So I'm using a Priority Current with the range extender, and have a need for more range than the downtube battery & rear rack battery can provide (I don't own a car anymore). The way Priority has it setup, the range extender comes with a cable that replaces the downtube battery's cable to the mid-drive motor (which is, I believe, a Truckrun motor if that matters). You unplug the downtube battery from the motor, plug the downtube battery into the range extender cable, and then plug the range extender cable into the motor where the downtube battery was previously plugged in. There's a cell phone sized controller in the range extender -- two wires run from the rear rack battery into that controller, and four run out of the controller. I assume that two are the input from the downtube battery (see below), and that two are the output to the motor.
It doesn't "blend" the batteries or balance them. What it does is drain the downtube battery to approximately 30%, then switch over to the range extender battery and repeat. What happens after the range extender itself hits 30% I can't tell you, but I can report that the LCD display at some point goes from 30% right up to 70-90% in a matter of seconds when it appears to switch. If the rear rack battery is powered off by using the on/off switch on the battery itself, the display goes dead (it doesn't swap back to the downtube battery fast enough). It'll power back up if the rear rack battery is left off and you try to power it on though.
Like I said, I have a need for more range than I get from the combined 22Ah (10Ah downtube + 12Ah rack battery, or 500Wh downtube battery + 576Wh rack battery) supply. When I recognized what the range extender controller appears to be doing, I decided that as long as the secondary battery is of the appropriate voltage (48v), it should work even if I used a 24Ah, 1.2kWh battery I had left over from a previous ebike that I destroyed tinkering with. So I spliced 12AWG wires into the positive/negative wires that run from the rack battery to the controller in the rack assembly. I also tested the voltage from the rack battery when it's powered off, and those wires read as 0.4 volts when the battery's switched off.
So I've now got an XT60 connector spliced into the rack assembly, and a third battery mounted to the top tube (48v 24Ah downtube style). When riding, I let the stock Priority downtube battery drain, keep the rear rack battery plugged in but switched off, and leave my added third battery -- the 24Ah one -- plugged into the XT60 connection. The controller switches over to the third, added battery at about 30% of the stock downtube battery's remaining charge.
If I drain my 24Ah battery until the LCD display reads almost empty, I stop, power down the bike, unplug the XT60 connector, and flip the switch for the rack battery to the "on" position. I then power the bike back up, and the LCD display reads 50-80% battery remaining; I then continue on my way.
My question is this: am I begging for these things to catch fire someday, and how badly am I abusing these poor cells? My third battery (48v 24Ah) is a LiFePo4, but I have no idea what the two Priority batteries are.
It doesn't "blend" the batteries or balance them. What it does is drain the downtube battery to approximately 30%, then switch over to the range extender battery and repeat. What happens after the range extender itself hits 30% I can't tell you, but I can report that the LCD display at some point goes from 30% right up to 70-90% in a matter of seconds when it appears to switch. If the rear rack battery is powered off by using the on/off switch on the battery itself, the display goes dead (it doesn't swap back to the downtube battery fast enough). It'll power back up if the rear rack battery is left off and you try to power it on though.
Like I said, I have a need for more range than I get from the combined 22Ah (10Ah downtube + 12Ah rack battery, or 500Wh downtube battery + 576Wh rack battery) supply. When I recognized what the range extender controller appears to be doing, I decided that as long as the secondary battery is of the appropriate voltage (48v), it should work even if I used a 24Ah, 1.2kWh battery I had left over from a previous ebike that I destroyed tinkering with. So I spliced 12AWG wires into the positive/negative wires that run from the rack battery to the controller in the rack assembly. I also tested the voltage from the rack battery when it's powered off, and those wires read as 0.4 volts when the battery's switched off.
So I've now got an XT60 connector spliced into the rack assembly, and a third battery mounted to the top tube (48v 24Ah downtube style). When riding, I let the stock Priority downtube battery drain, keep the rear rack battery plugged in but switched off, and leave my added third battery -- the 24Ah one -- plugged into the XT60 connection. The controller switches over to the third, added battery at about 30% of the stock downtube battery's remaining charge.
If I drain my 24Ah battery until the LCD display reads almost empty, I stop, power down the bike, unplug the XT60 connector, and flip the switch for the rack battery to the "on" position. I then power the bike back up, and the LCD display reads 50-80% battery remaining; I then continue on my way.
My question is this: am I begging for these things to catch fire someday, and how badly am I abusing these poor cells? My third battery (48v 24Ah) is a LiFePo4, but I have no idea what the two Priority batteries are.