I found this video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=208kG8B6HJM
It makes doing the inrush current limiter thing look pretty easy. Presumably it's a correct way of doing it, is it? My question is (yep, another one...) can I use a normal 220-240v 50w light bulb? I've seen from Matt's video that he uses a domestic light bulb and also mentions Australia being on 220-240v like the UK.
I have a Bussmann 200A fuse on the way from the USA and will be replacing nine damaged cells. However, given the potentially catastrophic consequences of not re-connecting properly. I'd prefer to ask here first! I don't want to assume anything......
What ever happened to high school physics? A bulb is a wire contained in a vacuum. All we need here is a resistive wire to dissipate the inrush current. Wether the bulb is a 110,220 or 240. Akerson difference. It will briefly flash on as current passes and then you are done.
Long forgotten. I specialised in music and worked as a pro musician for most of my life! :)
For me, High School Physics was how to get off the bus, into a friend's car and away from campus without being detected!! HAHA!! :-)
Physics - high school or otherwise - says that if you try to push more electrons through a wire than it can handle, it will melt. Light bulbs can even explode, as happened when a guy working on my XM3000 connected the tail light to the drive system. So, in short, the question was not in the least bit stupid. The answer is, apparently, "The conditions created by using a light bulb as a current inrush limiter will not exceed the operating parameters of the light bulb."
I believe the video is trying to show the fact of proper way to connect pack up without welding contacts of the Anderson connectors. As you asked in V,
I use a light bulb of a voltage equal to pack voltage and current of bulb high enough to allow for fast charging of capacitor bank in short time like maybe 3 to 5 seconds or less. If you want to use 220-240 volt bulbs on a VX-1 then maybe parallel some lamps to increase current flow to controller capacitor bank. Of course a 240 volt bulb on a 125 volt pack will be of a light load and will charge capacitor bank in 15 seconds at a 50 watt series load to bank of capacitors. It will never or hardly ever blow up or arc since it is far away from max volts on lamp filament. Light bulbs are best for charging caps for using a heater coil is like nearly continuity and will try to draw full current vs a light bulb which is higher resistance and lower wattage. I used a heater once and it drew a long arc of many inches and lots more centimeters like maybe 10 or 12 of those metric numbers. So if a 192 volt truck controller can do that kind of an arc a 125 volt VX-1 can make a 2 or 3 cm arc easy. I had no idea that in order to connect the blue Anderson connectors together one had to be reversed in order to make a series string of both halves of the pack. When I take my bike apart I will mark it GOOD for proper connections.KB1UKU
A follow up. I used a domestic lamp fitting with a 50w bulb and used it across the Anderson connector, as per the video on YouTube . For some reason, I'd been very apprehensive about this stage of things, probably because of the risk of blowing the capacitors or fuses.
In fact, it was easy and the light bulb lit up, then faded in about five seconds and then I plugged the connector together and then removed the bulb etc.
The bike works fine now.