Dept of Watching Grass Grow: Testing the Turnigy, Part Two

So here’s the final strategy.  (Comment from RC” “ur doin it rong.  but not too rong”

The idea is to discharge the packs down to a safe level, (see additions below) so starting with topping up the charge is kind of a waste of time.  Instead, I decided to just hit them right off with a discharge for two hours…  which, coincidentally, brings them down to around 3.1-2.9V.  Their safe minimum.  Right away, 2 1/2 hours saved.

So, at the end of that, starting usually at around 3.8V, we’re ending up with, for example, cell voltages of 3.26 – 3.14 – 3.07 – 3.06.  Not bad.  And, they balance out to within .01V by the time they’re back up to 3.5V. Total elapsed time is about two hours for the discharge, and about an hour for the charge.

One comment.  One thing I learned early on with digital cameras, you’ve got to label (and number) your batteries.  There’s always one battery in a pack that’s bad, and, simple as it seems, if you don’t label them you have no way to track their performance, especially over their lifetime.  Simple housekeeping…

Update: OK, here’s where I’m at.

The goal here is to weed out bad packs.  The other goal, which I can’t do right now, is to try to match up packs based on the internal resistance of each cell, making everything more balanced.  This is something I think I’ll tackle later on, once I have more chargers and more packs.  For now, I just want to flag any packs with cells that are weak, which should show up as low voltage after a bit of a discharge, and uneven voltage after a top-off charge.

Bottom line, I’m continuing with the process.  After I run the bike gently a few times I’ll do balance charges of each module and see how that looks.  I’m going to save the fine-tuning for when RC is here…  and I can ply him with beer.

Dept of Watching Grass Grow: Testing the Turnigy

The primary purpose of testing the Turnigy lipo packs, at least so I’ve been told, is to determine how each cell “drops off”, or, how the voltage decreases as the cell discharges, near the minimum charge level.  If a cell gets to a point and drops off too rapidly, you have a bad cell, and thus a bad pack.  That can make it build up heat, which, especially for lipo, is a very Bad Thing.

The charger I’m running is the Turnigy 150W unit shown above.  I’m setting it up to discharge the packs, and it’s showing a 5amp discharge setting but is averaging a little over 1.5amps actual discharge.  For a fully charged pack it takes about 2 hours to go from 4.18V to 3.7, or so, and then it hits the time limit.  I’ve hit it for another discharge cycle, and we’ll see where that brings my voltage, but ideally I’d like to get it down to nearly the safe minimum- probably around 3-3.2V.

I’d really like to get this all done by August 14th, for a show I’d like to run it in…  but we’ll see.  This is one process I don’t think it’s safe to rush.

On another note, the power supply I ordered was for a computer peripheral, at around $10.  Rated at 12V and 6amps, I thought it would do the trick, but no.  After a few minutes it just cuts out.  Right now I’m just running the charger off of my big scooter batteries and it’s going fine, but that’s definitely something that I need to tend to.

Connecting the Charger (Turnigy LiPo)

You know the old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words and all…  well, I seem to have missed the words, “Connect the Main Output leads to the power leads of the battery”.  No seriously.  I’ve been thinking the battery charged entirely through the balance connectors…  now, of course, I realize that’s kind of silly, considering how small they are…

So here it is, the main power input on the right (just to confuse you, right next to the balance connections) and the main charging output coming out of the left side.  You can get a look at the display here too.

OK.  Now.  Here’s the new wiring plan, based on my newfound Wisdom.

Motenergy (Mars) Brush Replacement How-To, Step by Step

via Tony Helms.  Check it out here, along with the rest of this great blog.

(With AWESOME photos.  And I know.  I’m a perfesshional.)

The LiPo Project… The Connector Strategy

I’ve decided how I’m going to wire these babies up.  Because the Turnigy charger is so cool, and reads out the cell status for each individual cell, I’m not going to be cutting and hard-wiring the packs together because I want to be able to pull individual packs out and let the charger balance them one at a time.  So.

On the balance leads, I’m setting up a circuit board using a simple test board to hold 4 of these suckers.  They are from Digikey, the JST B5B-XH-A.

Then I’m going to make the power feed pigtails using these slick bullet connectors from HobbyKing.  Reports are that they’re a total PIA to assemble, but they’re awesome, so I’m going to give it a shot.  They can be found here, at HobbyKing. 

Once I have all five modules together, I”ve ordered some 10″ wide shrink tubing to hold each module together.

The catch is, I have to go back to the battery mount on the bike and make room for one more module.  These are only slightly smaller than the 6s packs I was planning for, so 16 fit perfectly.  20, not so much.

The 10″ wide shrink tube I got from AllBattery.com, along with the little JST-XH 5-conductor pigtails that are going to the PC board.

Turnigy Accucell-8150 Charger. In Da House!

YES!  Got my Turnigy batteries, with the Turnigy Accucell-8150 Charger today…  Natch there was no manual, so I went hunting.  Here’s a great intro video to the charger on the HobbyKing channel:

And the manual is available from HobbyKing, on their “Files” page.  Here’s the link for the 8150.

Mission Motors: TTXGP Payoff, Patience, and Pink Mohawks

Mission Motors.  Home of the Hot Mission Chick.  Quietly working away on god-knows-what.  Showing up, when they do show up, with simply the hottest looking bikes on the planet – not fake star-wars concept renderings with form dictating function, but not really running yet either…  pretty much ignoring critics who are starting to joke that they would never see a Mission in a race, and quietly staying the course.

One thing was for sure.  When they did actually show up for a race with a bike that ran, they damn well better make a good showing of it.  As I told my son when he dyed his mohawk pink for his first wrestling match, you better kick some serious ass.  (3 matches, 3 pins, thank you very much…)

Well, yesterday, Mission kicked some serious ass. And I just want to say thank you.

Maybe I’m not paying attention, but to me, Mission hasn’t been on the radar much.  But, they’ve shown the wisdom of preparation and perseverance in an age and industry where everyone wants instant results.  Well, folks, it takes time to develop a state-of-the-art brand new drivetrain technology, and some teams are out there putting it all on the line for all to see, learning as they go, failures along with successes.  Nothing wrong with that.  Then there are others, Mission for one, who are sitting back, conserving their resources, looking at what everyone is doing, and learning from the others.  You gotta love that, too.

In an industry where every other press release is some vaporware concept that touts impossible performance, and companies who seem to care more about attracting investors than building a company, the idea that you need to take one step at a time, and deliver on your promises seems oddly refreshing.

Mission, for me, was one of the first companies who really “got” the electric motorcycle and why I thought it was so amazing.  It’s not the Green.  It’s the Power.  And this video tells that story as simply as I’ve been able to find it told.

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(See the original here: http://vimeo.com/6952429)

I show it to everyone, and I only wish it was on YouTube so I didn’t have to snag it myself.  (WordPress doesn’t seem to like to embed Vimeo…)

So I give Mission, along with the KillaCycle, credit for dragging me into this obsession by showing what the thing is all about.  Strapping myself to a big electric drivetrain and seeing what that felt like.  (…like letting go from a bungee stretched from about a mile away, thanks.)  I’ve been sitting, waiting to see what Mission was going to do, what they were up to, and if they ever were going to shut the critics up.  This morning, I don’t hear much in the way of whining. Not only is the electric racing fanboy community all a-twitter, but the gas motorsport guys have sat up and taken notice too.

Good work, guys.

TTXGP Laguna 2011 Full Report

Here you goez…  the full stats for today’s race, via this site.  (Not sure quite what this site is, but they have everything…)

annnnnnd, the FINALS from TTXGP Laguna 2011!

Results
1 – Mission Motors
2 – Motoczysz
3 – Lightning
4 – Brammo
5 – CRP Racing – Branetti
6 – MÜNCH Racing
7 – Moto Electra
8 – CRP Racing – Moreda
9 – Proto Moto
10 – LGN Racing

TTXGP Laguna Qualifying Times

Saturday’s numbers:
Team, best lap, top speed (in Kph)

Mission – 1.31 – 215.7
Lightning – 1.37 – 213.9
MotoCzysz – 1.39 – ?
Muench – 1.42.051 – 178
Brammo – 142.127 – 178.3
CRP (Brannetti) – 142.392 – 171.2
MotoElectra – 1.49 – 172.3
CRP (Moreda) – 1.53 – 160
LGN 1.55 – 159
K-Squared – 1.59 – 135
Proto Moto – 2.00 – 156

Yeah, via BF…  Thanks Harry!

More of a writeup on Asphalt and Rubber, here.