I'm VERY new to this LiFePo4 stuff. I wanted to buy either a 24v 20ah battery or larger to replace the SLAs I'm currently using.
My question becomes, can I use those? I've see how they "rate" them on e-bay, and they sometimes say....
250w - 450w (300w recommended)
which I guess i could use...
but what happens when it says this....
350w-500w (450w recommmended)
Can i still use this battery? Or am I limited to their specs?
I guess the main question is, can I use ANY AH LiFePo4 battery, as long as it's 24v?
Thank you in advance.
Frank
Current usually relates to acceleration and/or hill climbing. Generally, the more amps you have, the better it will climb hills without you pedaling. Your controller also will dictate how many amps will be supplied. A controller usually has a sense resistor and will only supply the amount of current defined by the controller, regardless of the AH size of the battery. More AH also gives you more range. Some have given the rule of thumb of ~1Ah/mile...
There are also other factors, like wire size to the hub motor. First question I'd ask is what brand of hub motor do you have? Next, what is the amp rating of the controller? What type of terrain are you encountering? What kind of range do you need? And finally, How much speed do you want (this relates pretty much to voltage)?
If you have a generic 24V, 250W hub, you probably have a 10A controller (250W/24V = ~10A.) Getting a 20AH battery wouldn't necessarily help you on hills (it would be limited to the 10A controller), but it would help on the range.
Bottom line to your Subject question is "No"...get as much AH as you can afford, and afford to carry (weight)
Hope this helps!
For a small motor, any of the lifepo4's will be ok, but the larger ah sise packs will have longer range. If you want to go far, get a bigger one. To last the longest, like 1000 cycles or more, you need to keep the amps drawn from the pack under 1.5c. In english, this means get a 20 ah for a 500 watt motor, or a 10 ah for a 250 watt motor. The problems arise when people get the really big motors, 1000 watt and up and try to run them on the small size batteries. You should go at least as far on a 10 ah lifepo4 pack as you are used to going on a 12 AH SLA pack. But I can say from experience that having more range is the way to go! Buy as big a 24v pack as you can afford. Unless you want really huge range, a 20 ah should get you pretty far, 20 miles or more.
Who to buy from? Only Li Ping, pingping227 on ebay can be trusted so far. His batteries work. Sone of other sellers vend junk and change names pretty often. Some sell ok packs, but the Ping ones have cells that have proven themselves by now. Real world testing is still in progress on all of em, but my Ping pack is getting close to 1500 trouble free miles now, and many others are just as good.
Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global
thanks all...
I live in Florida and have NO hills.. It's all flat ground and I'm only looking for distance. I'm going with either a 20ah or 30ah pack.. Currently with the sla's I have (12ah) I get 12 miles with NO pedaling and approx 15 with (light) pedaling. Im guessing with either or the packs I'll get at a min 22 miles. I lose about 10lbs with the 20ah LiFePo4. The 30ah pack would be the same weight as my current batts. (22 lbs.). I've actually bought both, which should be here in a week.
How would you guys say I should test them?
I paid ~$200 each so even if they aren't exactly as advertised, I'm sure I can use both in some capacity.
Or sell one or both locally for the same price I paid for them.
Frank
$200 bucks each...that sounds really really good. I hope you got them from a reputable dealer like Ping. If not, good luck!
As for testing, I think we're doing a distance test so just drive ~10 miles out and then return.
You will probably not get full range for the first 5-7 discharge/charge cycles. That's what I've been hearing from people with the prismatic packs like the Ping packs. Afer a few longish rides with full charges, give it the distance test.
g'luck!
I got them from.... E-bay (yes, one of those "duct tape" pack vendors)
I got one for 217(20ah) and the other for 229(30ah).
(Chalk it up to I'm really good at finding the auctions that stay low the entire time they're out there and then come in and bid at LITTERALY the LAST second and get it cheap!)
IF i had purchased a "ping" pack, I would have prolly paid 400 for ONE at 20-30ah, but I getting TWO.. one at 20ah and the other at 30ah.
Either way, I am tracking them now, and they should be here by Friday. I'll be testing the 30ah first and then the 20ah and I'll let ya know how it goes.
I have a paypal claim currently against the Battery(s), just in case, they don't work well or at all, I'll get half or all my money back for them.
We'll just have to wait and see.
I've been in CONSTANT contact with the seller and they seem to be willing to TRY to work with me (albeit, i paid for expedited shipping and it took them three WEEKS just to put it in their post office), but, alas, it all boils down to how well the packs work.
I'll keep ya all posted.
Frank
It's 3 days before the batteries come!
But ya know what? :( The motor just died :( Does ANYONE have ANY clue where I could find a replacement Rear Hub Motor for my Schwinn Electric OCC Chopper bicycle?
It's a 24v 250w Rear hub Motor, built into the 20 x 4 rim/tire.
Thanx in advance.
Here is some information on the "Schwinn Electric Stingray Hub motor" that I have Learned from experience.......... I purchased one on a Ebay bid for $170.00 in June of 08
My shipping box was numbered 185 of 250 these were the last of the moheicans
and it was a close out by the Pacific cycles company
these were introduced in 2005 with the big bucks behind the enginering and design
"state of the art" 2005 which is killing us now in 08-09 because of the fact that Anada Mfg in China used a" funky grade " of wire inside the HUB. and heat melts the Hall Effect sensors, wired to control the take off pulses from a dead stop nice and smooth.
Mine died after only three glorious months at 36 volts
it was easy to open the silver battery case and add in another matching SLA. and that was it. I fried the fuse out trying to wire it up so I just placed the third SLA where the fuse wires touched. red to black etc. and it was the fastet funnest ride I have ever had .and I even dumped at 22 mph sliding around a SUV..... I got hit by Honda sedan entering a freeway onramp...and the bike never received a scratch.
I cried when that hub motor gave up at the top of my hill on a hot day
the company said I could mail in the hub, but that was impossible . I had them send out the controller but the melted wiring was obvious!!!! just outside the hub!! it go's from" good "to "cheese" in the plug that hold 8 wires
"Solution" I bought a hub motor 24 inch front wheel and controls rack and throttle from (CampSolutions.com!!!!!!!!!!1) they are in California and had a sale on. this Jan 25th I bought the $239.00 special but the hub sent was a 1000 watt 48 volt controlled, "wilderness Energy" model with no labels on the controller... so I got a super good deal!!!!!!!!!!! they are "good" folks and acknoledged my purchase in less than an hour on a Sunday .it came that thursday and i had it ready to run the following Sunday 6 days ago. still fresh and fulfilling in my mind ..but I forgot to series all four batterys together. and I complained on an email it does'nt work. he nicely had an answer in only a few hours that (I should look into voltage) and he was spot on.. I wired red to black to get 48 and the front now runs instead of the back. You could wire in both 24volt battery pack"s you bought!!!!!! and be good to go in an hour or two. "PLUS" I notice that this new "48volt Controller" will wire up to the rear as well !!!!!!!1 and it doesn't need( Halls )!!!!!!! that means You could try just the controller for $49.95 and buy either the 36 or 48 black controller with throttle that will fix as well as speed up the "Ananda 250 watt rated 24 volt rated rear "hub motor" and run it fine... since they should have lasted forever except the Halls are cheapo. due to the "state of the art" being ripped off by asian evil cost cutting.
the USA and Asian economy's are being swallowed up in "failed contracts" due to parts switching (like the wires).
Now the Yellow Blue and Green heavier wires to the hub run the "three phases" on the brushles hub. you may check me on this .. put a bit of voltage to the rear thicker gauge wire or wires wires straight from a battery...... and it will jump a little!!!!!!!! the pulsation is given by a control box ,rapid shots of juice to turn the the wheel with magnetic force,, the newer style controller from CampSolutions dot com will take that job on.. and blow you away with speed. also having a hub motor in front matches up the overbuilt motor cycle look.. and makes the bike heavy and stable. ready to charge ahead at 30 mph when you add light weight packs, you win! and get more speed
I had often thrown my stinger on a Amtrack Train and headed out with a huge backpack and guitar total weight over 350 and did fine
Double your pleasure, double your fun, with double the voltage
Ive read a couple of posts where u plug that Campsolutions site but www.campsolutions.com doesnt work??
That's because its WWW.CAMPSOLUTION.COM, NOT campsolutionS.com
THAT LINK WILL WORK FOR YOU... :)
Could you repeat that,but alittle more clearly and specifically what you were talking about. I couldn't keep up with the entire post, it read like one complete sentence.
Thanks.
I already bought a GoldenMotor 24v "mini-motor" kit(for $300 - Wish you had mentioned the www.campsolution.com kit about 2 weeks ago.) The mini-motor can run 24v or 36v although I purchased their 24v speed cruise controller. If I want too, I will add a 3rd battery to my case and purchase seperately their 36v cruise controller. (I would THEN give my son the 24v cruise controller (which works even WITH FAULTY HALL SENSORS) for HIS electric stinger.)
P.S. I used the 20ah battery for my sons stingray eletric, so I was only using the 30ah one on mine, which got me about 27 miles at 16 miles per hour max speed.
Right now in it's current configuration (with the GM kit) it does about 18mph max and goes for 32 miles. (i.e. FRONT - GoldenMotor 24v kit, 24v cruise/regen controller, 12ah 24v sla's)
REAR- 24v 30ah LiFePO4 and rear 24v stock controller / Motor)
I'm still waiting on a reply from them GM peeps about whether I'm correct that it is dual voltage motor. If so, I will have to wait for more funds to come in to add a third battery, 36v controller, 36v charger which I'm sure will cost me another $200 bucks and hand down that 24v controller for my son's bike..
If the $200 bucks gets me up to 20mph max and 35 miles distance (front 36v/rear 24v), I would be happy for a LOOONG time.
Your input?
P.P.S. I don't want to be able to do more than 20mph, because 1.) It's the legal limit. 2.) At speeds over 20mph, I would feel like I'm riding a 340lb death trap. :)
Bike 100lb, Total batteries and GM Front kit 60lb, and me 180lb)
Frank.