Offering up the cells to the Hindu god of electric conversions (Ideas for the name gratefully accepted
) I though 'Riva' or 'Eva'
Seems to fit as planned 5 rows of 10 cells, like the proverbial glove in the back of the Insight in the spare wheel well.
Have to lose the spare wheel or carry it elsewhere, but now carry a can of the get you home rubber gloop, never mind, also lose the weight of the spare which is a few kg so not all bad
Interesting with original NIMH battery fitted, suspension with Matiz rear springs is fine with the extra 70kgs of li-fepo4 in the back. Measured from floor through centre of rear wheel to joint at top of wheel cover cowling 655mm. Still about 25kg to take out later when old battery is removed.
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/WheelWell.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/CellsInSitu.jpg
www.solarvan.co.uk/bms/UnderBatComp.jpg
To level up the bottom of the wheel well and provide a flat base for the cells I have cut a piece of lightweight plastic foamalux 3mm sheet to size and I will use expanding builders foam underneath to fill the voids and provide support to the sheet on top. I though about pouring plastic resin in the back so it could find it's own level with gravity, but that's a bit too permanent at least the foam can be removed reasonably easily and it's a lot lighter!
There is enough clearance for the cells underneath the IMU compartment and the whole lot will be covered with a sheet of 3mm clear lexan anyway to allow viewing and insulate the top teminals. They will be strapped into 5 or 10 cells blocks and then held down with appropriate bolts.
I thought long and hard about trying to put the new cells into the battery compartment in place of the nimh pack, but there is just not enough room. Plus you then have to find a way of mounting the various components that attach to the oem pack. As I have a spare empty battery case I will simply use that in the original position to allow mounting of all the original components and extend the relevant BMC cables and power cables to reach the new pack.
I also think the weight distribution is a bit better with the new layout as that will help to counteract the weight of a single driver and all the cells on the right of the car
I've been looking at the voltage specs and am hoping I will be able to get away with simply tying the bcm subpack monitor leads onto the appropriate point in the new pack, basically every 5 cells. The total unloaded pack voltage is about 167v which also looks good. Be interesting to see the voltage sag under the 100A max drain later.
The other good thing about the choosen layout is I can assemble, test and install the pack before I even open the battery compartment which should mean I can be off the road for the minimum amount of time later.
Peter