[DesmoDog]

Not really related to the battery box, but anyway. I see you have FCRs. Did removing the stock air box give any significant power or rideabilty improvement? I have played a bit with removing the rubber snorkels, and also with just a frame holding the oem replacement KN filter. But I never concluded on what worked best. Obviously this was a 600/680 not a 900.

I haven't ridden the bike yet so I have no idea what the pods do to power. Even when I DO ride it I won't know, the bike also has a 944 kit installed so it won't be like the other 900s I've had that I'd compare it to. I don't expect they would make a significant difference though.

The pods were installed to make working on the carbs easier, and the airbox had a broken mount anyway.

 

[DesmoDog]

The plan is to print it out of Nylon eventually, which is good to something like 150C IIRC? In any case, it's going on a trackday bike. Heat cycles will be 20 minutes long and not involve stop and go traffic. That said I have some of the files on Thingiverse, it wouldn't surprise me if someone makes it with PLA and heads down to Starbucks... At first I was going to use PETG. I think it'd handle the heat too, but I have the nylon now so may as well try to make it work.

A new printer showed up this afternoon. It's large enough to print a version of this with the braces built in. Also enclosed to enable printing more kinds of materials.

And it's faster than my old one. It's grinding away on a braces included version right now, second print out of the box. A similar print woul dbe 13 hours on my old printer, and I'd have to trim the corners to make it fit the bed. This one is printing the full version at a bit higher resolution in 4.5 hours. Advertised speeds are fantasy for these things, but even the realistic speeds are pretty amazing after using old school stuff.

This video has not been sped up, though this file was tweaked to print fast and the material is intended for fast speeds. Most prints will go slower, some materials print faster than others.

 

[DesmoDog]

Good to hear about the pods, though like i've said I don't care either way. It'll do what it does and that'll be fine.

Major frustrations printing lately. I bought a new printer that's large enough to do the one piece design and I can't get the damn thing to finish a long print. 4.5 hour print, clogs the nozzle at just over 4 hours. 3.5 hour print? Clogs the nozzle at just over 3 hours. Luckily these were both trial parts so no major lass, but still. And a third print? Around 4 hours long. 20 minutes before it's done? Runs out of filament. So that one finished in two different colors but at least it finished... with a break.

But I'm just venting. There's more to the story and the issues should be resolved soon enough so no need to trouble shoot that here.

One other reason I'm not all that bummed about the prints themselves? Every freaking time I get half way through printing one of these things I'll look at it and think "Hey, I should do it THIS way instead..."

Along those lines... the latest one piece print with braces and features to mount the coils, solenoid, and ignitors. This is a failed print so the top of the box isn't done, but it give you the general idea. It won't be much taller than what's shown here anyway, except for around the ignitors.

This part didn't finish printing (and I'm changing it from what I had planned anyway) but the ignitors will be sort of stacked like that. Not sure how I'll hold them in place yet, the foam I have on the sides may not be enough. Tons of solutions there, just haven't chosen one yet. The box will be taller in that area too.

Coils tucked underneath. Not much room here, still needs to be tweaked but it'll work. Yes that's an ignitor poking through the bottom.

PLA with braces is stiff as fook, I'm not so sure you couldn't lift the bike from the tray. But, PLA sucks at high temps so no go.

The starter solenoid mounts under the right hand side. One side on the frame, the other on the battery box. It's not all the way on obviously, I have to spin the wires on the terminals a bit to make it fit better.

General layout. The EarthX batteries come with a bunch of foam, I'm using it under the battery and one ignitor to get space to clear bolt heads. It's also being used to hold the ignitor boxes in place, they're just squeezed between the foam right now.

The bitch of it is, I'll probably end up using the old design with bolt on braces and no electronics mounted... if I can't get this dang printer to cooperate!

I had wanted to start printing with nylon today but time got away from me. I've also ordered some ASA filament, I may go with that instead. It's about half the price.

 

[DesmoDog]

The ASA filament showed up this afternoon so I tried printing it in the new printer. The two minute filament chip print worked like a champ so I loaded up a 4+ hour battery box print cuz that's what I do. Luckily that worked too so I now have a useable battery box. As in, bolt it to the bike and move on. Woo freaking hoo.

The ignitors are held in place with foam that comes with the battery. If needed another velcro strap could hold them down I suppose. Or thicker foam.

Coils bolt on the bottom. This configuration puts the rear coil very close to the rocker cover, but I made it with two holes at the back just in case. The second hole rotates the coil a bit so it's not inline with the second coil anymore. I suppose that willl drive the OCD crowd crazy but it buys more room so that's what I'm going with.

So maybe I'm done. Or maybe I'l keep working on the previous one cuz I think it looks better, and that's important for something that hides under the tank where no one can see it.

ASA starts to soften at around 105C. Someone on another forum pointed out that if it's too hot for the plastic under there it's too hot for the battery too... I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, there's radiant heat the battery won't see but still. If the battery box gets hot enough to boil water I probably have more important things to worry about. PETG would probably work fine too, it softens around 85C which is still hotter than a battery should be. But better safe than sorry so ASA it is.

While I was messing with that I also set up my other printer to try out nylon filament. It went surprisingly well. Again the test chip went great so I loaded up a real part, a bolt-on brace for the first version I showed here. The files for that one are on Thingiverse BTW.

The nylon I started with is "natural", which it's essentially clear when it's thin. Which means you can't see many details as it's starting out. The first layer is basically invisible, which is fun. A little way into the print I realized it wasn't printing any infill - basically it was printing a hollow part. Oops. Whatever. Let's see what happens. Turns out it worked fine, I'd run it. The strength is in the walls anyway, and they're small parts.

Nylon is cool... but it costs over twice as much as ASA. But so far I like it. I got this natural color because it was relatively cheap, too bad it's not black. Or grey. Or anything but clearish white. Supposedly it can be dyed...

 

[DesmoDog]

I think this is done. Again. There are two versions, one with bolt-on braces and one that's a single piece

The bolt-on brace version is posted on Thingiverse. It holds the solenoid mount, coils, and ignitor boxes. There are two sets of braces for it, one for full fairings and one for short fairings.

Ducati 900ss Battery Box by DesmoDog

This is a battery box for a 1991 - 1998 Ducati 900ss that is running pod filters instead of an airbox. It holds an EarthX ETX18B battery, starter solenoid mount, coils, and ignitor boxes. Interior dimensions of the box are 134mm x 66mm. A stock size battery will not even come close to fitting...

www.thingiverse.com

Coils mount underneath. The ignitor boxes use the stock mounts and sit next to the battery

One ignitor is missing in the photo. I'm not sure where it is to be honest... I really need to finish this thing before I loose more parts.

I also updated the single piece version.

Super trick changes here I tell ya. The guides for the strap are internal now, and there's a place to zip tie the ignitor's wiring to keep it out of the throttle cables. Still for full fairing bikes only.

I have some of these that were printed up during the process and are useable but cosmetically flawed or missing a feature or two. A couple people have expressed interest in getting one, I'll sell the cosmetically challenged parts cheaper than what I'll sell non-challenged versions for. If interested send me a PM. I think I have two bolt-ons that would work on a short fairing and three single piece for the full fairing??? I'd have to look again to be sure. I'll post pictures later.

I'm not printing any up to have sitting around for sale so it's not like this will be a side business, but I'm not against printing something up if there's a desire for one. I've only got black ASA filament right now but other colors and even materials are possible. The finish with ASA isn't great though so I'm not sure it's worth trying to make it look like a "feature". I guess you could have it acetone smoothed if you're into that, I'm not so you're on your own there. Carbon fiber infused filaments look better but cost significantly more.

DIY'ers - The Thingiverse version barely fits on a 230 x 230 build plate when positioned diagonally. The one piece version would not fit a 230x230 plate even if the model were available. Which it probably won't be. Truth is I've burned through about three rolls of filament screwing with this already (and added a larger printer) and I'd like to make some of that back if these turn out to be something people like.

 

[DesmoDog]

There are now three basic versions of this. They all work with either half or full fairings.

1) The Thingiverse files. Bolt on braces. Fits EarthX only. Will not be updated except to fix any issues that get brought to my attention. Got your own printer? Knock yourself out.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6254268


2) The "generic" version. Box size is 152 x 67 to fit a few different brands of battery but nothing specific. It uses the stock rubber mounts for the ignitors

3) The stock size. This one has been a PITA. It's sized to use the rubber insert from the stock battery box. Cut the little nibs off the bottom first.

It uses a lot more material than the others, takes twice as long to print, and is kinda ugly. The good news is you shouldn't have to remove it to adjust the valves? In theory anyway, I haven't tried it.

And with that I'm pretty much done with designs and printing out test parts. Unless I change to a different ignition... but for now it's time to bolt one of these onto my track bike and move on.

 

[DesmoDog]

are you selling prints of these? Would be interested in version 3 if so

Yes I am selling prints. Here's more info on that:

https://www.ducati.ms/threads/battery-box-1991-1998-super-sport-with-pod-filters-no-airbox.750104/#post-7316679

I'm out of black ASA filament right now, it got back ordered. I ordered a different brand which will arrive sooner but I'm heading out on vacation in about a week so probably can't print a black one until the middle of next month. I do have white and dark grey though.

 

[DesmoDog]

FYI - I've moved on from printing these.

I uploaded the STL files for style #3 (Stock size battery) onto Thingiverse. There's basically zero support for it, I can't even find pictures of one let alone the fastener list, but it's not rocket science so shouldn't be hard to figure out what it needs. A couple strips of velcro, a few metric fasteners, nothing too strange.

Link to the file is here:

1991 - 1998 Ducati 900ss 750ss battery box for use with pod filters by DesmoDog

This is a battery box for use on the carb'd, belt drive Super Sports when you delete the stock airbox and use pod filters. It uses the pad from the stock battery box will only fit if you cut the tabs off the bottom of it. Assuming you didn't pull them off when you removed it to begin with...If I...

www.thingiverse.com

I still sort of hate this design. Not for nothing but if it were me I'd ditch the stock size battery, get a nice MOSFET regulator, and go with a lithium battery instead. In fact that's what I did do on my bike. Much more betterer for tons of arguable reasons.

The first version I posted on Thingiverse is still there too if you go the EarthX route. It's got bolt on braces and can be printed on typical size printers. The stock size box needs a larger format printer than what most people are using.