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So I took her out for a range test yesterday, with two objectives in mind. The first was simply to explore the range capabilities, the second and most important was to ensure that it performed correctly as it ran out of energy. Normally, one does not run a lithium EV until it stalls, but since the canbus communication between the Orion and the Curtis is meant to protect the pack while underway, I wanted to verify my settings. Everything went smoothly for the first 100 miles, and this is when I finally got to watch the current get cutback. As the freeway would go up as an overpass, my lowest cell began to sag to 2.8 volts, which is where I have my controller programmed to begin cutting current. I could mash the pedal to the floor, but the lowest cell sag would not dip below 2.77. Once I would get over the overpass, I could pick up speed again, but it got tough to maintain 55mph eventually, so I finally pulled over and loaded it up on my follow vehicle and hauled it back to the shop. It was pretty cool watching the electronics step in and prevent the pack from intentionally being run into the ground. I ended up loading it up at 106 miles, two of the 36 batteries were resting at 2.95, and the other 34 were resting around 3.16. I will see if I can manually charge those two with my bench power supply after the pack is charged, hopefully they will have a little more room left at the top. The range is only as good as my weakest cell, since I can't use any of the remaining energy in the other cells after the lowest one hits the bottom limit.
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