Ecolux Hurricane 13

[Andy30uk]

Hello
Ive been given a Ecolux Hurricane bike recently as my aunt gave it me after its been in the garage for a while. It came as the bike and a set of keys with a heavy battery box, but sadly no charger. I dismantled the battery box to figure out the voltages and amps etc and i managed to charge the batterys as a one off on a low ampage car battery charger.

After hooking it back up ive noticed a problem and being new to these i don't know much of what to do about it.

The batterys are full, the gauge works showing charge etc, to test it out i tried with the bike in the kitchen putting the revs on and the motor made a squeeling noise and had no power to push the bike along the floor even when i wasnt sat on it. I got the bike lifted and tried again and the wheel turned slowly on full revs, however if i put the revs on low it would rotate faster upto a certain point where the squeel began more and more loudly and would slow the wheel down. I tried again on the floor with low revs and the bike felt like there wasnt any grunt in its motor to push it anywhere.

Its 36v and has 3 12volt 12amp batterys.

Wheels seem nice and straight and all in good order, chains still fresh with a clean greasy oil on. everything looks fairly new.

Just not sure what it could be, from my aunt accounts, its not realy been used at all

Any info advice? all i can find on google is a London Met police man sat on one in a photo!

 

[electric.mike]

Are you trying to use the original SLA battery's,when you say the charge shows full on the bike does it still show full when you twist the throttle.
If the bike has been stored for long and the battery's not charged they will most likley be no good,replacements should be available and a charger probably from ebay so long as you can match the plug.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Do you know if it's a brushed motor (2 wires) or a brushless (3 or more wires?

 

[Andy30uk]

It has the original BH batterys i believe and there labels up as EB Electric bike batterys

On turning the throttle, the meter does drop down showing just above Empty on the gayge but as of today the wheel did spin from the motor easily but didnt have any torque from standing still as before.

As for what the motor is, i have no idea, it appears to have a cable coming from the centre of the axil on the rear wheel, other than that, ive been taking it a bit slow as i dont want to jump in and damage anything realy.

I have found a matching charger, its 1.6amp 36volt charger, i was thinking though, for 36amps wprth of batterys, that would like almost a full 24 hours to fully recharge from flat right? the plug on the batterry box is a standard phono type.

 

[electric.mike]

Sounds like your batterys have had it,i doubt you will have 36 amps they are more likley to be 7,10,12,or 15 AH most chargers for that type where under 2AH.

 

[D8ve]

The batteries are connected in serial for 36 volts giving 12ah max.
With SLA ( sealed lead acid) batteries discharge below 50percent is not a good idea as it shortens the lifespan. So effectively 6 ah.
A charge with your charger would take about 4 hours.

The recommendation is lithium upgrade.
Either ready made pack or radio control batteries.
It's going to cost a bit but 8+ah lithium will out perform SLA and weigh a lot less.

D8ve

 

[Andy30uk]

Ok 12ah per battery i assumed it added up like the volts basically, my bad! So the charger ive seen is properbly decent enough.

I saw somewhere about lithium batterys, the ones likes in laptops that look like a giant oversized AA battery, i used to have some but cant remember what they were called but were about 3 - 3.2volt each? How does one of these setups work? If im to connect a whole bunch of the lithium cells up, and remount them into the battery box how much are we talking in quantitys?

 

[Alan Quay]

Ok 12ah per battery i assumed it added up like the volts basically, my bad! So the charger ive seen is properbly decent enough.

I saw somewhere about lithium batterys, the ones likes in laptops that look like a giant oversized AA battery, i used to have some but cant remember what they were called but were about 3 - 3.2volt each? How does one of these setups work? If im to connect a whole bunch of the lithium cells up, and remount them into the battery box how much are we talking in quantitys?

The cells you are thinking of are 18650's. They are a nominal 3.7v (4.2 when full). the cheaper ones are normally about 2ah each, and rated at 1c.

So, for a 36v setup, you need 10 in series to get you to 37v, then 4 of these in parallel to get you to 8ah. So, 40 cells. at this point you have a battery that will deliver about 8 amps. (not very much).

I believe that you can get cells (Panasonic) that are closer to 3ah, and will deliver 2C. Its easy to get counterfeit ones on Ebay, and they wont perform like that.

If you go for genuine panasonic cells, then 30 of them will get you a 9ah battery that will deliver 18amps. I would have thought that would be an improvement on the original.

You'll need a BMS of some kind to balance charge the cells, and some means of ensuring you don't drag the pack down below 32v. Oh, and you'll have to find a way to spot weld or solder them all together.

All in all, and assuming your existing batteries are dead (not sure they are yet, you need to stick a meter on them), you might be better off buying a ready made Li-ion battery from someone like BMS battery, or putting new SLA's in there for about £80.

 

[Andy30uk]

I think it would cost more than my arm will stretch for the lithium route, considering i havent even ridden the bike anywhere yet.

I was just looking through the likes of ebay and amazon for some batterys and come across a 12v 12ah battery for a mobility scooter, it looks to be similar sized and such, do you think this will get it going for occasional use for maybe a year? obviousley 3 batterys of these to replace the original 3....http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mobility-Scooter-Battery-AGM-12v-12Ah/dp/B002USO09W/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=13CZM8SFHG7JW9ZB4V9D

 

[Alan Quay]

Yup, those''ll probably do it. You want deep cycle ones.

I will look up the part number of the ones I used a while back, give me an hour or so.

Edit: VBat were good. 12/14 ah from here should do you.....
http://www.vbat.co.uk/12V-Deep-Cycle-AGM-12-15Ah.asp

 

[halfer]

OP, if you can upload pics of your battery and motor, that is often helpful to give an idea of what is being referred to.

 

[Alan Quay]

The specific batteries I used were Denka 12140EV's. They were very good.

 

[bill alexander]

Hi Alan.Looking through the threads and saw this.Batteries I am looking at,if they will fit in case,are Denka 1214OC.Are they different to 1214EV.

 

[Danidl]

Hi SLA batteries ( the old fashioned lead acid battery ) will fail to operate after about 6 months of inaction. They go through a process of sulphation and in general cannot be resuscitated. You could attempt feeding them special tablets available from Halfords, but I doubt whether you will be successful. I attempted this last year on what were 1 year old batteries left in an initial ly charged state for 8 months on a mobility scooter with basically no success . I got the battery up to accept some charge but the chair would only travel a few yards.
In order to test that the bike works, why not borrow 3 car batteries, wire them in series and hook up to the bike, with the drive wheel off the ground it should spin. I f you still get a screeching noise from the motor there is something serious ly wrong. And it might be a case of putting good money after bad. .

I f it sounds OK, Then buy the leisure line deep discharge batteries in Halfords or similar shop of the same profile . Motor bike or motor start batteries are not suitable and will give unsatisfactory life and performance you need to get leisure or deep discharge batteries . Even if the connector s are different on the bike than on the new batteries, you will be able to make the connection. Keep the fittings and packaging from the defunct batteries. ensure that you have a fuse 20A/ 25 A in the path from the battery pack . Because of their weight, lead acid batteries are best purchased locally. Again the new batteries will need to be charged up every 2 weeks whether the bike is used or not.
1
Li ion battery packs need electronics to balance charge levels and attempting to construct these from scratch , with your current knowledge base that would not be prudent. Of course they are much better in weight, longevity terms but could cost nearly the same on a cost lifetime basis. So the initial investment is much higher.

 

[Danidl]

Oops I just realised that this post was 2 years old