tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369941762441967690.post8598589934471227973..comments2022-11-26T01:46:19.151-08:00Comments on EV Z3: A Look at the BottomTim Catellierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02801279544184321528noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369941762441967690.post-77708813953734655282012-07-27T07:50:19.630-07:002012-07-27T07:50:19.630-07:00Right you are. Stupid brown smoke! I got a new o...Right you are. Stupid brown smoke! I got a new one yesterday. I'm going to try and NOT destroy it.Tim Catellierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02801279544184321528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369941762441967690.post-35888686188965176752012-07-24T15:18:21.890-07:002012-07-24T15:18:21.890-07:00You let out the magic brown genie! Now it'll n...You let out the magic brown genie! Now it'll never work!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16503206192987386691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369941762441967690.post-41678670790753000872012-07-20T23:47:54.718-07:002012-07-20T23:47:54.718-07:00Gizmo,
I was as surprised as you. Shocked, if yo...Gizmo,<br /><br />I was as surprised as you. Shocked, if you will (no pun intended). When I removed the e-xpert, not in my wildest dreams did I expect to see such damage. I do wish it were a bit more robust. I think I'll look into the CycleAnalyst you mention.<br /><br />The Manzanita charger does cut off automatically at the end, and it's pretty reliable. It is no easy task to set it up though. It uses a little trim pot, and you have to dial it in to the voltage you want it to cut off at. The trouble is, it takes about a dozen cycles for it to settle down and start being consistent at the setting you've dialed in. So that means if you've got it wrong, you adjust it and start the process all over again. Once it is dialed in then it's dead on consistent. That is as long as you don't change the current you're pushing to the batteries by too much. It then falls victim to Ohm's law. <br /><br />If you set the charger up while it was charging the pack at 22 amps, then you need to charge the pack at or near 22 amps for it to work right. If you turn the little dial and raise the current to 26 amps, the voltage rises just a bit in order to push that extra current (Ohm's law), and it's enough to cause the charger to cut off before the batteries are fully charged. Conversely, if you lower the current to say 18 amps, it does exactly the opposite and you risk over charging the batteries. But if you get it dialed in and follow the routine with military precision, it works great. <br /><br />Am I happy about that? No. It sucks, but it's the charger I have.<br /><br />Thanks for catching my typo. You'd think I'd get better at proof reading over time. But like I said, it's a crude guess. I might have been charging at 18 amps, or 22, I simply don't know. <br /><br />I've heard of Lee Hart's Batt-Bridge, and I understand in principal how it works, but I've never seen one and I don't know how sensitive it is. I would have loved to have had some way of capturing a voltage reading on each cell that last time I depressed the throttle pedal. I think that would have been very interesting data. <br /><br />Any way, thanks for the comment. I hope you found all this useful in some way. <br /><br />TimTim Catellierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02801279544184321528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369941762441967690.post-81436851074660617802012-07-20T19:38:04.596-07:002012-07-20T19:38:04.596-07:00Wow, I never would have thought that the e-xpert p...Wow, I never would have thought that the e-xpert pro nearly catch fire like that! That was close. I do like the fact that the CycleAnalyst uses the battery pack it self for power so it wouldn't have had the issue that the e-xpert pro had.<br /><br />Does your charger cut off rather quickly at the end? I ask because 20 Amps for 5 hours is only 100 Amp-hours. Maybe it was 6 hours of charging. As you said, however, it is a rather crude measurement of capacity.<br /><br />Your comment about the "bottom" coming "up" as the batteries age is a definite concern of mine with my pack. I top balanced my pack which makes it easier to see if there is any "drift" between the cells when they are fully charged. That leaves the ragged bottom which is undoubtedly creeping "up" over time.<br /><br />I was curious if a Lee Hart type Batt-Bridge like I have in my Gizmo would have told you about a low cell so I put in the voltages you recorded and find that the difference in voltage between the two halves of your pack was 0.045V. It would have been nice to know if it would have pointed out your low cell while under power, or what power was left any way.Gizmohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03556169075856492902noreply@blogger.com