Sketchy Battery Pack?

I tested it out and went around 7 miles before dying, although when I plugged it in for a few seconds it came back to life and displayed 26.2V still. The BMS might be shutting the battery off too soon
When it died were you pulling alot of amps? I am thinking you hit a limit possibly OCP. Checking the individual cell voltages would tell if it was well balance to elimnate LCVC as the cause.
later floyd
 
When it died were you pulling alot of amps? I am thinking you hit a limit possibly OCP. Checking the individual cell voltages would tell if it was well balance to elimnate LCVC as the cause.
later floyd
I believe that OCP was the case. Not sure how many amps I was pulling but it was likely over 20. I remember seeing instructions on how to reset the battery, which was necessary if the battery suddenly stopped outputting power. When I got home to check it out, it read 12V on my multimeter and went to around 6V under any load, not enough power to even turn on the light. Connecting it to the charger would’ve reset it, which is why it came back to life when I did so. Once I have two batteries I don’t think over current will be an issue though
 
At about a picture of your charger thanks for the photo of the battery Bay I don't know where you'd stick another battery of the same size and proportions but that'd be nice to have 18 ampere hour of battery life and that also helps but how much you draw for your motors amp.
I do have space for a second battery; the single battery is in the center of the compartment however two can definitely fit inside. I need the higher battery life and constant current of two batteries.

Wonderful ! Be careful there's a lot of stored energy as you know if you touch the red and the black you can melt a 8 gauge wire. And or set a fire I'm just talking about stored energy lightning in a box type thinking. O.K.
$39 sounds like a great deal 24 volt 9 ah and it worked.
The important part is what are the voltages of each eight cell. You don't want one at 3.0 and another one at 4.0 and still make your 28 volts. Curious minds want to know. It looks like a beautiful product with quality cells. Time is the test and my timer starts now let me know
I’m pretty sure the battery wires I have are 10 gauge or maybe even 12 gauge right now. They got pretty warm but not quite enough to be melting. Should definitely replace them soon but they held up for testing.
I’ll check the cell voltages at some point if I can later but I’m pretty sure the BMS shut off for over current protection and not balancing issues.
 
20volt is the lowest it can be discharge to. What are you doing at 12 volts that's very very dangerous. With batteries you have to have a set of rules and then you you have to follow the rules. Have you ever fully charged the battery well that's it for a little bit then check the voltage after a couple hours is it the same when it came off the charger or close find out what's going on.
The only way you're going to know about your battery is to find out the state of charge that means what each of the eight cells are charged to yes it's the most important thing especially with a used battery.
Fully charged 29 volts fully discharged 20 volts that's the same as 0 don't go beyond 20 volts you shouldn't need to get close to it. With batteries there are rules you have to follow or else you will have a fire guaranteed. I know it looks like a plastic box but in that box is a huge lightning bolt and you're trying to get it to trickle out when you need it otherwise the stores energy of that lightning bolt will make fire.
So now you tell us how high you're going to charge it and tell us how low you're going to discharge it so we are on the same page.
 
First I try to get that thing to act properly take a full charge. It might have to run that thing a few times lightly to get that charger to charge that thing I don't know maybe at 24 volt vertical charge wouldn't be bad as long as the charger don't go above 29 volts ever but the real ever is 3.7 volts per cell I would never go above that with your chemistry. Or 29.6volt for your battery pack.
What I really want to know is what's the voltage of each of your eight cells because you don't want one going real high on you that's the danger and still be 29 volts while the other ones are at three volts. That's the danger
I look at the picture of the battery again there's no way to get that top off
 
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20volt is the lowest it can be discharge to. What are you doing at 12 volts that's very very dangerous. With batteries you have to have a set of rules and then you you have to follow the rules. Have you ever fully charged the battery well that's it for a little bit then check the voltage after a couple hours is it the same when it came off the charger or close find out what's going on.
The only way you're going to know about your battery is to find out the state of charge that means what each of the eight cells are charged to yes it's the most important thing especially with a used battery.
Fully charged 29 volts fully discharged 20 volts that's the same as 0 don't go beyond 20 volts you shouldn't need to get close to it. With batteries there are rules you have to follow or else you will have a fire guaranteed. I know it looks like a plastic box but in that box is a huge lightning bolt and you're trying to get it to trickle out when you need it otherwise the stores energy of that lightning bolt will make fire.
So now you tell us how high you're going to charge it and tell us how low you're going to discharge it so we are on the same page.
It doesn’t actually discharge to 12V, that’s just what it displays when the BMS shuts it off for some reason. Showed normal voltage until it “turned off” at around 26V and dropped to 12V.
I think I figured out why the BMS is shutting it off though; my motor isn’t connected properly. Occasionally the motor cuts out briefly while driving which I assumed was an issue with the speed controller, but today I noticed whenever it cuts out there’s a huge spark at the motor connector. So I’m guessing the sudden current draw from being reconnected is enough to trigger the anti-short protection and shut off the battery.
 
May need to precharge the caps in the controller.
later floyd
ps Also could mean you need to replace the motor connector probably both sides of the connector, It should't spark once connected. double check all wiring.
 
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Ok let's see the motor connector you're having problems with. I just took out 32in of extra phase wires out. So my motor should run better and cooler phase wires and connectors. It's just like you Can Not run an extension cord on a space heater the connector and the cord gets very hot. Or energy loss.
 
Ok let's see the motor connector you're having problems with. I just took out 32in of extra phase wires out. So my motor should run better and cooler phase wires and connectors. It's just like you Can Not run an extension cord on a space heater the connector and the cord gets very hot. Or energy loss.
I'm still interested how that battery is working out but looking at the specs it seems two batteries would be great for the rated BMSes . I don't know how well the two BMS will play with each other if hooked in parallel. Battery hookup say high quality BMS I read it it's in print.
Advertising I'll call him up tomorrow and ask him.
Does your controller have a low voltage cut off what kind of motor do you have ?
I just saw a YouTube video of your pack disassembled it has K2 22650 cells inside.
 
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I'm still interested how that battery is working out but looking at the specs it seems two batteries would be great for the rated BMSes . I don't know how well the two BMS will play with each other if hooked in parallel. Battery hookup say high quality BMS I read it it's in print.
Advertising I'll call him up tomorrow and ask him.
Does your controller have a low voltage cut off what kind of motor do you have ?
I just saw a YouTube video of your pack disassembled it has K2 22650 cells inside.
The battery’s BMSs support parallel connections but not series with other packs from what I’ve read. I believe there’s a low voltage cutoff in the BMS of the pack, but my motor controller doesn’t have any. The motor controller will just keep draining the battery if no other protection is in place however it’ll give you a red light and eventually shut off from a lack of power at low voltages. I’m using a 500W 24V Brushed Motor, an MY1020 I bought off eBay to replace the original 450W motor that burned up and isn’t for sale.
 
May need to precharge the caps in the controller.
later floyd
ps Also could mean you need to replace the motor connector probably both sides of the connector, It should't spark once connected. double check all wiring.
It might need precharging but I don’t think I could implement it in a way that would fix my issue. It has no issues turning on when I flick the switch, but the sudden current from the controller (and capacitors) being reconnected in motion in addition to the spike of current when reconnecting the motor must be too much for the pack’s BMS. So really I just need to fix the wiring. The connector is worn out; I’ll try to see if I can find something lying around that works better or order a new connector.
 
Update again: It was a red herring. While the battery connection was an issue, it wasn’t the culprit. Redoing it seemed to fix it at first, but it started cutting out and eventually shut off after about a mile. Now my guess is back to what it was before, that I’m drawing too much current. I’m sure a second battery pack in parallel will fix the issue, but a small part of me worries the problem might still occur and I’ll have spent another $100 on bad batteries. I doubt it, but it’s a little concerning.


Photo of my repair with home wire connectors:
385ED921-1D96-46D3-9CEF-8CED61C3EA2C.jpeg
 
Some thoughts (may not be related to your issue):

If this is about the green K2 battery posted previously, the battery says on it's recommended operating conditions that it only sustains 9.6A discharge current. Can do up to 25A for up to 30 seconds, but it doesn't say how often it can do that (how long you have to wait between bursts***).

It says it could do a *maximum* of 24A continuously, but it doesn't explain why it only recomends about a third of that--probably the cells sag in voltage a lot at the higher current and create a lot of heat. It also says it could do a maximum of 40A for a maximum of a two-second burst, and also doens't say how often it can handle this without damage. ***

How much current does your system draw? Your first post in this thread says you're looking for a battery that can handle "30A continuous load at 24v".

This battery shouldn't be made to do that even for a short period (it's not recommended, even though it's "max ratings" say it could do 24A continuous and 40A burst)


To stay within recommended limits (usually a good idea if you want to get the best results and performance from a part), you would need at least four of these batteries in parallel to do what you want. 9.6A continuous each, 30A / 9.6A = 3.125, so three won't do it; you'd still be overloading them continuously.

Two of them in parallel could do up to 50A for up to 30 seconds, so if you only need more than 9.6A x 2 = 19.2A periodically.

If you go by the *maximum* ratings, then two in parallel would be sufficient...but it's better not to use things at their max ratings. ;)

*** If there was no limitation to the time between bursts, then it would be a continuous rating, because you could wait for one microsecond between them for instance, and effectively be continuously pulling the burst current, while still technically only pulling bursts...but it would probably still blow up or catch fire or whatever it's failure mode would be).


referenced image ( click for full size)
23F85151-7B60-4EE7-ADD7-38D85016B94A.jpeg

GoogleDocs OCR conversion of the image, may not be accurate; not proofread:
K2B24V10EB
Rechargeable Lithium Iren Phosphate Battery
25.6V 9.6Ah, 245.8Whr
Recommended Operating Conditions
Continuous Discharge | 9.6A
Pulse Discharge 30 seconds | 25A
Charge Current | ≤4.8A
Charge Voltage Cutoff | 29.2V
Discharge Voltage Cutoff | 20.0V
CAUTION:
Do NOT short circuit
Highest Operating Temperature | 60°C
Do NOT crush
Do NOT incinerate
Do NOT heat above 60°C
Do Not disassemble
Only use K2 approved charger
Lowest Operating Temperature | -20°C
Maximum Operating Conditions
Max Continuous Discharge | ≤24A
Max Pulse Discharge ≤2 Seconds | 40A
Max Charge Current | ≤9.6A
Max Charge Voltage Cutoff | 32.8V
Max Discharge Voltage Cutoff | 16.0V
Max in series | None (24V system)
Max in parallel | Unlimited
ENGINEERED IN THE USA
K2 Energy
www.k2battery.com
 
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Some thoughts (may not be related to your issue):

If this is about the green K2 battery posted previously, the battery says on it's recommended operating conditions that it only sustains 9.6A discharge current. Can do up to 25A for up to 30 seconds, but it doesn't say how often it can do that (how long you have to wait between bursts***).

It says it could do a *maximum* of 24A continuously, but it doesn't explain why it only recomends about a third of that--probably the cells sag in voltage a lot at the higher current and create a lot of heat. It also says it could do a maximum of 40A for a maximum of a two-second burst, and also doens't say how often it can handle this without damage. ***

How much current does your system draw? Your first post in this thread says you're looking for a battery that can handle "30A continuous load at 24v".

This battery shouldn't be made to do that even for a short period (it's not recommended, even though it's "max ratings" say it could do 24A continuous and 40A burst)


To stay within recommended limits (usually a good idea if you want to get the best results and performance from a part), you would need at least four of these batteries in parallel to do what you want. 9.6A continuous each, 30A / 9.6A = 3.125, so three won't do it; you'd still be overloading them continuously.

Two of them in parallel could do up to 50A for up to 30 seconds, so if you only need more than 9.6A x 2 = 19.2A periodically.

If you go by the *maximum* ratings, then two in parallel would be sufficient...but it's better not to use things at their max ratings. ;)

*** If there was no limitation to the time between bursts, then it would be a continuous rating, because you could wait for one microsecond between them for instance, and effectively be continuously pulling the burst current, while still technically only pulling bursts...but it would probably still blow up or catch fire or whatever it's failure mode would be).


referenced image ( click for full size)
View attachment 346134

GoogleDocs OCR conversion of the image, may not be accurate; not proofread:
K2B24V10EB
Rechargeable Lithium Iren Phosphate Battery
25.6V 9.6Ah, 245.8Whr
Recommended Operating Conditions
Continuous Discharge | 9.6A
Pulse Discharge 30 seconds | 25A
Charge Current | ≤4.8A
Charge Voltage Cutoff | 29.2V
Discharge Voltage Cutoff | 20.0V
CAUTION:
Do NOT short circuit
Highest Operating Temperature | 60°C
Do NOT crush
Do NOT incinerate
Do NOT heat above 60°C
Do Not disassemble
Only use K2 approved charger
Lowest Operating Temperature | -20°C
Maximum Operating Conditions
Max Continuous Discharge | ≤24A
Max Pulse Discharge ≤2 Seconds | 40A
Max Charge Current | ≤9.6A
Max Charge Voltage Cutoff | 32.8V
Max Discharge Voltage Cutoff | 16.0V
Max in series | None (24V system)
Max in parallel | Unlimited
ENGINEERED IN THE USA
K2 Energy
www.k2battery.com
Yep, still referring to the K2 battery. I know it’s definitely in extreme conditions right now, I’m mostly just trying to stress test it to see the condition of the battery. That said, my stress testing might be hurting the battery a bit… My original goal of 30A continuous isn’t quite accurate, it’s more like 20-25A as I don’t ride full throttle the entire time. So two of these batteries in parallel should do it; they might be pushed a little over the recommended operating conditions but I’m not expecting them to survive another thousand cycles or anything.
My goal is for the scooter to last 2 more years with semi-regular use at least. I’m 16 so I’ll be driving a car much more than my bike or scooter soon, and I doubt I’ll take this with me when I move out. Not sure if I plan on selling it at some point, but if I do I’m hoping battery technology will have improved to the point where the next owner can get a better battery for cheaper than I could.
 
Second battery ordered, will report back in a week or so when it arrives to give my final results on reusing K2 packs for a high power application!
 
Bolt batteries need to be of same voltage to hook them together.
well only if you are scared of letting the magic smoke out.
I have seen one device that supported having the 2nd batt be of higher voltage, but I see alot of things on the net I know are bullshit.
 
Okay none of the same voltage I said that so hopefully it could possibly be close to the same capacity. As I don't think he has a way to test capacity.
Yes I have used a 36 volt and a 24 volt boast 20 ah batteries together. No bms. Just don't go close to 3.0v for safety. But this is a one man one cowboy setup or you have to monitor everything that's going on it's a lot of hassle. Or awareness.
 
::thinks about it::

2 batt packs, each with it's own BMS (ok, you may want to dance barefoot through the tulips without something paying close attention to the batteries.. the HIGHLY flammable Batteries that are inches from your happy place, But I like my happy place without any burning or scarring, and I suspect my wife does as well, so I use safety gear.. Ok, sometimes, but with the risk of being lit on fire.. always.

Then I ran across This I have one on order for my son's lil Jetson, because it has the batteries in it's upper bar, so no way to increase battery count, don't want to rebuild the pack because rumour has it hat the bms and the controller chat together so you kind of have to use the same BMS or change the controller. A rathole I am *NOT* going down for a 12y/o after his balls drop it will be no stopping his chasing speed if my childhood is any reference. This unit however has the rep of being able to be put in on the Jetsons and still have everything turn on. No magic smoke escapage.

Without a BMS and it did not draw down the larger battery until it hit equilibrium? I was under the belief that if you hook varying voltages without something in the middle to keep the smoke in, the bigger one would push charge onto the smaller one, generally releasing the magic smoke, or at least a lot of stink.
 
well only if you are scared of letting the magic smoke out.
I have seen one device that supported having the 2nd batt be of higher voltage, but I see alot of things on the net I know are bullshit.
My voltmeter is kinda junk, it’s the $22 Walmart special. It can only show one decimal point unfortunately, so I hope that’ll be good enough? I’ll only be able to tell if the two packs are within 100 millivolts of each other
 
Oh no, not talking about minor alterations, talking major ones.

If your standard battery pack is a 36v 10Ah unit, if you put in a 2nd one running 48v 10Ah, My understanding (again, I am *NOT* an Engineer, technically I am a scientist but BioChem doesn't do a lot of battery design) is that the larger battery pack (48v) will attempt to balance out to the smaller one. Like water seeking to have a common level, Which would flood into the smaller battery pack, most likely in excess of what it could handle, at which point bad things happen. I have never seen this happen, I have never tried it. Something that resembled self preservation kept me from even wanting to try.
 
Ok let's say brought are 24v ez to find out. It's having the same capacity at the end of charge or 20volt. But more importantly no one cell goes below 2.5volt. I would like to believe the BMS will monitor this. Or only discharge to 22volt as to not hit bottom or 2.5volt.
I did it with very high quality A123 20ah cells and no BMS just with cell sense wires and cell checker. 9yrs still working.

I was wondering how these K2 BMS 9.6v will work with each other. One will shut up sooner than the other and you will feel it being less powerful and then shutting off the other BMS. I don't like experimenting with all the range I can get out of the pack.
One pack might cut out two miles sooner than the other one will hit lvc but this can only come from you charging discharge these packs and getting them getting to know them. Each one will have its own personality.

I'm having a little hard time thinking I really twisted or hurt my right knee and I live three stories up it is painful. Not a happy camper. Good luck
 
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different companies solutions will be just that, different, from what i have seen they are "intelligent" and will draw from whichever cel is currently showing the highest voltage...
Now this is a specific device made to support multiple batteries. Going barefoot I am still fairly certain would risk fire.
 
The second battery has arrived!
D7FC195B-E7D8-44F0-AA8A-6580FD95F505.jpeg
This one came with a fused circuit board with a connector on it that I don’t have a use for, so I removed it. Since they put a 15 amp fuse on it I assume it was used at a ~15A load most of its life, which is what I plan to use it for as well (30A from two in parallel).
I was a bit worried about this battery as it arrived at 26V but couldn’t handle any load before immediately dropping to 10V, similar to how the other battery acted when the BMS shuts down. It wouldn’t charge either, my charger was slightly trickle charging it but not giving it the full 2A. With the trickle charge it shot straight up to 28.5V, but the battery couldn’t handle any load at all without going back to 10V. I was worried the battery was junk, but as a last resort I jumped it to the first battery hoping it would bring it back to life.



And it did! I let the first battery charge the second battery for about an hour, disconnected and checked the voltage of both batteries (27V each), then reconnected them together and put them on the charger. And they charged! After about 2 hours it was at 28.2V (the most my charger goes up to normally) and I was ready for testing!


DCD31F4F-5873-4D66-A6B5-685F0A43BC0D.jpeg

Unfortunately the two of them don’t quite fit inside; they’re a little bigger than the original SLA batteries. They stick out by maybe a centimeter, but since I don’t stand on the deck I’m not worried about the batteries getting squished. I rode for an hour successfully, going maybe 6 miles without problems. I’m sure it could’ve gone more but it was getting late.
I did encounter an issue at first though; whenever I hit a bump the power shut off. I checked with a multimeter and got ~14V, as if the BMS had shut off. I eventually connected the motor directly to the batteries and got a sudden spark. The batteries came back to life! I guess a sudden power draw resets the BMS somehow. It happened again a few minutes later, and connecting the motor directly to the batteries fixed it again. I was really confused why this was happening on bumps, maybe there was loose wires inside? But how would a BMS reset fix it?





Turns out I left a bike lock around the scooter which was hitting the ground on bumps and causing the scooter to come to a halt and shut off. Whoops. I’m guessing the sudden stop was causing the motor to suddenly lock up at full throttle and draw a ton of current, which the BMS detected as a short circuit and shut off. Removing the bike lock fixed it and I had no problems afterwards!



0D40D132-D325-4FD7-81A2-D57071C2B229.jpeg
4B24AC9F-A70A-43FA-9ECD-187890C65EC8.jpeg

Thanks again so much @999zip999 for sending the link to the battery, and thank you to everyone else who’s helped with this project!
 
Crap. It turns out the second battery might be junk after all, and the scooter was running on just one battery the entire time. It’s back to not working again, and the second battery still doesn’t seem to put out any power.
 
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