Power Gauge

[EVan]

Funny how my charge light comes on at exactly 137 volts and yours at 120 - 125 volts.

It varies slightly with temperature. Mine comes on at about 137 as well though.
It's not that conservative and I wouldn't want to push it any lower - I very rarely go below 150V to be honest.

[Flying John]

Crikey - I see 150 and below everyday.Today for example I did 15 miles in the morning and then managed to get about an hour opportunity charge, then another 30 miles this afternnon, most of the last 15 miles was at 145 or less and about 5miles from home was at 130 - 135, with 35% on energy gauge, but no tripping of the yellow dot or the recharge light. its a bit sluggish tho on those last few miles.

John

[ChrisB]

I wonder if its your slightly different software John ?

Do you remember when we viewed yours the chap said it had recently been in for some work and a software update which he reconed made the regen more agressive

ChrisB

[EVan]

Crikey - I see 150 and below everyday.Today for example I did 15 miles in the morning and then managed to get about an hour opportunity charge, then another 30 miles this afternnon, most of the last 15 miles was at 145 or less and about 5miles from home was at 130 - 135, with 35% on energy gauge, but no tripping of the yellow dot or the recharge light. its a bit sluggish tho on those last few miles.

John

What are you measuring it with?

It is possible to change the cutoff and the regen in the software, so it's not unbelievable, but 130 is way lower than I'd be happy with!

[Flying John]

I have a 0 - 200 volt DC digital voltmeter permanently wired into the top of the controller, under the main connector plate. It maybe about a volt lower reading than true, due to the two series fuses I wired in the line, but is accurate enough for me.

I must say - I think I ought to be thinking of a way to monitor each "coffin" incase I have a cell going low in one pack. But can't accomodate loads of seperate voltmeters on the dash. I think perhaps I should work out some switching and bring fused pairs out of each pack, forward to the dash so they can all be monitored in real time as i am driving. Easy to say, time consuming to do, but i think the only way to be sure of the state of the cells.

John

[EVan]

Series fuses will make no difference as there's no significant current flowing. However, most panel meters are very susceptible to noise, and there's a lot of noise on the pack terminals. A good multimeter might verify whether it's reading correctly or not.

[Flying John]

I did check it a couple of times with my fluke and included a couple of .01uF decoupling C's incase of noise on the lines and it read about 1 volt lower than the fluke. It may be just the poor calibration/quality of the Taiwanese panel meter, but it serves as a good indication.

I think a 2 pole wafer break before make switch and I can then switch round each of the battery boxes to get an idea if any one of them has a lower than expected voltage under load.

I fully expect to have to replace one or more cells - sometime in the future, its just getting it early enough that it doesnt cause others to fail.

John