40v Ryobi e-Bike

Joined
Jun 11, 2018
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3
Just wanted to share my setup.

I bought 36v 10ah battery and was told tough luck when it failed... so I used my weedwacker battery. I bought a used charger to make the mount. The ryobi 40v 2.6 ah went 5 miles before it died. Kayak is 100lbs with gear. Looking to upgrade to the 5ah so I can make it 6 miles. 3 year warranty, cant beat that.

Going for stealth as the bike is left behind without the battery.
 

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I've also run my bikes off the Ryobis. Their weedwhacker is heavier than my gas model, but it always starts up. The two outer terminals of the battery carry the power, so I made a little clip to grab power and have the battery in a rack bag.

I also bought the 5AH model. but it's not high current cells, and the internal BMS trips faster than the 2.6AH model. I would not recommend it as very cost effective, unless you also have more appliances. Mine was $140 and for a bit more I could get a higher AH ebike battery, or for a lot less I could get a better performing but less safer hoverboard battery.

The EGo 52V batteries seem to have their followers.
 
Nice setup, and welcome to ES.

Some of us are working with the similar EGO 56V batteries. They seem to have higher current cells and better heat dissipation design. Connectors can be 3D printed or recovered from chargers as you have done. The 7.5 AH packs are on sale at the moment, and the yard tools are pretty good, giving a multiple use for the batteries.

If the 5AH has the limitations reported the trick might be to parallel two of the 2.6AH Ryobi packs. That should more than double the range due to the lower current required of each.
 
From a little research it looks like they just upgraded the output on the 40v 5ah battery? The case changed removing the rubber skin. What model do you have? Does anyone know the amperage specs of the 5ah? Was looking to upgrade controller from 22 to 30 amps. I do plan to expand my Ryobi line and I only use the bike to pull the kayak.
 
Let's see if this makes sense. The 5Ah battery does have more capacity, but when it's half discharged, and down to around 36-37V, blipping the throttle on a 25A controller trips the battery. It shuts down, and I have to power off the controller and pedal a bit before the pack comes back. Meanwhile, the 2.6AH battery doesn't do that. It will push 23A and does not pop off. Is it the BMS limiting the current, or less sag in the cells? I don't know, except I have to be more conservative with the 5AH battery. I don't use either as ebike batteries much these days, having moved on to other packs.
 
I tried the 5AH again on my 20A KT sinewave controller bike. That maxes out at 20A per my wattmeter. It seemed pretty good. I had used 1.3 AH and down to 38.9V when I swapped the battery back to my bike with the 25A controller. First time I hit throttle, the battery tripped. I was also mistaken. It doesn't reset until I unplug the connectors.

Unfortunately, my wattmeter loses the I-peak and Vmin when the battery shuts off, so I'll have to rig it up with a aux battery if I want to see what the meter recorded.

I would say the 5AH pack is OK if you keep the peak currents under 20A.
 
Put the aux battery on my RC wattmeter. Same bike and controller. The 5AH pack will trip right around 25A when I call for max power with throttle. The 2.6AH pack maxes out around 22A. The little pack doesn't put out enough current to trip its own BMS, but the 5AH will.

Explains why the 5AH is so irritating. Keep the load low with a small motor and it will run on.
 
BYqSXt8Z said:
How did you go about "waking up" the battery? The bms doesn't let me read the full voltage when I'm just poking at the battery.

I had forgotten that it can go into a sleep mode. I just probed my Ryobi after it sat all winter, and it wanted to read 18V.

Plugged it into my ebike and the LCD said it was OK and reading 40V. Pulled it off the bike. Now at 40V. I guess you get it out of sleep mode by plugging it into a charger or your tool.

Two outer terminals. The polarity is marked.
 
docw009 said:
BYqSXt8Z said:
How did you go about "waking up" the battery? The bms doesn't let me read the full voltage when I'm just poking at the battery.

I had forgotten that it can go into a sleep mode. I just probed my Ryobi after it sat all winter, and it wanted to read 18V.

Plugged it into my ebike and the LCD said it was OK and reading 40V. Pulled it off the bike. Now at 40V. I guess you get it out of sleep mode by plugging it into a charger or your tool.

Two outer terminals. The polarity is marked.
Perfect, thanks!

Been testing mine on a little razer e scooter. I had previously used 2 18v in series. Haven't had any problems getting the correct voltage, slapped the 40v into the circuit by rewiring a charger and it worked great. The only thing I regret is not making the charger usable by putting some sort of switch to change between power out or charge mode.

Have you had any further experience with over current issues? Mine keeps cutting out. I suspected the cheap 24v controller was the only issue, but the smaller packs (1.3 ah vs 2.6ah vs 5ah) do cut out quicker... Meanwhile on a diy power pack there was no cutting out until the controller overheated... That being said it's supposed to be a 24v 200w controller (so around 8-9A), so I don't know how I'm tripping the battery bms, and only when I reach top speed (not when I'm speeding up which I the real current draw).

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I just look for the best price for the Ah and voltage.
Home Depot seems to have the best deals. I got a couple 20V 6Ah in store then paralleled for 12Ah, but if you want the best bang, atleast around here, the Ryobi 9Ah is $99(CDN) which is like $70(USD), I would like to find out how to get the mounting system, old dead drills arent abundant. What neat is by splitting the pack, you can basically charge 3x the normal rate. For me, Dell laptop chargers on opened up Ryobi's. I doubt it'd work with the pcb still in the drill pack.
 
I wonder if anyone is selling dead 40v batteries?
I just replaced the cells in my Ryobi 18v. They were LG HB2 1500mha 30A cells, I swapped in Molicell 2800mha 35AH cells. I bet something similar could be done along with a beefed up BMS for the 40V. A place I stay on some weekends, I have A Ryobi trimmer out there. It would be nice to have an Ebike out there too, but I don't want to lug my batteries and chargers around. But if I could swap out batteries with the trimmer, it might be worth it.
 
Drunkskunk said:
I wonder if anyone is selling dead 40v batteries?
I just replaced the cells in my Ryobi 18v. They were LG HB2 1500mha 30A cells, I swapped in Molicell 2800mha 35AH cells. I bet something similar could be done along with a beefed up BMS for the 40V. A place I stay on some weekends, I have A Ryobi trimmer out there. It would be nice to have an Ebike out there too, but I don't want to lug my batteries and chargers around. But if I could swap out batteries with the trimmer, it might be worth it.
I have a friend who bought a lot of 30 dead 40v ryobi batteries on ebay last year. Many just needed to be balanced.

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That is usually the case, because the pcb and balancing board will cut off charge, I know for the Makita's when the youtuber "AVE" rebalanced the pack, the pcb shuts down and no longer works.


BYqSXt8Z said:
bought a lot of 30 dead 40v ryobi batteries on ebay last year. Many just needed to be balanced.

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markz said:
That is usually the case, because the pcb and balancing board will cut off charge, I know for the Makita's when the youtuber "AVE" rebalanced the pack, the pcb shuts down and no longer works.


BYqSXt8Z said:
bought a lot of 30 dead 40v ryobi batteries on ebay last year. Many just needed to be balanced.

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Urg... That's like the Epson printer that had a page counter chip that would brick the printer after x pages.

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Ryobi 18V 9Ah packs at very limited stores, normally $99cdn, I found some in the clearance rack for $80. Snatched both of them up, but the only other store in that city only had one left, though online it said a few other stores have "Limited Quantities". I was going to swing by and grab it, but I did not have time when I was there. Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal would have the same thing. Online would state "Limited Quantities" for the store. Its hit or miss if they are actually in stock. They just did not sell well I guess, because even the Home Depot clerk stated "Oh geeez those things are massive, what are you using it on?" then I said oh just a trimmer, then he said "Geez its huge, you'd grow big muscles working with that all day"
Its going on a 36V e bike. I would have liked to purchased atleast 2 more, but 6 in total would have been nice. Have 3x3 for 54V 18Ah.
 
Can they be run in series? The risk with a series arrangement is you get the total pack voltage (84V) across one BMS if it happens to shut off, so its transistors need to be rated for that voltage. In this sketch, two batteries in series, with the BMS circuits represented by a switch.

So I'm not going to try it with my Ryobis. I need them to run my lawn gear.

series.jpg
 
Does anybody know where to find a mating connector for this battery? I don't want to buy something Ryobi and gut it just to get the connector.

The whole female connector would be ideal, but even the right contacts would be super useful. I can 3D print a housing if I have the contacts.

The battery itself has a blade connector where one edge is right against some plastic. So the typical "faston" connector won't work because the female socket wraps around on each side. I went through the Keystone catalog and the best I could find was to use a pair of the 5209 contacts (probably with modifications to remove one shoulder).
 
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