Possible battery supplier

[J Barrie Wilkinson]

This seems to be a possible supplier for reasonable battery. It is on Ali but the company accepts PayPal. The battery I am interested in is 36v 15Ah, run 2 in series for 72v and the packs are a usable size. Maximum continuous discharge 3C. I have not contacted them yet, just wanted to see if anyone else had checked them out.
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/666627171/Electric_vehicles_recharge_battery_36v_15ah.html

 

[Jason27]

Be careful buying from an unknown seller. Let us know how it goes.

 

[dnmun]

they use the term 'prismatic' which means pouch type cell in the chinese market. it looks like the they enclose the BMS inside the shrink wrap.

for most BMSs i have developed a hack to allow using the two packs in series and connecting them through the battery terminals instead of running the power through both BMS output mosfets. (P-)

you would charge and balance using the individual BMSs and then use only the output mosfets on the lower pack to control current for LVC and over current discharge cutoffs.

 

[999zip999]

Did you get a price. Lot's of new battery sites.

 

[dogman dan]

I'm still recomending pingbattery because of his excellent track record of helping a customer when/if a problem develops later. At that point, if it happens, the engish communication skills can become the most important thing.

But I have no doubt that other sellers still send out thousands of packs and chargers that work fine. If a charger fails, and the seller won't replace it promptly enough, at least it's cheap to replace one. Charger problems are the most likely issue.

But with an unknown supplier, some of us here get really cautious about it, there have been some real thieves out there selling reconditioned or outright dead packs on ebay, particularly in 2008. It got so bad, we got really hesitant to recomend anybody new since this one guy kept changing his ebay name. Going with a "real company" vs just some new guy on ebay should help.

RE the battery itself, don't plan on the battery lasting very long if you will pull 3c out of that battery a lot. Figure your controller should not be more than about 1.5c in sise. So idealy about 20 amps, 30 amps can be used, but not ideal if you ride like a racer.

 

[lbz5mc12]

I recently purchased a 36V 20A lithium ion shrink tube battery from BMSBattery.com. With shipping it cost me a total of $390.00 US. It comes with a BMS and a 4A charger. The BMS is wrapped inside of the shrink-tubing with the pack. I think at most it only weighs about 10 Lbs. The only thing I had to change on it was the output connection so that I could properly mate it with my on/off switch. I've been running it almost everyday for over a month and no problems so far. I've finally got my bike just the way I want it, light weight and it's pretty quick at almost 30 mph.

 

[Jason27]

What about Pings illegal shipping practices dogman?

 

[Jeremy Harris]

What about Pings illegal shipping practices dogman?

Define illegal in his jurisdiction. Might be illegal where you live, probably isn't where he is. That's the problem with laws, they are rarely universal around the world.

Anyway, I believe Ping has had to shift to other means of shipping now, like most of the other battery suppliers, so it's a moot point. TBH, I think with a bit of persuasive argument there might be a way around the blanket ban that some shipping companies have imposed on air freight carriage of lithium batteries, anyway, but making the case would take time. The internationally agreed air carriage restrictions (they aren't laws) do allow the carriage of lithium batteries, but the person shipping them has to calculate the equivalent lithium content and make a declaration confirming it. In practice it is hard to define the lithium content unless you have access to the detailed chemical composition of the cells, so few people are making use of this way of getting cells shipped. I think HK may be doing this, as they seem to now break up orders into smaller quantities, presumably because each package is then under the equivalent lithium content limit.

 

[ICE.T]

What about AllCell Batteries?

 

[999zip999]

Ibz What happen with that bottle battery I think you had a problem there ? Was that you ? What I mean there are alot of hosers out there who love took take your money and no support and that goes for U.S, suppliers.

 

[lbz5mc12]

No I didn't have a bottle battery. I had the silver fish style that crapped out and it came with an Rmartin LX1. I also had a little frog 39V 8A that only lasted 6 months. I bought it from one of the wholesale sights from Hongkong. It only cost me $229.00 free shipping. No BMS, the fuse was in the case but not connected to anything and the charge port fell apart. It wasn't from Alibaba, it was the other site and I can't think of the name right now. The seller was Sue something. I wouldn't recommend the little frog battery cause it was a piece of junk. Also there was the whole language barrier issue. Also on a side note lead acid desulfators actually work. I've got one attached to a 36V 15A pack that was well beyond it's full capacity charges and it operates like brand new now. It's the 36V power pulse model.

 

[Jason27]

What about Pings illegal shipping practices dogman?

Define illegal in his jurisdiction. Might be illegal where you live, probably isn't where he is. That's the problem with laws, they are rarely universal around the world.

Jeremy, when you purposely mark a lithium battery as a "gift" with no hazardous warning labels to get around customs then yes that would be illegal in 99% of countries, even merry ole England

 

[dnmun]

but ping does not do that. you are making this up.

i have a shipping manifest from ping describing the battery as a lifepo4 battery, and it was shipped willingly by DHL. no criminality at all. you can't sell lester's all-cell batteries by making up lies about li ping.

 

[lbz5mc12]

Yeah DHL doesn't seem to mind shipping lithiums. Originally my order was slotted for fedex but I had to pay $30.00 more to have it shipped through DHL.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

What about Pings illegal shipping practices dogman?

Define illegal in his jurisdiction. Might be illegal where you live, probably isn't where he is. That's the problem with laws, they are rarely universal around the world.

Jeremy, when you purposely mark a lithium battery as a "gift" with no hazardous warning labels to get around customs then yes that would be illegal in 99% of countries, even merry ole England

First off, I have a Ping pack and he didn't do this at all, the paperwork says "LiFePO4 battery".

Secondly, Ping is in China, not the UK, and when I referred to laws it was his own country I was referring to.

Finally, there is no law against shipping LiFePO4 batteries, neither national nor international. There are freight regulations that require certain declarations and place restrictions of the mass of lithium that can be transported, but they aren't laws, AFAIK.

 

[dogman dan]

My first ping was not listed as a lifepo4 battery, but that was in 2008. My second one was listed similarly, I forget what it was called, but not a battery.

The postman gave me a dirty look.

I don't know what ping does for shipping now, my second ping is nearly 3 years old.

Nor do I know anything about how legal other battery suppliers shipping is. Nor was it being discussed by Barrie. It is an issue, and it's why I won't order lipo from HK in large quantities. I order small packages that hopefully ship legal from the USA warehouse.

The problem here is what is legal for ping to do on his end may not be legal on this end, or if illegal on his end, they may not give a rip there. I say I don't know anything because it would take a long time to read and digest the laws in both countries, along with international rules for flying em.

I think it's legal to ground and boat ship batteries, provided they are declared as such. HK for example, has sent lico to me labeled as toys. Technically true, the batteries are intended to run toys. But at the time I was ordering a large pile of 5 ah packs. Seemed wrong to me. Ordering from the USA warehouse in small quantity, I get ground shipping. I don't recall looking at the last two packs I bought last month to see what they called em.