Making paralell charge board - Current capcitys?

[Delarado]

Guys,

Im making a paralell charge board for my 6s 3000mah Optipowers. I have the JST-XH connectors and will also solder some deans directly to the stripboard ive bought.

Im using this stuff:



Now obviously a single track of that is not going to carry the max rated 30A I Could potentially put through it with my iCharger 3010b, so I have a few ideas that I Wanted to run past the more electrically minded of you.

My design idea is to run the JST-XH connectors in paralell, one pin per track. Hopefully the stripboard should be able to carry the balancing current as that isnt that great. For the main charging current though I was thinking of combining two tracks per pole (so 2 neg tracks and 2 positive) and then soldering a piece of 20awg wire (Stripped of all insulation) along the length of each track.

So each track would have 2x20awg wires along its length and also the (Admittedly very thin) copper tracking supplying it.

I dont plan to really ever charge at 30A But do you think that would handle it ok? I cant find much information (That I can understand anyway) about the current carrying capacity of wires. Everything I seem to find seems to suggest 20awg can only carry like 2 or 3A but I know that isnt true because my MCPX draws 10-12A just fine (Admittedly at lower voltage)

Thoughts, flames and beratements welcome

[cjcj1949]

There are two current levels for any conductor. The lowest is the maximum current that would be allowed in your house wiring. The ringmain is 30 amps so ringmain cable would be safe for your charging. As you reduce the thickness of your wire so it's resistance goes up and the surface area reduces so the rise in temperature increases quickly. Eventually the conductor will melt, unless the solder melts first and the wire falls off. The veroboard will be ok for the balance wires so long as you keep the volts close when you connect the balance leads. Even if you connect the main connectors first you could still have a big voltage difference when you get a cell going low. If you cut the veroboard tracks and link your balance lines with 5 amp fuse wire you will protect the balance leads on your batteries. Fuse wire is easier than balance leads to fix.