DIY Electric Car Forums banner

hi power batteries

17K views 113 replies 18 participants last post by  gottdi 
#1 ·
hello all
just wanted to tell everyone about our situation. and/how hi power and the electric car co made everything right.
my name is kevin from topeka electric motor, we have showed you our 2000 s10 truck. topekaelectricmotor.com this is were it can be viewed.
we have 48 cells 200 amphr. with reap bms.
shortly after we had the truck running our bms found that we had some weak cells, these cells wouldnt hold the same substainable charge, we made 3 long test runs to try to get over the 100 mile mark, the batteries all performed exactly,the same to about 75miles. and then you could watch the voltage levels lowering considerably faster on these cells than the other cells. we had 10 cells showing these signs. you could put the truck on the charger and these 10 cells would come back to the correct voltage and all 48 cells would end up .030 volts from highest to lowest. like i said we did this test 3 times, loging voltages per cells and total volts per mile. aslong as you only drove less than 70 miles and then recharged, the cells performed exactly the same,you wouldnt of know there was a problem, until you went over that range and you then had these lower cell issues. without a good bms it would be hard to find and prove these issues.
hi power batteries say they have a 2 year warranty, well after all the documention and proof, we had 48 new cells show up at our shop today. we will be installing them this weekend.

big thanks to carl clark (electric car co ) and hi power batteries. stand up companies are hard to find these days.

thanks kevin
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Great story! I have bought several things from Carl and have been happy. Here's his web site:

http://www.evequipmentsupply.com

BTW motor guy whats the max Amps you could pull from those CHP 200 Ahr batteries, and for how long? I bought a couple that I'm going to torture test after I'm done torture testing the 10 Ahr cylindrical cells.
 
#3 ·
thanks david

carl has told me about your car, sounds real neat. also tell him you want a copy of the video of our truck he made up.
let me know how the torture test works out.

maybe i am just over stimulated, about our new ac motor but i think there are going to be some big gains made in the ev world in the next few months from all who develope the new ideas.

thanks kevin
 
#4 ·
Hi Kevin,
48 cells of 200 Ah is 30720whr. To cover 100 miles you would have to run with an efficiency of 307 wh/mile. That's a lofty goal for an S10 truck. Did you check any of the 10 weaker cells to see how many Ah they were capable of discharging? Most people with this kind of vehicle would be happy with 400 wh/mile...which would give you about 76 miles. Perhaps the weak cells aren't too far off the actual 200 Ah rating???

Cheers,
 
#5 ·
we have alost gone 100 miles, like we have stated 95.5 miles is our best to date. no cigar yet.
the good effiency, i think is all beause we use the 5 speed transmission to stay in the warp 9's best power range, you will soon figure out the amps per mph to achieve the best range.
one item i find very interesting is that on slave #2, cell's 9,10,12 will drop their voltage around the 85 mile range to about 2.5 vdc,while cell #11 is still above 3.0 vdc. when this happened the first time we took a vom meter and check all the battery voltage to make sure the bms wasnt giving us bogus readings. our batteries are all series connected.
we had to answer alot of questions and send lots of data to prove there was an issue to hi power, i am so glad we bought a good battery management system that can supply you with that kinda data.
that was a good lesson learned.

thanks kevin
 
#6 ·
I'm just thinking that perhaps your weaker cells still have 200 Ah and the rest have more? Can you test one of them? (for what you paid for that BMS...you could have bought another small pack of batteries! lol):p
 
#7 ·
Let me also point out an easy way to know your cell capacity is to bottom balance your pack. Once you have them all discharged to the same SOC you monitor them when charging. When the voltage starts to shoot up on the first one, (around 3.50 for SE/CALB), you know it's reaching full and you know it's your smallest capacity cell. Using an amp hour meter you know how many amp hours went into it. Also, my SE/CALB cells all came with a data sheet listing actual capacity and resistance for each cell, tested at the factory. I guess HiPower doesn't do the same? You can also use a $30 Cell Log 8 to log 8 cells at a time to see how they behave under load.
 
#8 ·
Good to know that Hipower honored their warranty. 100 miles out of a battery that size in that type of vehicle is impressive.
 
#9 ·
Very true David.... impressive indeed. It's ironic when u think about it.... "we" are all worried about the Chinese battery manufacturers and dealers screwing us ... and the only ones I've seen screwed are from here! lol.

I can't see them (Chinese battery guys) screwing folks and expecting to do more business. Can you??? If I recall David, you stuck your neck out and ordered batteries from a vendor that was little known and had them shipped direct.... yes?
 
#10 ·
Correct, although I carried out testing on a 12.8V sample first to try and verify the reserve capacity and High current draw (although I was only able to do a rough test of 3C @ 10 seconds). So far the battery has performed well, but with only about 2000 kilometers on all electric, it doesn't say much.

The company that sold my batteries was an interesting one because they carried every kind you could imagine. LiFePO4 was the most obvious but they also had NiCad, NiMH, and NiFE among a long list of others among in and lithium varieties.

What gives me some reason to celebrate is that Kevin's battery is a carbon copy of mine in terms of rated capacity AND system voltage.
 
#11 ·
If I may inquire....what was it that convinced you to send your $$ in advance of having product? Was there any particular thing?.... No other buyers to praise them? or... a revelation moment of some kind
 
#12 ·
What I did wasn't completely without precedent at the time. Back then I had already looked at conversions using thundersky LiFePO4 cells that had a few years on them and I took the time to contact some directly to ask how they were performing. No one that I found had anything bad to say about them.

TS is of course a different company, but the chemistry is the same and after I received a sample that worked as they claimed, I felt "less uncomfortable" about buying something like this. They also answered all my questions and when I plotted my measured discharge curve to compare it to their plot it was a perfect match. I sensed there was also a realization on behalf of many chinese companies that they had to overcome much of the bad wrap that TS placed on all of them a few years ago when a large group buy of lithium batteries turned sour and they didn't perform as advertised. This was before TS introduced the current gold standard LiFePO4 series.

The chinese are slowly starting to embrace western 3rd party payment methods like credit cards and paypal or equivalent so a direct wire transfer is becoming obsolete (thankfully). Are they better than thundersky or sky energy? I have no idea. There simply aren't enough miles on my car to say for sure.
 
#15 ·
One of my customer in Germany, he convert Porsche, here is her car data:

Porsche 912
2 + 2 seater
electric motor: 72KW / 350Nm
Gearbox: 5 speed
battery: HIPOWER 40S2P / 128V / 200AH / 25,6KWH
weight: 1150Kg inclusive batteries
max. speed: 165KPH with two passengers
cruising speed: 120KPH
range: 200+ Km at 100KPH with two passengers

Here is his car
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Porsche 912 Regularity rally
 
#16 ·
One of my customer in Germany, he convert Porsche, here is her car data:

Porsche 912
2 + 2 seater
electric motor: 72KW / 350Nm
Gearbox: 5 speed
battery: HIPOWER 40S2P / 128V / 200AH / 25,6KWH
weight: 1150Kg inclusive batteries
max. speed: 165KPH with two passengers
cruising speed: 120KPH
range: 200+ Km at 100KPH with two passengers

Here is his car
View attachment 8569
Those numbers are a little more realistic... not many cars could get 125 wh/kilometer (205 wh/mile) at 100 kph.... ??? Nice looking ride though!
 
#22 ·
Looks like a lost in translation thing..

Candy, if you were explaining the differences between the Calb, Thundersky, and Hi-power 100ah cells, what would they be? Why would one buy one above the other?
Thanks
Tom
Tom, thank you for your question, a good question.
And I just can tell you that the single cell are nearly same, but for the battery pack, we can provide all in one solution.
As a Hipower Rep here, I don't make a sale as a purpose here, just make my customers happy, Kevin Constant is my customer, Carl Clark, I have many customer is happy with Hipower cells, just because Hipower has done a lot which can make them happy , thanks for all , we can enjoy the high-quality LiFePo4 battery.
Candy
 
#28 ·
Thank you. Is each cell tested for actual capacity and internal resistance, do they come with a data sheet with that information, and how close to each other are the cells in capacity? For example, my SE/CALB cells each had a serial number and a data sheet referencing tested capacity and resistance. The 100ah cells all were between 110-114 actual capacity. Closer grouping of capacity would be preferred and make management easier.
 
#29 ·
hello to all

i would like to offer more input if anyone is looking to purchase a set of hi power batteries, or are just have some questions on how they act or perform under load.

i will try to answer any question to the best of our ability, if we dont know i would be glad to try to find out.

since we have installed our new pack, our weather has been colder, in the 20's in the morning and highs about 45, we have been driving and useing our heater and charging in the afternoon,and all seems to be good. they are charging up balanced and have very good power even when cold.

we are not trying to stand up for any companies past behavior or actions, all i know is what they have done now. they seem to be attempting to make all better. but i will give a piece of advise to hi power " if you trip and fall again,and dont support your customers, your reputation will be completely damaged beyond repair." that will most likely mean no more sales of batteries to the usa ev market.

our ph # is 1-785-233-4750

thanks kevin constant
topeka electric motor inc.
 
G
#33 ·
Were there any 100 AH Hi-Power batteries sold that were just crap batteries? How many folks here are using Hi-Power 100 AH batteries? How are the holding up? Performing?

PDF says greater than or equal to 1000 cycles. I thought the cells were in the range of 2000 to 3000 cycles, not 1000? Must be confused on this one.

Anyway, Would Hi-Power be a good alternative to TS or CALB in performance and price for the 100 AH size batteries?

Pete :)
 
#38 ·
She asked me to keep it off the forum and I may buy so ill honor that, just to say that its a *bit* less then TS or CALB for what, according to the specs seems like somewhat lower ratings.

She is friendly and fast with a response, hit her up :)
Thank you so much for your frank comments, I like the style. I also do the business in this way, which we can do, then we will tell the customer the truth, we will obey the truth, not like some datasheet, bull shit on the datasheet. as the LiFePo4's physical property, 80% DOD is 2000 lifecycle, and 1000 lifecycle as 100% DOD.
I just can say , High quality is not shown on the paperwork, and it is tested by the enduser.
Thank you !
Candy
 
#42 ·
hello to all
i said yesterday that i would tell how our pack is doing.

we are testing our new pack in the cold weather here in kansas, it was 17 deg F this morning. i realize for optimum performance we should have a heated battery box. our truck is still running great with out it. the battery voltage is staying from highest to lowest .04 between all 48 cells. we have 42 miles on this charge,while running the heater, and our high cell is 3.279 and the low cell is 3.234 vdc. the sos meter shows that we still have about 50% left in the pack.

we will continue to run the pack to about 80% DOD and then tell you all the #'s.

like i said yesterday, we have nothing to hide, it is what it is, we wont bump any # to make it look better.


thanks kevin
 
#45 ·
hello all

well i just wanted to up date our mileage and voltage. for the new pack.
we have run our pack down to 20.5% on the sos meter,after 59.5 miles. 20.2 of which were on the hiway, 60-65 mph.it has been cold here so we are also running our heater. we started with our total pack voltage of 163.2 vdc.

after pulling in the drive way tonite and not giving the cells any time to rest or regain any voltage by sitting, the highest cell was 3.144. lowest cell was 2.933. for a total pack voltage of 147.636. for 48 cells.

we put the batteries on the charger tonite,it is the 5th time on the charger,and we will see in the morning how it is, the weather guy says single digits tonite for the temp. so some cold test runs in the morning.

thanks kevin
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top