Friday, June 27, 2014

Leaf Replacement Battery Pack

Finally Nissan has announced the pricing of the new Replacement battery pack. Yes, the new chemistry for hot weather. Pricing is outstanding for a new warranted battery pack. $5,499 is outstanding. It does however require you to turn in yours as a core that is being priced at 1000 bucks. I think I will propose to Nissan as a recycler for those used packs. This could be a boon for private Solar Backup systems. So for those that really need to replace their packs this is a super deal. This also brings down the price for packs out of wrecked Leafs. Those $3600 or so prices are now too high. I'd pay $2000 for a pack from a wrecked Leaf. For new $5400 plus your core is plenty worth the price. With the cells being the newest chemistry it can't be beat.







Friday, June 6, 2014

AC Induction

Well I am now officially into AC induction for my other ride. I now have an AC-35 with the 96 volt 650 amp controller to install into my Bus. I do not intend for the Bus to be a fast vehicle but one that will cruise well and be a great local hauler. I am going to lower the Bus but for now I will just leave it with the stock setup. But before it goes into the Bus I will set it up as a generator. I now have my VW engine connected to my old Dyno but I have a carburetor problem. Not really a problem but I do have to find a part to get it working. I will be using that first to test the ability of the stationary generator for charging. It has two working starter/generators connected and I can set them up in series or parallel. Not sure what I will do first. I will be once again using my little Diesel and Starter/Generator to charge a 24 volt bank of batteries. I have the bank setup and ready to go. Since I now have a new digital multimeter with a clamp for checking amperage I can measure output current.

I will be off for a few weeks for recovery from surgery here in a couple weeks. It is hopeful that I will be pain free and be back to work in short order. I will be getting a new big toe joint (again) and this one should be far better. Within a couple weeks after surgery I should be able to do some work without issue.

So the Bug is doing well and the 60 cells are close to being fully bottom balanced. I had an issue with my Aux battery and they all died and bloated because they all went to zero or near zero. They were connected to a couple JLD meters but nothing else was connected and it drained the cells in three days. On the 4th day this is what they looked like.



DO NOT let your Aux lithium cells go below 2 volts. There is an apparent issue where the copper foil starts to dissolve in the electrolyte below 2 volts and it will cause plating and the process also causes gassing. This will ruin your cell. No longer usable for safe use. A person said maybe clamping them would be in order but if they go below 2 volts the same process still happens and the pressure may become great enough to blow the seal caps. So clamping will not stop the problem. If cells swell there is an issue. Either they over charged or were taken well below 2 volts. I have seen that cells with soft shorts don't swell but will still be unusable because they will keep discharging to empty. 

AC-35 with like 108 volts would be good for a decent power range out to just over 3000 rpm. So cruising it will be more than enough. A stock VW has less power. Im not out for grunt power. Just need as good as stock. This will do a bit better. I am also wanting to create a on the go hybrid trailer that can run an AC induction motor that will output the same as the pack so I can actually run the controller to give me as much range as the hybrid range extender can give. I do want to use a little turbo charged diesel engine using Bio or Veggie Oil as the fuel. Keep carbon neutral. Or if I use a gas engine maybe use alcohol as the fuel. I'd prefer to use diesel and veggie oil. Connect up the trailer and just go. As long as I have fuel I can drive where ever I need. This means I no longer need to buy a Volt. Yippie. I can even drive out to visit Jack. He'd love that.