mrman Posted March 24, 2012 Report Share Posted March 24, 2012 Just found these. They are pretty cheap and very lightweight. They supposably made there own "prismatic?" cells (not A123s). They have been mentioned once here. It seems they would be a good choice for this application. But i can't find any info on using them this way. Can they be hooked in series? Charging? They don't have any provisions for BMS. They have been out for over a year now seems like someone would have tried them in an ev application by now. Somebody help me out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betarambo Posted March 27, 2012 Report Share Posted March 27, 2012 Not much help, but here goes. All of the reading I have done and the specs I have seen generally say that Life is more expensive for less capacity. I think they are supposed to be a bit safer but as long as you are thoughtful when charging and mount them in the bike were they are physically protected, lipos don't really have much danger. That might be why you are having a hard time finding people who have tried them. Good luck, please let us know what you find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrman Posted March 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 (edited) LiFePO4 are used in electric bike applications frequently. Most are made of battery packs assembled from A123 cells. You can buy pre assembled packs in 24, 36, & 48v online or assemble you own. The problem is they are very pricey. From 400 to 800$US from what I remember. I have done a little more research since my original post. All I can find are reviews of the battery for use in its intended application (replacement motorcycle starting battery). Some are good, some are bad. There seems to be a trend of failures when people deep cycle the battery. Apparently it works well if used to start your bike any kept topped up. This sounds like it would be a really bad/expensive experiment on the OSET or any EV for that matter. I personally am not going to try it. However I am still on the lookout for a posting where someone actually tried it on an electric bike, motorcycle, scooter ect. Just to confirm my guess. Maybe the Shoria Company guys will chime in. They have responded on other forums, but the company will not give any details on what would happen if this battery were used in a deep cycle type application. Edited March 28, 2012 by mrman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwhy Posted March 28, 2012 Report Share Posted March 28, 2012 (edited) LiFePo4 are not that good for sustained high current i.e not much good for bigger e-bikes ( from my experience ) may be ok for a standard oset tho, I know a few people that use A123 batterys for there e-bikes but for decent capacity/voltage and discharge current they tend to end up very expensive,big and quite heavy, the advantage of the A123 cells is that the the time recycle count tends to be much higher than that of lipo but A123 cells still need as much care as lipo to get the most out of them. edit: Im not sure if this is of any interest to you but I know that zero motorcycles ( there new 2012 line up ) claims a top speed of 80mph and a running distance of 114miles per charge ( which is very impressive ( but it could be hype) ) and I also know that they have developed a new battery for the 2012 models , at the moment the new battery chemistry that they are using ( if it is new ) have not been publish by zero yet. Edited March 28, 2012 by gwhy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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