Pedant

I've just finished my first discharge - charge cycle and so far so good. When I first used the kit 5 years ago I had some problems with the original Phylion battery cutting out so, to provide Alien with information, I devised a test scheme where I rode the bike at a target 10 mph with no pedalling until it cut out. That happened after about 12 miles before I sent it back for them to "condition". When they returned it it would do over 30 miles. I did this same test on the new battery and got to 30 miles (with just the red battery LED still on and 34.9 volts) before I got bored and gave up. I then recharged with the supplied Sans charger which is rated at 2 amps and it took 5 hours 30 minutes for the light to go to green. I realise that the charger won't have been providing 2 amps for all that time because the BMS would have been balancing towards the end, but the time does seem to indicate that the battery has something like the advertised 10.4 amp hours capacity. [mention=4509]KirstinS[/mention] You must have a slightly different version of the motor because mine will do 19 or 20 mph on a fully charged 36 (really 42) volt battery. I think it's a code 13 (in a 700c wheel) and I guess yours is some other code.

[uSER=4366]@d8veh[/uSER] Thanks for the response. When you say that the S06P can be adjusted, is that via the C parameters or by a hardware change like soldering the shunt? If I need to change any C parameters do I need to get an S LCD 3 or is there a way with the LCD 1, or any other piece of kit? Sorry for all the questions! You're a star for answering them so patiently. For now I guess I'll just tidy up the cables and ride it for a while before deciding whether to update further.

Here's my promised update: I ordered the battery and rack on Saturday the 3rd and they arrived on Friday the 9th. They were sent by Deutsche Post who use DHL for the German leg of the journey and Parcel Force for the UK bit. Both parcels were well packed and the contents were undamaged. The battery had 2 of its 4 LEDs lit when I powered it on and I measured its voltage at 36.8 on arrival. This seems just about right as a storage voltage which would minimise capacity loss while in stock. I charged it using the Sans 2 amp charger supplied with it and it took about 3 hours 15 minutes to reach it's fully charged voltage of 41.7. I fitted it to my bike yesterday which involved drilling some holes in the "slider plate" to secure it to the (purpose built) rack. It would have been better if it had come with these pre-drilled and screws and nuts had been supplied. The only, very minor, problem I have is that the controller box provided is slightly smaller than the one on the original Alien kit so I can't fit all of the excess cable inside it as I did before. I took it for a very short "shakedown" run when the rain stopped yesterday and everything seems to be functioning as it should. [uSER=4366]@d8veh[/uSER] the controller is labelled: Rated current: 9A Max Current 18A. So I'm not sure if this is more or less than a S06P which is only labelled with max current 14A plus or minus 1.

Thanks for the advice d8veh. I don't know the rating of my current (no pun intended) controller, but seem to remember it being 15amp though my memory isn't what it was. I'll take a look when I install the new battery. It certainly doesn't have 9 MOSFETs. I took a look at the documentation for the S09P and LCD1 on BMSB and saw that I would need an external speed sensor but couldn't see one offered on their site. Do you know what I would need and where it's available. I'll see how the bike goes with the new battery and probably be back with lot's more questions if I decide to upgrade the controller.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I decided to go for it before I saw d8veh's reply, so I've placed my order - I'll try to remember to update this thread with my experiences with this seller once I've received, installed and tried the battery. Thanks for your advice and the link d8veh. I'm sure you're right about the opportunity to improve the bike. Unfortunately my motor is sensor-less so wouldn't work with the sine wave controller in that battery mounting. In fact, if I used that battery I would be installing a completely new kit. Bearing in mind that I'm now committed to this less powerful battery and my motor is a sensor-less 350w BPM, if I decided to update my controller and accessories, which replacement would you recommend?

I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that my problem was due to browser settings on my PC and I now get color underlined in a glorious red colour.

I hadn't noticed that, but I did notice that the listing says: Item location: Berlin, Germany and there is free, and reasonably quick, delivery to the UK. I was never in any doubt that the product would be from China. My concerns are: Can I trust the seller? Will the product provide enough current?

Thanks for all the responses. No. I'm using Firefox. Your suggestion gave me hope because I looked at Firefox's settings and indeed under "language" it had English (US) before English (UK) so I swapped them but it the spell checker still underlines favourite in red and changes it to favorite so that wasn't the answer. I'm pretty certain that other sites I access via the browser manage to spell check properly so I'm guessing it would need an administrator to change something in the site set up

I've just posted for the first time for some years (probably for the first time since you moved to this provider) and noticed that the spell checker wants me to use American spellings rather than proper English. Is it possible for me or the administrators to teach the software how to spell properly?

I've been a member for at least 5 years and I often read these forums but almost never post, but I need some advice from the experts! My pedelec is an ancient and favourite hybrid which I fitted an Alien Ocean 350w BPM kit to 5 years ago. The Phylion XH370-10J battery has lost a lot of its capacity and needs replacing. I realise that I could update to a frame mounted battery and improve the balance of the bike (and have more choice of batteries) but I like the rear rack mounted battery for its ruggedness and its stealth (under panniers). I've been looking at: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36v10-4ah-lithium-ion-battery-rear-battery-for-Mifa-Prophete-e-bike-Charger-/222049731942?hash=item33b3320566:g:pD8AAOSwMtxXqvLV from YSbattery in Berlin which uses 10s4p Samsung 26F cells. My questions are: Will the battery be able provide enough current? (I think the controller may be rated 15 amps but I'm not sure - It's the same as an Alien Aurora). Has anyone dealt with YSbattery (or their Chinese supplier) and can confirm their ebay 100% rating? Thanks in advance for your help.

I seldom post but am an avid reader of this forum. I feel moved to post now to say that I have been enjoying reading it much more since Jeremy has returned bringing with him some great technical explanations of things that have long puzzled me. It is so much better than reading opinions, often based on the premise that "it costs more so it must be better"; or " if it's German it must be good". Anyway, let's ban all technical content just in case it dilutes the opinion to the extent that someone might learn something!

Thanks for the replies. I guess I may not have made it clear what I want to achieve. I realise that I don't NEED a BMS if I use a Lipo charger with a per cell connector, but I wanted to use one so that I can just attach a charger using the (reasonably water resistant) two wire connector on the current case. Similarly I realise that I could get a controller that could be programmed to enforce the appropriate LVC, but I'd prefer that to be done by electronics in the battery casing. I'd be surprised if the bits to do what I want aren't available, because I would have thought many would want to take advantage of the economical power storage hobby Lipos can provide. I'll have a look at the BMSes on BMS Battery.

I’ve been reading Old Dave’s new build thread with interest, particularly with regard to his use of RC hobby Lipos. My Alien kit came with an aluminium cased Phylion 10s LiMn 10 ah rear rack battery which is performing well after a glitch which was cured by Alien doing some conditioning cycles earlier in the year. It will obviously eventually need to be replaced / refurbished and I would be very interested in effectively re-celling it with Lipos. I’m pretty sure that I could fit sufficient Lipo packs in the case to provide more capacity at lower weight and less cost than replacing like for like. The trouble is that I enjoy the usability of the current set up. That is: I can simply plug in the charger to recharge and rely on the BMS to balance the charge and control the discharge to keep everything safe. So my question to the experts here is: Can I find a BMS that will control 2 or more Lipo packs for an ebike application? Or can I use the BMS in my Phylion battery to do this? Or are there any ebike batteries based on RC hobby Lipos that I could use directly or canabalise to fit my Phylion case?

If you look at the mechanical arrangement of a cantilever brake and compare it with a v brake you'll quickly see that the v brake mechanism itself has quite a bit more mechanical advantage than a cantilever. Brake levers designed for cantilevers have too much mechanical advantage for v brakes - they'll work but will lock the wheels with too light a pressure and will feel unprogressive. That's why, when I fitted the kit to my bike including the levers with cut off switches, I had to change my cantilevers for v brakes - otherwise I wouldn't have been able to pull hard enough on the v brake designed levers to get the cantilevers working properly.

Just to put the brake discussion in context, and perhaps, to bed: My ebike is a 20 year old hybrid made by British Eagle. It came with cantilever rim brakes which were a revelation compared with the side pull rim brakes I had previously used. My knees are no longer up to hills so last year I invested in an Alien (-ised 8Fun really) kit (the – ahem – off road version) and since the brake levers were only available with mechanical advantage appropriate for v brakes (or discs), I upgraded my rim brakes to the cheapest Shimano v brakes I could find and again I found the braking power and control a revelation. I can now, progressively, slow my bike to the point where I lock the wheels, completely under control. As I said in a previous post my only experience of discs on an ebike was not very good, but I guess this was a fairly old, budget setup,so from personal experience I favour the simplicity and cost effectiveness of v brakes. Despite the capabilities of my kitted bike I seldom exceed the legal 15mph under power so perhaps my riding doesn’t demand the complexity of a hydraulic system.(I do, however, appreciate the effortless hill climbing ability.) As to brake maintenance – yes, I guess my brakes may need to have cables adjusted every few years and perhaps I’ll take a look at the shoes and rims when I do that and deem them to be OK. I might even lubricate the pivots occasionally. On the aside about drums versus discs on motorbikes and cars: Surely this is a completely different issue. I think the biggest limitation with drum brakes was lack of heat dissipation leading to overheating and fade. Discs are obviously far superior in this respect because they are open to the cooling air.

To be fair my only experience of disc brakes on an ebike was a Wisper with a front cable operated disc and rear v brake which I repaired for my son. After carefully adjusting the disc it was much less effective than the rear brake which didn't need to be adjusted. I'm sure you can pay a fortune and get wonderfully effective disc brakes, but I question whether it's worth it. As always this is down to opinion. The professionals seem to descend the Alps ok with rim brakes though, but then perhaps professionals know how to control their bikes.

Perhaps it's because, unless you 're planning to ride through deep mud or water, V brakes are more effective and a much more sensible engineering solution (no torque through the spokes). Unfortunately they're not very fashionable. Still you don't see many disc brakes in the Tour de France where 60 mph descents are undertaken.