Nimh to SLA conversion. Your comment is appreciated.

I

inspron

1 mW
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
13
I have been following this forum for while and finally made a purchase. Thanks everyone! I have a few questions at the bottom; your help is greatly appreciated.

I have this bike in FLAT BLACK:
yhst-17960371244464_2004_45203896

Known Specs: Greenline EB-1820
Electric Powered with Pedals Assist or Pedals Only
Motor – 180 Watts
Top Speed – 16 mph
Top Range – 19 Miles
Battery – 24 Volts Nickel Metal Hydride
Charge Time – 4 Hours (FREE Charger Included)
Chinese made

It came with a "Nimh" Charger 1.8A that look similar to this one in the picture with a 3-prong charger with a notch on it:
http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/wanto24vo16a.html

Wal-mart has some car batteries (SLA I think) for $20. I think it said for P-7 type car battery. Its almost twice as big as the standard EV 12V battery for toys but not too big. The weight is not too bad either. There are no AH ratings on the battery but I think it said 250 cracking amps starting. I'm considering these to extend the range of my bike and to keep my costs down while doing so.

Questions:
1) Is this 3 prong charge plug a standard in the industry regardless of brand?

2) Can I use two of these car batteries in series on my 24V bike or do I have to use the smaller toy size 12V SLA?

3) What kind of performance could I reasonably expect vs lets say a 8AH Nimh with no specs on C ratings?

4) Could I use my existing 24V Nimh charger?

5) Since there is only a positive and negative terminal on these SLA, what would the 3rd prong be used for? Do I need to buy something like this to link my batteries and the charger? http://www.monsterscooterparts.com/36vchso.html


Thanks everyone for your help!
 
Car batteries suck.

They're made with spongy lead plates, which degrade very quickly when discharged deeply. You'd be lucky to see a dozen cycles out of them. Use proper deep-cycle batts.

You'll need a proper 24V SLA charger, too. The NiMH one won't work for SLA. Don't worry, they're cheap. eBay one for like $20.
 
This might be out of character for me to say, but since you already have a NiMh bike with a charger I think you are better off sticking with it and not switching to SLA.

The whole idea of using SLA is that it's cheap.

If you are needing to buy a charger on top of buying more batteries then you are sort of working against that ideal.

My advice is to replace what you have with more NiMh.
 
Like Link was saying, there is a big difference between cranking batteries (the ones you are looking at) which are designed to provide power to start a car and deep cycle batteries which are designed to release their power over a longer period of time.
I agree with Safe. Use the money that you would spend on starting over with new SLAs and charger to just buy more Nimh batts to add to your current setup in order to increase your range.
 
Does that bike fold in half at the frame?
 
How much range are you looking for? If you are looking for just a few miles the toy batteries are at least the right type, but you may be able to find them cheaper elsewhere, like a scooter parts seller, or just a mail order battery place. The chargers are fairly cheap on ebay, or the scooter parts guys. You would need to buy the plug to match the charger you buy, or something to connect the new charger to the pack. But if you are looking for a really long ride, either safes suggestion of more nimh, or selling your nimh to sombody to help pay for a bigger lithium make more sense than buying lead.
 
safe said:
This might be out of character for me to say, but since you already have a NiMh bike with a charger I think you are better off sticking with it and not switching to SLA.

The whole idea of using SLA is that it's cheap.

If you are needing to buy a charger on top of buying more batteries then you are sort of working against that ideal.

My advice is to replace what you have with more NiMh.
Click to expand...


I've been following your posts for a while. Thanks a lot for your inputs. I have seen you suggest going to SLA considering the price. Right now my Nihm gives me about 10 miles or so range. I would like to add another 10 to that. What is the cheapest way of doing that? If you have specific recommendation I would gladly try it. I was thinking of going the car battery type but seeing how it is not recommended I will go another route.

I guess I can go with deep cycle SLA which are $30 each so two is $60, plus another $30 for an SLA charger; that makes about $100 for everything shipped.

Whats the next best deal on cheap Nimh so I can hook it up to my exiting round 3 prong setup? Links?
Could I go with Nicad and still use the same charger? Nicad may be the cheaper option?
 
OneEye said:
You could use the same charger but would need to charge your existing pack and your new pack one at a time when they are not connected together.
Click to expand...


I have been looking at Nimh and Nicad packs online. They have one connector for charger, another for discharge, and one set for thermal. My current pack only has one charger and discharge terminal. Could I just modify the new pack to have only one 3-prong terminal?
P8190338.jpg
 
Some of these 3 prong plugs onl y use 2 of the 3 pins.. :wink:

the discharge and charge leads connect to the same places inside the pack.. only difference on some packs is that the " DIS_charge " leads hav a 3rd wire for a temp sensor ( 10k resistor ) for the charger to know when to stop.. important with nimh, not so important with nicad.

go to http://www.ebikes.ca.. get a pack and charger from Justin and live happy ! :wink:
 
inspron said:
Right now my Nihm gives me about 10 miles or so range. I would like to add another 10 to that. What is the cheapest way of doing that?
Click to expand...
Your bike was designed for a certain weight and a certain chemistry. If you want to extend the range and lower the price at the same time you are trying to do two opposing things at once.

The most direct way to increase the range is to increase the size of the battery pack, but if you were to go with SLA and the bike isn't designed for it then you need to add so much weight that it's not going to be practical. I've got a custom frame, but I've settled into a configuration that also gets about 10 miles... it's a fast 10 miles, but that's all I can go. If you can splurge on the price then you can get more expensive light weight batteries and easily extend the range. Basically what I'm saying is "there's no such thing as a free lunch" which means that you can't get more for less. When I recommended SLA it's for people who are making their first purchase and want the starting price to be low, but your aspirations on this project need to be thought out more.

What is more important "money" or "range"?

:arrow: If it's "range" then spend money on a good pack and just forget about it. Buy doubling the capacity you get double the range.

:arrow: If it's "money" then the quickest and easiest path is to get more NiMh of about the same configuration.

...there's a third concept which involves how "cost effective" your spending is going to be. In that area too I'd have to say that buying the NiMh or NiCads as a replacement would not likely cause any problem. NiCads can be found at a discount in some places because NiMh has sort of taken over. It's when you get into the leading edge stuff where the jury is still out whether it's a good deal yet.

:arrow: So shop a little and find the best bargain you can. (and listen to the advice for bargains from people here)
 
Safe is right about the weight of lead batteries. my 12 ah slas, like the toy battery, weigh 11 pounds apiece. Too much weight will reduce the range too. More of what you have will be easiest, just get the matching connectors to hook up to your existing bike and charger. Then I would run one pack at a time, since that way you know when 1/2 is gone. In a year or two when this set wears out, you will have had time to save for lithium, witch is both lighter and smaller. On ebay, there are pretty cheap priced 24 volt packs.
 
If we were talking about AC plugs, I'd be a freaking expert.. :roll:

From the land where 110V is not always 110V... :evil:

Then I'd tell you what that third prong is for...so you could fry your charger.. :|

DK
 
Not right now I won't. I'm still hurting from dirtdad's LiFe. Plus I gotta get a bunch of plexiglass and other miscellaneous crap to finish that ultra-fancy battery box.

But, yeah. If I were you I'd get 24V and 20Ah of LiFe from Ping. Or 36V and 10-15Ah for more speed. :wink:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Drubieg
Comment, criticize my build. But be nice I’m new!
3 4 5 6 7
Replies
163
Views
4,552
PaPaSteve
PaPaSteve
Y
AGM to LiFePo4 Scooter Upgrade Questions
Replies
8
Views
2,112
surgicalfpv
S
MojoSlim
  • Question
Old Ping Battery - Is my BMS Busted?
Replies
5
Views
586
amberwolf
amberwolf
craciunptr
    • Like
    • Cheers
Launching the Kit Version of the Ride Colibri M22 E-Motorcycle
Replies
14
Views
962
craciunptr
craciunptr
B
    • Like
My EV Conversion Journey and the Greenwheel Challenge
Replies
1
Views
172
amberwolf
amberwolf
Back
Top