After 5 years under the tarp, I put my EV motorcycle back on the road this
week. http://evalbum.com/preview.php?vid=497 It's been great fun and I am
looking forward to a summer of riding. Both my EV's have been in needing new
batteries mode for a while now. My truck http://evalbum.com/1524 is what I
would really like to see going again, but the old Nicads just don't give me
enough range anymore to make it worth the cost of keeping it on the road.
After years of using just about every battery available and understanding the
pro's and con's of all the different flavors, I am excited to finally be part
of the lithium crowd. I purchased 16 Calb CA60ah cells which fit well in my
existing battery boxes. These have been sitting on a shelf in a warehouse for
about 18 months, but they seem to be waking up quite nicely and charging and
discharging very evenly across the pack. I do not have any BMS installed, but
on such a small pack with good access it is easy to be my own BMS
. The back battery box I can easily pop the lid off and measure individual
cells with my DVM. The front box is packed in a much tighter space and has to
be slid out to get the top off so I have individual test leads run out of the
box to do the measuring. To balance the cells I can charge in series until one
of the cells reaches my top voltage level then individually bring all the other
cells up with a hobby charger. I don't expect to need to do much balancing
however. I also don't plan to fully charge or discharge the battery on a
regular basis. I plan on charging the cells up to the 3.4 - 3.45 range. Most
of my rides are in the 10 mile or less range so with a projected range of
around 25 miles I'm usually not even dropping below 50% SOC, although I reserve
the right to go further if I feel like it :)
BTW - I purchased my Calb cells through Don Blazer (theoldcars at aol.com) who
I know shows up on the list once in a while to offer them to anyone interested.
He is local to me which made it convenient, but his pricing, knowledge, and
integrity are all top notch. He has a fleet of business vehicles that he uses
them in for himself and offers them to others at a very good price. So if you
are in the market for some new lithium cells he is definitely worth reaching
out to.
damon
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