111 replies to this topic

[betarambo]

I always charge mine individually. If you get it setup in a good way then they are pretty easy to pull out and disconnet. Your setup would be 9S1P when in the bike but you want to charge them individually as 3S1P packs.
My normall load now is 2 6S1P 5 AH packs in paralell tied in series to 2 3S1P 5 AH packs to effectively give me 9S2P at 10AH. Even though this is 4 batteries, they fit nicely in the stock battery tray and they are straight forward enough to pull out and charge. It helps that I bought a 250W charger so that I can charge them at 10A (2C for a 5 AH pack) so they generally charge up in half an hour per pack.

[NineFives]

Low Voltage Alarms arrived! These are the adjustable voltage type, that simply plug into the balance plug. There is a small button on them that cycles through the alarm voltage setting in 10ths of a volt. I've started off with them at 3.7v

They continuously cycle through a very bright display showing overall battery voltage and individual cell voltages whilst plugged in. Feedback on the HK page says individual cell voltages accuracy not the greatest but accurate with overall battery voltage. I have fitted them on 2 of the 10 batteries, but not yet done a field trial!

http://www.hobbyking...tage_Alarm.html

After note. Left the alarms connected. Several days later alarms went off. Cell voltages had become unbalanced 2 at 3.6 and 3 at 4.5 volts!!! both alarms have done this. Now discharging the high cells manually. Got the high cells down but the 3.6 cells will not balance charge beyond 3.8v. I've put in a service email to hobby king but waiting for a response.......

Edited by NineFives, 10 April 2012 - 01:36 PM.

[Pete_Scorpa3]

I've been following this topic throughout as I have both a 24v and a 36v Osets and battery life is a subject that is important to both my riders.

We have a two day event coming up and one set of batteries simply will not do, but there is no mains electricity available at the venue to recharge them.

Can anyone tell me what size petrol generator it would need to recharge the standard 12v batteries (one 24v, one 36v) ? Would it be worth doing, or would it be easier to drive back home and charge then overnight, then return the next day?

we used to use a 1.5 kva generator for running the road race tyre warmers, but would I need one that big to run the chargers?

Pete

[gwhy]

Pete_Scorpa3, on 11 April 2012 - 08:46 PM, said:

I've been following this topic throughout as I have both a 24v and a 36v Osets and battery life is a subject that is important to both my riders.

We have a two day event coming up and one set of batteries simply will not do, but there is no mains electricity available at the venue to recharge them.

Can anyone tell me what size petrol generator it would need to recharge the standard 12v batteries (one 24v, one 36v) ? Would it be worth doing, or would it be easier to drive back home and charge then overnight, then return the next day?

we used to use a 1.5 kva generator for running the road race tyre warmers, but would I need one that big to run the chargers?

Pete

that really all depends on your chargers, you could get a couple a 12v car battery's to connect your chargers too, you could prob get 2 recharges into 10Ah 24v battery's from a 40ah car battery, deep cycle leisure battery would be better suited. A 1.5kva genny will only put out about 8A so this would do the job but like i say it depends on your chargers.

Edited by gwhy, 12 April 2012 - 10:23 PM.

[gwhy]

NineFives, on 03 April 2012 - 08:54 AM, said:

Low Voltage Alarms arrived! These are the adjustable voltage type, that simply plug into the balance plug. There is a small button on them that cycles through the alarm voltage setting in 10ths of a volt. I've started off with them at 3.7v

They continuously cycle through a very bright display showing overall battery voltage and individual cell voltages whilst plugged in. Feedback on the HK page says individual cell voltages accuracy not the greatest but accurate with overall battery voltage. I have fitted them on 2 of the 10 batteries, but not yet done a field trial!

http://www.hobbyking...tage_Alarm.html

After note. Left the alarms connected. Several days later alarms went off. Cell voltages had become unbalanced 2 at 3.6 and 3 at 4.5 volts!!! both alarms have done this. Now discharging the high cells manually. Got the high cells down but the 3.6 cells will not balance charge beyond 3.8v. I've put in a service email to hobby king but waiting for a response.......

You should never leave the alarms connected to the battery's when not in use , what charger are you using ?

[betarambo]

Pete_Scorpa3, on 11 April 2012 - 08:46 PM, said:

I've been following this topic throughout as I have both a 24v and a 36v Osets and battery life is a subject that is important to both my riders.

We have a two day event coming up and one set of batteries simply will not do, but there is no mains electricity available at the venue to recharge them.

Can anyone tell me what size petrol generator it would need to recharge the standard 12v batteries (one 24v, one 36v) ? Would it be worth doing, or would it be easier to drive back home and charge then overnight, then return the next day?

we used to use a 1.5 kva generator for running the road race tyre warmers, but would I need one that big to run the chargers?

Pete

Pete, I think you are talking about the standard SLA batteries that the Osets come with, not a LIPO conversion. In that case, the stock 24V charger uses 120 V at 1.2A which is about 150 VA. Assuming the 36V draws a bit more I would say you need maybe 400 VA (.4KVA) to charge both bikes at the same time, which is probably the smallest generator you could find. However, since you need like 8 hours to charge those SLAS this might be a pain.

I know it sounds lame, but one option would be to buy an inverter to hook to your car battery. You would need to start the car every so often to keep its battery topped of but at least this way you could use the standard charger without having to get a generator. It is lame because you are going from DC on the car to AC at the inverter back to DC at the battery, but if you have an inverter laying around this would work. I did it this way back before I went to lipos.

The better solution of course would be to convert to LIPO so that you could charge in half an hour from your car battery directly.

Good luck!

[Pete_Scorpa3]

Thanks very much, that was the info I was looking for.
I hadn't really thought the generator idea through, running one for eight hours just to recharge the batteries seems a bit excessive now I think of it.
Probably going to be easier to go home, recharge and return the next morning.
Thanks again for the info.

Pete