Enginer on Gen-1, please help

Your best source for answers will be Jack from Enginer.

 

Did you read the installation manual that is on the Enginer Web site? It states on page 10 to connect to H12-2 and H14-31. They provide a splice for doing this and explain how to use that splice in their video that is also on the web site.
I did hook up to the cigarette/power adapter for temporary testing on my car and it does work fine. But it is much cleaner to use the splice under the dash.

I would need pictures to understand this.

Here is a picture of my Gen3 kit with the fan in the yellow oval.

Yes, Pop up one of the panels from your car and mount the switch into it. The other panel in my kit was for a Gen3.

No. The 4kwhr Batteries are Mottcells the 2kwhr batteries are Thundersky. The Thundersky cells are just a little bigger. If you wanted to convert to 4kwhr and put them all in your box you would need to purchase the full 32cells of the Mottcell type and replace all your Thundersky cells.

You can see the Mottcells in the picture of my kit.

Also the Thundersky are 40ah and the Mottcells are 39ah so you would generally not want to combine them into the same battery pack.

It looks to me like you have an early Kit. The early kits did not have fans and so in Arizona the converter would get hot and turn itself off. After cooling it came back on. They added fans to the ends of the converters and to the side of the box. For the old kit they shipped the new parts but it sounds like they did not put it together to be sure everything fit. In the Winter and with the 2kwhr kit you may not need the big fan. You may want to not worry about putting it in now but save it for if you need it later.

Hope this helps,
Dan

 

Hi Adric,
Do you have 2 Chargery DB8 balancers?

If so,
The main predictor that a person with no tools would have to SOC during charging is the total voltage.

The easiest process is to push the button on a each balancer. Look for the total voltage at the end (around 27v). Then add the voltage for the bottom half balancer to the voltage for the top half balancer.

1. If the total voltage is below 55v then you have some time to go. You will need to record voltage and time for a few charge cycles to know how much time to expect in future charge cycles.

2. When it gets to 55.4v then you are in the last few minutes. At this point you want to watch closely or just unplug.

At 55.4v start watching for the d 00XX number to climb. This comes just after the total voltage. Then as the d 00XX number goes up to 200 or so look for the high cell and watch it. Then in the last few minutes you get a cell like "5 3.685". This 3.685v for cell 5 would mean you are 65mv from an alarm so keep watching that cell. By doing this you can get a few minutes advance knowledge that an alarm is coming.

Also I have seen that charging in the evening with an unplug above 55v and then plugging back in in the morning gives me much less chance of an alarm.

My data is for a 4kwhr system. The voltages should be the same but your time will be shorter. So watch it closely for the first few charges. Do not leave it unattended until you have some experiance with it. The alarms from the DB8 are not very loud. Also the last voltage climb can come much quicker than the rest.

Do you have a clamp-on DC ammeter? That would help a lot if you have one.

Hope this is helpful,
Thanks,
Dan

 

A full volt differance is a little high. So it must be about 26.7 and 27.7 for the two balancers.
Is this at rest or with the charger running?
What is the highest cell for the balancer that has 27.7v? If you get to 3.75v on any single cell, shut it down.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Okay, well, I had been monitoring the charge and went out there every 15 minutes and it was around 54.5V during charge. But then I went out and checked it the last time (with the volt-meter across the whole pack) and saw it was at 56 volts. So I unplugged the thing. After it sat for about 2 minutes, I checked the voltages. Balancer 1 was reading 27.35 and balancer 2 was reading 27.36 so they seem really close now. As for the cells, the lowest charge on one was 3.389V and the highest charge was 3.429. (this is at rest, like I said) I never checked the voltages when it was charging that last time because I was in a panic to unplug it.

So why doesn't the charger shut down when it is supposed to? I can't be recharging my pack like this each time, what can I do so that I can just plug the car in at night and be done with it?[/QUOTE]

You might want to review thread Enginer PHEV automatic over/under voltage protection

 

Hi adric
Yes, Everything is normal. Tomorrow you can drive it to discharge.

I assume you were in a panic because you had alarms. Remember I said "Do not leave it unattended until you have some experiance with it."

You need to stay right at the balancers and watch the voltages until you get experianced in knowing when they are going to alarm. Leaving them for 15 minutes can allow overcharging that can damage the cells. When you hit the top of the charge things change very quickly.

I had asked if you have a clamp-on DC ammeter? Do you? If you have this tool it will help a lot. If not then you need to be more careful in whatching the voltages.

You can contact Jack to get instructions on turning down the Charger. This will help but over time you will still need to be careful until you get the new balancer that Enginer is developing.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Just a thought. Is the 2kwH kit using Thundersky batteries? If so the overcharge point is at like some 4.25V according to the spec sheets. I have been playing around with some 40AH Thundersky batteries in a EV conversion and the voltages ranges are very different from the Motocells in my 8kwH kit. I have seen static voltages of about 3.48 ~ 3.57 in a 96 Cell pack that I was working with. The constant Voltage charging is done at 3.65V for Thundersky..

 

Thundersky products are not alike the Mottcels, not they have the same type of internal configuration and exact chemistry.
Thundersky's are a more reliable and stable product; hence, more money.