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[nigezero]

It's hard being an early adopter isnt it?

I love my 2010DS but I fear I have battery problems after only 5000 km. Otherwise, I've had only 2 pretty minor issues, but this could be terminally expensive.

Problems started a few weeks ago when I noticed even on my short 5km commute that voltage slump was happening like it hadn't before. It didn't go away and I fact I noticed the controller "groaning" as it does when it's limiting power due to low volts, typical of low state of charge after big rides; but doing it after shorter and shorter ones.

Today I headed off to the airport (for an energy storage conference, no less!) and after 7km it was blinking at me after the first big hill at 80km hr. I turned back knowing I wouldn't make it and made the missus drive me.

Dead cell? Lazy cell? Replace the battery pack? All input welcome

[rollandelliott]

i took apart my battery today, it is a complicated mess.







took about 1.5 hrs to remove. I recommend putting the bike upside down, makes everything easy to get to.
spent several hours trying to figure out what I need to charge the cells!
now I need to start charging and figure out what is good and what is bad.

I'll try to keep you uptodate on what I find out.

i have looked on the web and only found one youtube video on someone that successfully reapired their battery.

Zero quoted me $600 to $1000 to fix my battery.

If I cant get battery to work again then I might try making my own out of leaf cells, though all these wires are intimidating to figgure out.

[aelwero]

that actually looks simpler than what I expected
and 600-1000 seems fairly not bad for what amounts to a major drivetrain repair.

In terms of vehicle repair/maintenance, I still think we're doing better than the IC folks.

Best of luck to you, and keep us posted

[nigezero]

Thanks guys; I've had my pack out before so that doesn't phase me too much. Built a nice little jack to make it easier. What I do t know yet is whether it's easy to identify the culprit  cells without disconnecting them all? Some how I guess I'll have test them under load too; the faulty ones will undoubtedly drop voltage far quicker. Replacing them is phase 2 ....

[rollandelliott]

please let me know how you will do your testing, I am in the same boat, but I've never charged lithiums before and learning all about batteries. is a bit difficult.

[nigezero]

Reality is, you need some pretty sophisticated gear and or a lot of time to do it properly. Strikes me that with a number of us DS owners out there, it would be awes won to have a test procedure that listed the steps and the gear required. In Australia there are only 3 or 4 of us. In the US many more; maybe you could all collaborate to buy and build a portable testing rig that can be shared ?

[rollandelliott]

honestly I hate this battery design! 2s x 12p in each pack is 24 cells
then there are 14 of those packs = 336 cells to test!!!!!!

If is changed this out to Nissan leaf packs there would be ONLY 7packs. each pack has only 4 cells in side , so 28 vs 336 cells!

[nigezero]

Yep; early adoption has it's down sides

[rollandelliott]

", it would be awes won to have a test procedure that listed the steps and the gear required"

sounds good to me, if only I knew what the best testing equipment and procedures might be!?!?
I got a hyperion 1402i charger and the 6 cells balancer that dr bass recommended, now I just have to figgure out how to use them properly!

[zap mc]

start by measuring each bank and you may find one that is a bit low on voltage.
in the old Molicel packs it was easy to spot as the charged up voltage was about 8v to 8.4V
what cells are used? is it still the molicels?
if so you can disconnect the banks and just charge each to 8.4V separately and see which one remains low.
it may just be a few duff cells but its finding them!