Lithium DIY
All these talks about Lithium conversions made me want to try one. Voltronix kit is nice, but quite a bit spendy, and offers way more range than I need. Why pay
extra for something I won't use ?
I had some conversations here with other forum members to figure out the direction. One thing I wanted to avoid is having to reprogram Sevcon, since
cheap Canbus adapters are nowhere to be found, and "old sevcon software" thread turned into some kind of joke. So I wanted to try to match the Lithium power
pack to the factory Sevcon programming, and figure out the charging problem later.
For the Lithium cells Nissan Leaf modules are quite nice, and I may end up using them, but there one can either do 14S or 16S configurations, which could
be either too little or too much. So instead I decided to do a trial run with a small pack built out of Ford C-Max hybrid cells.
Those are 5.5Ah (or so) cells made by Panasonic. They are rated at 150A continuous discharge (at least that's what the seller claimed), and for both the
discharge current and capacity reasons I decided to go with 4 modules, 15 cells each (switching to 14 later depending on findings).
Below are the pics of the build. Next step is to send the DeltaQ charger for reprogramming to get a correct charging profile going on, and then I can
start doing some range tests. I haven't removed the lead-acid batteries to test for worst case (loaded) scenario. Also note the use of improvised parts -
trying to make it cost efficient
All these talks about Lithium conversions made me want to try one. Voltronix kit is nice, but quite a bit spendy, and offers way more range than I need. Why pay
extra for something I won't use ?
I had some conversations here with other forum members to figure out the direction. One thing I wanted to avoid is having to reprogram Sevcon, since
cheap Canbus adapters are nowhere to be found, and "old sevcon software" thread turned into some kind of joke. So I wanted to try to match the Lithium power
pack to the factory Sevcon programming, and figure out the charging problem later.
For the Lithium cells Nissan Leaf modules are quite nice, and I may end up using them, but there one can either do 14S or 16S configurations, which could
be either too little or too much. So instead I decided to do a trial run with a small pack built out of Ford C-Max hybrid cells.
Those are 5.5Ah (or so) cells made by Panasonic. They are rated at 150A continuous discharge (at least that's what the seller claimed), and for both the
discharge current and capacity reasons I decided to go with 4 modules, 15 cells each (switching to 14 later depending on findings).
Below are the pics of the build. Next step is to send the DeltaQ charger for reprogramming to get a correct charging profile going on, and then I can
start doing some range tests. I haven't removed the lead-acid batteries to test for worst case (loaded) scenario. Also note the use of improvised parts -
trying to make it cost efficient