Battery monitoring

[Paultr]

I have just installed my first kit and now want to know how best to monitor my battery usage. At the moment I have a J-LCD King meter which has a crude 5 segment scale showing charge left. The battery I have is a load of Panasonic 18650 B cells making up 17Ah 36V. These are packed into a Shansan down tube container. Is there any kind of plug and play ammeter type solution available or any other way of knowing with a bit more accuracy what I have left/what I am using ?

 

[Paultr]

Oh I should have said. I have a Lishui controller and a Bluetooth module which can talk to it through an app called Forerider. This does not do much but maybe there are better ones I don't know about.

 

[DynatechFan]

Sorry not familar with your kit, does it have a voltage display anywhere?

My KT LCD3 has 5 segments but I use the battery volts at rest for a more accurate measure - eg my commute show 50% remaining on LCD but voltage is typically around 37.2V so I know its nearer 25%

 

[Paultr]

Sorry not familar with your kit, does it have a voltage display anywhere?

My KT LCD3 has 5 segments but I use the battery volts at rest for a more accurate measure - eg my commute show 50% remaining on LCD but voltage is typically around 37.2V so I know its nearer 25%

No voltage display anywhere unfortunately. Even so as I understand it voltage only gives a rough idea of battery condition. I think what you need is a shunt and some kind of ammeter. There are some of these on eBay as caravan and boat owners need to know how many usable amp hours they have but I have no idea how to integrate one into our e-bike wiring.

 

[BG bicycle]

Bought one of these however, plugged it in, a few minutes -something else got my attention- returned and was very warm. Wasn’t drawing any power were checking battery voltage.

Also note the size the cables and the claim of 50Amp, peak 100amp!


I’ve also a throttle with a voltage display. As of yet none too keen on 36 volts that near to my hand while gripping a throttle.