jealousy

Those Bavies-Craig (Bosch ultimately) pumps use 13W at 12V (10W at 9V), and shifts about 4l/min round 13m of 10mm pipe. I use one in my solar system so I've measured it. Nice bit of kit with no seal to leak. I guess you'd need a much shorter pipe in a vectrix batt-cooling setup. If you are looking for cooling kit then the PC-modder/gaming people (that like putting blue LEDs in their cases) have loads of stuff (pipes, pumps, connectors etc). These will be lower-power and smaller than the automotive davies-craig EBP type.

I've ordered 42 SE40AHA for my bike.

can't wait.

I'll have a set of NiMH cells with 2 years and 2000km on them to re home when it is all done.

I've ordered 42 SE40AHA for my bike...

Congrats - although you might have to change your screen name :-)

Keep us posted on your progress.

:)

Oh no, I don't think so. 6 months of stuffing about looking at pretty much every cell on the market only to come back to the ones I looked at first.

Plenty of procrastination there :)

I've ordered 42 SE40AHA for my bike.

can't wait.

I'll have a set of NiMH cells with 2 years and 2000km on them to re home when it is all done.

*sigh*

I wish I understood all this technical stuff so I could understand what you're doing.

So I can see WHAT they are, but what will it achieve and how will it work and what adaptations will be necessary?

Yep, it is a bit technical, and potentially lethal, but it isn't beyond learning.

I'm a maintenance fitter by trade with a "D-Class" electrical ticket. I had worked with mains voltage stuff for years before that with only highschool physics knowledge and some basic tips from my grandfather. I never got a tickle, but there was quite a bit I didn't know that might have caught me (isolation transfomers are a good example)but I think I was lucky. I'm glad I finally got trained and ticketed, it makes me a lot safer. I'd recommend it to anyone who is planning to play with electricity above about 60V.

congrats indeed, I almost wish my battery was dead :p

for now I'm quite happy with my range, but it's good to know there is a solution.

If it is a good solution yet?
I see hibba is happily cruisin around, with obviously good results.. but what's with the charging?
does the computer adapt to the new maximum charge or not?

Is it really just a case of putting in the new pack and go?

That would be cool :-)

1 question left; what did you finally spend on the cells?

I've ordered 42 SE40AHA for my bike.

can't wait.

I'll have a set of NiMH cells with 2 years and 2000km on them to re home when it is all done.

*sigh*

I wish I understood all this technical stuff so I could understand what you're doing.

So I can see WHAT they are, but what will it achieve and how will it work and what adaptations will be necessary?

Aircon, don't despair. As more folks do this then it becomes better understood and easier to do. We rely on trailblazers like Mik, hibba and procrastination to do stuff first and then we mere mortals "stand on their shoulders" to achieve our own successes later on down the line. It just takes time. Thankfully hibba and procrast are impatient enough not to wait... :-)

antiscab is on to it to. But he's planning for bigger capacity than we mere mortals :)

I'm pretty sure the vectrix charger software won't scale up for the new capacity. I believe it delivers the Ah consumed to a maximum of 30Ah + some compensation amounts for self discharge then an "end charge" cycle of 3A CC for some duration for balancing.

I think the old software range estimations are pretty fixed and optimistic, so might match the 40Ah cells well.

I will be looking at a small simple external charger to top up the last bit of the new cells, but I think my normal commute will be within the capacity of the standard charger.

Hey Matt, what do you know about the 3A EC? It seems the duration is variable. What defines the time it runs for? Maybe we can trick it into running it's maximum time every charge

a 40Ah battery should work well with original software.

60Ah will work, its just the extra range gets tricky to use wihtout adding an Ah counter and another charger.

when running 60Ah cells from full charge, after 30 or so Ah, the guage will read empty, but there won't be any power restriction until the battery has had around ~55Ah pulled from it.

the real trick then is charging it if you dont have another charger.
the stock charger won't fully charge the battery on hte first recharge cycle, however, it will bring it back to full charge eventually (from the 3A overcharging).

Matt

It will charge it fully(60Ah) if you discharge the battery to the red battery telltale.
There's another big pro. LiXXPo batteries have much better energy absorption than NiMH. So, when the charger will charge the partially discharged battery, it will think, that it charged 30Ah, but in fact, the battery will be charged 35+Ah.
Our NiMh batteries have 30Ah capacity, but there has to go more energy into them than just 30Ah, because their energy absorption is not 100%. LiXXPo batteries have much better energy absorption than NiMH, so you will actually effectively charge them more, for the same time being charged, than the NiMH pack.

Hey Matt, what do you know about the 3A EC? It seems the duration is variable. What defines the time it runs for? Maybe we can trick it into running it's maximum time every charge

The EQ charge (each 10hrs of riding or so) will restart each time if it has not reached a certain cut-off point during it's last run.

Using a timer it might be possible to keep it doing EQ charges forever! Of course, that might be a problem if the Li cells cannot get rid of 3A overcharge.

No EQ on my software, Just EC after the CP phase. 3A constant current for what seems to be a variable count down duration

No EQ on my software, Just EC after the CP phase. 3A constant current for what seems to be a variable count down duration

I have never run the newer software versions on the Vectux.

On the version I have, the EC countdown always starts at 59min and always counts down to zero.

If yours is variable, it may be a newer version; and it should have the EQ charge every so-and-so-often. Those riders who actually run the firmwarewith EQ should be able to describe it in detail.

Always remember this: If you cannot CHANGE the software, you usually can change te HARDWARE to fool the software, and make it do what you desire! By changing the resistance in the battery current sensor circuit, it is possible to trick the charger into charging at a higher or lower rate, or alter the current limit to the controller-none of these alterations should be done without full understanding of the consequences, or parts may fail! If the hardware were changed to fool the software into believing that only 75% of the actual number of ampere-hours were delivered, (25%reduction of the signal) full charging ofa 40 AH pack would occur, and reducing the hardware signal by 50% would allow full charge of a 60 AH pack! You would need to be careful not to allow excessively high MOTOR current during DISCHARGE, and charging curren must be kept to what is safe for the charger during charge. (Perhaps a relay could switch resistances during charging)--Altering the CLOCK signal is another way to fool the circuit, if the clock runs at 1/2 speed during charging, it would charge twice as long!--Good luck, Bob Curry

It will charge it fully(60Ah) if you discharge the battery to the red battery telltale.

discharging to red battery tell-tale merely resets the assumed remaining capacity to 0Ah.

on the recharge cycle it puts the charge back in at 1500W, until the previous measured pack capacity is put back in, which if it was never acutally measured is 30Ah. The greatest measured pack capacity can be 33Ah.

the charger doesn't just keep charging until the battery goes HV (which is unfortunately what is wanted for a lithium pack).

That means if you have a flly depleted 60Ah battery, and put the vectrix software to red-battery tell-tale, the charger will only put in at most 33Ah at 1500w, and a few more Ah in the later slower charge stages.

I have noticed that everytime i do a red-tell tale discharge, a Eq charge occurs.

Matt

I always thought that the charge, following the red battery telltale, will do CP charging until CP cut-off voltage (on the speedometer LCD) is reached. Isn't it so?

Mary-Bob, nice ideas :) I particularly like the clock speed change. I wonder if that would change the detected A reading (J/s) and have the charger running at un safe current.

I thought maybe a shut around the current detection on the DC bus on the motor controller might reduce the detected current, but that might mean that the charger delivers at a rate higher than it can handle and lets the smoke out.

Another idea I had was to put a contactor in series with the battery and parallel the contactor with some resistors so that, with the contactor open, if you took it for a quick spin, the resistors would force a red battery light reset of the AH count. A bit of a pain, but seems to be a fairly simple way to get two charges into a larger pack.

...
...

my own vectrix has never charged to CP cut-off voltage as its actual capacity happens to be above the capacity the bike thinks it is (the bike is at factory default 30Ah, where as my pack capacity is slightly higher).
this means even when CP is 152, pack voltage only gets to 144-146v (ive done this a few times) before CP stage ends (30Ah put into the pack).

Matt

Now that's a reason to be jealous!

In my experience the voltage cutoff limit is only reached during a "Recharge after BALPOR" with a sub-standard battery. The battery reaches full before the charger has put a full charge in - it is a safety cutoff mechanism, along with the capacity cutoff and high temperature cutoff (or "charge termination").

I always thought that the charge, following the red battery telltale, will do CP charging until CP cut-off voltage (on the speedometer LCD) is reached. Isn't it so?

my own vectrix has never charged to CP cut-off voltage as its actual capacity happens to be above the capacity the bike thinks it is (the bike is at factory default 30Ah, where as my pack capacity is slightly higher).
this means even when CP is 152, pack voltage only gets to 144-146v (ive done this a few times) before CP stage ends (30Ah put into the pack).

Matt

So, when your charger balances your cells (EQ), how high does you voltage go? Do you have the newest firmware?

100 kph 75 amps one way
100 kph 65 amps the other way long stright rd
bike is lighter
added more fans cant show any more pics though
using standard charger
ive seen 183 amps max draw now
and 55 amps full regen
hibba

100 kph 75 amps one way
100 kph 65 amps the other way long stright rd
bike is lighter
added more fans cant show any more pics though
using standard charger
ive seen 183 amps max draw now
and 55 amps full regen
hibba

I don't know if you have a min/max function on your current measurement device. If not, then to find the maximum current draw you could ride up a steep hill at about 70km/h, or accelerate from 65km/h to 80km/h up a hill. The current will peak during the acceleration at about 70-75km/h.