Tom_D
100 mW
Hi, my name is Tom and I live outside a little town on the Big Island of Hawaii where we having gas prices of $4.25 last time I checked. I have been reading on the boards for about a month and decided to now post. I think I am one of the first in my area to do an ebike. I have actually built 2: one for me and one for the wife. We got the kits from electricrider.com and used cheap steel mountain bikes from Walmart. We have about a 5 mile trek into town (mostly downhill) and then the return trip mostly uphill (something like 1,200 ft. elevation over 2 miles). I put on the best brake pads I could find (Kool Stop) because of the steep hills. The 5305 is great for hills. The SLAs can do most of the effort, but with a lot of pedaling help. The last time I made the trip, the SLAs cut out (and that is when I first learned about the controller LVC feature, haha). Well, at the time I was not too pleased. I think I even pulled a muscle pushing the bike home!
Since then, I have been in the process of adding a 16s4p A123 pack in parallel to the SLA packs. I have been picking up the Dewalt 36v batteries off ebay and harvesting the cells. I have ordered Gary Goodrum's stick pack kits shown here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2498&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=dewalt+bms+cut+out&start=225#p62793
I plan to use (4) 4s4p sticks in series for a nominal 48v 9.2ah pack. Then, using a schottky diode for paralleling the 48v SLAs and the 48v A123 pack to keep them separate. The plan is to use the SLAs until they are done, then get rid of them and just go with the A123s. That way, I can get all the use out of the SLAs. Oh, and we also have a BOB trailer we tow to run errands so we need lots of battery!
Maybe I will later go to a 72v setup someday, but I will probably need a different controller, so I am going to wait for now.
I am going to try to talk to one of the local businesses in town that is on PV solar if they would be willing to offer a charging station for ebikes. I bet they would. I hope we can show others here the benefits of using ebikes instead of the same old way of using gas burning cars.
I have a few technical questions that belong on another thread, but does anyone know where the brake inhibit is located on the Clyte Version 2 board? I will need to tie it into Gary's LVC output that is a feature in his kits.
Any comments would be welcome!
Thanks,
This is a GREAT forum!
Tom
Since then, I have been in the process of adding a 16s4p A123 pack in parallel to the SLA packs. I have been picking up the Dewalt 36v batteries off ebay and harvesting the cells. I have ordered Gary Goodrum's stick pack kits shown here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2498&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=dewalt+bms+cut+out&start=225#p62793
I plan to use (4) 4s4p sticks in series for a nominal 48v 9.2ah pack. Then, using a schottky diode for paralleling the 48v SLAs and the 48v A123 pack to keep them separate. The plan is to use the SLAs until they are done, then get rid of them and just go with the A123s. That way, I can get all the use out of the SLAs. Oh, and we also have a BOB trailer we tow to run errands so we need lots of battery!
Maybe I will later go to a 72v setup someday, but I will probably need a different controller, so I am going to wait for now.
I am going to try to talk to one of the local businesses in town that is on PV solar if they would be willing to offer a charging station for ebikes. I bet they would. I hope we can show others here the benefits of using ebikes instead of the same old way of using gas burning cars.
I have a few technical questions that belong on another thread, but does anyone know where the brake inhibit is located on the Clyte Version 2 board? I will need to tie it into Gary's LVC output that is a feature in his kits.
Any comments would be welcome!
Thanks,
This is a GREAT forum!
Tom
