Traveling by plane with disassembled battery

General
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Some people would like to use the Infinite battery to travel by air.

The is no problem traveling with the kit without the cells (it’s only electronics and plastic) i have done it many time with cabin luggage.

For the cells, it’s more touchy as the the regulation is states that you can have less than 20 external batteries as long as they are less than 100Wh. If you are two, you can have 20 cells each that should not be a problem.

if you are alone, you should try to group the cells in by groups of 5 cells (5x3,2x3,6=57,6Wh < 100Wh) in something that could be associated with a external battery. Having a small plastic box firmly holding the cells so that no shortcut can happen seems a good solution as it would be less dangerous that any extrenal battery having a bms (even if in theroy it’s not a battery)…

should we design this box and provide it as 3D printable model ?

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I definitely vote for that ! This wouid enable anyone to travel on a plane with his/her e-bike AND all the cells of Gouach Infinite Battery.

It would be magic !

Because as for now, there is no eBike battery on the market that can travel by plane, EXCEPT the Canadian LiGo 10X battery sold (expensively) by Grin Technologies, which is made of several independent modules (2, 3, 4 or 5 modules) each one being a black box containing cells and controller + connector to each other

While the cells of LiGo Battery are molded into each module box as in “classic” batteries, therefore not offering the Gouach infinite battery ease of testing / replacement of cells, such a grouping of cells in these black box modules is considered as “one battery less than 100 Wh” and therefore IS EASILY AUTHORIZED BY CUSTOMS TO TRAVEL in the plane cabin with the passenger…which is OUTSTANDING, because it enables eBike owners to travel with their ebike (as checked in luggage) AND with their bike battery (as cabin personal hand luggage) in total respect of plane companies and international travel rules.

I think that GOUACH Infinite Battery will benefit of enabling plane travel in a way or another.

Creating plastic boxes to group cells and make it “seem” like a less than 100 Wh battery in itself is the easy option…which nonethelsss should be carefully explored and confirmed to be in accordance with travel regulations (what if the fakeness of such grouping of cells in a black box to make it being considered as a single battery module in itself, while it is in reality only a container, was discovered and therefore rejected like a plastic bag containing more than 20 cells (the max number of independent cells that a travelled is authorized to carry with him on a plane)..?

What do you think ?

I’m looking forward to the reaction of the community and Gouach team :folded_hands:

Thank you Alex for creating this topic following up our email conversation about this topic :wink:

1 Like
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I would be interested in the 3D printed box. I bought the Gouach to replace my old Grin battery. Repairability and flyability were big selling points for me.

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I could definitely use that. I was about to 3D print a generic carry case for the cells but this idea is much better.

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I bring the topic up because in spite of the growing interest that my idea and need of a repairable and flying travel battery has raised here and in other circles in France, nothing seems to happen, on « Gouach Infinite Battery » side, to take on the actions to conceive and build a solution for this topic : being able to fly by plane with our E bike batteries.

Actually, after thoroughly thinking on the initial suggestion of having 3D molded plastic boxes i came to the conclusion that this idea is bad :

grouping cells for air travel in groups of 100 Wh max, with the objective each of this plastic boxe will be considered by customs and airplane checks as a battery (which is not, only a box containing cells) of less power than 100 Wh

For two main reasons :

1/ these fake batteries might not lure the airplane checks

2/ the whole idea (at least mine) is to travel with your E bike when you reach destination. But carrying 5 or 7 empty plastic boxes on my bike while Bikepacking until they will be useful again for my return flight is NOT satisfactory (useless weight and volume of empty plastic boxes).

Therefore the solution is to actually BUILD A DIY REPAIRABLE BATTERY THAT FLIES.

This might be a niche but then it is a huge niche : every owner of an eBike that wish to travel by plane with his bike and battery is concerned.

Nowadays, only one company, Grinn Tech in Canada, is addressing this need with their LiGo 10X modular battery, that can fly by plane.

Vidéo IG : https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6M98PbPsKe/?igsh=MW43ZWp6M294c2c3ZQ==

Page produit : https://ebikes.ca/product-info/grin-products/ligo10x-battery.html

But this product is not reparable and very expensive.

As it seems that Gouach Infinite Battery team has no means currently to take on the production of what could be one new product of Gouach,

and because I as a Bikepacking traveller will be field testing such a product if it existed,

I am about to initiate, with a bunch of motivate people from a parisien Hackerspace, a project aiming at conceiving and building a DIY battery with case connectors BMS etc that ideally would have both features :

. inspired by Infinite battery : easy mount and easy monitoring and replacing repairing of each cell, on one side ;

. inspired by LiGo 10X Battery modules of 99 Wh that are able to fly but very expensive and are not easily repaired when an individual cell reach the end of its lifespan, because all cells are classically welded in each LiGo 10X module.

=> Three Questions :

A/ Does Gouach Team have willingness AND time to produce such parallel Infinite battery modules, like the LiGo 10X ?

B/ If not, would Gouach make it easy for us at the Hackerspace to replicate part of his technical design in order to prototype the intended hybrid :

“when LiGo 10X meets Infinite battery features = new DIY repairable battery with free travel by plane feature :wink:

C/ How many people on this forum would be interested by the end product or maybe would have time to participate ?