Hi,I converted one of my bikes into an Ebike using a Bafang bbs01 250w kit. But no way was i going to spend almost as much on a battery made of torch cells(18650's), I'm a LiPo man, mainly because I've used them for years in my model helicopters and as a consequence I know how to treat them so am not afraid of them.My battery i constructed from 5000ah 1s cells from hobby king, an interesting project in itself, I already had a good quality charger so overall cost for a 36v 10 amp 20c battery was just over £120. Now i want to up the quality a bit for my second battery and as i will buy it peacemeal i wondered about the above mentioned Turnigy Graphene range. In the RC forums they get good reports so i wondered if anybody has used them and if so what do they think of them, are they any good or is it all advertising guff?

Yes they are good. I love them!

 

They charge faster than Multistar without any visible puffing (already very slight on Multistar), stay balanced provide plenty of power without sag...

 

I am running Multistar and Graphene 10000 mAh 6S and 4S packs paralleled and in series for 20 Ah 37 V nominative. When I run the light 10 Ah pack I always use the Graphenes now, the Multistars stay at home

I've got 2 4s & 6s 8ah's when on offer, a bit heavier then

MS's. They already have XT60 so no messing about changing connector for me. 35/40 min bulk charge to 41.5v from storage V's.

Sag is about 0.02v.

And the packaging is awesome, worth buying just for that.

10s 10'000mah fits nicely into this Topeak Mondopack XL which I will fix in permanent when I start using them fully. Only tried them a few times and seem good.

These 10s 10ah were only aprox £120 when on offer once, I also like the bullet connectors for an easy series connection.

Thanks Guys for your opinions, it seems that they are as good as claimed.

 

Next question if i might presume on you all again will 12s(2x6s) be too much current for the bafang bbs01 250w and to hell with the legality lol

 

Also can i mix different mahs for example a 6000mah 6s and a 6500mah 4s

I haven't tried BBS01 on 12s but believe the controller will smoke also the voltage won't be recognised. The lcd will probably throw up 07 error code for over voltage and not work, as well possibly 10 for controller over heating.

I have the DPC14 colour LCD and i can select the voltage from there BUT whether the controller in the motor can handle it i dont know, probably safer not to even try.

Thanks Guys for your opinions, it seems that they are as good as claimed.

 

Next question if i might presume on you all again will 12s(2x6s) be too much current for the bafang bbs01 250w and to hell with the legality lol

 

Also can i mix different mahs for example a 6000mah 6s and a 6500mah 4s

 

Now you know why I have a GSM with external controller

 

Yes you can mix but you will only get +90% of 6000mAh out of the battery i.e. the lowest capacity Ah value. I forgot to say they you can expect >90% of the nominative Ah from Graphene compared to about 85% from Multistar if you use them wisely on charge and discharge. I charge to 4.15 V and discharge to 3.65 V. I have taken about 8660 mAh from a 10000 Ah Multistar battery, haven't measured the Graphenes yet.

I have the DPC14 colour LCD and i can select the voltage from there BUT whether the controller in the motor can handle it i dont know, probably safer not to even try.

 

The motor and LCD will handle 48 V but the internal controller won't...

I just can't stop liking Graphene! I just topped up all my packs to storage and Graphene is sooooo much faster and better balanced than Multistar it has to be seen to be believed! I would really like to get myself the welder from ES and get into making my own 18650 batteries but I think I will go for another 3 x 10000 mAh 6S Graphene and move up to 12S instead for the moment.

I just can't stop liking Graphene! I just topped up all my packs to storage and Graphene is sooooo much faster and better balanced than Multistar it has to be seen to be believed!

What C rating you charging them at, and are you bulk charging or balance charging?

1C (10 Amps) and standard charge ("Lipo charge" in the Reaktor menu), I have only ever balance charged the Multistar 4S pack a couple of times. I charge to storage after use then top up to 4.15 V per cell before using.

Just did a full charge of my 10 Ah packs, first in quite some time:

I put 8937 mAh in from "empty" - 3.654 V per cell up to 4.15 V per cell, 58 minute charge time at 1C.

 

That is about 89.4% of nominative capacity, you can expect 90% of nominative capacity because my LiPo alarm hadn't gone off, the battery was still at 36.54 V.

Multistars are good for just over 80% (83-84% IIRC).

Just did a full charge of my 10 Ah packs, first in quite some time:

I put 8937 mAh in from "empty" - 3.654 V per cell up to 4.15 V per cell, 58 minute charge time at 1C.

 

That is about 89.4% of nominative capacity, you can expect 90% of nominative capacity because my LiPo alarm hadn't gone off, the battery was still at 36.54 V.

Multistars are good for just over 80% (83-84% IIRC).

I like to discharge to 3.65V per cell too. You'd probably find that the 10Ah graphene lipos take a full 10000mAh if charging from a 'fully empty' 2.8V per cell though.

Probably a bit more I think, 10000 mAh should be between 3.2 V and 4.2 V.

Just put +8000 mAh back in the Graphene which I had used from storage voltage of around 38.3v down to 36.9v. It took all of 53 minutes to charge to 41.2v

I bought some in March earlier this year when they were on sale and have left them in storage mode ever since. I've just got them out to check them and they are all bang on to the mv exactly as I left them.

I am waiting for them to be on offer, they may be good but i aint paying through the nose for them