I got a new to me EV to fix up (Razor E200)

[Daox]

My in-laws are moving and I was helping them out the other day. They're downsizing and getting rid of tons of stuff. Also, my father-in-law loves little projects and dumpster driving. A while back he found this Razor E200 sitting by a dumpster and nabbed it up. He wanted to get rid of it and I happily accepted. Now I have a new project!



So, I have to figure out if it works. I'm sure the battery is toast. I also don't have a charger for it.

Its an pretty simple setup though. Just from looking at parts lists it uses two 7ah 12V lead acid cells. There is no fancy speed controller, its just an on/off switch as far as I can tell. I have yet to start ripping it apart. I imagine a quick fix is a new battery pack and cheap charger would get this thing running again. But, we'll see what testing shows.

[redneck]

.

Batteries

These look like a drop in upgrade replacement.

https://www.amazon.com/ECO-WORTHY-Ph...s%2C166&sr=8-7

My children had the same scooter I think. It wasn’t very impressive with the sla batteries. Short ride and a long charge time from the on-board charger.

Nothing 💰💰💰 can’t fix though...


>

.

[Stubby79]

I gave my E200 away a couple of weeks back. Weak batteries last quite a bit longer with a little kid on it.

You'll find my E300 battery, motor, controller & handlebar upgrade in my random projects thread. I rode it briefly once after finishing it.

[Daox]

Well, I took it apart today and threw in some mostly dead 10Ah batteries I had pulled out of my uncle's electric mower. They didn't fit great, but it powered right up and gave me a few minutes of zipping around the driveway just fine. Looks like I just need to figure out what kind of a pack I want and find a charger for that pack. Not too bad at all.

Of course I do have a 300W motor (OE is 200W) kicking around that I do think has the same mounting... Probably shouldn't bother, I'm assuming it would toast the controller.

I do really like the idea of upgrading the batteries. Those 9Ah (not 7Ah as thought) can be charged faster than most of the chargers out there. Most of the ones I've seen are 1 or 1.5A... slooooow as Stubby79 said. A 3A charger would be a lot nicer and not damage the batteries, but it'll require some tinkering and that would be fun. Lithium of course would be far superior, but then we're looking at a BMS too. I haven't seen any that are nice and also not crazy expensive out there. If you know of any that would be great. I still have a bunch of 18650 cells that would make a great pack for this thing.

[Stubby79]

This is the type I used:

AliExpress BMS

As you can see here on my battery:



And I was pleasantly surprised with it. Meaning it did what it was supposed to...shut off on over-discharge, shut off charging when hitting full voltage, etc.

I like the "Common Port" or "Same Port" ones...it just behaves like any old battery that way. Not sure what the point of having them separate is...just makes for headaches.

As always when scoping out a BMS:

• Make sure it's for the right battery chemistry.
• Look very closely at the cut-off voltages. (some cheap ones wont shut off until 4.35V or higher)
• Make sure you have plenty of headroom for it's rated current.
• Decided if you want common port or not.
• Check that it at least top-balances.
• Bench test the dang thing before you put it permanently in to service. (Had a couple of faulty ones)

That being said, I end up spending $20-30 on average for something half decent. I have a fancy, blue-tooth, programmable one that ran me like $125 waiting to go in to service, but that was a special case...

Oh, and if you're building it from a mish-mash of cells of uncertain health, you can throw in an active balancer for another $15+ (price varies by cell count). I thought I was going to need one with the pack I built above, but I cycled it and every parallel string stayed at the same voltage throughout....despite some of the cells being previously well used. (Thumbs up to Samsung for the quality of their cells!)

PS: No, you won't bother the controller...pretty sure the controller I pulled out of the E300 had the same current ratings as the E200. (MonsterScooterParts shows the same part numbers)

PPS: If you go for Lead, as you noticed, the 10AH won't fit...you need the 7ah (which you can sometimes find the same dimensions as a 9ah, but be careful as you can find 9ah with the same dimensions as the 10ah).

PPPS: Variable controllers are like $15 and throttles for $5-10. (I have a 48V 500W one if I ever get bored of running it at 24v)

[redneck]

.

The battery I linked has a built in BMS. The only reason I linked it for you is because I was looking for roughly the same size battery (dimensions) that the scooter uses for another project and thought I’d share.




>

.

[Stubby79]

You(and the warm weather for once) inspired me to take my E300 out for a spin. Much less sketchy, much more fun!

It died near the top of on one of the steepest hills in the area. Couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start up again...thought the BMS tripped, but the light was still on. Don't recall any fuses in it...oh yeah, it has a breaker. 20 amp, slow-blow type. Wasn't really expecting it to go, as the current limit on the controller seemed absurdly low for "400w". Theoretically must have been pulling >480w for it to pop. Not particularly perky for pulling that much! (500w ebikes choke out at about the same point on this hill when not pedaling)

Sketchiness was from slack in the joints of the folding handle I put on it, which has since been fixed.

Tooled around on it for 20-30 minutes, going full out most of the time. Amusing. Enjoyed the freedom of being on two wheels again...will have to take something bigger out for a ride tomorrow!

Thanks, eh?

We now return to our scheduled programming...

[aerohead]

A non-lithium option I've considered is, 12V battery booster/ power supplies, on sale periodically at Harbor Freight. For the price of one Razor replacement battery at WalMart, I can get a 12-V booster of twice the amp-hours. Two in series gets the required 24-VDC @ twice the capacity of the original at same cost. I'll pull mine behind in a 'tender' trailer. I've got a PV array to go on top, and can wire the modules series-parallel, along with a charge controller.
I'll try and find a use for the orphaned 80-V lithium-ions and charger from the dead Kobalt mower.

[Grant-53]

I was at the 2021 Green Grand Prix. The latest upgrade in the prototype EV that won over the Teslas has a 3 speed transmission. This not a fluke as Bosch is mating a CVT to electric motors. Lots of effort going into battery and motor design. One issue is fire suppression methods vary with battery chemistry.

[Piotrsko]

You can supress an on going lithium battery fire of any chemistry? News to me.