adding a second battery to the existing ima battery

[steveo]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if i could parrallel a lithium battery with the existing insight pack to increase capacity? Would i just parrallel the battery at the 2 main terminals at the top of the battery near the breakers?

what voltage would the added battery need to be?what is the nominal voltage of the pack required to be? highest voltage it can be? and what is the lowest voltage?


i have alot of questions..

thanks
-steveo

[retepsnikrep]

Have you done some searching on here for lithium packs and conversions? There are several threads and hundreds of posts. There are also a few people running parallel stock packs which is much easier and cheaper. Again there are lots of threads and posts on this subject.

You need to do some serious reading and then come back to us. Can you give us some background on yourself. Do you have an Insight? Where are you located? What skills experience do you have in dealing with these cars/electronics etc.

In answer to your questions. IMHO of course.

I was wondering if i could parrallel a lithium battery with the existing insight pack to increase capacity?

Not directly. Keep the chemistry the same.

Would i just parrallel the battery at the 2 main terminals at the top of the battery near the breakers?

You could add a buddy pack which keeps the stock pack charged via a DC/DC converter. At least one person has done this with an engineer lithium system.

what voltage would the added battery need to be?

Depends on how you are going to do it.

What is the nominal voltage of the pack required to be? highest voltage it can be? and what is the lowest voltage?

Nominal pack voltage of the stock pack is 144v. Max system voltage is ~190v. Lowest resting voltage is ~140v. Under load it can drop to around ~120v

[uhtrinity]

As Pete said, don't mix battery chemistry.

On my parallel setup the batteries are connected at the neg battery terminal. The positive connection is made on the positive connection at the bottommost right side of the output panel as denoted with an orange + in the attached picture. If the positive connection is made anywhere a code related to current mismatch will occur. Also, the connection wire cannot sit to close to the nearby current sensor or random p1449 codes will be generated.

My setup also has the additional safeguards of a high current relay which connects the batteries, a 12 ohm resistor for voltage matching, PTC strips, and temp probes. I wouldn't recommend connecting two batteries without any safeguards. Everything I used is available on a second Honda battery.

[steveo]

Originally Posted by retepsnikrep

Have you done some searching on here for lithium packs and conversions? There are several threads and hundreds of posts. There are also a few people running parallel stock packs which is much easier and cheaper. Again there are lots of threads and posts on this subject.

You need to do some serious reading and then come back to us. Can you give us some background on yourself. Do you have an Insight? Where are you located? What skills experience do you have in dealing with these cars/electronics etc.

In answer to your questions. IMHO of course.

Not directly. Keep the chemistry the same.

You could add a buddy pack which keeps the stock pack charged via a DC/DC converter. At least one person has done this with an engineer lithium system.

Depends on how you are going to do it.

Nominal pack voltage of the stock pack is 144v. Max system voltage is ~190v. Lowest resting voltage is ~140v. Under load it can drop to around ~120v

Hey

yes, i've been reading some posts; on how to modify/service... alot of reading ahead of me, i'm just anxious to get the ball rolling on my project

i will update my sig to refect my car info


I have great skills in repairing/building/modify electic bicycles!

Please search my username on youtube -- trdfreak03

I have lots of videos on my high power electric bikes, my current bike is
20kw+

88.8v 24s 1p pack @ 200amps + on a crystalite x5 hub motor..20kw +

I've also have experience assembling many brushless hub motor controllers/repairing brushless motor hall sensor, upgrading wire gauges for higher power/ ah ... amps of my batts... list goes on ... i'm really sabby on the ebike end ... not so much on the insights

i will search some posts on how to increase battery capacity, thanks for specifying the voltages needed!

-steveo

[Cobb]

Great to hear steveo, Id love to pick your brain. I want to use one of those hub motor/wheels as a pusher / 5th wheel on my geo and Honda to help extend the mpg.

How much power can you throw down?
Whats a good vendor?
Whats a good size?
What happens as it heats up?
Any regen capabilities?

Thanks.