Ping 36v 20 ah, 5000 mile review.

[RTLSHIP]

I can have it soldered or crimp it myself at work. We have all of these supplies. I'm not familiar with Anderson connectors.
My BD-36 and Aotema are unmodified. Power Plug into connector is called an SAE Connector. Will an Anderson go into an SAE?

 

[RTLSHIP]

I'm sorry. what i meant to say is that power plug into controller is called an SAE connector. I suppose it would have to be replaced by andersons compatible w/ 12 or 14 gage wiring.

 

[dogman dan]

I just used my old plug from the bd36 wiring harness, and used wire nuts to twist the battery wires to the wires with the bd36 plug on it. Worked ok for a year so far. Do whatever you want, so long as the connector can handle 30 amps or so.

I'm just now getting around to converting all my bikes and batteries to andersons. They are nice. Easy to replace a scorched contact with them.

 

[RTLSHIP]

We've read the unhappy stories of people cooking controllers, bms and chargers typically through reverse hook up. I'll try to avoid that by probing with a multimeter first. I'm going to look into the andersons as more things can go wrong soldering.
By the way I'm planning to post a pic of my bikes eventually. Previous attempts failed because pic had to many killibites?
In other words, this forum and the V forum don't allow High Definition pics

 

[dogman dan]

I find If I shoot my pix 1 megapixel, and then resize them a bit smaller I have few problems. I get crappy quality if I shoot 7 meg and then make that real small.

 

[RTLSHIP]

ok. I just bought 10 sets of andersons 30 amp. also includes tabs(terminals) and mating pins for the red and black housing.
This seems the most practical way to go. 7.95 +2.50 in shipping!! I'll go to a local Harbor Freight and just buy some basic crimp pliars, nothing fancy. Hopefully, that's all I need to fire it up. Dogman, you can use an SLA charger on your Ping without modifying it? I plan on getting a smaller back up 48 v to use on road trips and keep the standard one at home.
that's how I've done it with my 36v packs. Of couse, I have to see the charging connection on my new pack first

 

[XRuss]

RTLSHIP, If you would like some addit info on "Powerpole How To", check this site out

http://www.flyrc.com/articles/using_powerpole_1.shtml

Good Luck

 

[dnmun]

that is a good article, i wondered why the little bit extra of solder always would cause it to jump open.

if you expect your build to stay together for a long time, you can put it together without andersons too, and put a circuit breaker in for an on/off switch and have a little precharge button switch in parallel with it so you could hold it on long enuff to precharge the caps through a resistor.

and you can put the controller current on a separate switch too, so you don't have to recharge the caps each time you use it, but can keep the battery from draining down while idle.

 

[dogman dan]

Yes, you can use the sla charger of the same nominal voltage to charge your lifepo4. It usually is two or three volts lower, and won't be enough to start the bms balancing, but it will give your a 99% charge assuming you have no badly out of balance cells. I ran 100 cycles last summer on nothing but the sla charger.

 

[RTLSHIP]

thanks, Russ, dnmun and dogman, Folks I bought my Andersons f/ Argent Data Systems. 10 complete sets @ 7.50 plus 2.95 shipping. this price is lower than many of the bulk sales. It seems that knotting wire and soldering should only be done as a last result. the anderson instructions are helpful & pretty simple.

 

[JinbaIttai]

So how many charges does 2800 miles work out to?

 

[dogman dan]

That is a hard one to say accurately. I thought about actually keeping a count and decided it would be a pain after awhile. I thought I'd do a lot of the same distance riding, and be able to get a pretty close count just by divding the odometer mileage by 14.5 miles. Then I melted a motor, and started to take the bus part way for most of the summer. So I did about 600 miles that way, and then started to drive a car with a bike rack to a point 9 miles from work. and did that for a few months. When winter came, I went back to the 14.5 mile cycle. Throw in the 4 mile trips to the flea market, or autozone, and 8 mile trips to the grocery, and some riding on the local mountain bike single tracks, and pretty soon its a real guess.

So 600 miles of 14.5 , charge and then 6 and charge. 58 cycles.
600 of 9 miles , charge and 9 miles, charge. 67 cycles
A year of once a week to a store and charge, 260 miles? 52 cycles
Range test rides, usually about 20 miles, maybe 5 times, 100 miles 5 cycles
1560 miles, of 14.5 miles per cycle 107 cycles

So looks like 237 cycles plus or minus 20 ? Sheesh, at this rate it will take 4 years to get to 1000 cycles. Too many days I have to take a car to work since bringing 10 bags of cement is kinda hard on a bike. Averaging 12 miles per cycle, I could be looking at a possiblility of more than 1000 cycles. The average depth of discharge is about 60-70% no wonder I see no loss of range yet.

I actually plan to retire the thing from daily use sooner than that anyway. I would upgrade today if I didn't have some debt to clear out. In cost v benefit musings, I came to the conclusion that the cost of the battery was made up at 3000 miles so a few more trips and I'll be riding on just the 15 cents a day for electricity.

 

[RTLSHIP]

Stil waiting for delivery of my 48v 15ah lipo pack.
Are you going to upgrade to 48 v? Or upgrade to a newer Ping version?

 

[dogman dan]

I'd love to upgrade everything, EV disease has me baaaaad. But I'm still in pay off the charge cards mode. I have a debt hangover from flying hot air balloons to get rid of. Really , though 48v would be nice, I am getting to an fro just fine at 36v and theoretically will for at least two or three more years at this rate. I'd love two 48v 15ah v2 packs though, so I could build a bitchin dirt bike with a 5305 motor, and then use just one of em on the commute alternately on a more sane bike.

That would also set me up with 50 ah of lifpo4 for some nice touring rides too. 70-100 mile range would be nice on the weekends.

140 miles to go to have 3000 miles on the ping, I got it aproximately may 1 last year.

 

[RTLSHIP]

Ping's 2009 batteries are called v2.5. even better then v2. I am still waiting on my 48v 15 ah lipo's f/ Olympics. Vendor wrote back to me once before purchase. No further communication despite my various attempts. Also, his EMS (China Shipping) tracking number doesn't register in the tracking system. He/She could have made a typo.

 

[dogman dan]

Surely it's coming, they don't track while sitting in customs either, so it's a long nervous wait for sure. By the time I get some more ping, It'll be v 10 or something. We might start flying again if fuel stays cheap for a year or two.

 

[RTLSHIP]

I visited Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe back in Summer 2006. My college roommate lives in Rio, but he goes to El Paso and las Cruces all the time. He also lived in El Paso and says you can see Las Cruces, El Paso and Cuidad Juarez from
some Mountain Top. If so, take your Ping powered up that one and bring back some pics!

 

[dogman dan]

Several mountains allow that, but it's a hike, not a bike ride. Cristo rey, a small peak right on the border that has a huge jesus statue on it may be the one he is talking about. Coyotes from juarez like to rob the hikers that go there on pilgrimage to pray for something. So I'll pass on that one. From the ski area in Ruidoso though, you can allmost see Colorado, Arizona , Texas and Mexico. Can't quite see Colorado though, just Santa Fe. On the occasional windy day the air gets really clear afterwards and you can see Truchas peak near Taos, and the White mountains in Arizona.

Here is a few pix from 12999 feet in a hot air balloon over Deming NM. The mountains on the horizon to the right are El Paso, and to the right of that, Mexico. Visibiltiy low that day, only about 100 miles dammit.

This one is looking north, to the Gila wilderness. Would have seen Arizona but too much haze. Weather to see good would have blown me to the next state if I was dumb enough to fly that high.View attachment 1

This is me, grinning like a fool , getting my balloon to the highest legal altitude without oxygen, radios, transponders, etc. I was taking a severe risk of a jet whizzing by me at 700 mph up there.

Fun stuff, but the reason I'm broke as hell these days. It WAS worth it.

 

[RTLSHIP]

Fun, but scary. It would be nice to go there in the ski season or in October Fiesta, but that is when the hotels are booked and prices are much higher. Even plane tickets cost more. I recall they has mountain bike rental on Sandia. It's a substitute for lack of snow.

 

[dogman dan]

My wife says I'm not happy unless I'm pissing my pants. Piloting fiesta is very fun,(scary) The landings are very small, and if the wind blows, it's like trying to drop a rock down a well from a fast moving bike. If you miss you get to die on a power line. Flying at home in Las Cruces is much nicer, plenty of good roomy landing spots left here. No fiesta for me this year though . Bringing a balloon to fiesta is a great deal, everything except food and gas for the truck is free.

 

[dumbass]

Ping's 2009 batteries are called v2.5. even better then v2. I am still waiting on my 48v 15 ah lipo's f/ Olympics. Vendor wrote back to me once before purchase. No further communication despite my various attempts. Also, his EMS (China Shipping) tracking number doesn't register in the tracking system. He/She could have made a typo.

Mat I ask how you are made your purchase from Ping? I ask because I haven't seen him on Ebay lately and I wanted to get a price on a battery from him. Thanks,

 

[dnmun]

rtlship did not buy his pack from mr ping. he bot it from an ebay vendor.

you can reach ping through the sphere mailbot, look under ping in the directory. use the mailbot so he knows you are from the sphere. he cares.

 

[dogman dan]

pingbattery.com His direct buy site. His email is there if you need something custom, or questions about versions.

 

[RTLSHIP]

that's correct Dunmun, I bought from a vendor named Olympics 2000888. Ping has his own website as well as a occasional ebay auctions.
I kind of wish I had bought F/ Ping. I'm still waiting for delivery. Could be another week or so becasue it's coming
standard flat rate. Anybody know how long that type of EMS service takes? I bought on April 13 and rec'd a tracking # the next day.

 

[dogman dan]

10 day minimum I'd say. ping told me ten days, and it was 9 days 20 hours when it hit my doorstep. It's a long anxious wait, and the tracking in the US may not register till the day it arrives at your house. No tracking while it's in customs, and then it lags by about a day or even two after that.