Originally Posted by morph999 (Post 10578789)

No charge for shipping? Did you get the package deal? I've always gotten my batteries in just 3 to 5 days from them and I've on the otherside of the USA. She gets them shipped immediately from my experience. Very fast.

When you get your batteries, I recommend monitoring your batteries closely on the first charge. Use a multi-meter or just some way of measuring the voltage and make sure none of the batteries go above about 3.7v per cell. And get them topped off with the 3.2v charger and then after that you can use the 12v charger by itself and just top them off every now and then. Maybe check them periodically to see how out of balance they are. If they are only about .05v or .1v out of balance, that's not a big deal. The usable range for lithium batteries is 2.5v - 4.2v. Don't want any cells going below 2.5v or over 4.2v. The single cell charger that I recommended takes them up to 3.65v so aim for about 3.65v on your cells. The black and decker usually takes them up to about 3.65v. I've seen cells go up to about 3.76v on mine but as long as you stay under 4.2v, it should be okay.

The celllog monitors are even cheaper now. Only $15. Damn. You don't really need one but if you want to buy an individual cell monitor, that's what I'd get. http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=10952

The monitors still don't tell you your used AH, though. I like knowing how much AH I've used. These just tell individual voltages. It's up to you. You could either buy a watt meter or buy two of those celllog monitors and put them on each of your cells. It's about the same price. The celllog monitor would keep track of all your individual cell voltages and that's pretty good. Or you could go with a watt meter and only use 50 % of the battery. These cell log monitor's were about $40 when I bought my turnigy watt meter but if they were $15, I might have bought these instead. Of course, if you got the celllog monitor, you'd still need one of those adapters that nwmtnbkr suggested so that's an extra $10 so it might be a little more expensive to do that. about $50 total. The cellog monitor would be your BMS basically. It would do everything that a BMS would do. It would show you when any of your cells got to 2.5v or below. Most people stop their use when their cells get to about 3.0v , though.

Originally Posted by nwmtnbkr (Post 10581255)

The CellLog 8 not only monitors charging and discharging, sounding an alarm if your discharging too low or the batteries are being overcharged, but it gives you detailed information regarding the state of the battery in operation when you download data to your computer (using LogView software). It's much more capable of protecting your investment in LIFEPO4 (let's face it, no battery will give you anywhere close to advertised charge cycles if you don't take adequate care not to discharge it too deeply or overcharge it). Here's a sample of the data you get in graph form about individual cell performance. You just don't get this kind of data from the monitors you are looking at. With the CellLog 8, I think it's safe to operate without a BMS.

Originally Posted by morph999 (Post 10582226)

Yeah, there is a guy on Endless-sphere who is using the Battery Medic to balance his Thundersky cells. I can't tell you which one is best because they all work and do something beneficial. It just depends on how you want to look at it.

The celllog 8s are nice in theory but look at all the wires that you will be coming out of your battery pack. For a 12 cell battery pack, you'll have 13 wires going to the celllog. I don't know. Just seems like a headache to me. When I'm going to go on a 35 mile ride that I would really need that? I might break down and buy one if I see someone who has set it up nicely and can convince me that it's not a headache. Just seems like another device to get stolen off your bike.

Originally Posted by morph999 (Post 10577459)

You can but trust me, you wont' want to rewire those batteries. I try to keep from screwing and unscrew the terminal bolts as much as possible. That's why I cut the corners off the battery tops so I can just take the tops off really easy without unscrewing the bolts. Also, you probably won't want to take the charger with you to work. It's kind of a hassle.

Originally Posted by nwmtnbkr (Post 10595119)

For others considering TS LIFEPO4, you aren't limited to 12V smart chargers. The Chargery cable harness that I ordered for my CellLog 8 were built to charge as well, having banana plugs for use with the iCharger smart chargers. I simply cutoff the banana plugs and crimped on an XLR female plug to use the 24V, 3-stage smart charger that I already have. It works well. My batteries are now out of the silver plastic containers and reconfigured--I will be receiving black starboard tomorrow and building a box to house them that will slide into my Currie rear rack. The XLR plug will enable me to charge without opening the case. Here's a photo you can see the CellLog 8 is plugged in as well as the charger. The CellLog's alarm is fairly loud, given the unit's size. I could easily hear it in another room, but I didn't have any other noise in the environment--no TV or radio going.

Originally Posted by yopappamon (Post 10596124)

My concern with charging several 12v cells at once is the it would defeat the sensing feature of the charger.

I tried to order a torque arm and Anderson connectors from ebikekit. The order was $38.40 and they wanted $38.39 for shipping! no thanks.

Got the ampedbike torque arm and the Anderson connectors from Newark electronics. I think I have ordered everything I need. Except the celllog, they are on backorder.