# [EVDL] Solectria battery question



## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> Evdave wrote:
> 
> > I have an E10.... 144 volt system, (12vdcx3banks)
> >
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

I wouldn't mind changing the three strings to one big one, but I thought
the advantage to having 3 strings of smaller batteries was to increase
the available amps??? Is that not true? Currently, the batteries are
"DISCOVER" im at work and I don't have the model number, but when I
looked them up, I believe they were wheelchair batteries... Ill have to
look at the numbers... I tried to figure out how many Ahs I had
available and it didn't seem like much.



Db



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Roger Stockton
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 4:21 PM
To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List
Subject: Re: [EVDL] Solectria battery question



> Evdave wrote:
> 
> > I have an E10.... 144 volt system, (12vdcx3banks)
> >
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> Evdave wrote:
> 
> > I wouldn't mind changing the three strings to one big one,
> > but I thought the advantage to having 3 strings of smaller
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Solectria put a fair bit of research - and a lot of cut and try - into 
selecting the batteries for their EVs. In the end they settled on East Penn 
gel batteries (design licensed from Sonnenschein). Along the way they had a 
brief flirtation with Hawker Genesis batteries, which didn't work out so 
well.

If your vehicle is fitted with Hawkers, it might be worth your while to 
switch to East Penns. The catch is that it's more than a fitment issue. 
You'll need to reprogram the charger or it'll destroy the new battery pack 
in a matter of weeks. I don't know whether Azure can still reprogram the 
older chargers - probably not. 

Are you up for reprogramming the charger yourself? If you have a Brusa-
built NLG4 type charger (BC-3300, I think Solectia called them), it should 
be fairly easy with Brusa's old DOS software and a laptop you can boot from 
a DOS floppy. If it's an older BC-1000, you're probably stuck. In that 
case you'll most likely have to buy a new charger and have it set up for 
whatever batteries you choose.

If you currently have East Penn batteries (Deka Dominator gel) I'd recommend 
replacing with the same type. They're pretty long-lived and reliable in 
this application.

You might want to join the Solectria group on Yahoo :

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/solectria_ev/

David Roden
EVDL Administrator
http://www.evdl.org/


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

My system has 2 controllers... I think the max draw is 200 amp.... But
im guessing that is to each motor? So then wouldn't that be a total of
400 amps from the batteries?

Db



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Roger Stockton
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 5:42 PM
To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List
Subject: Re: [EVDL] Solectria battery question




> Evdave wrote:
> 
> > I wouldn't mind changing the three strings to one big one,
> > but I thought the advantage to having 3 strings of smaller
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

Yes, I have the nlg4 and I have the programing that I have been able to
hook up to my laptop and run it in a dosshell.... Im comfortable
programing it, but I don't know the proper settings.... So you are
recommending the east penns as a first choice? The current battery is a
DISCOVER battery, but I don't know what was in it previous to them....



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of David Roden (Akron OH USA)
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 5:44 PM
To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List
Subject: Re: [EVDL] Solectria battery question


Solectria put a fair bit of research - and a lot of cut and try - into 
selecting the batteries for their EVs. In the end they settled on East
Penn 
gel batteries (design licensed from Sonnenschein). Along the way they
had a 
brief flirtation with Hawker Genesis batteries, which didn't work out so

well.

If your vehicle is fitted with Hawkers, it might be worth your while to 
switch to East Penns. The catch is that it's more than a fitment issue.

You'll need to reprogram the charger or it'll destroy the new battery
pack 
in a matter of weeks. I don't know whether Azure can still reprogram
the 
older chargers - probably not. 

Are you up for reprogramming the charger yourself? If you have a Brusa-
built NLG4 type charger (BC-3300, I think Solectia called them), it
should 
be fairly easy with Brusa's old DOS software and a laptop you can boot
from 
a DOS floppy. If it's an older BC-1000, you're probably stuck. In that

case you'll most likely have to buy a new charger and have it set up for

whatever batteries you choose.

If you currently have East Penn batteries (Deka Dominator gel) I'd
recommend 
replacing with the same type. They're pretty long-lived and reliable in

this application.

You might want to join the Solectria group on Yahoo :

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/solectria_ev/

David Roden
EVDL Administrator
http://www.evdl.org/


_______________________________________________
For subscription options, see http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/ev


_______________________________________________
For subscription options, see
http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/ev


----------



## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

EVdave

> My system has 2 controllers... I think the max draw is
> 200 amp.... But im guessing that is to each motor?
> So then wouldn't that be a total of 400 amps from the
> batteries?

Right.

I think this may be why Solectria went to Hawkers (AGMs) for the vehicle
instead of the DEKA gels that (as has been pointed out) worked so sell
for them in the (single controller) Forces.

Unless you went to a fairly large model of DEKA gel, I don't think a
single string of them would give you good life with 400A peak draws. I
wouldn't even bother unless you can fit at least an 8G31 (~98Ah) gel
string. Better still would be a string of their 6V or 8V (golf car)
gels, but odds are those will be too tall for your existing boxes.

Cheers,

Roger.

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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> On 27 Sep 2007 at 14:46, EVdave wrote:
> 
> > So you are
> > recommending the east penns as a first choice?
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

So how would I determine the correct charging parameters???

db

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of David Roden
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:40 PM
To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List
Subject: Re: [EVDL] Solectria battery question




> On 27 Sep 2007 at 14:46, EVdave wrote:
> 
> > So you are
> > recommending the east penns as a first choice?
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> On 28 Sep 2007 at 10:18, EVdave wrote:
> 
> > So how would I determine the correct charging parameters???
> 
> ...


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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

> David Roden wrote:
> 
> > I don't know whether it's completely typical - Solectria may
> > have used different algorithms at different times - but
> ...


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