Installing Battery Packs in Starwood Lama Electric

My Starwood Lama has the Electric Mechanics which means a) find a place for the massive battery packs and b) getting the packs in and out.

Before I sold the Lama back in 2018, I had the packs installed directly below the mechanics and accessed them from the bottom aluminum wedge piece below the rear side panels. This was ok, but very difficult and uncomfortable to accomplish, but doable. The packs are 2.4 pounds each and installing from that direction is not easy.

Now that I have it back I wanted to make life easier so I modified one of the side panels such that it’s easily removed and replaced. I have shortened all of the original retaining screws and glued them in place so that from the exterior everything matches the other side and looks unchanged. This is only a template setup as I am having retainers 3D printed that will clip onto the tube frame with just the right amount of tension so that the panel will not come off in flight (I will still use one magnet). The bottom plate has 2 positioning pins and a magnetic attachment so I will be able to manipulate the packs from the bottom and sides.

The 2 pieces of wood adjacent to the aluminum fold are the main positioning guides. With these the final alignment will be perfect. There is only one way they fit.

The next step will be to modify the battery mounting system so that the packs just slide in so that I don’t have to position the present aluminum mounting brackets each time I put them in place.