More on battery repackaging

I continue to think about battery re-packaging...
I still definitely want to do one large battery box that contains all cells, main fuse, BMS and SoC meter.
I may even add a battery disconnect.  I recovered one when I stripped all the old electrical stuff from Fugu a couple of years ago.  That way, I can completely disconnect the battery pack when I need to service the propulsion electrical.  The only live terminals would be within the closed battery box.

To pack the cells in any kind of battery box will require taking into account one critical thing -- the cell terminals are not equidistant between rows and columns.  Terminal-to-terminal distance is 61mm in columns, and is 41mm between columns.  This means that I will need to do one of two things:

1. Obtain or fabricate some new cell interconnects with a 41mm hole spacing.  This will go with my existing supply of 61mm hole spacing connectors.  The advantage here is that it favours minimal pack width.
2. Add 20mm spacers between columns of  cells.  The advantage here is that I only need one connector size, regardless of how I interconnect the cells within the pack

But now, I am wondering if a 3x6 cell grid is the way to go.  Perhaps a 2x8 cell grid is better.
In a 3x6 cell pack, I would need two spacers which would add 40mm to overall pack width.
In a 2x8 cell pack, I would need only one.
Advantage 2x8 cell pack.

If opted for using a different cell connector (41mm instead of 61mm spacing), here is how it pans out:
In a 3x6 cell pack, I would need at least 6 such buss bars.
In a 2x6 cell pack, I would need only one.
Advantage 2x8 cell pack.


The 2x8 cell pack is considerably narrower than the 3x6 cell pack, but is 122m longer.
The dimensions of the available space are irregular to say the least.
So now, I really need to decide on which pack better fits the available space.
Both packs will have to be located behind the stuffing box in order to allow access to it for inspection and service.  I think I will just have to mock up both packs from cardboard and test fit them.


Regardless of pack geometry, I feel it is important to keep the positive and negative terminals of the pack relatively close together (but not so close as to pose a short-circuit risk)

Decisions, decisions...