Runke Charge, a new approach to the Battery´s problem
Hi everyone, i bought a second hand 2011 Vectrix with 2100 Km on it, the scooter as a Runke charger as you can see by the pictures.
After lots of reading in this subject here and in other forum's i decided to upgrad my scooter firmware to "the Laird" firmware ir order to extend my battery pack live, that's when i found that my charger was a Runke and that it was impossible (for now) to upgrade, after changing some Email's with " The Laird" asking some advise in how to extende the battery pack's live, he advise me to try to keep my battery with a SOC between 20 an 80%, in is own words:
"Keep the charge between 20% and 80% where possible. Do this by (20%) running down to the last two or three bars on the fuel gauge (I am assuming that
it is Accurate?) (80%) allow the charge to procede until the battery voltage reaches 148 Volts I would ride to the 'red light' perhaps every 1000 km.
Charge the battery only when necessary and only to 80% unless you need a 'full' charge.You might be able to take it down to two bars and then use a timer to
stop the charge before any heating begins to take place. This would be a good option."
As i have not a fix commute and i almost never do more them 25Km in a row and i recharge between trips, is very dificult for me to control the charger
process in a way that the SOC during charging never exceed the 80%. It came to me that the best solution to control the charger in order to keep this values (SOC 80%)
is not to use a timer to disconnect the charger,because the time to get to the 148V (80% SOC)is not allways the same, depending on the SOC of the battery in the moment that you conecte the charger.
I am not an expert in electronics or even in computing, so changing Firmware or something like that is completely impossible for me, but i found that it may be possible to use a "Current control relay single phase" to overcome this control problem:
Model Hager EU 103
http://africa.hager.com/energy-distribution/control-signaling/control-relays/12083.htm
Please help me with this and correct me if i'm wrong, i think that during the first parte of charging process "CP-constant power" the changer an impellers will have an
current consumation on a rate of "x" Ampere per second in order to charge the battery, i'm not sure but i think that when this first stage of chargeing process finishes
the current consumation rate will drop to an inferior value during the "TR" fase and will maintain an inferior rate of current consumation in the
"CC-constante current" fase (the 3 Ampere fase). We can use the current control relay, to mesure this change on the corrente consumation rate and
turn off the charger avoiding the "CC" charging fase that burn the batterys, this way we can always complete the "CP" fase till reach the 148V and avoid
all the other parts of the charging process, from time to time let's say each 1000 Km, we can depleted the batterys until the red light turn on and performe a full
charge cicle in order to avoid the memory effect and balance the batterys.
This current control relay can be programed even to protect the charger from over current problems, as it can have a minimum and maximum current rate.
The cooling problem must be overcome because the relay will cut the current to the charger during "TR" fase that it is a cooling period, but we can use a
AB-Coll solution or, to aditional fans that will work independently from the charger or even another relay that will just cut the current 15 mim after it
receives the cut of signal of the first relay.
I hope that some expert can tell me if this one is a solution to maintain the SOC below 80%
Sorry for my bad English, best regard's
João Rui
Has anybody tried to install the Lairds firmware on a runke charger? It may work...
Don't. Just DON'T
Attempting to install the 'modified' software into a Runke Charger COULD do serious damage.
I know absolutely nothing about the Runke Charger in terms of it's inner workings but, It is unlikely to be anything like the older E.S.D. As such, any attempt to inflict upon it an 'alien' programme will almost certainly fail, hopefully BEFORE any damage is done by trying to run that programme.
What we need is knowledge of the inards of the Runke charger. I am trying to collect information but there seems to be little of it about. Has anyone opened the case on one of these yet? If so, what is inside? A list of chips, photos any information? Even the simple behavior would be helpful as in what does it do when charging, aiming voltages? currents? times? limits?
Someone is going to have to get his/her? hands dirty here or we are going nowhere.
Anyway, back to the script, Don't try installing the wrong software it could break something.
The Laird,
(Telling it like it is, as always)
You do not need to charge to exactly 80% SOC to get the benefits.
Use a countdown timer for charging and charge for long enough to put in the amount of charge that you will need for the next ride. You will soon figure out how many minutes you need to charge to add one bar to the fuel gauge display (I think it's about 12 minutes with the old stock charger per bar).
You may be able to set up a camera to video the display during the charging process. Then you can fast-forward through the recording and note down what the Runke charger does at what time. That will allow you to use a timer to your advantage and if you post the results here, help The Laird and others to figure out how to possibly improve it.
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
Hi Joao,
You might find one of these more useful... http://www.lightobject.com/Programmable-Digital-AH-meter-Ideal-for-battery-monitoring-P278.aspx
It is called a JLD404 and can be programmed to trip a built-in relay after a certain number of Ah have gone through the meter. It can do the same according to pack volts too.
MW
Regards, Martin Winlow
Isle of Colonsay, Scotland
evalbum.com/2092