Question Blacktip 12 AH Batteries ?

[macado]

An approximately 2.4 mile roundtrip with 12Ah batteries. We were mostly cruising at speeds 4-5 and occasionally 6 plus I was towing a flag so I had some additional drag. Drysuit + Doubles + AL80 stage while towing a flag and my other buddy had his rebreather and two bailouts for drag perspective.

Anything is a shore dive it's just a matter of motivation and perspective. Having said that, the OJ Walker in Lake Champlain is now a shore dive. The navionics track line is not completely accurate as we tied the flag off the last ~900ft.

Full Disclosure: I did this dive with 9Ahs last year but I killed the batteries about 150ft from shore returning. We were also cruising closer to speeds 6-7 which rapidly depletes the batteries due to high draw. I've since learned to try to stay within speed 3-5 for most of my longer range dives.

Hoping to build a 20Ah DIY pack soon..

 

[NothingClever]

An approximately 2.4 mile roundtrip with 12Ah batteries. We were mostly cruising at speeds 4-5 and occasionally 6 plus I was towing a flag so I had some additional drag. Drysuit + Doubles + AL80 stage while towing a flag and my other buddy had his rebreather and two bailouts for drag perspective.

Anything is a shore dive it's just a matter of motivation and perspective. Having said that, the OJ Walker in Lake Champlain is now a shore dive. The navionics track line is not completely accurate as we tied the flag off the last ~900ft.

Full Disclosure: I did this dive with 9Ahs last year but I killed the batteries about 150ft from shore returning. We were also cruising closer to speeds 6-7 which rapidly depletes the batteries due to high draw. I've since learned to try to stay within speed 3-5 for most of my longer range dives.

Hoping to build a 20Ah DIY pack soon..

View attachment 688015

View attachment 688016

Nice work, brother.

 

[ermaclob]

This is a bit of a problem for BlackTip I think. I also need to have the 12Ah option, in fact that range is the reason I am interested in the first place. I can't find the batteries anywhere. No point in buying the scooters if I can't get the batteries.

I'm still waiting for the scooter to be sent to me, I suspect it will ship out some time mid November. If by the middle or end of December I'm unable to figure out where to get good 12AH batteries I'm going to say ill probably be firmly disappointed. I'll probably have to decide to figure out how to build my own packs or find someone to do it. The ranges and specs of the 9ah batteries was not the selling point for me when I was looking at these DPVs. Fingers crossed though, I would rather not go through that mission at the moment. I reached out to Dewalt and they told me to look for the batteries sometime around end of November.

 

[Ulfhedinn]

I'm still waiting for the scooter to be sent to me, I suspect it will ship out some time mid November. If by the middle or end of December I'm unable to figure out where to get good 12AH batteries I'm going to say ill probably be firmly disappointed. I'll probably have to decide to figure out how to build my own packs or find someone to do it. The ranges and specs of the 9ah batteries was not the selling point for me when I was looking at these DPVs. Fingers crossed though, I would rather not go through that mission at the moment. I reached out to Dewalt and they told me to look for the batteries sometime around end of November.

Please keep up in the loop. I am in the market for one myself.

 

[ermaclob]

An approximately 2.4 mile roundtrip with 12Ah batteries. We were mostly cruising at speeds 4-5 and occasionally 6 plus I was towing a flag so I had some additional drag. Drysuit + Doubles + AL80 stage while towing a flag and my other buddy had his rebreather and two bailouts for drag perspective.

Anything is a shore dive it's just a matter of motivation and perspective. Having said that, the OJ Walker in Lake Champlain is now a shore dive. The navionics track line is not completely accurate as we tied the flag off the last ~900ft.

Full Disclosure: I did this dive with 9Ahs last year but I killed the batteries about 150ft from shore returning. We were also cruising closer to speeds 6-7 which rapidly depletes the batteries due to high draw. I've since learned to try to stay within speed 3-5 for most of my longer range dives.

Hoping to build a 20Ah DIY pack soon..

View attachment 688015

View attachment 688016

2 questions, first one is you mention making a DIY pack, do you know where i can get more info on doing this?

Secondly, how do you generate those paths on the map, do you mount something on the dive flag?

 

[macado]

2 questions, first one is you mention making a DIY pack, do you know where i can get more info on doing this?

Secondly, how do you generate those paths on the map, do you mount something on the dive flag?

Making lithium battery packs is not very DIY friendly unless you have experience, just FYI. Making a Blacktip battery is not something I would do for my first DIY battery project. Having said that there are a lot of resources online. I would google "building 18650 packs." There are also several books available online to get started. My advice would be to reach out to an experienced eBike builder and see if they're willing to build you a pack with good quality cells. Bewary of cheap Chinese packs or Chinese builders, they tend to use counterfeit cells in their packs that have very exaggerated mAh ratings.

You want to use good quality 4800-5000mAh 21700 cells. 10S4P pack will yield 36V 20Ah pack. There are a lot of other important considerations and variables in the pack design that I won't get into but the pack needs to safely be able to sustain ~30amp draw and have good BMS. I'm not an expert in this area so I would hate to give the wrong advice. There are also weight considerations for the pack.

If you search in the Blacktip threads on here there are various people who have built 20-25Ah packs either as one big 36V pack or have bought empty DeWalt cases and built packs by sourcing their own cells.

My understanding is @Jona Silverstein will be producing a commercially available 20Ah pack for the Blacktip at some point in the future. I believe this the way to go for people wanting larger capacity out of the Blacktip.


I am using the hard float with dive flag made by @MAKO Spearguns. These tow very nicely with minimal drag.

Hawaiian Hard Shell Spearfishing Float

The MAKO Spearguns Hawaiian Hard Float quickly changes from spearfishing float to rescue throw/tow float.

makospearguns.com

For long range open water scooter dives where I want to collect GPS data I tow this flag and have two cheap old phones mounted inside waterproof cases running GPS loggers. One of them is running Navionics Marine electrics app and the other is running a GPS Logger app I found in the Android store. They both export their data to .gpx / .kml files that can imported into Google Earth or another marina electrics app. It is pretty ghetto but it works. I dont really like towing a flag but I like collecting data

I usually import the .gpx file into Google Maps generate a map like this..

DPV Dive to OJ Walker (Lake Champlain) – Google My Maps

DPV Dive from intake pipe at Burlington Waterworks to the OJ Walker wreck in Lake Champlain

www.google.com

 

[NothingClever]

Any Garmin running or swimming watch (in Walk mode) mounted to a torpedo float will work, too.

Should look something like the image below using the Garmin Connect application to download the data.

The different colors of the line account for changes in speed.

 

[Jona Silverstein]

Making lithium battery packs is not very DIY friendly unless you have experience, just FYI. Making a Blacktip battery is not something I would do for my first DIY battery project. Having said that there are a lot of resources online. I would google "building 18650 packs." There are also several books available online to get started. My advice would be to reach out to an experienced eBike builder and see if they're willing to build you a pack with good quality cells. Bewary of cheap Chinese packs or Chinese builders, they tend to use counterfeit cells in their packs that have very exaggerated mAh ratings.

You want to use good quality 4800-5000mAh 21700 cells. 10S4P pack will yield 36V 20Ah pack. There are a lot of other important considerations and variables in the pack design that I won't get into but the pack needs to safely be able to sustain ~30amp draw and have good BMS. I'm not an expert in this area so I would hate to give the wrong advice. There are also weight considerations for the pack.

If you search in the Blacktip threads on here there are various people who have built 20-25Ah packs either as one big 36V pack or have bought empty DeWalt cases and built packs by sourcing their own cells.

My understanding is @Jona Silverstein will be producing a commercially available 20Ah pack for the Blacktip at some point in the future. I believe this the way to go for people wanting larger capacity out of the Blacktip.

View attachment 688277
I am using the hard float with dive flag made by @MAKO Spearguns. These tow very nicely with minimal drag.

Hawaiian Hard Shell Spearfishing Float

The MAKO Spearguns Hawaiian Hard Float quickly changes from spearfishing float to rescue throw/tow float.

makospearguns.com

For long range open water scooter dives where I want to collect GPS data I tow this flag and have two cheap old phones mounted inside waterproof cases running GPS loggers. One of them is running Navionics Marine electrics app and the other is running a GPS Logger app I found in the Android store. They both export their data to .gpx / .kml files that can imported into Google Earth or another marina electrics app. It is pretty ghetto but it works. I dont really like towing a flag but I like collecting data

I usually import the .gpx file into Google Maps generate a map like this..

DPV Dive to OJ Walker (Lake Champlain) – Google My Maps

DPV Dive from intake pipe at Burlington Waterworks to the OJ Walker wreck in Lake Champlain

www.google.com

Yes, Explorer Technology is working on a 20AH pack for the BT. designed to be drop-in ready with no need to modify FW settings. From our testing, the pack is easily trim and neutral in a Tech. We are working on testing 2 packs in an exploration tube for an obnoxious 40ah/ 1440wh capacity for oodles of range.

If you or anyone else is interested in this, please send me an email or find me on Facebook.

Thanks for the referral.

 

[Pkishino]

Yes, Explorer Technology is working on a 20AH pack for the BT. designed to be drop-in ready with no need to modify FW settings. From our testing, the pack is easily trim and neutral in a Tech. We are working on testing 2 packs in an exploration tube for an obnoxious 40ah/ 1440wh capacity for oodles of range.

If you or anyone else is interested in this, please send me an email or find me on Facebook.

Thanks for the referral.

When you say drop in, do you mean based around current ptb slots?
What’s the underlying battery spec? 21700s I assume? BMS with Bluetooth access etc?

 

[NothingClever]

Yes, Explorer Technology is…working on testing 2 packs in an exploration tube for an obnoxious 40ah/ 1440wh capacity for oodles of range.

This is awesome. I’ve always wanted to visit Cuba.