Converting cadmium powered battery

[Pmbfr]

I own one of the first electric bikes produced by Raleigh, called the Raleigh Select, but have not used it for years because of the unreliability of the cadmium battery. It is too good to throw away. Does anyone know if it is possible to convert to lithium battery power and if so, who can do this?

 

[mw1]

Sounds like a good project, can you post some pics plz.

Mark

 

[Alan Quay]

From an electrical point of view it's fairly simple. Just get a modern Li-ion battery with the sane nominal value.

The bigger challenge is the physical layout. Pictures will help us to help you.

 

[Gringo]

Is it one of these ?
If yes then you have loads of space for batterys.
If it was mine, I'd stick some Hobbyking lipo's in there but you'd need to be confident using RC lipos and the potential pitfalls of improper handling

 

[derf]

I own one of the first electric bikes produced by Raleigh, called the Raleigh Select, but have not used it for years because of the unreliability of the cadmium battery. It is too good to throw away. Does anyone know if it is possible to convert to lithium battery power and if so, who can do this?

i think it's 24V - if so 7S (in a hobbyking lipo sense), which would make the biggest challenge finding a suitable charger (most I think only do 6S). However, the hobbyking 16A/h 6S lipos are very cheap, I imagine one could (with a little careful Stanley knife and soldiering) create 32A/h worth of 7S which I think would give about 600 to 700 watt/h which would make recharging a very infrequent experience.

 

[Pmbfr]

Thank you derf. Not being technically minded I am a bit lost with your explanation . What kind of enterprise would be able to do this? I am coming over to UK in October, to Leicester. Should I bring the whole bike or just the battery pack and charger?

 

[Pmbfr]

Is it one of these ?
If yes then you have loads of space for batterys.
If it was mine, I'd stick some Hobbyking lipo's in there but you'd need to be confident using RC lipos and the potential pitfalls of improper handling
View attachment 15436

 

[Pmbfr]

Yes, Gringo, this is the model.