Sv: Homelink i 6.1

[Brazas]

Hello modern people  I have bought a 2001 th!nk and I am happy to join the elbilforum. The car is blue piv4  with original nicad battery at 54xxx kilometers. I live in Rygge kommune. Car seems very well kept so i will try to keep it that way. This is my first elbil, so a newbie nees questions answered:)

1. What is better to maintain the battery for long-life use? Should i charge the battery after the day driving with status being some 30-50%, or better to push the status down to under 20%? Depleting the battery must be easy with the radio, heater, and wind blower. Would this deeper discharge make the battery last for more years? The seller said that the battery has been very well taken care of and can still do 80km in summer, and up to 60km in winter. My daily drive to work and back is 40km, so will have to charge every evening before next day. Chargning everyday is a frequent thing, so i want to do it the right way. I will be happy to get an answer with comment about this.

2. About the 10A button. Should i use it if charging in a random power plug? I know it takes longer to charge on 10A compared to 16A but time is no problem for me, what is better for long life and capacitu of the battery - charging in 10A or 16A?

3. Any advice that you would like to share, remembering your first days with elbil will be very appreciated.

Thank you for reading 

[elektrolux]

Hello Brazas

And gratulations with the best classic EV money can bye. Unfortunatly only 300 ore so still exist, so take good care of yours.

First. A few words of the cars short comings:

NiCd battery needs water service twice as often as service indicator indicates. So if service history is unknown, ore its more than 3000 km since last water service stop driving and get that service done

Charging is best done at 10A and just before next trip.

Car is poorly programmed, so if you don't take care it will destroy battery. We have finally been able to hack us into motor controller and can program car to be more battery friendly.

Never use full trottle, Never drive under 20% without knowing if battery is not reversing. This you can't tell without battery monitoring equipment such as RoboMeter we supply for retro fitting.

Charger can fail, and is difficult to find. Use at 10A to preserve.

In your case, charge car every night before going to work, ore even better, charge every day at work.

Good luck with your new car.

[Brazas]

Thanks for your reply elektrolix
really  around 300 left?? wow. Then ill have to save it even more. The car has been maintained on a regular, but i will look into the eater level regarding your comment. Why do you suggest charging at work rather than night? And what about the battery level before charge - is it ok if i chanrge it when it is still 40-50% full?

Hello Brazas

And gratulations with the best classic EV money can bye. Unfortunatly only 300 ore so still exist, so take good care of yours.

First. A few words of the cars short comings:

NiCd battery needs water service twice as often as service indicator indicates. So if service history is unknown, ore its more than 3000 km since last water service stop driving and get that service done

Charging is best done at 10A and just before next trip.

Car is poorly programmed, so if you don't take care it will destroy battery. We have finally been able to hack us into motor controller and can program car to be more battery friendly.

Never use full trottle, Never drive under 20% without knowing if battery is not reversing. This you can't tell without battery monitoring equipment such as RoboMeter we supply for retro fitting.

Charger can fail, and is difficult to find. Use at 10A to preserve.

In your case, charge car every night before going to work, ore even better, charge every day at work.

Good luck with your new car.

[Brazas]

and what is battery reversing?

[elektrolux]

Charging at work is cheeper for you than charging at home, and you will drive the car shortly after charging. Remember first rule on charging Think: Charge before driving, not after.

Theese cars can work for decades with same owner, but often get into battery problems shortly after changing owners. Often because new owner tries to empty battery. Been there done that myself included. DO NOT TRY TO EMPTY BATTERY!, No need to, and may introduce problems. There are no problems with memory effect on theese wet cells.

Reversing of cells will happen at some charge level on all Think Batteries. Reason is original minimum driving voltage is set at 85V and not at 95V. All 95 NiCd cells cannot by share nature be totally equal, and one ore more cells may have slightly ore even seriously reduced capasity.

Imagine a 3V bulb, a 1,5V battery cell and a 1,5V power supply connected in series with + from power supply to - battery cell. + from battery cell to bulb, and from bulb to - power supply. Bulb will see 3V and light up. Battery cell and power supply will each supply 1,5V to bulb.

After a while battery cell will no longer supply power to circuit and reverse. What happens now is that power is still flowing keeping bulb alight as circuit has no minimum voltage stop build into it. + from power supply is still connected to - battery cell, but look closely and you will notice that - from power supply is connected through bulb to + battery cell and is now charging this cell in reverse through bulb. If this cell is a Alcaline cell you can actually measure it having reversed its polarity. The battery in your Think is also a Alcaline battery, and can survive a few reverses, but not to many. Water consumption also goes wild when reversing.

Same thing happens in your car at low SOC. ( State Of Charge ) NiCd cells have very little power under 1V / Cell, so you should not attempt to pull out power under this level. With 95 cells onboard, minumum driving Voltage should be set at 95V and not 85V as set by Think back in 2001.

We reset this value to 95V witch will reduce chances that driver will unintendently reverese cells. We also reduce max current draw to motor from 225A to 180A to reduce strain on battery. And we up top speed to 100 km/hr to prepare car to new speeding limits introdused after 2001.

[Brazas]

that is good info