Battery Cell Connections

[SparWeb]

I'm laying out how I must connect these Absolyte 90A battery cells.  I'm a little greedy, so I've been trying to find a way to make at set of connections that can be changed easily from 12V to 24V.  For now I'm sticking to 12V, but I might decide to up the voltage in the future.

The connections shown in the 12V diagram below requires me to switch 4 cells around from their current orientation.  These 4 cells are highlighted in red.  That wouldn't be so bad if I only have to do it once.  But making 24V connections would require me to switch them back.  These cells are tightly packed together in the box, and each cell must weigh about 70 pounds, so believe me - no easy task to "just pick them up".

Are there any shortcuts?  Any connector bar arrangements that would improve on this?

[fungus]

What about this;

since each battery has 6 cells then just connect them all in series and treat them as a single 12v battery; then connect to the cells at the end; this would mean a straight run of cables in parallel and then to put them in series find some way to flip them round so you can connect them with smaller cables. Probably not making any sense but when do I?

Just my 0.02

[SparWeb]

Thanks Angus, you usually make plenty of sense.  I did consider that, but I don't want to start jumbling up 8 battery cables, when 2 big ones will do.  I've been looking at "my battery bank" photos that others have posted and often I see battery cables sticking up all over the place.  Usually it's done in a tidy way, but the whole point of the Absolyte's design is to allow solid copper bars.  Much easier to cover up for safety...  "Sense" versus "cents", you know.

[sdscott]

Try this...  Green line is the only modification required.

[sdscott]

BTW, your bars can be used in-place of the above solid arc connections(black) simply by rotating the connecting cell 180deg.   Sorry, I should have done this in the drawing... I can post a new drawing for clarity if you like??

[SparWeb]

Flip the cells on the ends instead....

That might work.  I'll do some drawings...

[sdscott]

I've changed the above picture, you may need to refresh your browser cash... (ctrl-refresh for ie).

Cheers!

[SparWeb]

Yes, that's about what I did myself.  Seems much more obvious now.  Thanks!