16mm^2 is roughly 5gauge wire, that seems a bit small... is the 16mm wire on the batteries? I'd go at least 4 maybe 3 (21 or 26mm respectively). On the motor side, I used 2Gauge (33mm), and its a bit small. I'd recomend a 1 (42mm). How many amps do you see battery side? have you looked at a Cable Ampacity table?
It actually says "16mm2" on on box and "5" on the cable. And yes, 16mm2 cables are used to connect the batteries 1) to next battery 2) to fusebox 3) to ammeter. From fusebox and ammeter there are 2 x 16mm2 cables.
Now I've looked at the ampacity table, thanks
So 16mm2 is about OK for the smaller currents, but I think I'll add a third 16mm2 cable in between controller and the motor. Heck, why not
5gauge ... 2gauge
I have hard time understanding what a number like "2" or "5" have to do with anything, but I get the idea; smaller is bigger. Right? And the other way around, bigger is smaller?
is the ammeter on battery side or motor side? If its on the battery side, you'll likely never see 300A. The current on motor side isn't always equal to the battery side, and in reality, it almost NEVER is. Its only equal at absolute full throttle (100% PWM).
The minus side of the battery set is connected to ammeter.
"collective battery minus" - ammeter - controller - relay - fuse - "collective battery plus"
motor side or battery side?
Yea, I have no clue about the currents in between controller and the motor. I guess I'll have to check them some time.
Q4:
Its not great to crawl home. Do not discharge past 80% depth of discharge. Anything past that and the battery life of those AGM's is going to fall of quickly. Lithiums can go to almost 100%, but not Lead. If you need more range, consider adding better batteries that can give you the extra Wh you need.
I think I'll try to keep that 80% in mind. I have 80Ah of 48V juice on board. It should be enough for daily errands. Right now I only have driven about 100km of electric kilometers, so batteries -should- have a long life ahead. Couple of years, I guess. When they are fully cooked, I'll check what's available and will probably switch to li-ion batteries or platinum-unobtainium condensators.
Q5:
What kind of truck charger is it? model number? specs? When SLA's are done carging, they're just above 14V anyway, so this sounds just about right for these. Does it auto shutoff?
http://share.ovi.com/media/jsavola.public/jsavola.10096 says "Manson"
(notice: not all photos are current!)
Model is SBC-2413. Specs: all the goodies you could expect. Charger does not do auto shutoff; it just changes to maintenance mode so it can be left connected and powered.
Q6:
How many amps draw? If its just a couple amps, it should be ok, but make sure you keep the pack balanced. This battery will age faster, even at 1-2A. I've got a 48V to 15V converter if you need it. It does 50W... so it'd be about 4A. Just pay for shipping. The problem with tapping is that the battery you tap off will wear out quicker, so you'll need to have a 12V charger and balance the WHOLE pack one by one every month or so.
Ouch. Right. One by one balancing does not sound like fun. I purchased 3A12V wet battery for the lights. I will try to live with that for the time being.
Thanks for the offer. However, my friends are right now hunting for suitable 'gear' for my use.
48->12 converters are quite expensive :I
Q7:
Its probably just electrical noise, or the ammeter isn't calibrated. See if there is a "zeroing" function. Have you verified with another meter? 0.09A is not that much.... what do you have hooked up to it? is there a contactor to disconnect the pack?
There is zeroing functionality in the ammeter. I'll think about using it. As I wrote, ammeter (actually, shunt) is connected to collective minus of the battery set.
I'm thinking about "master switch", a mechanical bolt for breaking the circuit when the bike is not used. Hmm. It might be a good idea to disconnect the battery series from each other when not in use... So instead of one master bolt, there would be four (or one with 4 connectors to one side and one to other). I'll think about this.
Q8:
Maybe some ducting would be good, but those Mars motors have built in fans (as far as I know). I'd add a cheap temperature gauge that can go to 100 degrees C.
Temp gauge would be a good thing. I just have to be sure it does not show Fahrenheit
Q9:
what haven't you thought of
That's a very difficult question indeed!
Q10:
You could, but you won't get regen, you won't get the current control (can possibly burn the motor up) and you will have no control of the speed. You can bypass it at higher RPM's though, but make sure you use the controller to get to speed, then you can bypass it via another contactor.
Check, check, check, check, check. Check, check and check.
"Full throttle" "give me all there is to give" "don't care about a thing" bypass thingy would be maybe something to try. But not before I have that temperature meter. And only for top speed driving. Hmm. Then again; why not for acceleration as well?
Q11:
Get a temperature sensor, and you'll know. The soldering issues have been a little more rare with the newer designs, but you need to make sure the motor is getting the cooling it needs. Don't wait until its too late, monitor the temperature with a little remote gauge. They're easy to find and it'l save you a lot of worry.
If the solder melts, they can be very hard to rebuild.
I will get a sensor.
Solderings melting could be a good thing, if done right. Something melting in a controlled fashion could be used to avoid total meltdown. However, this seems to be not the way things are now done
Thanks a boatload, I respect your willingness to be of help.
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Topic: Couple of questions. Or issues. Or whatever. (Read 2724 times)