That's a bit higher than mine get. Hmmmm. Let it stop on it's own unless it goes much higher than that. Mine usually go to about 3.71, 3.72, etc etc. YOurs just seem to be going about .03 or .04v higher than mine. Might be a just a slightly different chemical makeup or different batch. You'll know that the cells didn't get full when you put your small charger on and it's a red light. If you put the small charger on and it's green, that means that it charged to full completion.

Starting over. I just changed the battery in the meter and all reading dropped .05 - .10v

That puts everything more in line with what you are saying.

What's great about that charger is that you can use a 10 amp charge if you want to charge them more quickly. I use a 10 amp charge on mine most times so I can get them charged in 3 hours.

I got the individual cell chargers today. Topped off each cell. around 3.60-3.61v

Cool. They settle back down to about 3.60v ? Yeah, that's pretty typical. When you put the small chargers on, did the red light or green light come on? That will tell you whether the black and decker charged your cells to full capacity or not. Once you top them all off, you'll be ready to ride on them. If you have a 36v pack, the voltage should read anywhere from 42v - 43v.7v on your watt meter. Just so you know what to look for when you hook the watt meter up. Later on, when you only use the black and decker to charge (for convenience), it'll show something like 41.7v . If it shows much lower than those then you probably didn't charge all 3 packs up and shouldn't ride it. Once you hit the throttle, it'll go down to about 39v or 38v, though. I'd top them off for the next 4 or 5 charges and then you can get buy just using the black and decker and just top them off when you want to just to keep them all balanced. You probably could get by just topping them off once per month and just check the cells every now and then to see how they are doing.

I got the CD case / battery box mounted. The battery are just a little too big to fit, so I'll have to take them out of the cases.

Attachment 145151

Have fun.

Can the controller be mounted in the battery box or does it need to be out in the air for cooling?

It'd be better if you put the controller outside the battery box. It needs some way to get air. I asked someone else and he said that his controller overheated when he put it inside his battery box. Maybe if you put it inside the box and then drilled holes where the controller is for ventilation? That might work. Right where the wind would be moving.

Talked to a few other people. They say don't do it. Put the controller outside the battery box because the heat from the controller could damage the batteries or the heat could damage the controller.

It's done! I took the afternoon off and finished it. Still don't have the watt meter or battery medic.

I found some big, long tie wraps at Home Depot, roofing flashing 5" x 7" tin sheets. So I took the cells out of their case and made one big bundle, wrapped in tin sheets, held together with the ties. Mounted the controller on the front of the battery box, just under the seat.

Works great. I got around 20.7 top speed. I'll be riding to work tomorrow.

Attachment 145301

Attachment 145300

Attachment 145302

Nice. Looks good.

You won't even have to pedal if you don't want to. I sometimes go on rides and not pedal the whole time if my leg hurts.

Let us know how your ride to work went.

Rode to work this morning. Didn't even break a sweat. 4 miles and the pack is at 39.96v The individual cell are at 3.33v pretty much across the board. Very well balanced at this point. I don't have the watt meter or voltage monitors yet, so I'm kind of winging it as far as how much capacity I have left. But from what you all have said, I should be good for the 4 mile trip home without charging again.

Now the next issue. With all that weight up high, the kick stand doesn't support the bike. It leans too far over and want to just keep on going. Any suggestions? Is there a scooter type stand that will hold it up vertical?

I don't know much about kickstands. My bike doesn't even have one. I lean it up against the wall in my house. A guy on endless-sphere.com forum recommended this one.. He said it worked on his electric bike. It may not work on yours, though.

This page shows about 4 or 5 of them. He used the double leg, screw adjust one. It comes in black or silver.
http://www.crowcycleco.com/

You might be able to find a decent kickstand at a bikeshop near where you live. Might be better doing it that way. Or a scooter shop. I don't know how they install because I don't have much experience with them.

if You want, you can take a picture of your bike frame where the kickstand is and go on this forum and ask them, I bet someone will know exactly which one will work for you.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=3

Or maybe you could e-mail crowcycleco and ask them.

Do you plan on riding in the rain? Do you think water could get into that container and short out your batteries?

What some people have done to prevent water from getting in to their connections is they bought some cheap balloons at the store and then cut a hole in the top and put it over the connection part in the wire. I've heard of some guys putting some kind of plastic bag over their controller. I don't know if a balloon would work with putting it over the controller or not.

Some guys also use di-electric grease on their connections to prevent corroding.

Haven't you heard? It never rains in Southern California. lol I will not ride in the rain.

Oh yeah. I live in Indiana. It rains all the time here.

Bicycles and e-bikes are really beginning to take hold in california I think.

That's the reason I built it, the weather is so nice all the time, it's just great to be outside as much as possible.

I built a 24V 20AH battery pack using the same Thunder Sky cells you ordered. I installed the Currie conversion kit on my mountain bike last summer and this is the second pack in my rear rack--I'm still using my original SLA pack. I have to say that I'm glad I installed an M-Wave bi-pod kickstand last fall as part of my winterization projects. (I retired to the far northern US Rockies and am using my bike so much more after adding electric assist to help my knees handle the steep hills here that I've been modifying it to handle more cargo.) The M-Wave is affordable and doing an excellent job of keeping the bike steady when parked, especially now that I've got a second battery on board. You can get the M-Wave for $19 on Amazon (with free shipping if you get your order up to $25.) Here's what it looks like on my bike(this was taken after a shopping run in the winter when I still had pogies--AKA handlebar mitts on the bike) as well as a photo giving you an indication of it's size.

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442.../382269417.jpg

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442.../381956989.jpg

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442.../381956992.jpg

Without question carring the battery weight up high is a problem. Maybe you could try using a Currie Ezip/Izip battery rack. I don't know if you would be able to mount it or not but if you could it would drop the weight down and be more stable for you. You would also have to make your own cases to fit the cells into to mount onto the rack. You would put 6 cells on each side of the bike. I carry 8 cells on each side of this same rack but I am riding an Ezip bike. I made the battery cases our of plastic so I know it can be done. But no matter it is still a good idea to change to a double leg kick stand.

Wow, gratz dude... I've been busy and away from the forums.

I bought the same cells, after a manual balance they haven't wavered a bit. I top mine to 3.70v, make sure they are there stable (about 13 sec or so) and then overnight they drop to 3.65. After 14.68Ah ride, the cell voltages are all +-.01 v of 3.27... I figured the voltage "wavering" as related to wattage draw and such, and backing off the throttle seems to work.

Usually they are at about 3.60 after a day of sitting and it seems that as soon as I put a real load (1 block ride) they hit 3.36 and stay there a long time. Day two they hit 3.55 and the the discharge is very slow it seems.

My batteries are down lower in panniers (I'm sure you saw) and I still feel the higher center of gravity, especially trying to balance on tight, uphill corners (pedestrian bridges). It is taking some getting used to. Love your protective case. My choice was to split the entire battery into two pieces and distribute the weight until the "monsters" arrive to be mounted in a trailer. I've been considering Pelican cases with creative labelling instead of the fabric, but so far it's working for the small set.

The Pelican cases are nice, buy you could also fabricate your own hard case using plastic like starboard cheaper, using pannier mounts or something like electricrider.com's steel battery hangers that mount low on a rear rack.

http://www.electricrider.com/crystal...es/hanger2.jpg

I used a Currie conversion kit on my mountain bike. Using dumbass' design for his TS battery case, I just completed a battery case for my 24V 20AH TS battery build using starboard (and a bit of plywood because I didn't measure multiple times before cutting). I routed channels to mount the battery in the rear rack since lower is better with that kind of weight. The nice thing about starboard is that you can use woodworking tools to cut and route it without worrying about blades or bits being ruined.

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL442.../385308747.jpg

nwmtnbkr ....Am I missing something? I thought you mounted the new cases into the rack like I did. But your pics look like you made a secondary mounting. Am I correct? If so why?

No, mine slides in the rack. The other photo is of the steel hangers sold by electricriders.com that I mentioned in my post. For those without the Currie rear rack with rails, it's a possible solution to get batteries mounted low, improving the COG. This is the product page for anyone interested in their battery mount solution. http://www.electricrider.com/crystal...rkt_detail.htm