The term "monolith" refers to Zero's standard Z-Force Power Pack sealed battery assembly with specific, fixed dimensions and a single BMS with fixed communication and power interface.
A monolith is designed to package up to 4 parallel bricks, described as "4-brick" or "28s4p", referring to 4 parallel stacks of 28 cells in series.
- The 4p arrangement is a "full" arrangement: the monolith is split into 4 equal quadrants each fitting a brick.
- A "3-brick" arrangement was available for 2013-2016 S and DS bikes, leaving the forward upper quadrant empty (presumably filled with lightweight but load-absorbing material).
- Interconnects
- An interconnect wiring system electrically connects each cell across bricks that is in the same position in the series.
- Interconnects minimize the complexity of cell balancing by ensuring that only 28 conductive connections are needed from the single BMS to keep cells balanced.
- Interconnects also ensure that a set of 3 or 4 cells are electrically able to balance a certain amount of load, reducing stress from imbalanced load variations while running.
- Interconnects do seem to embody some specialized emergency fuse safeguards.
- Components and Weight
- 32 lb/brick ⨉ 4 brick = 128 lb
- The 4-brick monolith weight of 140 lb implies 12 lb for the base plate, BMS, dog house with contactor, current sensor, fuse, and connectors.
- Casing features
- The front face has two holes for accessing the BMS indicators, I/O port, and reset buttons.
- The front face is also removable for servicing the BMS; within, the interconnects to the cells are on the left edge (as seen while facing the battery from the front); on the top edge are connections to CANBus communications and the external power bus.
- The trailing edge of the left side of the monolith casing features an arc cutout with two holes.
- This cutout accommodates/mounts a CHAdeMO charging inlet (and can adapt to a Type 1 or Type 2 J1772 inlet with some fabrication).
- Threaded inserts are included for the inlet mounting, sized for M5 bolts at 80mm distance from each other (center to center).
- Refer to Yazaki's CHAdeMO connector manual for details.
- The top rear module called the doghouse contains the contactor and sensors for operating the safety limits.