Battery Box Covers

Although a vacation interrupted progress on the ElectroJeep in September, it is getting very close to energizing the main HV circuits.  However, before that happens, I want non-conductive covers in place to protect against mishaps.  Since orange is the new black, I went with orange acrylic covers, with 3/4" by 7/8" clear acrylic blocks to hold the cells down by their edges.  Here are the hold-downs epoxied to the covers, resting in their respective racks:

The front rack is simplest - just 4 parallel blocks:

The upper rear rack is also fairly simple - 9 parallel blocks:

The lower rear rack is more complicated due to the different cell orientations.  There are 7 parallel blocks, and two additional blocks at 90 degrees to hold down the 7 cells at the front of the rack:

The final step will be to add self-adhesive foam between the blocks and the cells, and between the rack-tops and the covers - this is all to reduce vibration and to keep everything in compression.

The under-seat cells will reuse the polypropylene covers - there is not room on top of the cells for the BMS boards, so a simpler hold-down will work well.  However, I need BMS modules.  So, I reused two of the boxes I built for the old AGM BMS, and mounted 3 BMS boards in each one:

The bolts that the BMS is attached to do not go all the way through the box - there is an inner floor that they are bolted to.  The inner floor is then bolted to the outer floor to keep everything in place.

So - I think I can start interconnecting cells safely now.  And then to re-energize the controller, the DC-DC converter, the voltmeter, and the new charger...