I forgot to charge up the bike the other night after work, so ended up riding it for a bit over 10 miles on just the charge from the night before that.
Again, I can't find the paper I wrote the CA data down on before I reset it to do charging test on, but I recall some basic numbers:
~10 miles
~13mph avg
~20mph max
~5.5Ah
These two were easy to remember for some reason
260Wh
26Wh/mile
I didn't do much pedalling, except the couple of times I was on the bike path on the canal for a short distance (maybe 1/8 mile), and just a bit to help during startup from a stop each time, on the second day, keeping current draw down some at those points (probably saving 10A or so for a few seconds).
Now for charging data, which I have exact numbers for. I did it differently this time; I wanted to also measure the charge on the 12V NiMH lighting pack, which I keep meaning to do but forgetting to. At first I was going to use the large-screen CA that's mounted on the bike, but it doesn't turn on fully (just the backlight) at the voltage that NiMH is at. It does turn on with just the charger plugged into it, as that is over 15V unloaded, but as soon as the pack is plugged in the CA itself shuts down. I seem to recall an adjustment that can be made in the CA for this, but I didn't mess with it and decided to just use TWM1 for the 12V pack, and the CA for PackA instead, as that will be a minimum of 20-something volts even at worst case.
All these readings are several hours after charging completed, so with the Tenergy charger on the 12V pack, which totally shuts off after charge is done, the 12V pack voltage drops as it continues to power the TWM1 still attached to it. The other two chargers (24V HiPower type) keep a trickle charge running so they power the meters rather than the packs having to.
The Tenergy charger also does something else the others don't: it pulses on for two seconds, then off for two seconds, presumably to read the pack's actual voltage in that interval. Makes watching the realtime volts/watts/amps numbers during charge difficult, though, as the TWM never has a chance to settle long enough for me to read them easily until it finishes the charge.
Note also that this time, the PackA charger lead was pulled off the CA input, probably by my crazy sister (who decided to come home today after at least a couple of weeks of wandering wherever she goes, and was her usual crazy self, moving things and banging into stuff including the bike, for no reason). Guessing it was her as there are no chew marks or slobber on anything this time.
But this means that for an unknown time after charge PackA was powering the CA, draining a bit of power from it, lowering it's voltage by an unknown amount (as the CA does not store peak voltage, just minimum voltage, and displays realtime voltage, just like the TWM and WU. I wish they did store that).
12V NiMH pack, TWM1:
13.69V final
13.29Vmin
1.66Ap
24.6Wp
1.972Ah
25.9Wh
24V NiMH PackA, LSCA:
28.2Vfinish
19.6Vm
9.67Ap
7.976Ah
227.31Wh
*no Wp as the CA doesn't store that
**guessing the extremely low Vm is from the attempt at charging the 12V pack, as I forgot to reset the CA again before starting PackA, and I think that 12V charger is around 20V unloaded).
24V NiMH PackB, TWM2:
28.51V
24.73Vm
2.97Ap
89.9Wp
7.794Ah
247.8Wh
It's fairly apparent that the CA must be doing something different in regards to Wh, W, and A vs the TWM. Since PackB pretty much always takes less Wh than PackA to recharge when they are drained this far, it has to be something in the way the readings are calculated that makes it look like PackA took so much less to recharge it (~20Wh), as it should show *more* Wh for PackA, especially given that it *does* show more Ah (~0.2Ah).
I'm guessing that the CA is more accurate than the TWM, but I don't know for sure. Both TWMs tend to read around the same, regardless of which one I use to charge which pack thru, so it's something different in how they calculate things.
The CA also calculates or measures peak current differently, even at these lower currents. It shows nearly 10A peak, while TWM1 shows the usual 2.97Ap. The charger itself is only a 3A charger, so perhaps the CA is simply very sensitive to very short transient current spikes. Perhaps this is adjustable somewhere (more likely only by rewriting the programming). I would like to know how short a transient it is measuring for these high values, and be able to adjust that window so I could more accurately know what a given system is pulling as typical peak currents without actually having to watch the Amax view while riding. I suppose I can make the logging cable, and setup the laptop to log the data, and review it later, but it'd be simpler to just jot down the CA's stored data.
Another interesting thing to note about the CA's sampling and display rates being faster is that it shows me some behavior about the 24V pack and charger that I had not known before. It's charging current and wattage varies over an 8-10 second cycle, but it holds the voltage constant. I'm not sure how that works electrically, but I can watch it on the realtime CA display data.
During charge, nearer the end of charge, I watched it vary from 62W up to 104W, with current varying from 2.29A to 2.51A at the same time, with the voltage never flickering from 29.7V.
I wonder if it is an artifact of the CA's calculations methods, but I suspect not since this kind of variation does not happen while I am riding at a constant throttle at a constant speed on a flat surface, with no wind (or a constant one).
The only variation I see on the TWM during the same stage is the same flicker of values it tends to have most of the time current is flowing thru the shunt. Voltage flickers from 29.21 to 29.24V, current from 2.97 to 2.98A, and power from 86.3 to 86.7W, not necessarily in sync with each other, and not over any particular cycle time, just more or less randomly, while I watched PackB on the other charger at the same time as observing the 10-second cycle on PackA via the CA.
As a totally random note, during my ride yesterday, I encountered my very first "nice" driver regarding super-loud ground-shaking sound systems: As they approached the intersection I was stopped at waiting to cross (with no other vehicles waiting), they shut off their bass completely as they slowed behind me and stopped. Only after they had turned (I went straight thru) and gone down their road a ways did they turn it back on (I could feel it again).
Almost all other drivers with such sound systems either don't change anything, or they actively turn it up LOUDER just to show off or hurt people nearby (probably both, for different people). I wish they'd all be as considerate as that, because those things are painfully loud--some of them enough to make me puke from the subsonic harmonics.
Most of the ones around here today sure aren't being considerate, as there's at least three of them rattling the windows of my house, with their cars parked elsewhere in the neighborhood (where I can't even see them from my house, mind you), having just left their sound systems running while they go inside and party or whatever.