Oatnet goes Vectrix!

[oatnet]

The extensive pictures I had in the "fuse replacment" posts on the last page were lost in the forum upgrade. I just replaced them so you can see inside a Vectrix again.

-JD

[oatnet]

Just the strangest thing...

So this guy Steve Lam posts on visforvoltage\vectrix, that he is selling a Vectrix 30 miles away from me.

It isn't running, it's been dropped and scraped down the side (these bikes need service after being on their side), so it is a parts bike and he is offering it for $1,500. It would be a pain to store it, but its a reasonable price for a parts bike, so I email him. He replies that he'll send me a picture of the damage, but never does.

I forgot about it until I came across the email a week later, so I emailed him again, saying I figure he sold it since I didn't get a picture. He replies that he lost his phone, sends me pictures, and it looks pretty bad, but $1,500 is still an OK price for a parts bike. I tell him I'll take it at his asking price, and lay out some proposals for flat-bedding the dead bike to complete the exchange.

He writes back that "$1,500 is way too low of an offer" and if it doesn't sell, then he'll advertise it on a Vectrix forum where they appreciate the value of a parts bike (which is where I saw it in the first place).

Huh? Offer? I gave him his ask out of the gate! Now he wants a price that is only $200 less than I paid the Dealer for my Brand-New Vectrix.

I forward him his $1,500 post I responded to, and he says "Pointed JD. I will move on to other buyers."

Truly, Fully Bizzare. Sometimes, when you walk away from a deal, you realize that maybe you just dodged a bullet...

-JD

[vanilla ice]

I think this guy needs to learn how to negotiate properly. Sometimes you got to pay money to dodge bullets.. freebies are always good!

[heathyoung]

Sounds like a right idiot.

I'm in the process of building one up at the moment as well, getting parts for these is ... interesting.

[oatnet]

I'm in the process of building one up at the moment as well, getting parts for these is ... interesting.

What parts are you looking for?

My V's battery is showing its age. It still does my commute fine, but I am seeing higher temps on my pack, which means a cell low/dead/reversed and is heating up, which means it is gonna mess up the cells around it and do the same to them. Normally my bike would sit at 24-26c, and heat up to 28-29c during the ride. Now it heats up to 30-31 (where the cooling system really kicks in), and while pre-charge cooling gets it under 30, after sitting in the cool garage all night it actually heats up a few degrees instead of dropping to 26-24c.

So I'm going to replace the pack. I wrote down the size of the battery enclosure when I did the fuse change, but I lost those numbers. My conservative measurements made me think I could not fit a headway pack in there, so I had been considering a123's.

However, on visforvoltage, I recently read a post that said "the case is 225mm wide rather than 230. The frame is just shy of 230. You do have a tad more lenght, i.e. 710mm and you could get by with 340mm in high". So, 225mm x 340mm x 710mm = 8.86" x 13.39" x 27.95".If those numbers are accurate, I actually can fit a 45a5p Headway 38120s pack into that space. The plan is to move the 8kw Headway pack from my VW bus conversion into the vectrix, and I'll store the vectrix pack in the VW Bus, which only gets moved for street cleaning anyhow. This way the upgrade is free!

My biggest concern was the length of the box - but it looks like 5 headway cells, end-to-end, is @27", so I have just enough room to spare. 5 row of these cells in parallel is 7.5", so I have 1.5" across the width to spare. Unfortunately, I only have space to stack (8) of the 5s5p layers, yielding 40s, instead of the 45s I want. However, if I use the 3-hole Headway blocks instead of the 2-hole, I make the pack wider (it should just barely fit) but I can easily fit 9 rows in the height.

The Vectrix controller will handle 155v, and the charger goes up to 152v. 45s cells @3.65v nominal =164.25v, so some folks might be seeing a problem. However, 155/45=3.44v/cell, and headways quickly drop to a resting voltage of @3.4v after the charge, so when I charge/balance externally it will drop back into the 155v range, or maybe I'll string up a discharge circuit to bleed off some of the fluff. Most of the time I'll use the onboard charger, which should charge to 152v/3.38v/cell. I am expecting an average 2c discharge, @3.1v/cell, or 139.5v under load. That is higher than the starting voltage of the saggy NiMh pack, which translates to a more energetic bike.

I'll re-use the copper paralleling strips/fuses from the Bus conversion. I'm about to order blocks/connecting bars from headway, just wanna feel comfortable about the size of the pack. I need to make a temperature-sensor harness so I don't have to strip the one from the old pack. Then, maybe on my next vacation, I'll tear the old pack down, re-build it, pull the pack from the V and put it in the bus, then install the new pack into the V. That will be a tough week, but worth it to double the effective capacity of the pack, and lighten it by 16% (31.25lbs)

Hey, if the battery tub is empty on your bike, can you measure the usable length for me, maybe shoot a few pics of the empty tub?

-JD

[Gordo]

Just the strangest thing...

So this guy Steve Lam posts on visforvoltage\vectrix, that he is selling a Vectrix 30 miles away from me.

It isn't running, it's been dropped and scraped down the side (these bikes need service after being on their side), so it is a parts bike and he is offering it for $1,500. It would be a pain to store it, but its a reasonable price for a parts bike, so I email him. He replies that he'll send me a picture of the damage, but never does.

I forgot about it until I came across the email a week later, so I emailed him again, saying I figure he sold it since I didn't get a picture. He replies that he lost his phone, sends me pictures, and it looks pretty bad, but $1,500 is still an OK price for a parts bike. I tell him I'll take it at his asking price, and lay out some proposals for flat-bedding the dead bike to complete the exchange.

He writes back that "$1,500 is way too low of an offer" and if it doesn't sell, then he'll advertise it on a Vectrix forum where they appreciate the value of a parts bike (which is where I saw it in the first place).

Huh? Offer? I gave him his ask out of the gate! Now he wants a price that is only $200 less than I paid the Dealer for my Brand-New Vectrix.

I forward him his $1,500 post I responded to, and he says "Pointed JD. I will move on to other buyers."

Truly, Fully Bizzare. Sometimes, when you walk away from a deal, you realize that maybe you just dodged a bullet...

-JD

There is a large city in Canada which I will not name, with a large ethnic population that are impossible to deal with. Their method of doing business is to advertise a part for sale and when you agree to the price, you will find it "has been sold." I was trying to help an Auzie purchase a hood (bonnet) for his Jag and by the time I got my son to go and see the hood, the price had gone up 3 times. When I expressed the frustration to my son, he told me of his experience trying to rent an apartment in this city. They never tell you the unit number and every time you agree to a price, it is rented, but they have one which is $200 more, but there is someone looking at it today, you will have to call tomorrow. When you call tomorrow, the price goes up again. He finally had to rent through an agency, which worked out well.
They have another scam with sealed bid auctions of corporate vehicles. 6 guys put in bids, each one $100 more than the other. When the auction closes and they call the phone number of the winner, the wife answers and says the guy is away for a week. The auctioneer then calls the next lowest bidder, and if it is one of the 6 he gets the same answer as there are 6 cell phones sitting on the same table. When the cell phones quit ringing because another bidder is in the middle of the bids, they quickly call back the auctioneer and accept the price. When I was told how this scam works, I made a deal with the auctioneer that I would take every vehicle I bid on, at my bid price, if they wanted it. First auction, I got a little surprise, 8 vehicles, cost me a little over $20K, total. The auctioneer made one call on each vehicle and when he got the "away for a week", it became mine. 8 full size 4 X 4 250-350 trucks under 5 years old.
It takes all kinds to make the world go round.

[heathyoung]

I'm in the process of building one up at the moment as well, getting parts for these is ... interesting.

What parts are you looking for?

My V's battery is showing its age. It still does my commute fine, but I am seeing higher temps on my pack, which means a cell low/dead/reversed and is heating up, which means it is gonna mess up the cells around it and do the same to them. Normally my bike would sit at 24-26c, and heat up to 28-29c during the ride. Now it heats up to 30-31 (where the cooling system really kicks in), and while pre-charge cooling gets it under 30, after sitting in the cool garage all night it actually heats up a few degrees instead of dropping to 26-24c.

So I'm going to replace the pack. I wrote down the size of the battery enclosure when I did the fuse change, but I lost those numbers. My conservative measurements made me think I could not fit a headway pack in there, so I had been considering a123's.

However, on visforvoltage, I recently read a post that said "the case is 225mm wide rather than 230. The frame is just shy of 230. You do have a tad more lenght, i.e. 710mm and you could get by with 340mm in high". So, 225mm x 340mm x 710mm = 8.86" x 13.39" x 27.95".If those numbers are accurate, I actually can fit a 45a5p Headway 38120s pack into that space. The plan is to move the 8kw Headway pack from my VW bus conversion into the vectrix, and I'll store the vectrix pack in the VW Bus, which only gets moved for street cleaning anyhow. This way the upgrade is free!

My biggest concern was the length of the box - but it looks like 5 headway cells, end-to-end, is @27", so I have just enough room to spare. 5 row of these cells in parallel is 7.5", so I have 1.5" across the width to spare. Unfortunately, I only have space to stack (8) of the 5s5p layers, yielding 40s, instead of the 45s I want. However, if I use the 3-hole Headway blocks instead of the 2-hole, I make the pack wider (it should just barely fit) but I can easily fit 9 rows in the height.

The Vectrix controller will handle 155v, and the charger goes up to 152v. 45s cells @3.65v nominal =164.25v, so some folks might be seeing a problem. However, 155/45=3.44v/cell, and headways quickly drop to a resting voltage of @3.4v after the charge, so when I charge/balance externally it will drop back into the 155v range, or maybe I'll string up a discharge circuit to bleed off some of the fluff. Most of the time I'll use the onboard charger, which should charge to 152v/3.38v/cell. I am expecting an average 2c discharge, @3.1v/cell, or 139.5v under load. That is higher than the starting voltage of the saggy NiMh pack, which translates to a more energetic bike.

I'll re-use the copper paralleling strips/fuses from the Bus conversion. I'm about to order blocks/connecting bars from headway, just wanna feel comfortable about the size of the pack. I need to make a temperature-sensor harness so I don't have to strip the one from the old pack. Then, maybe on my next vacation, I'll tear the old pack down, re-build it, pull the pack from the V and put it in the bus, then install the new pack into the V. That will be a tough week, but worth it to double the effective capacity of the pack, and lighten it by 16% (31.25lbs)

Hey, if the battery tub is empty on your bike, can you measure the usable length for me, maybe shoot a few pics of the empty tub?

-JD

By all means, its completly empty at the moment, waiting for some batteries, I was thinking of going the road less travelled with headways (on the V, they are all using thundersky batteries, while cheap, are pretty uninspiring in terms of C rate). I was thinking the 16A versions, probably 42S2P, its only a commuter bike so less weight is a good thing.

The charger at the moment I have id dead, I've been reverse engineering it to remove all of the stupid canbus communication stuff, and have discovered that the design is absolutely abyssmal.

How bad you ask? Well, the high side power supply for the chips is generated by an amplified zener shunt. So what you say... Well, there is a 50W (yes, really) 3.3K resistor bolted to the case for heatsinking purposes. Not a bootstrap supply in sight. The boards say Vectrix 1Kw5 carger - yes, carger, not charger.

It gets better. The 12V supply (named bias supply - runs the fans) is actually another SMPS, that takes the rectified mains from across the caps and runs off that. Urk.

There is another amplified zener shunt that is used temporarily to power the unit until the main (ugly 50W LINEAR monstrosity) comes on line. Get a brownout or surge, the main one never comes up, so the little one tries to dissipate 48W of heat through a 3W resistor. Not nice - this is how mine died.

I have figured out how to adjust the output voltage, and current limiting on these as well now.

Don't get me started on the MC card either - the original burnt the PCB to a crisp on the B and C terminals, I had to cut out a lot of PCB material to get this resolved. The IGBT has some seriously burnt plastic, but amazingly, seems OK. I need to figure out how to attach wires to it now though \

[oatnet]

By all means, its completly empty at the moment, waiting for some batteries, I was thinking of going the road less travelled with headways (on the V, they are all using thundersky batteries, while cheap, are pretty uninspiring in terms of C rate). I was thinking the 16A versions, probably 42S2P, its only a commuter bike so less weight is a good thing.

I considered doing 2p42s of the a123, cutting 115lb out if the 200lb pack, until I found out that too light could be bad. The hub motor and gear box represent a significant sprung mass which is offset by the weight of the bike. Going too light in the pack could impact ridability. I realized i can make the bike peppier just by increasing the voltage to 45s - and i don't want to ever have range anxiety again, so I am happy to fill it up. I could fit at least 80ah, maybe 100ah, of the a123 prisimatics in there - that would be 15kw.

Tsky is 3c continious, so the 16ah cells would be good for only 48a, on an emoto that needed to be upgraded from 125a fuses to 200a fuses. I even think the 40ah/120a cells they are using on V are at risk (especially with reverse-throttle Regen currents), but that is all that will fit. Another vendor on V is promoting 50ah/5c cells that will fit, I considered getting a sample to test. The Headways are "free" so once I saw how they could fit, done deal.

Thanks for documenting the empty battery box for me, I look forward to it!

-JD

[Gordo]

I'm a little confused on the TS discharge rating? Many suppliers rate them only 2C yet the published curve shows 5C;

TS DISCHARGE.JPG

(36.29 KiB) Downloaded 157 times

And then I see you mention 3C. Is it a matter of real 3C vs BS 5C and conservative 2C?
I have 20 X 40Ah TS cells and my controller limits the max power to 100A. The BMS manufacturer also said it must be minimum 100A. So 2.5C for safe, no smoke operation?
Thanks;

[oatnet]

I'm a little confused on the TS discharge rating? Many suppliers rate them only 2C yet the published curve shows 5C

And then I see you mention 3C. Is it a matter of real 3C vs BS 5C and conservative 2C?
I have 20 X 40Ah TS cells and my controller limits the max power to 100A. The BMS manufacturer also said it must be minimum 100A. So 2.5C for safe, no smoke operation?
Thanks;

First time I saw T-sky, they were 2c; last time I played with T-Sky, they were billed as 3c cells but had similar voltage drop. It is hard to tell with T-Sky, because there is a lot of variation from cell to cell. They are wierd cells, with a 4.2v peak charge, which as you can see from the chart expresses a large voltage drop. However, the low c rating works on large-format cells, because if you have an 800ah cell, a 400a load is 0.5c. C rating is not terribly useful on a non-exhibition EV, because by the time if you put in enough AH for 1 hour run-time, you will be running the pack at 1c anyhow. A pack discharged at 5c would be empty in 12 minutes, a very short commute.

The graph you included shows discharge rates which are helpful to show voltage and wh, but they don't describe the impact to cell life. The real key is, at a given c-rate, the #cycles you can get from the cells at 80% DOD, until they degrade to 80% capacity. Maybe the 5c is their burst rate, or maybe they are just making it up, but the curves below make me not want to run it at much more than 1c. Further, be it from avarice or ignorance, a lot of resellers publish bogus data on c-rates, so you never know.

At 5c the 16ah cells would provide 80a; the 40ah cells would supply 200a, which would probably be OK. I haven't put a CA on my V yet to get a feel for how much current it is using.

-JD

[MitchJi]

Hi JD,

I considered doing 2p42s of the a123, cutting 115lb out if the 200lb pack, until I found out that too light could be bad. The hub motor and gear box represent a significant sprung mass which is offset by the weight of the bike. Going too light in the pack could impact rideability. I realized i can make the bike peppier just by increasing the voltage to 45s - and i don't want to ever have range anxiety again, so I am happy to fill it up. I could fit at least 80ah, maybe 100ah, of the a123 prisimatics in there - that would be 15kw.
-JD

That might be a good reason not to spend money for lighter batteries but its not a good reason not to use lighter batteries. Very easy to add ballast, and thats probably better as you can tune it to what feels like the ideal weight. 80ah of 45s A123 prismatic's would make an awesome Vectrix!

[oatnet]

That might be a good reason not to spend money for lighter batteries but its not a good reason not to use lighter batteries. Very easy to add ballast, and thats probably better as you can tune it to what feels like the ideal weight. 80ah of 45s A123 prismatic's would make an awesome Vectrix!

Good idea about ballast...

However, as nice as 100ah of a123 would be, the cells would never see 2c discharge, so I don't need the 25c discharge they are capable of. I wouldn't sneeze at 100ah, but looking at my lifestyle, I don't see myself riding far enough to use that much battery - at least not on a regular basis. Compactness is the reason I would pay the 2x/3x premium for a123 cells, so that I could squeeze 100ah in there. If I didn't need the compactness, or the cell's discharge capability, I'd have trouble coughing up 2x-3x the cost to use a123's, when a cheaper/heavier cell meets the needs, so I can keep the ballast in my wallet instead.

Plus then I'd have to worry about someone stealing the bike with a $12,000 a123 pack.

I guess I might start with a small a123 pack if it was easy to parallel in more cells to get more range later, but that could be a challange with tabbed cells. Don't get me wrong, I love the a123's, but when weighing the design criteria for the upgrade, Headways were good enough - and free!

-JD

[oatnet]

Antiscab is my new hero. He has developed a Lithium conversion kit for the vectrix that rocks. If I didn't already have cells, and had to buy them, I would use his kit in a heartbeat. However, my headways won't work with his kit... BUT his videos were still really helpful, I ruled out a few gotcha's that would have made things far more difficult. Here is his youtube channel with the vids in order:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CFDD8780E3FBEFD5

[BLUESTREAK]

THANKS OATNET for posting the vectrix lower seat over at VISFORVOLTAGE, I bought one also.

[oatnet]

You are welcome Bluestreak!

I finally got the battery out.

Went to Harbor Freight, bought a $130 electric winch ($95 after sale and 20% off coupon), a load leveler, and a great motorcycle stand (which my wife bought with a 20% coupon.) Went to Home Depot and bought a 1.5" square steel tube. Went to Ace hardware and bought a few m6 nuts/bolts/washers and 2 angle brackets. Wore my steel toes, but all went well and apparently safe. I'd never done a lift like this before so I've been nervous about it, in the end it was anticlimactic. Antiscab's video documentation was incredibly helpful in planning and execting the removal - Thanks!

-JD

The bike on the stand. The stand kept sliding away when I'd try to roll up on it, so I braced it against the wall.

1_IMG_6695.jpg (62.22 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

A close up of the stands action.

2_IMG_6696.jpg (61.96 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

The bike on the stand, right before I opened her up. I used straps to the D-rings on the forks to bolt the bike to the hoops provided for that purpose on the stand. The Little Giant ladder is behind the bike, getting ready to move into position for the lift.

3_IMG_0379.JPG (81.75 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

Test setup of the lift, the electric winch on the square tube, on the Little Giant ladder. I didn't use the load leveler to pull the batteries, but I will need it to tilt the new pack when it goes in. I used one of the chains though.

4_IMG_6701.jpg (126.05 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

The Rear battery ready to lift. I put the angle bracket over one of the battery hoist studs, secured it with a fender washer and an M6 Bolt. The other side of the angle bracket got bolted to the chain with an M6 bolt, nut and pair of fender washers. The front battery has been unplugged, and I was able to lift up the top battery tray to disconnect the the controller from power. I disconnected the battery sensor harnes and wrapped it to protect the live connections on the bottom.

5_IMG_6705.jpg (85.38 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

The rear pack in the air. This picture brings home how tall the suckers are.

6_IMG_6707.jpg (78.33 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

Battery on a mini dolly - $7.99 with coupon from Harbor Freight!

7_IMG_6709.jpg (68.08 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

Test install of the new battery structure. 5 cells will be paralleled left-to-right to form 50ah 'supercells'. 5 supercells are put in series on each layer, from top to bottom in the picture. 9 of these layers will form (45) supercells, for a 45s5p 8.2kw pack. 8 rows are shown here. I plan to lower (6) assembled rows into the battery box, and then build the last (3) rows in place. A sheet of phenolic plastic will protect the front and back of the battery.

8_IMG_0391.JPG (125.82 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

5 cells in series....

9_IMG_0392.JPG (66.2 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

This just looked fun.

__IMG_0385.JPG (76.37 KiB) Viewed 1403 times

[oatnet]

Hey, if you missed the last post, with (10) pictures showing the battery being removed from the bike, and the new headway cells being test-fit, go back to the last page!
A few more pics for good measure:

This is the 26-cell PSI battery I built, on cells I got from the cycle-9 clearance. I paid $170 for the cells, and I got a whole mess of the building blocks for next to nothing. This pack is what now powers my VW bus conversion as it makes its lonely sojurn from one side to the other for street cleaning. I removed all the other cells to build the battery for the Vectrix, and the harnesses too.

a_IMG_0308.JPG (76.21 KiB) Viewed 2181 times

Hauling with the Vectrix - two rare Alex DX-32 rims with black sidewalls in an oversized box.

b_IMG_6656.jpg (78.7 KiB) Viewed 2181 times

[heathyoung]

Nice...

I'm going the larger (16Ah) cells in 3P44S, just getting the funds together. Its getting filled with lead at the moment as a proof of concept, it definitly fits, but - it weighs a TON. (well, 120Kg, which is excessive).

[oatnet]

The Vectrix Battery, Yogurt for scale. The rear battery is on the left, the front battery on the right. The controller plugs in on the left, to the rear battery. The rear battery plugs into the front battery, both connectors at the front. The circuit loops around in the bottom tray of the front battery. When it is not plugged into the front battery, the rear batt does not make a complete circuit.

c_IMG_0396.JPG (51.83 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

Top Layer of rear battery. Cells 9-1 are on the top row, and cells 93-102 are in the bottom row.

D1_IMG_0397R Top.JPG (73.85 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

Middle layer of rear battery. Cells 10-19 are on the top row, and cells 92-84 are on the bottom row.

D2_IMG_0398R_Mid.JPG (79.52 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

Bottom layer of rear battery. Cells 29-20 are on the top row, and cells 75-83 are on the bottom row. These connect to cells 28 and 74, in the top layer of the front pack.

D3_IMG_0400R_bottom.JPG (78.65 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

Top layer of front battery. Cells 28-36 on the top row, cells 74-66 on the bottom row

D4_IMG_0402F_top.JPG (68.95 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

Middle Layer of front battery. Cells 44-37 on the top row, Cells 65-56 on the bottom row. Looks like I failed to take a picture of the front bottom layer, which connects the top and bottom rows to complete the circuit.

D5_IMG_0403f_middle.JPG (87.48 KiB) Viewed 2151 times

Antiscab's video mentioned that these nuts were difficult to remove, I dropped a socket over the bolt and turned them by hand.

D6_IMG_0399.JPG (98.98 KiB) Viewed 2151 times

The harvest for the day - the two battery harnesses that I will need to connect to my pack, to fool the Vectrix into thinking the old pack is still there. Front harness white, Back harness black.

d7_IMG_0404.JPG (63.93 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

Looks like I have about 1/2" to spare, for clearance against the back of the battery box, when running 5 serial Headways in each row.

e_IMG_0408.JPG (57.92 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

More of yesterday's harvest - I cut a layer of phenolic plastic to cover the live terminals and the front and back of the new battery. I also cut 2 sheets of 3/16" plywood to the size of the bottom of the battery box. I'll build the first 6 rows of the battery on one sheet, put another sheet on top, and use them to hoist the 6 rows into the battery tray. Then I'll build 3 more rows on it, while it is in the battery tray. Confused? Well, wait until I do it and post pics. :D

f_IMG_0413.JPG (53.96 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

Much of my work from today. The black rods will be the battery terminals at each end of the pack, and are 3 layers of 1" copper strap, notched to fit the headway cell holders, wrapped in heatshrink, waiting to have holes cut out for battery terminals. (13) battery harness mounts, bare drilled copper this morning now with fuses and heatshrink for between the cells. A dozen row-joiners, notched to fit the headway cell holders. Also the harness for the Vectrix cell monitors.

g_IMG_0416.JPG (56.47 KiB) Viewed 2153 times

[heathyoung]

The thing that complains about the battery temperature, voltage blah blah is the (rather crappy) charger.

If you get rid of it, you get no problems, and you have a voltage meter on the dash rather than the inaccurate 'AH' gauge.

I've had mine running all of the lights etc. off a pair of modded 48V meanwells in series (112V).

[MitchJi]

Hi,

The thing that complains about the battery temperature, voltage blah blah is the (rather crappy) charger.

If you get rid of it, you get no problems, and you have a voltage meter on the dash rather than the inaccurate 'AH' gauge.

Or a Cycle Analyst .

[heathyoung]

Out of interest - any more photos? Love to see the finished thing (and keep dreaming of lithium conversion, some financial setbacks will keep me from achieving this, at this rate anyway)

[oatnet]

We had a lot of fun with this, I hope you do too.

-JD

[BLUESTREAK]

BEAUTIFUL OATNET:

[darkshirikens]

That is nice build video and music was a nice touch lol how many Ah does your have ?
When you get to ride it let us know the difference in the feel of it before and after.

[oatnet]

That is nice build video and music was a nice touch lol how many Ah does your have ?
When you get to ride it let us know the difference in the feel of it before and after.

Thanks darkshirikens and Bluestreak!

The new 7.4kwh LiFePO4 pack is configured 45s5p, 50ah and 164v off the charger, roughly double the capacity of the 3.7kwh NiMh pack the bike came with. I travelled 46.5 aggressive miles on an '80% DOD test ride' that pulled 40ah/5700wh from the pack. Resting voltage only dropped to 144.7v, or 3.21v/cell, so there was enough juice left in the pack to accomodate an out-of-balance condition on future 80%DOD cycles. The range of 46.5 miles would be enough to do my work commute for (3) days (although I keep the battery topped up), or to do 30+ miles of errands after work. Frankly, my old body was exhausted by the 46.5 mile test, so I think I will run out of energy long before the moto does.

The Vectrix 2.0 pulls low amps (40-50) on launch, increasing with speed to a maximum of about 220 amps. I noted cruising up a steep hill at 50mph only pulled 60a. The Old pack was only 136v after charging, and after a few miles easily sagged under load to <108v to trigger the 'reduced performance' mode. This means the old pack was getting 24kw peaks into the motor, but the new one gets about 32kw into it, 33% more power. 70mph comes up very very fast now. The moto pulls MUCH harder from 30mph to the 72mph speed-limiting cutoff, and it is pulling so strong at cutoff that my helmet bounced off the windscreen the first time it kicked in.

I've been riding it for a few weeks now, range anxiety is a thing of the past, and I still haven't gotten used to all the new power, so I am thrilled. With the upgrade, my Vectrix has become exactly the bike I fantisized it was before I bought it.

-JD