Hey, this battery looks pretty cool. Anyone know about it?

[Uncle Ron]

icecube,

Thanks to your and others help, I think that I'm starting to understand the broad outlines of the current LiPo state of the art. Cudos for your help. I'm not liable to follow your path because of the inherent dangers of the battery chemistries you're working with, but I can understand from your explanations how these batteries can be used safely by taking great care in their construction and monitored use in the e-bike sphere. Yeah, I'm a bit intimidated. (g)

Thanks again!

Well assuming you have a programmable controller You could program the LVC to where the cell stays at a safe voltage during discharge when this is combined with Lipo Buzzers you shouldnt reach the bottom of the pack.

If you size your pack larger than what you can use... You will never reach the bottom of the pack.

If you have a simple speedo one of the most simple ways to ensure you dont over discharge is to automatically factor 1AH a mile. 10 Miles 10AH. Thats worse case senario and you probably will have plenty of capacity left but

If you can afford a Cycle Analyst atleast buy a Watts Up Meter or a Turnigy Watt meter. This will help you on your ride.

You could use an RC charger with balancing functions(1 Unit). The RC charger should be able to charge and balance a pack with a few button presses and automatically shut off. This option you can wire 1 plug for plug and play. There are AC charger units and there are DC units requiring a power supply. I would get Mike an AC unit. It may have a low wattage like 50-100w but if you are charging overnight and dont mind waiting 4-5 hours then this is perfect.

If you use a CC CV charger which means constant current constant voltage it will charged up to a set voltage on the charger and end indefintely float at that voltage. When used with Battery Medics you can balance while its charging. That is if its needed. This also can be wired into one plug for charging and balancing if needed.

I probably would use an RC charger for Mike.

Both routes are intimidating but can be simplified if you take the time and make the harnesses.

 

[Uncle Ron]

I have a 3 year old ping. I'd replace it today if I needed to with another. It does what I need just fine. You don't have to have the latest greatest, and if it's under 16 pounds and takes you 25 miles that doesn't exactly suck.

Your good common sense comes to the fore as usual!

It would be very cool to be able to get this newish chemistry, and still send the money to Li Ping.

I certainly understand your affection for Li Ping, but it would be even cooler, IMO, if some North American Integrator who didn't fancy him or herself as the next Thomas Edison (you know this reference) would simply work with Li Ping or some other reliable Asian Dude(s) to get out as quickly as possible, without worrying about costly in both time and money patent stuff, reliable e-bike applications of this newish chemistry at the best possible price. Make a good profit on speed, safety, reliability and customer support for a couple of years, but always be prepared to move on to the next latest and greatest. The tech world just developes much too fast in this industry to use 19th and 20th century overly proprietary ways of doing business. Patents for all but the deepest core technology are so last century, particularly when most of the manufacturing in this industry is done by those who have no respect for and ignore them.

 

[icecube57]

I had a ping booster pack and it did everything i could ever ask for but i got tired of having a frankenstien battery. I had 3 chemestries discharging at one point of time. NIMH LIMN and LIFEPO4. I have nothing against ping if its sized appropriately to do the job. What gets me is when people whine when theirs get puffy and the only thing we can say is we told you so and try to help them.

 

[Uncle Ron]

I have nothing against ping if its sized appropriately to do the job. What gets me is when people whine when theirs get puffy and the only thing we can say is we told you so and try to help them.EPO4.

Getting Puffy is the result of pulling more amps (c-rate) from the battery pack than it was designed to deliver, right?

 

[dogman dan]

Yes, but the catch 22 is that it can happen with a properly sized battery too, if one cell is a weak one. This in effect gives that cell group a smaller size and the corresponding overly high discharge rate. It can happen much easier though, if you are right on the threshold of too small already.

The one thing I'd like to see ping do, is build the battery in pluggable modules, so you could just replace a module easily, much as we do with lipo.