Any DIY battery Gurus on the forum?

[Forb]

Hi,

Are there any DIY battery gurus on the forum?

I live in a fairly wild part of town and over the last few months, I've found not one but three batteries that clearly look like they've been taken out of a Lime rental e-bike in the park I do volunteer work in tidying up. Bizarre really, because sometimes they are right in the middle, where someone would have had to carry them several 100s of meters to dump in the bushes; and weird because I've never seen anyone riding around in a Lime bike that has had the battery taken out of it.

Inside, the cases, they are marked B-40S, 51.8 Vdc (Max 58.8Vdc), 18.6 Ah (963.48Wh) Fujion SCUD.

We've tried to return a load of other dumped rental bikes to their rightful owners, with mixed results (seems like some companies hardly care), but had no luck with these so I'm thinking of recycling them into some other kind of e-bike. Specifically, a sound system bike or trike.

They've got two main wires +ve and -ve, then 4 minor control wires, and some kind of PCB on the back which I have no idea what it does, or if it will even work without the bespoke Lime electronic control system.

Does anyone know how I could recycle the batteries or cells into one big battery? My knowledge of electronic is bargain basement level, e.g. I under what the symbols mean, parallel versus inline, thee need for a step up or step down converter etc.

Thanks.

 

[soundwave]

no there all a bin job you dont make new batts from used cells or you just end up with a bomb!

 

[saneagle]

Open them up and see what's inside. You can probably use the cell-pack. You have to show us what's inside 51.8v is unusual. It must be 14S6P (14 x 3.7), which most people call 52v. Whatever they have, you can pull all the cells out and make new batteries with them. You'll probably have to chuck the BMS (management board) and solder on a new one. It'll work with most 48v systems. I wish i could find a few 18aH 52v batteries in my local park. Theye're worth about £350 each if they were new. How good they are depends on how much they've been used. Inside, there'll be a date code that might give some idea.

 

[Nealh]

If the battery cells are ok , your biggest issue is removing the spot welded busses and cleaning the cell ends up if wanting a different voltage.

52v is 14s so not 48v , they will work with 48v hub motors but may not do so with some mid motor kits. 48v controller lvc will be too low for the batteries so lvc needs to be monitored.

As mentioned the BMS system will need replacing as the BMS will have comms/Canbus attached.

 

[Forb]

I wish i could find a few 18aH 52v batteries in my local park. Theye're worth about £350 each if they were new. How good they are depends on how much they've been used. Inside, there'll be a date code that might give some idea.

Yes, sometimes, rarely, living in a high crime area has some advantages ... ! Normally what we do if the company won't collect is break up any metal parts so that they can be recycled, e.g. when OFO went bankrupt and we ended up with a load of their yellow bikes being dumped, so with these the alu cases can be recycled, but the batteries are a different matter.

I'd say the cases look quite new and powering audio will take much less current then pushing a heavy bike.

This is about as far as I've gotten as the management board is soldered into place. I was hoping that I could just leave them as is and wire them in series but I have no idea if the management board just manages the cells or whether it "locks" the battery too.

Thanks.

 

[Forb]

no there all a bin job you dont make new batts from used cells or you just end up with a bomb!

Looking at the results of people re-appointing car batteries, and how long they last on what are basically the same cells, I don't know if I agree with you. That's more just fearmongering than electrical engineering.

I'd feel 100% safer reusing these than buying some new, cheapo, off the shelf battery from China because I trust the company has thought a LOT more about safety, and there's none of that spagetti wire soldering going on that you see.

If the battery cells are ok , your biggest issue is removing the spot welded busses and cleaning the cell ends up if wanting a different voltage.

As mentioned the BMS system will need replacing as the BMS will have comms/Canbus attached.

Thanks. I'll try and read up what that means.

I'm not thinking of using them for a motor, just to power an audio amplifier on a bike, and using a step up or step down converter, e.g. either 48V down to 12V for car audio level (in series), or up to 110/240V (in parallel) for a PA style amp.

I appreciate that driving a e-motor must use significantly more load.

The sad joke is, if it can be made to work, and I wait around for a few more months, I'll probably end up with more. All I need is another two and I can run a 240V system!

(As an aside, isn't it shortsighted and a shame those rental companies won't pay bounty rewards for catching the thieving little Bs who steal their bikes and recovering their property? Other arguments aside, it's another way in which arch-capitalism makes profits by passing on its external costs to other in society to pay. In hours case, hours a month moving and dealing with dumped bikes, which half of the time are re-stolen before the careless SERCO employee comes to pick them up. /rant)

 

[Forb]

Bump. Is there a reason not to display the post above?

I see a message, "The requested thread could not be found" and "Forb has not posted any content recently" ... while I can clearly see that I have.

Why was it censored?

Thanks.

 

[Forb]

Bizarre.

I did actually find my 4th Lime battery today, dumped by some bins. That would be me up to 230V x 18Ah if I wired them up in series (the aim was to power a bicycle sound system so, say, 4,140 watt hours?).

I'm kind of intrigued where these are coming from as I don't see many thieved Lime bikes running around without batteries. I wonder if the service company is illegal dumping them because they are flat, or something?

How would I even charge them? Do car battery chargers go that high?

 

[StuartsProjects]

How would I even charge them?

With a charger designed for the batteries.

Do car battery chargers go that high?

Car battery chargers are designed for charging car batteries.

 

[Bikes4two]

.......... That's more just fearmongering than electrical engineering.

+1 for that and well said - fear mongering indeed (and there's a lot of it about) although as I'm sure you know, you do need to have a thorough, and I mean thorough, understanding of the precautions that need to be taken when dismantling batteries.

 

[lenny]

 

[Forb]

With a charger designed for the batteries.

Really? I thought 2 electrodes stuck into a potato and some lemon juice would do it.

Don't suppose anyone makes a 240 to 240v charger?

 

[StuartsProjects]

I thought 2 electrodes stuck into a potato and some lemon juice would do it.

Nope, wrong vegatable and wrong fruit juice.

 

[lenny]

 

[soundwave]

240v charger - Google Shopping

www.google.com

 

[Forb]

Haibike xduro all mtn pro 2014.BAEB.3.3
- Haibike Charger 90° for Haibike models Yamaha engine with Simplo 630wh / 720wh battery

Says, Input: 220-240V

But - Output: only 42V.

I'd need 220-240V out.

I'm guessing that I'd have to charge each battery individually, even though I could wire them up together. Needs thought.

Nope, wrong vegatable and wrong fruit juice.

That's two strikes in one post. You must have been asleep in physic class, and home economics. Potatoes are vegetables.

A роtаtо generates аbоut 0.8 vоltѕ аnd 0.2 milliamperes, so I'd need about 9,000 wired in series. It was, of course, an ironic joke. But you could probably make an potato powered LED tail light.

 

[lenny]

 

[soundwave]

the thing you are looking for is a inverter.

3000W 12V to 230V Pure Sine Wave Inverter (with UPS Function) | Renogy UK

Renogy 3000W Inverter transforms the DC electricity stored in batteries into standard household AC power. Free Shipping!

uk.renogy.com

so you want one massive pack at 12v 24v 48v ect and then a inverter for the voltage of a batt. bigger batt more capacity so will last longer.

Anker 555 PowerHouse - 1024Wh | 1000W

Long-Lasting Portable Power Station With a 10-Year Lifespan: With our proprietary long-lasting technology InfiniPower™, combined with LiFePO4 batteries, ul

www.anker.com

 

[saneagle]

Says, Input: 220-240V

But - Output: only 42V.

I'd need 220-240V out.

I'm guessing that I'd have to charge each battery individually, even though I could wire them up together. Needs thought.

That's two strikes in one post. You must have been asleep in physic class, and home economics. Potatoes are vegetables.

A роtаtо generates аbоut 0.8 vоltѕ аnd 0.2 milliamperes, so I'd need about 9,000 wired in series. It was, of course, an ironic joke. But you could probably make an potato powered LED tail light.

240v DC would kill you if you touched it. It's not the sort of thing you should be messing about with unless you know about the safety precautions.

 

[lenny]