Nimh battery and charger

[allotmenteer]

Hello Carl

I'm considering purchasing a 24V Nimh battery and charger from PowaCycle. I see from your website that the 24V 8Ah pack is £99. I couldn't find a price for the charger. Can you give me a price on the charger please?

Also I am intending to use the pack on my 24V 350W hub motor kit which currently has a (failing) li-ion 6.8Ah pack. The controller on my kit is 15 Amp. Do you have any information on the discharge characteristics of your 8Ah Nimh packs? Are they capable of discharge at 15 Amps?

Many thanks

Paul

 

[PowaCycle]

Hi Paul

The NiMH chargers are £40 + £5 P+P.

As the batteries are 8Amp/hour, they would draw 15Amps for roughly half an hour (almost twice the current draw). That would be if you are constantly drawing 15Amps, which obviously is unlikely, so you should base it on being roughly 17% extra to what you get now

 

[allotmenteer]

Hi Paul

The NiMH chargers are £40 + £5 P+P.

As the batteries are 8Amp/hour, they would draw 15Amps for roughly half an hour (almost twice the current draw). That would be if you are constantly drawing 15Amps, which obviously is unlikely, so you should base it on being roughly 17% extra to what you get now

Hello Carl

Thanks for the reply. I have today ordered a battery and charger from you.

Many thanks

Paul

 

[PowaCycle]

Hi Paul
Good to hear
Let us know how you get on

 

[Grandad]

Hello Carl
I have today ordered a battery and charger from you.
Paul

I bought two Salisbury 24V Nimh batteries & a charger from PowaCycle for my modification.

I am very pleased with the batteries.

On the first real test run. With a Salisbury battery switched on, I travelled on cycle track, a return trip of 16 miles.

On the fourth test run. With the same Salisbury battery switched on, on the same track under dry, no wind conditions. Mainly flat but two long inclines. This time I covered 24 miles before the battery expired.

So the batteries improve with use at the beginning of their lives.

One thing that I have noticed with my particular charger is that the battery capacities are much improved if, following the initial charge, after a couple of hours have elapsed the batteries are charged again. The second charge does not take long before the charger cuts out again when the battery is fully charged. The battery then holds this higher charge for days afterwards.

Hope I am not doing anything wrong.

Jeff

 

[PowaCycle]

Hi Jeff
That sounds about right, the batteries will need a bit of 'conditioning' to get them to their best.
Are you also aware that to keep them at their best, the NiMH batteries need to be fully discharged, then fully charged every month or two? If this hasn't been done as yet, you may even get a bit more range out of them

I can't see any reason why you would do any damage to the battery by re-charging it a couple of hours after charging. You would lose some of the lifespan of the battery as it would be part of a charge cycle, but I'd imagine it wouldn't be very much at all.
I would test the voltage of the battery after doing this though, just to make sure the charger isn't overcharging the battery. If the fully charged battery is over 30v, then I should stop doing it.
Otherwise, no problem

 

[funkymoped]

Hi Carl,
Can you supply a NiMH battery 24v 7.5A for a Cyclone bike ?
Regards,
Keith

 

[PowaCycle]

Hi Keith

We can't supply batteries for other makes of bike I'm afraid. Most bikes out there use different mounting/connecting systems, so none are really interchangable.
A few people have removed the cells from our batteries and fitted them into their own original housing, but this isn't for the feint-hearted and obviously we cannot recommend doing that or offer any sort of guarantees.

Regards

 

[rsscott]

Hi Carl,

Keith is referring to the bike in this thread (see photo inside it):

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/450-cyclone-back-wheel-removal.html

I'm pretty sure PowaCycle branded this bike for a while in 2005/early 2006 ??

Obviously going back a bit in time !! I suggested to Keith he put a post here just in case you still had some spares lying around.

cheers
Russ.

 

[rsscott]

Hi again Carl,

found it! PowaCycle - Electric Bikes - Quality UK Supplier

cheers
Russ.

 

[PowaCycle]

Hi Keith/Russ

I've been looking for a charger, but I'm afraid we don't have any stock any longer.

I assume it's the 3 pin type with the screw lockring?

 

[Pageant]

Hi all,

I just ordered the 24v 8ahr NiMh Windsor battery & charger from Powacyle on Monday this week at 11.30am. It was delivered 12 noon the following day, Tuesday. I am impressed with it - far better than the 24v Li-ion pack I had already.

Although I dont have a Powacycle (just a hub kit fitted to my MTB) I found the Windsor a perfect replacement. I had already spoke to 'Allotmenteer' who had purchased one actually on this thread.

At 28.5 cms long it was a perfect fit for mounting in my 30cm rear rack bag. I already had the two power wires coming from the controller on my rear rack and it was only necessary to find suitable connectors to match the batteries terminals. I found two old 12v caravan plugs which had flat pin terminals, one wide and one narrower. The wide ones were exactly the the right size to make a permanent push-in battery connection, each pin having a screw fitting to take the wires from the battery. The + and - connectors are now fitted very securely to the battery although I had to saw off a few millimetres from the pins as they were a little too long. The new connectors are fitted to two power wires which end in bullet connectors to match those of the controller and the battery wires just poke out of a hole in the end of the bag for easy connection. The battery is easily removable in its carry bag with shoulder strap and is securely fastened to the rear rack with its velcro straps.

The only problem is remembering to poke the wires fully into the rack bag when carried on your shoulder - WIRES POKING OUT OF RUCKSACKS AND SHOULDER BAGS TENDS TO ALARM PEOPLE !

Heres a pic of the battery/bag

Richard