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Old 12-29-2009, 08:40 PM   #17 (permalink)
Christopher Jordan
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Santa Cruz, CA.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tweety View Post
A LiPo cell is prone to blowing up if charged the wrong way... Building a pack for a car with that would be stupid in an order of magnitude untold... They are very common in small packs made for RC planes and such and are ideal as someone said for the lights on a bike (think it was tadpoletrike?)... But definetly not for a traction pack...

Li-Ion is very, very picky about charging voltage... Charge one cell the wrong way and it goes dead...
January 2002 I paid over $1000. for 24V (two 12V) lithium batteries (Electric Sierra Cycles- Santa Cruz,CA) for a TerraTrike recumbent trike with a Currie motor. In 2003 a GEM burned up in FL.. I grit my teeth.
In November 2003 it was dead anyway.

Later in 2003 I began building my E-Pod (finished 2005). It has 3 plain old lead-acid batteries (36V).

In the last 5 years that City-EL in the UK went lithium (I think Germany sells them new with lithium) with HUGE insulation pads. Tesla had problems with batteries overheating- something like a refrigerator was needed.

I am still extremely wary! Photo is a new 2009 City-EL in Berlin.
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