LifeBATT and the Berlingo

[ChopperMan]

What would an all up weight likely to be of battery,BMS and charger, also would the charger still be able to use a standard 13A or 16A mains connector and what would the recharge time roughly be for pack.

Also I'm totally confused about the fact you say 162v pack would be 54 cells yet a 80ah pack needs 432 cells it dosnt seem to make sence ? surely its still 54 cells @ 80ah ?? or am I getting something wrong here


ChrisB

Hi Chris,

54 cells in series gives you the right voltage X 8 cells in parallel to give you the 80Ah capacity. 54 X 8 = 432 cells in all.

Battery pack, BMS and charger weight approx 215kgs

Charge time from flat to full on a 13 amp socket is approx 4 hours and 20 minutes.

I spoke to the company that make the charge stations that are being installed in the UK last week. Unfortunately they have no plans at present to use Phase 3. Only 240V 13amp.

That's a real shame, you won't be able to get a 20 minute fast charge whilst at Tesco's

Cheers,

Ian

[ChrisB]

Ah so unlike thundersky Li-ions where the actual cells are rated @ the Ah required i.e 100Ah or 200ah, to get the Ah required from LifeBatts they just parrallel up lower ah cells until you have the correct amount.
Are there any issues doing it this way of cells discharging into themselves ?? I know normally if you parrallel up batteries they do have a tendancy to slowly discharge into themselves as they will always try and charge the lowest cell in the string ?? so if you get a cell that dies or isnt matched exaclty (which is likely as its got to be impossible match them precisely) then surely the others will try to keep that cell up and eventually discharge themselves into it ??

Not bothered about the 3 phase charger to be honest, 4hrs is fine by me

ChrisB

[ChopperMan]

We have not seen this problem, the VMS keeps everything under control.

[ChrisB]

mmmm interesting, I have to admit to only ever connecting stuff directly in parrallel without any of these modern VMS/BMS things so I am really out of my comfort zone with this modern stuff

I'll measure up my crates so we can see if its a viable option, I recon if you could offer a retro fit for the blingo at a reasonable price then you'd sell a fair few cos I know for sure theres a lot of Blingos and 106's with duff battery packs !!!!

I'd also need to get some sort of Wh rating for you from memory so we can get an idea of range etc as it would be nice to bring the range up from its standard 60-65miles

It just needs a guinea pig to try them first

ChrisB

[ChopperMan]

If this would be a one off, your pack would be built from our 'Soft Pack' development modules. These are cube shaped packs approx 18cm3 rated at 24V 20Ah, these would then be connect up to give as close as possible to your required pack size. 7 soft packs at 168V and four in parallel for 80Ah.

We are developing a 12V 120Ah soft pack for OEM testing, so that may be an option in the new year, if you want to really increase your range.

If we were able to get 3 or 4 customers to order replacement Berlingo packs at the same time, I could then afford to develop a specific pack for the vehicle.

I have had a look at your Berlingo battery thread. Those look an absolute mere to fit. We would try and use the most easily accesable boxes so long as it didn't adversely effect the balance of the vehicle.

Ian

[ChrisB]

Ah I see, the problem would be is persuadeing enough Blingo owners to have a poke at something which is relativley un-tested and un-tried in a Blingo, as I said we need a guinea pig
I recon you could well sell them like hot cakes if there was a retro fit sorted out, there are many vans possibly in the hundreds that are sat about with dead batteries awaiting for Saft to decrease the price of the nicads , which they havent todate and I doubt they ever will TBH.

There are two crates on the blingo which are a doddle to get out and they are the very front one and the very rear one, both of which can be dropped out generally in under 15mins

The other two, center pack and upper front pack are a pain to be honest and do require a fair amount of work to get out.

Weight wise its a doddle, blingo batts on their own weigh in at 345KG so @ 215kg for everything its a walk in the park I recon. Might have to split them up a tadge over say three areas. But then your packs arent going to need half the stuff the nicads need , i.e water cooling, or water top up piping etc which all adds to the grief of the nicads.

It could have been nice to fit them all in the center pack as its .....well in the center, but I think it might be overweight for that crate depends if the VMS/BMS thing and charger can go else where or has to live close by the batteries ??

Of course theres still the issue of the controller and how we fool that into not trying to shut down the van due to a number of things from coolent pumps not now needing to be running and odd battery temps, not to mention the fact the charge now wouldnt be going through the contoller !

mmmmmmmmm

ChrisB

[timpootle]

Chris- did you get your spare crates to Ian? Or measurements, at least?

I for one would like to see just how far a Berlingo would go if ALL FOUR crates were full of lithium. Or for those with less deep pockets, which crate we could dispense with to retain the original range/capacity. Maybe get the spare wheel stowage and towbar mounts back?

My thinking was to start by filling the hardest to reach crate, and add more cells as you can afford them. But definitely stay inside the original crate dimensions, thereby making the change easy for anyone who needs to, when their NiCads go pop. Plug and play (well, it's a hope, isn't it?)

Currently I am loathe to touch my batteries as it all Just Works.
But a 300 mile Berlingo doesn't seem all that hard to achieve.

Hope this resurrects the thread with more ideas from more people.

[arsharpe]

I am interested in a 300 mile Berlingo .
Seriously, it would be good to see where this goes.

[ChrisB]

Chris- did you get your spare crates to Ian? Or measurements, at least?

I for one would like to see just how far a Berlingo would go if ALL FOUR crates were full of lithium. Or for those with less deep pockets, which crate we could dispense with to retain the original range/capacity. Maybe get the spare wheel stowage and towbar mounts back?

My thinking was to start by filling the hardest to reach crate, and add more cells as you can afford them. But definitely stay inside the original crate dimensions, thereby making the change easy for anyone who needs to, when their NiCads go pop. Plug and play (well, it's a hope, isn't it?)

Currently I am loathe to touch my batteries as it all Just Works.
But a 300 mile Berlingo doesn't seem all that hard to achieve.

Hope this resurrects the thread with more ideas from more people.

Sadly not as per the norm other stuff gets in the way

Main problem being money

I've got a spare set of creates sat here doing nought if Ian does want to play with them, but I havent got the money to stump up currently to adopt such a project

I am with you on fitting them into the same crates and keeping everything within those, makes for a much cleaner unit I recon, also why make more work.

ChrisB

[ChopperMan]

Hi Guy's,

Please post up the battery chest sizes and I will work out how much LiFeBATT we can fit in.

We are currently testing new tooling that means the process of installing LiFeBATT into a vehicle becomes a simple DIY job. More info to follow in early Feb 08.

Cheers,

Ian