DIY electric bikes on a budget - part 1, batteries

This article already got really long, so part one will just cover “battery 101” Preemptive anti-splaining Off the shelf e-bikes can be great if you can afford them. I am presuming for this series that you cannot, and want to spend less money but do more faffing about. Many very clever open-source motor control inventions exist. I am targeting this series at those for whom soldering or installing firmware is an obstacle, I will focus on treating the motor contorller as a “black box” Compatibility can be hell, but replacing a whole drivetrain is now cheap, so buying a controller and throttle assembly that is “disposable” because of limited documentation and warranty can be acceptable. Your bike is cooler than mine. No contest. Parts of an e-bike An electric bicycle is conceptually really simple