I doubt one will find a new banana battery pack it will need to be a bespoke made one, an upgrade to lithium will give more capacity and range.
I bought an iZIP Trekking Enlightened
- Thread starter Powerclocks
- Start date
Hi, I would like some advice, I am going to repack the banana Battery, The battery pack as you said is not serviceable, I can spot weld the metal strips and have all the equipment to do the job, I took a look on eBay for batteries and Wish but I find the claims of storage capacity to be in some cases ludicrous, has anyone bought from these sources and can state a battery or a seller that sells batteries good for purpose, I have opened the pack and I presently have 20 x NiMh x D Cells @ 1.2v, Is there any way you can guide me to product/seller? I dont mind doing the work but to go to all this trouble and have a less than adequate battery would be crap, I will post this question in the ebike info section also for the widest sample.
GJP
A charger is only £10, so cost is not really an issue. yes, you will need a new one.
Hi again , it is now March 17 2021, I finished the bike a few weeks ago and had to do it within the Legal Constraints of Queensland Australia, this means I could not put the throttle control on as I wanted in earlier posts. We are also restricted to 250w motors so the stock motor was OK. I ended up really just replacing the batteries in the battery pack, I bought 20 x 1.2v "D" Cells from Amazon for about $240.00aud and I took advice from a Vietnamese e-bike enthusiast and soldered the batteries to the tabs, I took this course after failing with quite a few attempts to spot weld, it was getting expensive trying out different spot welders and techniques and the Solder Option became the better idea.
The izip Trekking has a banana shaped battery holder with limited space in both length and diameter, I found that the positive tip length became critical when you have 10 of them inline and it made it difficult to load the batteries and replace the wiring, I got creative and if you do it you will do the same, cutting was not required just placement of wiring, you will not be able to use shrink wrap on the batteries, dont try it, unless you are prepared to make a jig up, after packing, close it and wrap it with Packing Tape to help stop movement of the batteries inside the pack.
I ended up saving about $800.00aud and increased my range, I am not really happy with the low power output of the motor but it is legal in Qld Australia and this is not important till you are in a witness box being sued for personal injury.
Now, I am going to get lots of people saying it is not good to solder batteries and that is true, "But" you can do it safely, p.s. spot welding can perforate battery shells and tears cases open when being removed. here is how I did it, don't use an electric soldering iron unless you have a big one, real big, If you used a shop electric iron the tip wont hold enough heat whilst soldering to get quick penetration, practice before you do it, I am very experienced with solder and I had no problem.
I recommend you get an old fashioned square Copper iron with a relatively small tip, heat it up with a propane torch, put flux on the center of the battery terminal, dip the hot iron into liquid flux, I used Bakers, then quickly apply lead to the tip, quickly rub the point of contact on the battery and tin the surface, don't leave a glob of solder, just a wipe over, thin is best, there will be only a little heat transfer, hence no damage, now I made a wood box to line the batteries up in order and I connected the already tinned straps to the batteries using heat transfer and then cleaned them off with a spray of mentholated spirits, it cleans, it is hygroscopic and evaporates quick, use a bristle brush.
I went against all advice and used NiMh batteries, they were cheap and my experience is that they are good for about 7 - 10 years, I have yet to meet someone who has kept just one bike for that long. Should they fail you can test individual cells to find the culprit and replace it easily with soldering being very simple to reverse. try that with spot welding?
So I hope you get some good ideas for your next bike battery repack.
Do what you like but this was my solution to the problem at hand.
Graeme power
The izip Trekking has a banana shaped battery holder with limited space in both length and diameter, I found that the positive tip length became critical when you have 10 of them inline and it made it difficult to load the batteries and replace the wiring, I got creative and if you do it you will do the same, cutting was not required just placement of wiring, you will not be able to use shrink wrap on the batteries, dont try it, unless you are prepared to make a jig up, after packing, close it and wrap it with Packing Tape to help stop movement of the batteries inside the pack.
I ended up saving about $800.00aud and increased my range, I am not really happy with the low power output of the motor but it is legal in Qld Australia and this is not important till you are in a witness box being sued for personal injury.
Now, I am going to get lots of people saying it is not good to solder batteries and that is true, "But" you can do it safely, p.s. spot welding can perforate battery shells and tears cases open when being removed. here is how I did it, don't use an electric soldering iron unless you have a big one, real big, If you used a shop electric iron the tip wont hold enough heat whilst soldering to get quick penetration, practice before you do it, I am very experienced with solder and I had no problem.
I recommend you get an old fashioned square Copper iron with a relatively small tip, heat it up with a propane torch, put flux on the center of the battery terminal, dip the hot iron into liquid flux, I used Bakers, then quickly apply lead to the tip, quickly rub the point of contact on the battery and tin the surface, don't leave a glob of solder, just a wipe over, thin is best, there will be only a little heat transfer, hence no damage, now I made a wood box to line the batteries up in order and I connected the already tinned straps to the batteries using heat transfer and then cleaned them off with a spray of mentholated spirits, it cleans, it is hygroscopic and evaporates quick, use a bristle brush.
I went against all advice and used NiMh batteries, they were cheap and my experience is that they are good for about 7 - 10 years, I have yet to meet someone who has kept just one bike for that long. Should they fail you can test individual cells to find the culprit and replace it easily with soldering being very simple to reverse. try that with spot welding?
So I hope you get some good ideas for your next bike battery repack.
Do what you like but this was my solution to the problem at hand.
Graeme power
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