently set for 12.4v. So final bill:

3 LiPo cells http://tinyurl.com/l7w2nda <= $90
3D printed case http://shpws.me/qc5R = $110
PCM for 11.1v http://tinyurl.com/ntep4zb = $6
Adjustable voltage regulator http://tinyurl.com/o3ap63p = $13
Wall charger http://tinyurl.com/p4nh5lt = $27

$246 for an absolute kick ass battery 9.5 amps and setup for a 12.0 surveying anything. Attaches with two hooks to a tripod. I have two of these now. If I make more, I will increase the headroom size as it is a tight fit right now with two circuit boards and all of the connectors (two Hirosi on another small circuit board, a fuse and a charging port). It is extremely light and is not that noticeable in a vest

Well the bigger battery is working so well, I am doing a pole mounted one for the 360° prism. I have made slide in ports for the wire upwards and a charge port and an off/on switch downwards. The first one I printed was not high enough for the PCB board so the last picture is the print of a cage for the top to hold a board. The rest will just fit in. Wiring the first print is going to be a bitch too, that is why the slide in ports on the second design. This will be a 0.75 amp/hr battery and it weighs nothing. Ok, it weighs something, but, it is very light. The disc is a disc golf disc and provides a bumper and some flexibility to the mount. It doesn't feel like too much flex, but, if it is a couple of fender washers will get rid of it. Yes, the batteries are all in in the first pic, I just need to wire and dye it

Design one and the fix

Any electronics guys here?

Finally got the correct switches in, so I am working on these 360° batteries and I have found a problem. Connecting straight to the 360° and not through the radio produces a different flash. And by different, I mean not useful.

This is the flash my printed pole battery creates:

This is the flash created by the radio battery going through the radio:

This is the flash created by the same radio battery wired straight to the 360°:

So, the lower amperage of the pole battery is not the issue (not that I thought it was). All batteries are LiPo 3(S) at 12.6v (full). Pole batt = 0.7 amp, radio batt = 2.0 amp. I have also measured a 0.2 volt drop running the battery through the radio, which coincides with my LED reading saying there is a resistor somewhere.

I have been told by a tech that there is no resistor between the battery and the Hirosi port on the radio

Ideas???

Any electronics guys here?

Duh! What do you bet the radio has a regulator in it? I bet if I set one at 12.0 volts the thing will work perfect