Aprilia Enjoy

[tonyontopofabighill]

He wont get $800 for it.He would be much better to start at $300 and have an auction.He has little description of the bike which is not a good selling point.I am waiting for one to come up for sale down here in the vicinity of the south coast of NSW.I will be waiting for quite a while I expect.

[Samd]

I finally took the plunge and ordered a third 8s 5.8 amphr pack, one of the shorter turnigy 4by2 format ones. It fits in the left over space in battery box with 15mm to spare. I had two of the long format ones prior. Cant wait to ride tomoz. Photo on my blog, cant post here from android...

[tonyontopofabighill]

well done mate.Just when I think my old NMH battery is dead it just keeps going.I will enjoy following your footsteps SAMD when it does finally die.


Cheers,
Tony.

[Samd]

One for sale in Richmond, vic. No auction, outright $500 AUD.
http://www.bikeexchange.com.au/bicycles ... /102001545

[tonyontopofabighill]

Most of these bikes seem to come up for sale in VIC.

[Hillhater]

Most of these bikes seem to come up for sale in VIC.

Vic has always had a bigger cycling community, particularly around Melbourne, probably because it has fewer hills than Sydney ?

[tonyontopofabighill]

Hi Guys,

I am finally going to order the 3 Turnigy batteries from Hobbyking.I am going to follow in Samd's footsteps and get the 2 long 8s lipo's and the shorter square 8s .Hobbyking recommended this charger.Does this sound like the go? as far as charger/balancers go? I need you advice please guys as I know buggerall about this subject.I have read and reread articles on lipo batteries and it still goes in one ear and comes straight out the other.

Here is the charger they suggested http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=11597

Cheers,
Tony.

[Hillhater]

did you read the reviews on that charger ?
..there appear to be a lot of disappointed buyers ! ..but that is a risk with any HK charger it seems ( i have had 2 fails !)
Also, do you need such a powerful ( expensive ) charger ?, and what will you use as a power supply ?
( a 1000w charger is no good without a 1000+w PSU !)
I would think this through a little before committing that much $$$'s on a HK charger !

[tonyontopofabighill]

Thanks HH,

Yes,I have read some of the reviews and I was a bit alarmed about them being so unreliable and even catching fire.I haven't understood the "power supply'" side of things.Can you explain that.Do I need to get a power supply other than the good old 240v?
If these lipo's weren't so light and deliver the goods I would be tempted to stick with the NMH.

Cheers,
Tony.

[Samd]

Strewth. That costs more than half my more recent aprilia!
I just use this:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... arger.html
powered by one of these:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-12V-20A-R ... 19caeb7e5e

I pretty much only bulk charge unless i discharge >80%
I recently did my monthly balance charge check. Didnt need it.
Took a long ride with other melbourne ebikers and discharged my pack to 29.7 volts, so will be interesting to do a balance check next week.

You might be interested in some of the opinions of the arpilia on page 4 of this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=33806&start=45
I used a lot more power than the brushless units, but lots of comment about the quietness of the aprilia....

[gtadmin]

Tony, I use the same charger as Sam (I just bought 2 is all) and I mainly "bulk" charge but still plug the balance lead in. I last balance charged on the 21st Sep and since then, the worse deltaV is 19mV and the best is 6mV

Just wondering why you need the third battery? You only have a small round trip don't you?

[tonyontopofabighill]

G'day GT,

I now work from home so don't do that ride anymore.However I live just near a 14 klm cycleway (at the bottom of the big hill) and would like to do the return trip along it a few times a week.I would also like to have the capacity to ride even further on occasions and not have to worry about getting home.
How many klm's would I be looking at if I get the 3 batteries presuming I ride at an average speed on average landscape? Just a ball park figure of course.


Cheers,
Tony.

[tonyontopofabighill]

G'day Sam,

You are right mate,the pic does have a"mugshot" look about it.I will get a pic of me soon and then you will really know what a mugshot looks like.LOL.

Tony.

[Hillhater]

.I haven't understood the "power supply'" side of things.Can you explain that.Do I need to get a power supply other than the good old 240v?.

Yes .... If you read the specs of the HK chargers, you will find that MOST of them need a 11-18v DC input power, ( because they were intended for the RC guys flying their model planes in a fiels and recharging from a car battery !).
That is fine for the smaller AH packs, but recharging a 36v, 10 -15Ahr pack will need more than a car battery !
Most of us use a 240AC to 12v DC power supply as sam suggested, but there are other options. HK also has suitable PSU's.

[Samd]

I brought a 100Ah 12v SLA battery for $220 and a 40W solar panel recently for $100, with a 20 dollar charge controller. Hopefully I won;t need the power supply much in summer...

[gtadmin]

G'day GT,

I now work from home so don't do that ride anymore.However I live just near a 14 klm cycleway (at the bottom of the big hill) and would like to do the return trip along it a few times a week.I would also like to have the capacity to ride even further on occasions and not have to worry about getting home.
How many klm's would I be looking at if I get the 3 batteries presuming I ride at an average speed on average landscape? Just a ball park figure of course.


Cheers,
Tony.

Hi Tony, I have 11.6Ah capacity (2x batts) and charge to 4.10V which reduces the capacity to about 10.8Ah. I have a round trip of 15km and use up to 5.8Ah depending on weather conditions. Approx 25% I use >5Ah, approx 10% <4Ah, so about 65% is between 4 and 5Ah. Based on this, you would get about 22km (safely) in adverse conditions and up to 45km in good conditions. If you wanted to go further than 22, get the extra battery. (The less you discharge the batteries, the longer they will last)

To power my Turnigy charger I use a bank of SLA's (second hand) charged with a simple car charger.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
GT

Edit: I had the total @105%

[tonyontopofabighill]

Thanks GT,

It all helps.I spent an hour or so reading most of the posts from you guys to try and understand more about the subject.

Cheers,
Tony.

[Samd]

At 20 kph ave with 35kph bursts I get about 20 km on a two pack battery. A pack being 25c 8s 5.8ah turnigy.

Same duty on a 3 pack unit I got 35km range on sat.

Extra packs mean more range as less volt sag.

[tonyontopofabighill]

Thanks Guys,

Last night I ordered 2 x 5800mAh 8s 25C lipos and the Tunigy Accucel 8 balance chatger from Hobby King.I also ordered the 12V DC regulated PSU off ebay.I will see how I go with the 2 lipos first and get the 3rd if needed.I will get an auto elctrician bloke I know to wire them up I think.I will let you know how I go.Costs quite a bit to have them sent from Hobby King.


Cheers,
Tony.

[Hillhater]

At 20 kph ave with 35kph bursts I get about 20 km on a two cell battery. A cell being 25c 8s 5.8ah turnigy.

Same duty on a 3 cell pack I got 35km range on sat.

Extra cells mean more range as less volt sag.

Sam, .. not meaning to be "picky" but, you are using confusing and incorrect terminology.
A "Cell" in battery terminology is a single electro-chemical unit.
What you are calling a cell is in fact a pack of 8 cells. ( the "8" refers to the number of cells in the pack.)
Each of your 8s packs has 8 "cells" inside .
Sorry, but its best to be clear on this especially if you are explaining to new members.
HH
PS, ..just a reminder that these motors also run quite happily (and a little faster), on a 10s set up.

[Samd]

I was just being lazy. Fair call. Post edited.

You should also point out that charging 10s is either bloody expensive or a pain in the arse. Ok now I am being picky.

Sam (B.Eng - Mech/Elec)

PS> Tony, don't forget to ask the auto-elec to use a fuse. It's stating the obvious but it saved my butt.
And if he can find a way to allow you to split the packs up ~monthly for balance charging without opening the box even better.

[tonyontopofabighill]

Thanks Sam,

I have written it down to tell the auto elect.I remember reading your close call when you forgot to put the fuse in.I love fuses,they are such helpful little buggers.
By the way Sam,I noticed on your blog that you have got the dark grey plastics on both your City and Racing models,at first I thought the City version was a racing version until I looked a little closer.

Cheers,
Tony.

[Hillhater]

You should also point out that charging 10s is either bloody expensive or a pain in the arse. Ok now I am being picky.

Why do you think that Sam ? ..
.. i simply bulk charge ( $40 charger) , and occasionally ( every month or so) balance using the same charger hooked up to the interconnected balance leads.
NOTE: .. actually i very rarely ( never) truely "balance charge" ..instead i simply use a cell log to monitor cell voltage (with 3 packs in parallel), and simply use the single cell (3.7v) setting on the charger at 3A to bring up the lowest cells. That is MUCH quicker than a full balance charge which is painfully slow and a waste of time !

Seasons cheer to all Aprilia riders !

[Samd]

I was poking the bear....

[tonyontopofabighill]

HI Guys,

I have got all the bits and pieces now from HK and ebay.I have followed Sams footsteps and put the 2 Lipo's (long ones) into the old battery case and that all fits into the bike ok.I have decided that I will have a go at the wiring up of the connections rather than getting an auto elect to do it.I have read all your posts a heap of times and researched youtube etc to get a better understanding of this new subject for me.
When I got the PSU today in the mail that threw me a bit as I expected I would be plugging it into a 240V wall socket and connecting it up to the Turnigy Accucel 8 that I have just bought.Can you guys tell how I wire that up please.
I am off to the auto shop tomorrow to get some wire,fuses and stuff to do the job.
I have got a few electrical devices that I am wondering if they may be of use in the charging of the lipos but need your advice.
I have a big mother of a jump starter which has the following stuff written on it....900 Amp 12V DC...17 Amp SLA Battery cold cranking rated 250amp.
I also have 2 battery chargers that are 12V DC 2.4A ..4 Amp RMS
I also have a 240V to 12 V converter ( I haven't got any more details on that right at this moment)
I also have an old 12 Volt car battery that is only showing 12.0 Volts * it is a bit old and tired.
I am not sure if any of this stuff is of any use or not.
The PSU is the one Sam recommended and it has the following written on it HTA-12-250 Imput 100-120VAC 4.5a..200-240VAC 2.0A 50/60Hz...Output 12V- 20A
I can't wait to get it finished and in the bike and on the road.
Cheers in advance.

Tony.