Ok,k so my XB-700 Li arrived on Tueday, and I took it for a rather long ride today just to see how far I might go.
I traveled backroads to a friend's farm, and made it out there ok, and the battery was showing the I had over 50 percent charge remaining, but as I was returning to the city I only got 3 miles down the road before I lost all power. I tried unplugging the battery, but when I plugged it back in I was only able to travel aproximately 200 feet before it died again.
the total distance I had traveled (measured uning Gogle Earth) was 25.31 miles. Is this the normal limit for a single battery, or is that on the low edge of distance from usual?
A hint about electric vehicles which will contribute much to your state of happiness. Or at least decrease your state of unease.
Do not believe the manufacturer range estimate. Doubt the manufacturer speed estimate.
It seems that they get the skinniest guy to do range/speed tests, then quote the highest speed and the longest range, but there's no way to get both at the same time.
BTW, the same is true for a gas car. If you floor the accelerator for the whole ride there's no way to get the typical miles/gallon and the range will be less.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Your "fuel guage" is likely to be just a voltmeter, highly inaccurate.
id suggest getting an AH counter (cycle analyst, wattsup, etc) for an accurate idea of remaining charge.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
I just installed a "DrainBrain" (the ancestor of the "Cycle Analyst") largely because I don't have an odometer otherwise. With just a few days of use, I'm very happy with it.
It offers:
It has fairly intelligent data saving, so when you turn off the pack, the data you wish you had written down is waiting for you when you return.
(It did cause a bit of confusion for my stepson. I told him that the AH gauge was like the fuel tank, and that he shouldn't let it go past 15AH (from the nominal 20AH SLA pack). He thought that as a fuel gauge it would start at full and go toward empty.
The new ones have backlighting. I'd like to wire it into the switched 48V line to the panel volt gauge so it would switch off with the key.
Mark
Getting back to the original question of whether 25 miles sounded about right.
I weigh in at around 190+ or - ......
25 miles is about what I get on a full charge so it sounds like we are on par with each other.
The fuel gauge is worthless. I installed a voltmeter and ammeter for about $12. I watch the battery voltage. When down to around 46V I go plug in.
75% depletion is somewhere around 41V but I don't run them down that far.
Thom
Did you notice that the manual says to charge the batteries 15 hours the first two times. Also you might be one of the ones who got a bad battery. I got 40 miles in the beginning but not now its' down to about 20-25
ChucknFl