bombadero
10 mW
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2019
- Messages
- 32
Hello, I recently noticed that the range on both of our e-bikes, a R&M Homage GT Nuvinci, and an HP Velotechnik Scorpion FS20 with Go SwissDrive system, have been greatly diminished and it looks like they are reaching end-of-life on both bikes. The R&M battery is at about 1/10th and the HPV about 1/6th. Both have dual batteries and I haven't checked either second battery yet, but expect to find much the same thing.
I've looked into battery rebuilds, and it looks pretty straightforward--and also about $700 cheaper. All that is really required is a soldering iron, which I have, a battery spot welder, new cells and optionally a multimeter. My questions in this post revolve around the Bosch Powerpack 500 specifically. I have seen successful rebuilds on YouTube of Bosch Classic+ batteries. I have also seen a teardown of a Powerpack 400 to repack it, but that video did not show the battery running successfully after a rebuild, just the teardown. A service local to my area, FTH Power, rebuilds e-bike batteries, but explicitly will not take Bosch or other proprietary batteries. They claim that when you replace the cells with an upgraded chemistry that you have to re-program the BMS firmware and re-flash the BMS. The Bosch Classic+ rebuild I saw didn't require that, and I'm not sure why that would be necessary unless the exact cell model were hard-coded into the firmware for some reason (and which would be very bad software engineering, but who knows). So my questions are:
Extra credit for anyone who can answer the same questions about the Go SwissDrive battery for HPV. It could use it's own post, but it's so niche I doubt I will get any hits on it.
Alternatively, I'm willing to build my own entirely new batteries from scratch, but I don't know if the Go SwissDrive or Bosch computers and motors will play nice with a custom battery, even hooked up via their proprietary connectors. But if anyone has experience with that either, I'm very interested in your experience (especially if you succeeded
).
I've posted this question on Electric Bike Review's forum as well.
I've looked into battery rebuilds, and it looks pretty straightforward--and also about $700 cheaper. All that is really required is a soldering iron, which I have, a battery spot welder, new cells and optionally a multimeter. My questions in this post revolve around the Bosch Powerpack 500 specifically. I have seen successful rebuilds on YouTube of Bosch Classic+ batteries. I have also seen a teardown of a Powerpack 400 to repack it, but that video did not show the battery running successfully after a rebuild, just the teardown. A service local to my area, FTH Power, rebuilds e-bike batteries, but explicitly will not take Bosch or other proprietary batteries. They claim that when you replace the cells with an upgraded chemistry that you have to re-program the BMS firmware and re-flash the BMS. The Bosch Classic+ rebuild I saw didn't require that, and I'm not sure why that would be necessary unless the exact cell model were hard-coded into the firmware for some reason (and which would be very bad software engineering, but who knows). So my questions are:
- Has anyone here successfully rebuilt a Powerpack 400 or 500? What was your experience? Was it successful?
- The guy in the Classic+ video used a chisel to remove the nickel tabs. Is there a better way to do that?
- Is there any reason to keep to old tabs rather than convenience? Might it not be better to put in new nickel strips?
- If I stick with the same make of cells, Panasonic I believe, but higher capacity chemistry, like 35E, can I anticipate problems?
Extra credit for anyone who can answer the same questions about the Go SwissDrive battery for HPV. It could use it's own post, but it's so niche I doubt I will get any hits on it.
Alternatively, I'm willing to build my own entirely new batteries from scratch, but I don't know if the Go SwissDrive or Bosch computers and motors will play nice with a custom battery, even hooked up via their proprietary connectors. But if anyone has experience with that either, I'm very interested in your experience (especially if you succeeded
).I've posted this question on Electric Bike Review's forum as well.
