Diy Battery Upgrade to my DS 2011 to add 100km range !!

[jateureka]

Doctorbass,
great work on the extra battery pack, very professional build.

I know this is an old thread, but I am looking at doing something similar by adding a 14s2p Nissan Leaf module battery in parallel with the existing Zero battery. For the BMS, I am looking at using the D170 (40 Mos) from Bestech. http://www.bestechpower.com/518v14spcmbmspcbforli-ionli-polymerbatterypack/BMS-D170.html

How did you go about connecting the two batteries in parallel, for discharging and charging, what point in the Zero circuit and did you use extra components?

Did the Zero battery gauge automatically adjust to indicate the larger battery capacity?

Why did you choose the SB120? I was thinking I need to use the SB175 connector due to current rating & cable size.

Sorry for all the questions but any more information on this would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Doctorbass]

Doctorbass,
great work on the extra battery pack, very professional build.

I know this is an old thread, but I am looking at doing something similar by adding a 14s2p Nissan Leaf module battery in parallel with the existing Zero battery. For the BMS, I am looking at using the D170 (40 Mos) from Bestech. http://www.bestechpower.com/518v14spcmbmspcbforli-ionli-polymerbatterypack/BMS-D170.html

How did you go about connecting the two batteries in parallel, for discharging and charging, what point in the Zero circuit and did you use extra components?

Did the Zero battery gauge automatically adjust to indicate the larger battery capacity?

Why did you choose the SB120? I was thinking I need to use the SB175 connector due to current rating & cable size.

Sorry for all the questions but any more information on this would be greatly appreciated!

Well I sold by 2011 and bought a 2012 so the battery upgrade project went different but it is more important!

I have kept my A123 pack i wanted to add to the DS2011 and i'm now using it for my 19hp snow blower.

For my 2012: ( btw there is a thread about that) http://roulezelectrique.com/quebec-la-sarre-quebec-en-moto-electrique-2000km-pour-0/

I have added an external connector from the battery that is after the internal fuse of the battery. This SB120 connector split in a Y for the two SB50 to the aux battery i added.

SB120 can take 400A no prob. This is the same connector that is installed on the DS 2011 and 2010...

but each of the aux battery never see more than 100A during acceleration ( i have measured) so that's 200A from the aux battery and 280A from the main zf9 battery so the current sharing is just perfect!

the SB50 can take 100A+ and that's what they do

I did the same paralleling with all the 19 wires for the BMS except that i have connected them directly to the ZF9 battery cell node bus from the 3 internal 3kWh modules. I have used some DB19 for the connections. this also split in a Y to 2 individual DB19 to each battery.

This way the BMS from the ZF9 work for both aux ZF3 modules. ( btw these ZF3 come from a splitted ZF9 battery that i have salvaged

To connect the battery i have to be sure that the voltage are pretty close to avoid over charging the lowest form all the battery.

This work perfect !

The battery gauge remain untouched. I have found that this way when the 3 last bar from the 11 total begin to flash, this is indicating me that the battery is exactly at 50% !

and... 50% mean 6.6kWh used out of 13.2kWh and the point to return to destination of there is no charger around.

I'm mostly using the Cycle analyst to monitor the Ah used. I know that i have 200Ah total... but i preffer using the Wh because they are more accurate. the first Ah are at higher voltage and as the battery discharge, the voltage get lower and each Ah have less energy (Wh)

In other words, the first Ah discahrged from the battery is at 75V meaning it worth 75Wh.. but the last is at 54V so it worth 54Wh... so the true 50% battery energi is not at 50% Ah but at 50% Wh :wink:

Doc

 

[jateureka]

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply.

You are totally correct on the SB120 connector I just checked my 2011 S and it uses a blue SB120 connector on the output from the battery box for some reason I thought it was SB175...

I was wondering whether you actually tested the 2011 with the parallel add-on battery you made to see if it affected the stock BMS or produced a fault condition with the MBB because I saw you later sold a 2011 battery https://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=51250 .

I used google translate and had a read of your linked web site for your 2012 Zero, another nice battery upgrade with great attention to detail.

With the battery gauge, could you update the software for the MBB so the stock gauge sees the added battery? Just wondering if it is possible, as the Zero comes with so many different battery size options and you can add the power tank also, so they must be able to easily account for different battery capacity.

 

[Doctorbass]

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply.

You are totally correct on the SB120 connector I just checked my 2011 S and it uses a blue SB120 connector on the output from the battery box for some reason I thought it was SB175...

I was wondering whether you actually tested the 2011 with the parallel add-on battery you made to see if it affected the stock BMS or produced a fault condition with the MBB because I saw you later sold a 2011 battery https://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=51250 .

I used google translate and had a read of your linked web site for your 2012 Zero, another nice battery upgrade with great attention to detail.

With the battery gauge, could you update the software for the MBB so the stock gauge sees the added battery? Just wondering if it is possible, as the Zero comes with so many different battery size options and you can add the power tank also, so they must be able to easily account for different battery capacity.

Thanks for the apprecaition :wink:

I did not tested the 2011 with another battery.. I got that great deal for the 2011 before i finish totally the A123 2kWh battery pack upgrade.

The BMS will not see any diff if you parallel other battery to teh oem battery. but you have to be sure the paralleled battery is well balanced BRFORE to connect it and also that all the cells are ok and same capacity over all the cells ideally, to not make your BMS to work all the time trying to balance the lower cell of your added pack.

I have tried to reprogram the preset capacity value of my 2012 BMS to know that the battery is 200A and have the gauge rescaled... but i remember that the max value the 2012 can have is 160Ah.... that's curious because the larger pack is ZF9 (also teh oen i have) and is 120Ah... so why having the possibility to program 160Ah ( witch is 40Ah more).. maybe because Zero planned to maybe have a Tank battery also on the 2012 made of the ZF3... but the size would not matchéé tehg ZF3 are larger than what the tank can take.

Oh.. btw.. the 2012 battery are more powerfull than the 2013-2015 ( higher C rate! =) ) = higher power per Wh

Doc