# 150v verses 300v



## evnz (Jul 24, 2010)

I was looking into my upgrade please give your option on what I should do 2 packs of 150 v or one pack of 300 v 
my charger only goes to 170 so I will need to charge them as 2 packs which is easy to set up if at 300 v 
If I go 300v I will get higher rpm's (and lower amp?) but at 100 km/h the extra rpm's is not used so why go higher?

thanks 
Owen

warp11,soliton 1,47x90ah winston WB-LYP90AHA


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## TEV (Nov 25, 2011)

evnz said:


> I was looking into my upgrade please give your option on what I should do 2 packs of 150 v or one pack of 300 v
> my charger only goes to 170 so I will need to charge them as 2 packs which is easy to set up if at 300 v
> If I go 300v I will get higher rpm's (and lower amp?) but at 100 km/h the extra rpm's is not used so why go higher?
> 
> ...


You can get some info from this thread :

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89230


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## TEV (Nov 25, 2011)

evnz said:


> my charger only goes to 170 so I will need to charge them as 2 packs which is easy to set up if at 300 v


I don't think you will want to do that with lithium batteries.


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## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

evnz said:


> I was looking into my upgrade please give your option on what I should do 2 packs of 150 v or one pack of 300 v
> my charger only goes to 170 so I will need to charge them as 2 packs which is easy to set up if at 300 v
> If I go 300v I will get higher rpm's (and lower amp?) but at 100 km/h the extra rpm's is not used so why go higher?
> 
> ...


If you could charge a 300 volt pack it would be best to just have the higher voltage pack and use your soliton to turn down the voltage to a level your motor can handle. I have a limit of 192 volt nominal for mine but my motor can not handle that kind of voltage so I would need to turn down my voltage to a safe level for the motor. 

You could just buddy pair the cells and increase the total AH of the pack but keep the voltage the same. I would not have two packs of the same voltage paired up. Pair the cells first. It would allow for higher currents and more distance. Voltage remains the same.


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## kennybobby (Aug 10, 2012)

i doubt the motor or brushes would like the higher voltage, but seems that it would depend whether you are looking for more speed (series) or more range (parallel).


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## dougingraham (Jul 26, 2011)

evnz said:


> I was looking into my upgrade please give your option on what I should do 2 packs of 150 v or one pack of 300 v
> my charger only goes to 170 so I will need to charge them as 2 packs which is easy to set up if at 300 v
> If I go 300v I will get higher rpm's (and lower amp?) but at 100 km/h the extra rpm's is not used so why go higher?
> 
> ...


I would go with the 300V and set the Soliton to limit the motor voltage to 172 or whatever voltage you are comfortable with. This is the easiest solution. As you point out you will want to change out your charger for one that can do the 300 volts. There might be other things that need changing like a DC-DC converter.

The higher voltage will give you a wider RPM band. This is used when you accelerate so you can delay shifting longer. Your nominal voltage is currently 150 but this would sag probably 25% under a heavy load giving 112 volts. The high voltage pack and the Soliton will keep the voltage the motor sees at the limit you set. Since this results in lower battery currents this will lower the battery sag and result in increased range. At your cruising speed with twice the pack voltage the battery current will be half of what you are seeing now which will result in less sag which means the current will be less than half. Depending on how you have the Soliton limits set now you may see a huge increase in performance.

I would not charge the pack in halves. At best this in inconvenient and at worst you end up with half packs with dissimilar states of charge causing you to lose half your pack on an accidental deep discharge. Get a charger capable of charging the larger pack.

If you choose to do a parallel arrangement I would suggest you test every cell for capacity and pair the cells so that the capacity of your paired cells is as close to the same as you can match them. Parallel the cells in pairs and then connect those into series. Long term this will give you a good reliable pack. You will see some benefits if you parallel the cells but probably not as much as if you double the pack voltage. Either way will obviously work.


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## rwaudio (May 22, 2008)

It may not be as drastic with a normal Warp 11, however my experience going from 150v to 300v on an 11HV was incredible. It was like a whole new car, I would hit the 5500rpm redline before I noticed power start to drop off. 0-60mph in a 3000lb car was 4.8 seconds.

Why not sell/trade and get a proper charger for 300v?


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## racunniff (Jan 14, 2009)

dougingraham said:


> There might be other things that need changing like a DC-DC converter.


There might be several other things which need changing. Fuses, contactors, connectors, relays, heaters, etc. Check everything. And note that 300V-rated devices seem to be significantly more expensive than 150V-rated devices. That said, I'm very happy with higher voltage levels in my conversions.

Fortunately, most wire is rated to 600V.


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

evnz said:


> I was looking into my upgrade please give your option on what I should do 2 packs of 150 v or one pack of 300 v ...


You didn't say *why* you want to upgrade your battery pack... To get more performance (it doesn't sound like it) or to get more range? If you just want more range then it is far smarter to double up on all the cells and keep the pack voltage the same. You don't need to change your charger or mess with any settings or change your BMS (if you have one) and you'll probably have a more reliable battery pack anyway.


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## evnz (Jul 24, 2010)

thank you I had not thought about the dc-dc as for the relays they are able to handle that voltage 
and I am curious why do you say to pair them up instead of two packs 
+150 - 
+ 150 -
and a BIG THANKS for the information I would still be thinking about an ev not driving one !
edit : the charger is ether single or three phase


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## TEV (Nov 25, 2011)

evnz said:


> I was looking into my upgrade please give your option on what I should do 2 packs of 150 v or one pack of 300 v
> my charger only goes to 170 so I will need to charge them as 2 packs which is easy to set up if at 300 v
> If I go 300v I will get higher rpm's (and lower amp?) but at 100 km/h the extra rpm's is not used so why go higher?
> 
> ...


Do you have the 90AH cells ? , if not, just buy bigger cells. Otherwise the best way to do it is how Tesseract recommended . If you didn't find yet why is better like that , just have faith  (it's a big secret , we can't write about it  )


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## evnz (Jul 24, 2010)

TEV said:


> Do you have the 90AH cells ? , if not, just buy bigger cells. Otherwise the best way to do it is how Tesseract recommended . If you didn't find yet why is better like that , just have faith  (it's a big secret , we can't write about it  )


Yes I do have the 90 ah batteries and I will get the rest in 12 to 18 months 

"If you didn't find yet why is better like that" 
what do you mean about the battery setup ?


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## TEV (Nov 25, 2011)

evnz said:


> Yes I do have the 90 ah batteries and I will get the rest in 12 to 18 months
> 
> "If you didn't find yet why is better like that"
> what do you mean about the battery setup ?


yes , the battery pack , if you must use 2 sets of cells , you have to parallel first the individual cells and the 180AH packs will be connected in series


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