Alien Gents Special II - Improvments and Modifications

[NRG]

Whilst out on the bike today (glorious weather) I started wondering about how much I'd spent on the Alien since new...so I drew up a list and added it all up....wow! Most items are £20 or less but they soon add up....here's the list...

Item.....................................................Cost

Speacialized Saddle..............................£20.00
Halfords Alloy Seat Post........................£13.00
Clarks Brake cables................................£9.00
Clarks Gear cables.................................£9.00
Avid 20R Brake Blocks...........................£11.00
Avid Single Digit 5 Brakes......................£28.00
Shimano Bottom bracket.......................£17.00
BrandX Brake boosters.........................£12.00
Schwalbe Marathon Cross tyres..............£52.00
MKS Alloy Pedals..................................£20.00
Shimano M191 Triple Chain ring.............£20.00
Programable Controller ........................£22.00
USB programing cable..........................£19.00
Thumb Throttle.....................................£4.00
Speacialized Comfort grips....................£14.00
Speacialized Bars ends.........................£17.00
Alien bar switch - Pedelec disable...........£13.00
Alien Panniers.....................................£20.00
4" Stem Extender................................£17.00
Asbus cable lock..................................£18.00
Blackburn Mammoth pump....................£25.00
Front and rear lights.............................£20.00
WattsUp Meter....................................£40.00
Halfords 10 Function cycle computer.......£15.00


......................................................£455.00

 

[andrewgardner]

That is a longgggggggggggggggggggggggggggg list

 

[neilmeansneil]

It all adds up, I've got to get a new frame for mine, the seat tube cracked through just above the top tube weld. It might be worth other owners checking theirs, mines 13 months old. The people in the engineering dept at work thought it was probably due to poor heat treatment after the welding and advised against getting it rewelded.
Neil

 

[NRG]

Concerned over the age of my battery I decided to take it apart to check if there was a failing cell. The battery seemed to be fully charge at about 40.6v down from a normal 41.7~9v...

A little bit of a struggle and some soldering later I managed to extract it from the casing. Unfortunately I managed to overheat the on/off switch and the plastic melted knackering the switch. Luckily I managed to track down a drop in replacement off Ebay. I'm not sure what plastic was used for the casing but it seems to crumble at the slights touch. Both the end caps on my battery are held together with superglue!

Picture of BMS and construction:

I couldn't peel the paxolin(?) sheet away from the front cells without damaging them so cut the sheet in half to gain access to the cell balance wires. Careful measurement revealed that all was well! Good result, however, the voltages where a bit low at 4.05v but all within 10mv of each other.

Picture of replacement switch:

I placed the battery on charge and noticed the charger was behaving in a way that I'd not noticed before. When the cells got to 4.06v it would switch off (green light on) and then after 30 seconds switch back on (red light on)...after about a minute it would switch off again, then on, then off etc repeating this cycle. I did manage to find one loose connection on the charge connector but that didn't seem to affect anything...

Curious I left it for a good few hours and checked the battery voltage after the charger had stopped this on/off cycle. Amazingly the battery read 41.8v...so I'm not sure what is going on here but it does seem there maybe more life in the battery than I had previously thought.

Having fitted the new switch getting it all back in the case was a pain. At one point I had it stuck half way in and it would not budge...the tapes jamming up inside the case. Having managed to remove it once again a bit of talk powder on both sides saw it slip neatly into position.

 

[Blew it]

The charger behaviour you mention reminds me of the Ping V1 batteries, during the cell balancing phase the charger switches on and off until the whole pack voltage remains stable at target voltage. Perhaps one of your cells went out of balance, and for some strange reason the BMS failed to detect it.

Incidentally, I think this thread could possibly hold a record for the most views of a single subject thread, if so, congratulations.

 

[flecc]

Incidentally, I think this thread could possibly hold a record for the most views of a single subject thread, if so, congratulations.

A little further to go yet, my thread on creating the Q-bike has had 11779 views to date. NRG's thread has had more replies though, 145. From the search pages:

Project Q bike
Started by flecc‎, 16th May 2007 14:39

• Replies: 131
• Views: 11,779

Last Post: 30th November 2007 19:20 by flecc
.

 

[NRG]

... NRG's thread has had more replies though, 145.

It's mostly me talking to myself though Flecc!

 

[flecc]

It's mostly me talking to myself though Flecc!

Also guilty, many in my thread were responses from me!

 

[banbury frank]

Hi

The battery Capacity that deteriorates over time and use . NOT the cell voltage you cant measure this with a volt meter you need a battery load tester . This puts a load on a full charged battery until the battery management ( BMS ) LVC low voltage cutout turns off .

DON'T take you battery apart one mistake and you have a FIRE on your hands.

The battery stores a MASSIVE amount of energy witch can discharge in an instant .

Don't Connect Directly to the cells with a resistor and flatten them or they will not recharge the are now DEAD.

As a pack with a BMS that's OK as the BMS has a LVC ( low voltage cutout ) .

So a Load say 5 amps X 40 volts should take 2 hours on a 36 volt 10 AH battery .

If it takes 1 hour then the battery has only 50% capacity

Ours has a large filament resistor like a fan heater element and a fan to disperse the heat.

And a low voltage cutout so we don't fully discharge the battery we can also test individual cells and the LVC protects the individual cells

Basically a complicated fan heater with a LVC and adjustable load for testing complete packs or individual cells

Frank

 

[NRG]

Somebody's nicked my list!

Here it is again....

Item and Cost

Speacialized Saddle £20.00
Halfords Alloy Seat Post £13.00
Clarks Brake cables £9.00
Clarks Gear cables £9.00
Avid 20R Brake Blocks £11.00
Avid Single Digit 5 Brakes £28.00
Shimano Bottom bracket £17.00
BrandX Brake boosters £12.00
Schwalbe Marathon Cross tyres £52.00
MKS Alloy Pedals £20.00
Shimano M191 Triple Chain ring £20.00
Programable Controller £22.00
USB programing cable £19.00
Thumb Throttle £4.00
Speacialized Comfort grips £14.00
Speacialized Bars ends £17.00
Alien bar switch - Pedelec disable £13.00
Alien Panniers £20.00
4" Stem Extender £17.00
Asbus cable lock £18.00
Blackburn Mammoth pump £25.00
Front and rear lights £20.00
WattsUp Meter £40.00
Halfords 10 Function cycle computer £15.00


£455.00

 

[eddieo]

Hi

did you get the specialised expedition saddle? if yes is it normal or Plus version..as I remeber the chat about this, but had bought something else but not getting on with it

 

[NRG]

I've got both Eddie, on the Alien its the Gel version and on my other bikes its the Plus...the Plus has coil springs the Gel two squishy gel ball thingies instead. Both work well the gel may be a bit more comfortable for me but your milage may vary...