Battery Vehicle Society

Finally got around to replacing those (potentially) duff cells yesterday and tightened up the screws (there was a loose connection roughly where I expected). A few fireworks due to that damn single plate swinging round and shorting against adjacent cells :x Burnt my fingers a bit trying to swing it ...

Come on lads, you know these here electric vehicles are just a passing fad, just like the "motor car"

That was also going through my mind - if they are both duff could it just be coincidence or has one cell taken out its partner over time?

While my scooter's off the road I've got plenty of opportunity to experiment so I've been tweaking my code for the PIC18F2680, and this evening I finally have it (basically) running

It now uses 21.3% of program space and 18.3% data space, so plenty of room for more development!

Of course as Beemer pointed out the problem could be a false reading from the bms. Use a volt meter to confirm the cell readings, being careful of course as working on pack voltages can be lethal. I see what you mean now about loose connections, I had only considered how it might affect the voltage...

Thanks guys, I didn't think a loose connection would cause such rapid charge/discharge, no doubt I will find out in a couple of weeks. At least they are screw tab Headways so (subject to sourcing a new cell or two) replacing won't be too difficult. The BMS is 25 on a board so no chance of swapping t...

Still haven't had a chance to take the pack out to check that connection, but I haven't used the scooter for over a week now because it was dropping badly (I had it cut the controller after only 2 miles :shock: ). So I thought this evening I'd just give the pack a quick boost charge, and it was cert...

The problem with this sort of "larking about" is that a) fans of the programme think it's acceptable to emulate it, and b) that the "factual" element must be true 'cos it's on the telly.

Also had a bit of a beer and brainwaving session last night and I've abandoned the USB idea as I've discovered the PIC18F2680 which has even more program space (32K words) and RAM (over 3K). The only trouble with the "beer" part is that I find I end up buying stuff online! :lol: So I've or...

Ok, first of all the pic: http://s4.imagestime.com/out.php/i584245_IMGP1183.jpg As you can see I've got it displaying the pack/max/min voltages on the first line, and temp/current/SOC on the bottom. This is updated in one second intervals - I was having problems with data corruption so I added a che...