Finally bought one

Right, I should have mentioned that my car has heat pads in the battery compartments. And the charger is smart enough to not charge until the temp is above a preset level. It has temp sensors on the battery terminals. It has thermostats on the heat pads. They run off the charger mains. I just have to leave the car plugged in when not driving in cold weather.

These Solectria cars are very advanced for the day. They really thought of everything. They just needed lithium batteries.
 
Hi,

Here it sounds like making a 6P configuration would not be very hard:
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122481
The chevy Volt battery can easily be split in different configuration only by moving screwed bus bar because it consist of individual pack of 12S 3P (one 12s is actually two 6s 3P).

So, with those 8 packs of 12S you can build: 12S 24P (45v 360Ah), 24S 12P (90v 180Ah), 48S 6P (180v 90Ah) or 96S 3P (360v 45Ah).

I plan to build a 48S 6P configuration for my Smart. For that, I will need to use a BMS constituted of 48 boards (one per cell) because I think link the two separated 3P, one with the other, with a cable/bus bar.

This bus bar is tricky because it imply to find a good way to strongly fix this bus bar between two parallel cells.
And if it's really this easy, water cooling might be a good idea:
Are you planning on cooling them? Keeping the liquid cooling require some forethought but I would highly recommend it....

A trans cooler or similar heat exchanger and a small water pump is all you need. I have actually been working on putting together a full kit to make the volt batteries easier for DIY installation.
Water cooling is probably the best solution to keep the perfect temperature of operation for those cells for all people without a Smart or similar lightweight car ;)
I've pushed mine to 350 amps, Yabert says they will do more, BUT I Only use 5 gallon camping water jug and a cheap pump for cooling.
 
this guy also has the misguided view that the parallel 3P sections have to be attached by a substantial conductor and that is not true. the parallel conductor can be very insubstantial and in fact i would argue that it is clear it should be small enuff to fuse if the 3P on one side failed and shorted so the parallel link would open and reduce the amount of power delivered to the short in total. jmho, but supported by knowledge that the difference in voltage between the two sections during discharge would be in the range of millivolts. you might even be able to separate the two sections of the pack into different parts of the car and connect them through these paralleling wires and have the balancing sense wires and circuitry attached to that. run the cellogs off of that too.
 
Hi,

This guy also has the misguided view that the parallel 3P sections have to be attached by a substantial conductor and that is not true. the parallel conductor can be very insubstantial and in fact i would argue that it is clear it should be small enuff to fuse if the 3P on one side failed and shorted so the parallel link would open and reduce the amount of power delivered to the short in total...
I think he was planning on running 10C to 15C, with one set of charge and discharge cables.

And you are talking about running two sets of charge and discharge cables, one for each string? If so, I think your plan is better. You gain the advantages of having parallel cells (mainly a simplified BMS), the cables between the Cells only need to be big enough to keep two groups of 45A Cells balanced.

Edit Addition:
If there are screws or bolts on the pack that can easily be used to connect the cables to change the pack from 3P to 6P, and this can be done using reasonably sized cable, it seems like a no-brainer to me (caveat: without physically inspecting a pack).
 
love this car. did you know they offer free towing once a year to the nearest charge station? i am so hoping one will turn up at auction here. you have the best color scheme. the crazy printing they did on some just trashed them imo. there was guy around the corner from me who sold one for $13k asking last summer but it had the fluorescent orange & black freakout pattern on it.
 
I had heard something good like that.

I paid 8k. Only 14th miles. Seemed like a pretty good deal. Very happy with the car so far. It's range is very different at 25 degrees for than at 35 degrees f. Some thing to do with battery heating.

I would probably like the orange and black.

It seems like fewer cars pull out In front of me. I think it's because no one has ever seen this car before and will wait to see it drive by
 
yopappamon said:
Thought I had the shipping under control. Talked to the shipper, found out the hazmat category and labeled it accordingly. Declared all the relevant hazmat info. Shipper picked up the battery and now wants an MSDS on the battery or they wont deliver.

Called Chevrolet, called a dealership, called LG Chem. No luck with Chevy or the dealer. LG was helpful, refers me the person at the factory who could help. That person asked why I needed the Msds and what my relationship was to LG. I explained what I was doing. Fingers crossed I gets positive response tomorrow.

Otherwise its road trip to Minnesota!

Hey, I have recently bought one too. I am facing the same problems for shipping, could you please help me out?

I am shipping this to Toronto, Canada from Detroit. So I also need the MSDS data sheet, I am guessing it should be class 9 hazardous? Were you able to find any UN# for it or any test report?

I really appreciate your help
Thanks
 
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