My new Ping Battery

[Michael of Gwynedd]

My new ping 15AH battery arrived today via parcel force. I ordered it two and a half weeks ago so Li Ping was spot on when he said it would take two weeks to build and five days to deliver.

No duty or VAT was charged.

I am confused by the wiring, Li Ping on his website mentions the wires to the charger are red “+” and blue “-“ but the wires on my battery are Black and Blue.

The battery was delivered completely flat, so I can’t tell the positive or negative wires.

I have asked Li Ping for clarification.

Has anyone else had this problem?
Michael

 

[Tiberius]

Hi Michael,

The normal scheme is to have 3 wires emerging. The positive (red?) is common for both discharge and charge.

Nick

 

[rog_london]

Hi Michael,

The normal scheme is to have 3 wires emerging. The positive (red?) is common for both discharge and charge.

Nick

That makes sense - I couldn't see a battery being supplied so totally flat that there would be NO measurable voltage at all...

Has the red wire become detached or got pushed out of sight?

Rog.

 

[torrent99]

That makes sense - I couldn't see a battery being supplied so totally flat that there would be NO measurable voltage at all...

Has the red wire become detached or got pushed out of sight?

Rog.

Indeed, if that was the case then the battery would very probably be extremely damaged. As Rog says it's most likely a broken connection.

(Lithium batteries must not be discharged below a minimum voltage otherwise damage results, so a completely flat battery would be very serious).

In any case the stories I read of Li Ping's customer service are very encouraging!

On endless-sphere there are a number of threads (not a huge number so don't worry!) from Ping users whose batteries have malfunctioned, some of them include pictures of the insides of the duct tape packs which may help you with diagnosis.

 

[Michael of Gwynedd]

Thanks Tiberius, Rog and Torrent 99 for the encouraging replies.

There are four wires entering the battery, two are red and appear to be the wires to the motor / controller, whilst the other blue and black are for charging.

My volt meter reads zero. Not a flicker of voltage.

I sent a e mail to Li Ping last night, but to date have had no reply.

Michael

 

[RobinC]

The instructions sent from Ping in an email for the V2.5 pack were thick red+/black- for discharge, thin red+/blue- for charge.

I can't recall if the colours were all correct but the two pairs of wires are slightly different thickness.

Robin

 

[Michael of Gwynedd]

Update from Li Ping

Many thanks for all your responses

Li Ping sent me a revised wiring diagram saying : -

“The black is "-" for discharge. When you connect the battery to the controller or motor, use the bigger red wire as "+" and black wire as "-". When you connect it to the charger for charging, use the thinner red wire as "+" and blue wire as "-".

I am now getting 39 volts across the terminals were as before I was getting zero as I was measuring the wrong wires!!

I'm glad i asked for advice first or could have damaged the battery.

This was easy to get wrong as both pairs of wires were going in at opposite ends, the correct way was to use one wire from opposite sides, using the thicker of the two reds as positive.

The wire thickness between the two reds was not easy spot untill you looked closely

I am now in the process of wiring in fuses and cut off switches.

One question is can I use my eZee charger on the Ping battery?? I have plenty of suitiable XLR plugs.

Michael

 

[rog_london]

Many thanks for all your responses

Li Ping sent me a revised wiring diagram saying : -

“The black is "-" for discharge. When you connect the battery to the controller or motor, use the bigger red wire as "+" and black wire as "-". When you connect it to the charger for charging, use the thinner red wire as "+" and blue wire as "-".

I am now getting 39 volts across the terminals were as before I was getting zero as I was measuring the wrong wires!!

I'm glad i asked for advice first or could have damaged the battery.

This was easy to get wrong as both pairs of wires were going in at opposite ends, the correct way was to use one wire from opposite sides, using the thicker of the two reds as positive.

The wire thickness between the two reds was not easy spot untill you looked closely

I am now in the process of wiring in fuses and cut off switches.

One question is can I use my eZee charger on the Ping battery?? I have plenty of suitiable XLR plugs.

Michael

You could always have taken a look on the website - the connection details are shown on there in a very easy to understand form.

Li Ping does supply you with a free charger - why would you want to use something different? Unless you are certain of what you're doing - i.e. that the eZee charger is totally compatible - why take that sort of risk, especially as you didn't understand the connections in the first place. Not only that, when you asked for advice on here you didn't even mention the two red wires! We were led to believe there weren't any. If you want decent advice, you've got to get your facts right.

Any battery has positive at one end and negative at the other - if they appear to come out of one end together, it's because, in effect, the battery has been 'folded' electrically to achieve the necessary size and shape. It's really a 'pile' of cells (that's the old-fashioned word for a battery - originally called a 'pile').

PS - I got curious, and I can now answer your question about the eZee charger more definitely - it's 'NO!'

The eZee range use Lithium Polymer batteries, and the chargers for those (the 36 volt versions) are rated usually at around 42 volts. Mr. Ping specifies that to recharge his 36 volt batteries requires a charger producing 45 to 46 volts. If you tried to use an eZee charger you'd find recharging would be very slow and would probably never complete.

Obviously, don't try things the other way round either - you would possibly destroy both the eZee battery and your Ping charger.

Rog.

 

[Michael of Gwynedd]

Rog, Point taken,

I should have said there were two red wires and a black and blue wires in my thread, my apologies for this omission. I did all the mention then to Li Ping and he immediately sent a reply.

I have now wired up the battery and its charging.

The reason why I asked if the eZee charger would work was to have fewer chargers in my house, I seem to have lots of different chargers all adding clutter.

The Ping charger is working fine, is a lot smaller and quieter than the eZee, so I’ll have to make room for another charger.

I will not be swapping chargers!!

Thanks for the advice.

Michael.

 

[rog_london]

Rog, Point taken,

I should have said there were two red wires and a black and blue wires in my thread, my apologies for this omission. I did all the mention then to Li Ping and he immediately sent a reply.

I have now wired up the battery and its charging.

The reason why I asked if the eZee charger would work was to have fewer chargers in my house, I seem to have lots of different chargers all adding clutter.

The Ping charger is working fine, is a lot smaller and quieter than the eZee, so I’ll have to make room for another charger.

I will not be swapping chargers!!

Thanks for the advice.

Michael.

You're welcome! I'm glad things are resolved. Here's a pure guess on my part - I suspect that the two red wires are connected together on the battery to give you two connections as a convenience. The blue and the black will be different though - the BMS system (within the battery housing) will have two connections, one for charging only and one for discharging only. I'm sure you won't be tempted to swap those functions, just to be aware of them.

Rog.

 

[Michael of Gwynedd]

Thanks Rog for the help.

Had the battery on charge last night and has now 44 volts.

Had to put two 25 volt 50 watt bulbs in series across the terminals to get the voltage down to 41 volt.

The BMS has little red led lights that stayed on after removing the charger, and then they started to “dance” switching on and off. Very pretty!!

It appeared as if the cells were still trying to balance, but after 10 minutes discharging with the bulbs and with the voltage down to 41 volts the led’s

I hope to try the bike out this afternoon.

Michael.

 

[Michael of Gwynedd]

Just come back from a 15 mile ride with my new 15 AH Ping battery fitted to my eZee Forza bike, I rode along the cycle track to Pen y Groes, then climbed up to Carmel, Fron and then Ceserea a height of over 1000 ft with no problems. On the flat, the LED lights stayed green all the time, but on some of the steep hill it went to yellow a few times but never went to red.

Quite a difference from my failing eZee polymer battery that could only manage 10 mile max and had to be nursed as it did not like being stressed.

I was a bit worried about the extra weight carrying two batteries, but this was not a problem. I may leave the original battery off for short trips.

I don’t use the two batteries together, and have the original eZee battery half way down the carrier held up by the locking bolt operated by the ignition switch. I take the fuse out in case it accidentally slips down and makes contact with the electric terminals.

I understand diodes can be fitted to prevent the two batteries shorting; can these be fitted in my Ping battery box?? There is plenty of room as the box is a lot larger than the battery.

Any help with or some links to other threads regarding fitting diodes would be most welcome.

Michael

 

[JamesC]

I understand diodes can be fitted to prevent the two batteries shorting; can these be fitted in my Ping battery box?? There is plenty of room as the box is a lot larger than the battery.

Any help with or some links to other threads regarding fitting diodes would be most welcome.

Michael

Others have better electrical knowledge than I do, but here is the link to the double battery arrangement that I did on my Torq 1.

The Schottky diode that allows the batteries simultaneously to feed the motor is housed in the small aluminium box just above the key switch.

Double battery arrangement

James

 

[Michael of Gwynedd]

Thanks James for the information and links to your very clear and comprehensive instructions.

If I go ahead I with the fitting of Scottky diodes, and I haven’t yet decided if it’s worth it, I shall be following your advice.

Michael.

 

[Tiberius]

Thanks James for the information and links to your very clear and comprehensive instructions.

If I go ahead I with the fitting of Scottky diodes, and I haven’t yet decided if it’s worth it, I shall be following your advice.

Michael.

Hi Michael,

The discussion about diodes has prompted me to post a thread about the Ideal Diodes I have been working on.
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/4140-ideal-diodes.html

Nick