That LiitoKala battery, first use (maybe a thread to keep logging range)

[Nealh]

The Liitokala as you have found out is an ok pack for the price and one can't complain too much about the performance. With a decent properly good pack you will get more then 60% capacity without too much fear of sag as the voltage decreases and will see you will get 80% - 90% use before sag may show it's head.
The quality of the cells makes a difference.

 

[vfr400]

Pah! You'd think they'd have a chip in that learns from your riding or something. Even after using one battery cycle it could get to work adjusting it all.

Even the human brain, one of the most powerful computers in the world, can't figure it out on its own.

 

[Manc44]

Just completed a full battery cycle on PAS 2 the whole time and here's the stats:

Total miles: 56.05
Average WH/Mile: 16.03
Voltage when switched on again after cutoff: 44.5V
Battery percentage when switched on again after cutoff: 26%

So as long as steep hills are avoided when it's getting to around 45 or 50 miles completed, you can get another 5 miles out of it. If you hit a steep hill, forget it, it's cutting out when you've done 45 or 50 miles, depending on how steep the hills were in the previous 50 miles.

On this cycle, I went up that steep hill six times over (a gradient of about 12% for 600M each time). That's going to take a lot out of the battery when it's about 2.25 miles at a 12% gradient! If I did a 50 mile ride in one day, it's not likely I'd ever hit a hill like that in the whole journey.

I am really pleased and surprised with this pack and the hills it's got me up, while providing more than 50 miles of range.

Now it's time to charge the thing again and whack it on PAS 3 all the way to see what mileage that gets.

The bottom line seems to be ~56 miles on PAS 2.

EDIT: Because I drained the battery a bit more when running it out this time around (I avoided steep hills when I knew it was almost fully drained) the charging took about half an hour longer than last time. This time it took 11h 50m (@ 2A = 23.7Ah) as opposed to 11h 23m the first time I charged it - when the voltage sag up a steep hill meant it cut out arguably prematurely.

This works out to the battery being 1,136 Wh. I'm not trying to brag/gloat but a lot of those eBikes costing thousands, only have 625Wh packs, which for me personally, would only give me a range of 31 miles. It's just not enough for the odd epic ride I might want to do and thank god I got something bigger.

One thing that helped to work it out was, I know my 24V/8.8Ah (211Wh) pack back in 2014 got me about 12.5 miles. Now I'm 40lbs heavier and on a far heavier bike, I adjusted that to equate to 10 miles for that same 211Wh. I knew I wanted a pack that can do at least 50 miles so I simply multiplied that 211 by 5 to get 1,055Wh or rather, if I was going with a 48V setup, I knew I needed at least a 22Ah pack (1,055Wh/48V). I have ended up with a 23.7Ah pack that does about 56 miles.

 

[Manc44]

Used up most of the battery on the third cycle now, using PAS 3 all the time. My average speed is coming out to around 15 MPH.

Here's the latest chart. I reckon it's got about 5 or 10 miles left in it on this charge...



All rides were about 15 miles but the voltage dropped 5V on the first ride, 2.4V on the second and 1.9V on the third.

Although the figures are up the wall regarding battery percentage and voltage drop after each ride, I'm consistently getting about 50 miles each time from the pack and expect it to cut out this time after about the same again.

Now I have tested PAS 2/5 (got 56 miles) and PAS 3 (will probably do another 3 to 5 miles so give about 50 miles) along with the first charge that got 51 miles, but I'm not going to bother testing it on PAS 4 and PAS 5 because I'm running out of my highest gears already on PAS 3. I'm generally on the 48t outer with 13/14/15t sprockets on the flat on PAS 3 with it going about 15 MPH.

Altogether the Bafang display's odometer tells me 167 miles but I know that's too many miles - the display doesn't let me enter the wheel circumference in millimeters so, it's judging my 26" wheels to be slightly bigger than they really are, I have got 1.75" tyres on and I guess it's assuming they are 2.25" or whatever. I know my real distance on this battery pack, from the Cateye Velo I have got on - about 153 miles up to now.

Maybe I am getting fitter already I don't know but:

1st Cycle (PAS Mixture) = 18.00 Wh/Mile
2nd Cycle (PAS 2/5) = 16.66 Wh/Mile (Total: 56 miles)
3rd Cycle(PAS 3/5) = 16.31 Wh/Mile (Total: 49 miles)

I got another 4.18 miles out of it on PAS 3, here's the final table:

 

[wasturner]

I already told you, you can't use voltage to caculate range because there's a non-linear relationship between them. Instead, get a wattmeter from Ebay. They cost less than a tenner, and they give a good measurement of battery capacity, range and consumption. If you can install one where you can see it on the handlebars, you'll learn a lot about how your bike works.

As VFR400 says the discharge curve of a lithium ion battery is non linear: