Wednesday, September 2, 2020

[electricboats] No Vibration? - How did you get there?

This question is to Thunderstruck motor kit users who are NOT having a problem with vibration.  How did you manage it?  Learning what works from someone who's made it work would be terrific!
Are you using the chain-and-sprocket shaft coupling arrangement T'struck provides, or some other coupling arrangement?  Did you use standard motor mounts, or did you hard mount the reduction gear rails more or less directly to the hull?

I have a T'struck kit operating nicely on a test bench, and have not yet started an installation.  Our local installer, as recommended by T'struck, told me on the phone that they would need to use motor mounts and some other items not provided by T'struck that he did not detail in that conversation.

So, the few reports in this group over the past few weeks by skippers of recently launched e-boats of uncomfortable levels of vibration who are using the Thunderstruck motor kit, and T'struck reduction gear got me wondering again about the best way to mount the system, and also to couple it to my shaft prop.

The chain-and-sprocket arrangement is not common in this application.  It's stated that this arrangement can help compensate for slight misalignment between reduction shaft and prop shaft, but I'm skeptical.  Can that approach be as good as, for example, a flexible shaft coupling such as those from R&D Marine or from Vetus?  (These are more expensive, I recognize.)

My existing diesel motor mounts are shot so I can't reuse them.  And my existing shaft coupling is a solid-style, split type, so would require precision alignment.  Would using new motor mounts allow enough adjustment to ensure a precision alignment?

Any success stories out there?

[-tv]
Tom VanderMeulen
"Grace O'Malley"
Cape Dory 27
Monroe, MI
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Re: [Electric Boats] LifePO4 Charging

 

Satiator is a cool charger, but low power. Fine for ebike size batteries.

 At 48 volts its puts out 7.5 amps. It would take 13 hours to put 100 amp hours in  at 48 volts. 

Check out Elcon or Thunderstruck. 

Matt Foley 
Sunlight Conversions
Perpetual Energy, LLC
201-914-0466



On Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 03:33:50 PM EDT, jeremy baker childscrick@yahoo.com [electricboats] <electricboats@yahoogroups..com> wrote:


 

The Grin Satiator Charger looks like a very nice unit!! Programmable. I want one. 


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

On Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 7:48 AM, tai12345678 tai.liao@gmail.com [electricboats] <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Good morning, Pat:

Glad that your batteries arrived safely.

If I remember correctly, your batteries are wired as 48V, so 4 chargers of 12V will not work unless they are isolated in output and input, not easy to achieve.

Here is a Satiator charger for high voltage:

Please note your batteries bank still need BMS (batteries management system)

Regards,

Tai

On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 6:30 AM forums@greensdomain.com [electricboats] <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:






























 



















My new Battleborn LiFePO4 batteries arrived less a week after I ordered them.  I have installed them on the boat and they are working as expected.  Now I need to move on to charging them conveniently.  My old AGMs were charged with a Dual Pro PS4 "quad" charger.  Being 10 years old, it was programmed for lead-acid batteries and includes the desulfation cycle.  I believe that process would harm LiFePO4 batteries.  I sent an email to Dual Pro asking if my charger could be reprogrammed to charge LiFePO4s using the "contact us" link on their website, but the email was returned as undeliverable due to the email address no longer existing.  Hmmm.  Are they still in business?  Lot of places seem to sell their chargers – some say Wet and AGM only, some say they "can be programmed" to Lithium, but one place offers a special order Dual Pro PS4 charger programmed for a specific battery brand (Battleborn was on their list).  My other alternative is to use 4 separate 12 volt chargers (in other words, build my own PS4 equivalent).  I have one Victron 12/25 charger that I am currently using to charge the batteries one at a time.  If I were to buy 3 more of those, would that do what I want?  I have not been able to find anything that states the Victron is completely isolated such that 4 of them can be used to charge 4 batteries connected in series.  However, using my multimeter, they do appear to be isolated.  Both output connectors show infinite ohms to all three prongs on the AC power plug.  Has anyone used Victron chargers in that way?  I also wonder what load the chargers might place on the batteries when the boat is not in use and disconnected from shore power.  Will the connected chargers discharge the batteries?  My old Dual Pro was fine in that regard.  I could leave it connected to the AGMs all winter without AC power connected and find the batteries were still nearly full in the spring.  Sorry for the long post, but I would appreciate any advice.

 

Thanks,

Pat

 









































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Posted by: Matt Foley <matt@sunlightconversions.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (4)

.

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[electricboats] Newest Ant BMD?

I'm buying an Ant BMS for my off grid house LifePo4 battery pack.  Lots of listings on ebay for this thing but I'm having trouble figuring out which one is the newest version.  I need a 16s 200 amp model.  Anyone know of a website that keeps track of which one is the latest model?

Thanks,

Jerry Barth

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

Re: [Electric Boats] LifePO4 Charging

 

The Grin Satiator Charger looks like a very nice unit!! Programmable. I want one. 


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

On Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 7:48 AM, tai12345678 tai.liao@gmail.com [electricboats] <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Good morning, Pat:

Glad that your batteries arrived safely.

If I remember correctly, your batteries are wired as 48V, so 4 chargers of 12V will not work unless they are isolated in output and input, not easy to achieve.

Here is a Satiator charger for high voltage:

Please note your batteries bank still need BMS (batteries management system)

Regards,

Tai

On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 6:30 AM forums@greensdomain.com [electricboats] <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:






























 



















My new Battleborn LiFePO4 batteries arrived less a week after I ordered them.  I have installed them on the boat and they are working as expected.  Now I need to move on to charging them conveniently.  My old AGMs were charged with a Dual Pro PS4 "quad" charger.  Being 10 years old, it was programmed for lead-acid batteries and includes the desulfation cycle.  I believe that process would harm LiFePO4 batteries.  I sent an email to Dual Pro asking if my charger could be reprogrammed to charge LiFePO4s using the "contact us" link on their website, but the email was returned as undeliverable due to the email address no longer existing.  Hmmm.  Are they still in business?  Lot of places seem to sell their chargers – some say Wet and AGM only, some say they "can be programmed" to Lithium, but one place offers a special order Dual Pro PS4 charger programmed for a specific battery brand (Battleborn was on their list).  My other alternative is to use 4 separate 12 volt chargers (in other words, build my own PS4 equivalent).  I have one Victron 12/25 charger that I am currently using to charge the batteries one at a time.  If I were to buy 3 more of those, would that do what I want?  I have not been able to find anything that states the Victron is completely isolated such that 4 of them can be used to charge 4 batteries connected in series.  However, using my multimeter, they do appear to be isolated.  Both output connectors show infinite ohms to all three prongs on the AC power plug.  Has anyone used Victron chargers in that way?  I also wonder what load the chargers might place on the batteries when the boat is not in use and disconnected from shore power.  Will the connected chargers discharge the batteries?  My old Dual Pro was fine in that regard.  I could leave it connected to the AGMs all winter without AC power connected and find the batteries were still nearly full in the spring.  Sorry for the long post, but I would appreciate any advice.

 

Thanks,

Pat

 









































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Posted by: jeremy baker <childscrick@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (3)

.

__,_._,___

Re: [Electric Boats] LifePO4 Charging

 

Good morning, Pat:

Glad that your batteries arrived safely.

If I remember correctly, your batteries are wired as 48V, so 4 chargers of 12V will not work unless they are isolated in output and input, not easy to achieve.

Here is a Satiator charger for high voltage:

Please note your batteries bank still need BMS (batteries management system)

Regards,

Tai

On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 6:30 AM forums@greensdomain.com [electricboats] <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:






























 



















My new Battleborn LiFePO4 batteries arrived less a week after I ordered them.  I have installed them on the boat and they are working as expected.  Now I need to move on to charging them conveniently.  My old AGMs were charged with a Dual Pro PS4 "quad" charger.  Being 10 years old, it was programmed for lead-acid batteries and includes the desulfation cycle.  I believe that process would harm LiFePO4 batteries.  I sent an email to Dual Pro asking if my charger could be reprogrammed to charge LiFePO4s using the "contact us" link on their website, but the email was returned as undeliverable due to the email address no longer existing.  Hmmm.  Are they still in business?  Lot of places seem to sell their chargers – some say Wet and AGM only, some say they "can be programmed" to Lithium, but one place offers a special order Dual Pro PS4 charger programmed for a specific battery brand (Battleborn was on their list).  My other alternative is to use 4 separate 12 volt chargers (in other words, build my own PS4 equivalent).  I have one Victron 12/25 charger that I am currently using to charge the batteries one at a time.  If I were to buy 3 more of those, would that do what I want?  I have not been able to find anything that states the Victron is completely isolated such that 4 of them can be used to charge 4 batteries connected in series.  However, using my multimeter, they do appear to be isolated.  Both output connectors show infinite ohms to all three prongs on the AC power plug.  Has anyone used Victron chargers in that way?  I also wonder what load the chargers might place on the batteries when the boat is not in use and disconnected from shore power.  Will the connected chargers discharge the batteries?  My old Dual Pro was fine in that regard.  I could leave it connected to the AGMs all winter without AC power connected and find the batteries were still nearly full in the spring.  Sorry for the long post, but I would appreciate any advice.

 

Thanks,

Pat

 









































__._,_.___

Posted by: tai12345678 <tai.liao@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (2)

.

__,_._,___

[Electric Boats] LifePO4 Charging

 

My new Battleborn LiFePO4 batteries arrived less a week after I ordered them.  I have installed them on the boat and they are working as expected.  Now I need to move on to charging them conveniently.  My old AGMs were charged with a Dual Pro PS4 "quad" charger.  Being 10 years old, it was programmed for lead-acid batteries and includes the desulfation cycle.  I believe that process would harm LiFePO4 batteries.  I sent an email to Dual Pro asking if my charger could be reprogrammed to charge LiFePO4s using the "contact us" link on their website, but the email was returned as undeliverable due to the email address no longer existing.  Hmmm.  Are they still in business?  Lot of places seem to sell their chargers – some say Wet and AGM only, some say they "can be programmed" to Lithium, but one place offers a special order Dual Pro PS4 charger programmed for a specific battery brand (Battleborn was on their list).  My other alternative is to use 4 separate 12 volt chargers (in other words, build my own PS4 equivalent).  I have one Victron 12/25 charger that I am currently using to charge the batteries one at a time.  If I were to buy 3 more of those, would that do what I want?  I have not been able to find anything that states the Victron is completely isolated such that 4 of them can be used to charge 4 batteries connected in series.  However, using my multimeter, they do appear to be isolated.  Both output connectors show infinite ohms to all three prongs on the AC power plug.  Has anyone used Victron chargers in that way?  I also wonder what load the chargers might place on the batteries when the boat is not in use and disconnected from shore power.  Will the connected chargers discharge the batteries?  My old Dual Pro was fine in that regard.  I could leave it connected to the AGMs all winter without AC power connected and find the batteries were still nearly full in the spring.  Sorry for the long post, but I would appreciate any advice.

 

Thanks,

Pat

 

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Posted by: <forums@greensdomain.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Re: [electricboats] First run

>> What surprises us the most is the very high pitched whine that comes from the motor.  It's far from silent.  I don't know if it's normal or if maybe the belt is too tight.

I heard a big difference in the sound from the permanent magnet motor I used to use (very quiet) and the AC motor I use now (sounds like a kitchen appliance). Both are still much quieter than the gas outboard. I find it interesting that when using any motor (gas or electric), seals will pop up ahead of the boat and keeps their heads out of the water until I'm past. If I'm rowing, they don't pop up until after I've passed them. I wonder if the underwater noise of motors bothers them.