Lightweight Batteries

Looked up lithium fire on Youtube, pretty cool.


Pour water on a lithium fire.....really cool!!!

 

Agree on all points except that using the balance capable charger doesnt charge them individually up to the same level.
It charges them all equally until the highest voltage cell peaks, it then DISCHARGES that one through the balance leads to the same levels as the other ones, it keeps doing that until all cells are equal. Lipo and Life chargers have no capability to charge through the balance leads, just discharge. If your battery has the balance port, putting a volt meter leads on two leads next to each other will give you an individual cells voltage. keep moving to the side by one lead will allow you to read each individuals cell voltage and possibly catch an out of balance issue. By that i mean cell one would be leads 1 and 2, cell two is 2 and 3, cell three is 3 and 4 and cell four is 4 and 5. 8 cell and 12 cell batteries just have two or three cells in parallel and they remain balanced between themselves.

Using the same leads you can manually discharge the high cell using a car bulb or some other load.This will allow you to recharge the battery on the bike and they will be closer to balanced.

 

I really don't get how all these function without a ton of smart regulators. The reality is that all forms of Lithium batteries should be supplied with advanced electronics that precisely control charging and discharge.

These things seem to survive by the grace of God. The Full Spectrum one brags about having the only protection circuit on the market, but to me it looks like a very, very basic protection orientated system instead of a "smart" system.

Lithium batteries on their own are stupid simple, and relatively inexpensive, all the money comes in the electronics that manage them.

That being said, I've used a couple of these over the past 2-3 years and all of them have worked relatively well.

 

They seem to work well until folks do things other than start a motorcycle with them.

 

Yeah I have managed to toast four of the lightweight batteries through various acts of stupidity. I will stick with regular batteries for now...

 

I've been really happy with my Alien Motion battery, and they support the racing community / advertise on the BBS. I highly recommend them.

 

Huge +1 for Full Spectrum! Jason stands 100% behind his stuff! Sold/used well over 50 never an issue even in cold NW! Plus like he uses best type, A-123 battery cells!! Plus his new packaging comes with foam to take up space if you can't do like most us, use 3m Velcro & oem strap.

Got 2 ballistics from PU rep both didn't work. One was dead in box told "rare" the other wouldn't even crank my personal R6 over! Went they hoops was finally told it was too small. Funny my 2 year old Full Spectrum G1 (TINY!!) still cranks every time!

Shorai never used but many come thur our shop. Seem few dead. But again I like that FSP uses the top/best A-123 and I can get the guy that actually assembles them/owns company answer phone calls.

FSPFTW!

 

A123 the best? Well, they blasted through a quarter of a billion tax dollars, bankrupt and have been liquidated to Wanxiang Group of China (subject to approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment).

If A123 cells are the best, it may be in the past tense.

 

I believe this has been addressed by BF batteries with their microchip controlled circuitry. At least, you can't overcharge the battery, even if the regulator takes a poop. Pricey yes, but ze' Germans usually make good stuff.

 

Until people start forcing the Chinese to respect intellectual property rights, we're going to see more of this kind of US business failures.

 

a 12v scooter battery works just fine in a daytona 675

 

The reason LifePO4 batteries (what is in the lighweight bats) works is due to the fact that they are much different than Lithium Ion, or Lipo bats that are in your cellphone, laptop etc etc.

Much more rebust and they actually have a tendency to self balance to a certain degree vs the lipos.

their internal resistance is also much lower compared to lipo which really helps in keeping a consistent discharge curve between cells.

They've come down in price sooo much that its almost cheaper to run a LifePO4 battery than a conventional lead acid.

 

ya know.. they say right in the instructions (at least with the Ballistic) to not do that 45 min on a charger max if not mistaken.

.

 

I love my Speedcell. Plus Josh the owner, is pretty damn fast on his RC51!

 

Unfortunately not everyone reads the instructions. In her defense it was a borrowed bike and she had no idea there was anything special about it, figured she was doing the right thing putting on the tender before parking it.

 

They are past-tense for sure, but they're being replaced by Asian companies like Panasonic. The reality is that it was never really about the battery, the microchip controllers are the key for these types of applications.

That makes sense to me, it's fully controlled. Priced accordingly...

It's all about politics, but not the obvious ones. The reality is that production of batteries and solar panels both produce massive amounts of toxic chemicals. Environmentally friendly democratic members of congress have stacked layer, on top of layer on top of layer of regulations on these companies that make large scale production in the US completely infeasible.

And I'm not trying to polarize the topic, because the reality is that these same members of congress realize that a) it' a relatively small amount of jobs involved and b) american consumers have a legitimate interest in having the toxic waste from their products dumped in asia.

If you think about it, saving some blue-collar jobs in the US vs. dumping tons of toxic waste in Asia... well it's not something to be admitted in polite company but it's really no debate.

If environmentalists really cared they would work to ban battery and solar technology (or limit it dramatically) or at least to require that all such batteries are sold with advanced microcontrollers so that we have less cheap batteries that get accidentally burned up and (if I read that right) thrown in a trash can in Jersey, but the reality is they don't really care what happens in China.

 

Sounds a little like dungeon material to me.

 

I don't really mean to take it there, I don't think the politics are a big deal but it helps to understand that there's some direction behind the scenes and that it relates directly to the technical choices.

 

A good read for sure ..

 

The biggest advantage you'll notice is in handling of the bike. and your bike will transition side to side faster and with less effort, as you're removing weight from the subframe area.

the biggest disadvantage is, if you live in colder climate, then you need to wake up the battery. LiFe doen't like cold weather, specially if you're cranking a big bore motor. Triple or Twin.

Inline 4's are easier to start...