Duct Tape E-Bay Lifepo4s???

[geoff57]

I'm going to ask that this thread jack get forked off to another thread ... might need a bit of attention, and not related well to ping packs.

Hi all
point taken this is not a problem with the packs but the way it has been used we will help and others will too but this is the wrong place ranger you need to start a thread asking for help getting your cycle going again I hope you sucseed.

 

[tifalou]

Back to Ping's batteries subject, just to say they become more and more expensive : the bid for a 48V 20Ah battery has ended at $712. It seems that getting them will be harder and harder now. Considering the success on e-bay, what will be the prices for direct orders when he gets stock again, assuming he will ?

 

[electricridefl]

Ahhhh....I've been riding my bike...no gas to buy...no rain to dodge...I just go a little easy so the brakes will last me and my front end to replace and then maybe an electric brake.....but...the least of my worries now is my battery....that ping battery just brings a smile to my face every ride...I keep get goin g to fast and have to back off the gas....80+volts all the time gives more punch and more speed...no need to charge at work...20 mile range now with 72v 10ah ...I charge after round trip 10 miles use about 1/2 capacity and 1.5amp 36v charger in parallel takes 7.5 to 8hrs...takes forever...but bike sure runs good...I am still getting used to new center of weight for riding wheelies...have'nt clocked top speed but may be can get 35mph with 409 motor 26". The big apple tire is pretty good for no flats...the motor runs great...still have original motor and controller a couple years...no problems...the ping battery rocks! the 10ah gets a little warm even after 5 mile trip, only 20amp controller...haven't ridden with this battery in pouring rain yet...no more spoke problems now with elbows out...this is a very reliable set up with hubmotor...and no sound at all...beautiful...and can usually cruise at 30mph+ under most small inclines and wind, and consistent torque is always on hand unlike with sla battery and starts to give out under ampload...it doesn't shorten the range with these ping lifepo4...16lbs not bad ....today on way home big traffic jam...then the ebike really shines, making better time than the thousands of cars I am passing on the sidewalk...and then I come up on accident, and it is on sidewalk and cops sweeping up there, so I go slow and go off road short cut to my road...and cop sees me and exclaim there goes battery bike....and I say back...Oh darn, you got me...well I tried my best to blend in and slow down when I see cops, but surely they have seen me and figured me out, but I drive sane and safe in their town, so they never hassle me...I just figured they didn't notice me...ha ha! Everybody notice me! I'm going 30mph down the sidewalk pedaling like I am not even trying! Now with gas price and kids to shuffle around, I need something for a family vehicle like bicycle...I am leaning towards a pedicab on ebay for 399. delivered....now that we have ping battery so no more heavy underpowered things that have to be babbied and have short life and can kill easy if not charge immediately after every use...just ride and go and charge when conveinient...and won't ruin battery to sit around discharged...my previous b&b sla hr9ah 72v was just constant powerfade and imbalance with 6vt and 12vt in series...and so much weight to just barely meet the p[ower requirements for measely 5mile trip...those days are no more...now to see how long the battery will last...so my battery cost $500 ...for 80v 10ah...16lbs w/bms and charger...well that is the best deal I have seen....Previously, I balked extremely at paying $500 or more for a battery for my bike...but having spent $250 for a crap sla battery that underperformed and wore out after a couple hundred cycles and made bike so heavy and cumbersome that it almost defeated the purpose...it just feels right to have a battery made with the lightest metal rather than the heaviest...go to the light!
now time to attack the issue of energy waste in the rest of my environment...boy...just look around...to have engineered all this stuff...with no concern about efficiency ...just convienience...just heat water and food with electricity....that is the stupidest thing I've ever seen! Especially where I live ...well anyway...I want to design power systems simply and I keep running into the same problem...perhaps there is an answer now, a simple one for a simple thing...
but then I suppose it is an answer that many would like to have...a simple problem...why does it need a seemingly complicated solution? Ok, here is my problem...I just want a simple non wasteful way to limit current...like a gizmo to hook in the circuit to limit amps to 10a for example...without turning off the circuit...just let 10amps through without causing a logjam of electrons and heat and waste but not complicated controller...perhaps a gate set at 10amps with a soft start feature...any ideas? thank you

 

[RLT]

I looked up watts up after your comment and this is what I found:http://www.amazon.com/ELECTRONIC-EDUCATIONAL-DEVICES-Watts-Meter/dp/B0004HJP8W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1210603386&sr=8-1

Wrong kind.
This is what he was recommending:
http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/motorized-bicycles/electric-bike-meter.html

 

[RLT]

The only connectors I found in the local store radioshack were these: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104019
Do you recommends anything different?

No, Those connectors are not going to work

These are what most people use.
http://www.powerwerx.com/product.asp?ProdID=3016&CtgID=3578

Or better yet, get the 45 amp ones.

They are cheaper at Mouser.com though

 

[Ranger]

Thank you all folks. I just ordered all the above.

Hopefully when it all works, I will come back and report on the Ping battery

 

[knightmb]

Ok, everyone, this topic is 67 pages long now. I'm going to lock this and start a "Duct Tape E-Bay Lifepo4s 2" topic to continue on. So all I ask for new forum members not to try and insert another discussion or tech support in the middle of this new one. 8)

Find the second one here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4258

 

[knightmb]

Continued From Here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2931

 

[Link]

ROFLCOPTER! Never seen a thread locked because it was too long before. 8)

 

[Johnbear]

Is there a database limitation on the length of threads? Does it consume too much bandwidth?

 

[Link]

Naw, a page is a page. But that thread was so full of tangents of anything that had anything remotely or indirectly related to the duct-tape packs you could make a whole section for it. Good luck finding something in there, even with the search feature .

 

[GGoodrum]

Definitely a good idea.

 

[Link]

Possibly, but considering this thread has yet to contain any information about the duct-tape LiFePO4s, I'm not so sure.

 

[Johnbear]

I was very curious how big the thread would grow! I hope it does not get buried now that it is not being posted to. I posted a fair amount of my experience with the batteries in that thread. I was reading the new posts daily.

 

[geoff57]

ROFLCOPTER! Never seen a thread locked because it was too long before. 8)

Hi all
I've seen locked threads due to length on the R/C groups forum they normaly lock after 500 posts I was wondering what endless sphere's would be all I can say on that is well done on makeing it to a second thread.

and now for somthing compleatly diffrent (as the python team would say)
I have been in contact with ping on the subject of converting a 48v 10ah(16s 2p) pack into a 24v 20ah (8s 4p) phisicly the same size but requiring a difrent BMS here was his comments,

We don't recommend do that, although the cells in one pack are almost suitable. Also, please pay attention that the polarity taps on the cells are very thin and easy to be broken. If you insist do this, we can provide you BMS and charger.

this sounds like the cells will take it but a soldering iron in the wrong place or any of a lot of things could damage a cell beyond repair, the solder tags for the cells being the first and biggist problem. I have decided to take on the task of conversion though I am going to use a large number of powerpole connectors to make a pack that can be in either configuration, as I take the pack apart I am taking lots of photos and with the aid of diagrams will try to take the lid off what is hidden under all that solder!
BEWARE THIS ALTERATION IS AT THE OWNERS RISK
Do you want to hear more?

 

[kbarrett]

Sure ... go ahead and post.

 

[Link]

geoff57: I plan on doing a similar thing. I intend to make a 36V 10Ah pack into a 72V 5Ah pack. Debating on the best way to switch the cells around for charging. I'll probably end up doing what I think DJ plans to; charging up the pack to say 80% charge or so and then using a bunch of relays to progressively move a single-cell charger down the pack. Solves the balancing problem, too. Then all I will need is an LVC, which shouldn't be to hard to work up.

 

[geoff57]

geoff57: I plan on doing a similar thing. I intend to make a 36V 10Ah pack into a 72V 5Ah pack. Debating on the best way to switch the cells around for charging. I'll probably end up doing what I think DJ plans to; charging up the pack to say 80% charge or so and then using a bunch of relays to progressively move a single-cell charger down the pack. Solves the balancing problem, too. Then all I will need is an LVC, which shouldn't be to hard to work up.

wait until tuesday for me to get back from a wedding then will talk more.

 

[geoff57]

Hi all
first installment of how to convert a ping pack, my first job was to label everything and take pictures both for you but more so I could undo what I had done.the pack required the removal of most of the duct tape leaving a strip wraped at the base this did a very good job of holding the cels together while I worked on them.
So the bms 16 way connector was pulled off the bms leaving just the negative wire connected going from the pack to the bms.
next I labeled each wire on the bms monitor wiring setup and unsoldered all 16 wires this has now been stored in the box the battery is being kept in.
the positive and negative wires were removed from the battery and the battery labeled pos and neg
the Bms was then free to be put in the box of bits as well.
I was now faced with the hardest part of the the whole process taking the cells apart, this is the bit that ping warns us about and how fragile the cells are.
So I prepaired everything I would need and got started, a sharp knife, mid range soldering iron, dremmil drill with cut off disk, desoldering tool and a pair of fine nose pliers.
To take the pack apart I chose to split it into 16 2 cell parallel packs,the tags of the cells are soldered onto small circus boards pictures will be put up on Tuesday, first remove as much of the solder from the board with the first bms connection point was, once done identify cell tag take knife in one hand and iron in the other apply iron to tag and lift off board with knife. repeat process on the board so all of the tags are up at 90 degrees to the board. next try to remove the board take the pliers and the iron as you heat up the board and the solder melts so pull that end away from the cells eventualy it should come off.

 

[SniperGaulois]

More test results-

have been able to go above 20ah every time by going slowly at the end after about 50 cycles, and it seems that in the first two hours of recharging it puts much more energy into the battery than a few hours into the recharge. So you can recharge for 3 hours and have almost half of the capacity restored...

can't wait for them to become more of a cheap commodity! I want more!

 

[dogman dan]

That is the claim i've heard from manufacturers websites while they won't sell you one. Lifepo4 is supposed to be able to do an 80% charge pretty fast, and then goes a lot slower for the last bit and balancing. So i interperet that to mean it is worth it to partial charge as long as you still do a full charge frequently. You stil won't charge any faster than the output of the charger of course, but if it takes 8 -10 hours to charge, you might be 70 or 80% full after less than 70 or 80% of the time a full charge takes. No need to wait all day for a charge if 70% of the pack will get you there.

 

[zurgutt]

Has anyone had email contact with Ping recently? I have emailed him twice asking about 72V battery options but unfortunately no answer in nearly a week.

For that matter, has someone got 72V packs from him? Im interested about their dimensions, may need to have it custom made to fit frame. Please if anyone has some, post Ah value + dimensions and a picture if possible.

 

[Link]

AFAIK, he doesn't make 72V packs. The BMS he uses won't take that kind of voltage. We've had to make our own if we want to go over 48V. :?

 

[John in CR]

Anyone correspond with Ping recently? I've been trying to arrange a couple more packs from him for over a week, but no response. BTW my 2 packs, 36V-15ah ea, are working great. I've had no trouble running them in parallel (no more over-current BMS shutdowns), though Ping recommends against it. How could running equal packs in parallel be a potential problem, since I do want to protect these?

John

 

[Rassy]

According to my new WattsUp meter my BMS is cutting out at 29 Amps. So I have the throttle manually adjusted to a 24 Amp limit. This works fine for the BD36 on the Bob trailer. With the power trailer I made from the scooter, I just bypass the BMS, since at the same throttle setting the brushless controller from the scooter will suck in 37.7 Amps. I also bypass the BMS when using the two wheel trailer behind the trike, with both Duct Tape batteries in parallel. Both of my batteries came from Anna, and are 48V 20 AH. All of my SLA's are just sitting in the shop now!