tourtoe

Thank's. I'm forwarding the roses to cleverchimp/stokemonkey as they got me interested in this kind of solution in the first place Cheers, Torben

I got the Powerstream - and it is indeed a fine product. I payed ~40£ for the charger plus shipping, and 26£ to the Danish customs. Sigh. The shipping took 5 days, the customs handling took 10 days. "el Focus" works better than ever, now I have more than 1000km on it. Cheers, Torben

I need an extra charger for "el Focus" - for topping up when I park the bike at work. Until now I have brought the Schachner charger every time, but I'm afraid it won't last long that way. I need ~1.5 - 2A, but 3A would be nice. The pack is a ~10Ah and has a 10K Thermistor R 3950. I don't need maintenance mode, revitalising functions oir anything fancy, but if I can find top of the pops for a reasonable price, the Schachner charger could stay at work, and the new one at home. I live in Denmark, so shipping from Germany is often much cheaper than from the UK. Any recommendations? Cheers, Torben

The picture is the same as it was on ebay - they note that the shrink vary. Mine is blue and marked 11Ah. I have no reason to believe that the current cells aren't the same. I have 5 cycles/185km on the battery - so far all is good. Should have bought 60 then, though :-) Cheers, Torben aka TourToe Electric Focus Sport 2007

VeloKraft NoCom is the google term.

Did you see this Not exactly aerodynamically optimized (for a recumbent), but feel free to copy the idea on one of these : http://www.hamberg.dk/pix/hpv/nocom/nocom_05.jpg And you can have a look at youtube for EA trikes - theres some speedy monsters out there :-) Cheers, Torben

I bought the (noname) cells from NewTecs (germany) a year ago. I found them on Ebay.de at 5euro a piece - I paid 1 euro a piece for matching. Can't find them at that price now, though. Mine came in blue shrink with small industrial-like writing on. They left 2 values handwritten on each cell - maybe that had to do with the matching. I have not confirmed the 11Ah yet. I organized the pack in 2 * 15 cells - each packed in triangles 3*5 - the packs fit perfectly in 75mm ABS drain tubes available locally (Denmark). Cheap and solid solution, I think. I still need to make nice lids for them and decorate them in a way so I'm not mistaken for a suicidal bomber - they kinda have that look :-( Cheers, Torben

Thanks Flecc. I'm not to unhappy with the outcome myself Summer enjoyment is handled by this : http://www.scheel.net/images/baron.jpg The ElFocus should bring me the joy of cheap, green commuting and exercise in the colder season. I might need to insulate the batterypack, though Cheers, Torben

My ElFocus was "finished" yesterday - enough for a small road test anyway. I just wanted to share my joy - heres more detail The project stood still for a year or so, but Flecc helped me get back on track by helping with a charging issue (DIY battery pack - thermistor problem) - thanks a lot! Cheers, Torben

I did them wrong - received this : Dear Torben! Thank you for your email! The NTC-termistor has at 20°C approximately 10 kilo ohms. We hope we could help you with this information. If not please do not hesitate to contact us! Not too precise, but confirmation is a good thing :-) The charger changed to maintenence mode when the battery was at ~42.9V - the battery never got too hot, but I charged it in several steps - I didn't want to leave it for too long connected to the charger. But everything seems OK. Tonight - with some luck - I'll test the ElFocus. Cheers, Torben

Googling for 10K NTC Thermistor Beta 3950 or something this morning brought me here - and I got answers to my question already, and the batterypack is charging right behind me. Great resource! Cheers, Torben

Yup, the 39,3V was with the batterypack at ~32V, now it charges at 42V. Cheers, Torben

Thanks a lot - I don't have an original pack, so no help there. The problem was this (there's news!) : the charger expected a thermistor/resistance and unconnected it only measured 5v between 2 pins, and 4,2V between 2 others. Now I have a test going on with a 10Kohm ordinary resistor, and a temperature probe (from the kitchen :-)) in the battery. And it delivers ~39,3V 1,3A now, so I'm on the right track. The Schachner charger has a XLR connector and it expects positive on terminal 1, common on terminal 3 and a (probably) 10K thermistor between terminal 2 and 3. The local electronics shop only had a "no-spec" 10K thermistor (which measures 13Kohm at room temperature) so I'll certainly look into the RS option. I have also emailed schachner, but I don't hope too much for an answer. Cheers, Torben

Hi all - I have a 36V 11Ah DIY battery pack (matched cells) and a Schachner charger. I can read from several posts that the thermistor in the pack should match the charger - does anyone know which thermistor Schachner uses? It's all supposed to make this monster go. Cheers, Torben