Freddie17 said:
Wait till you try a Shell rapid charger on the motorways… about 90p / kWh 😵‍💫
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I'm amazed at the number of EV drivers that use the Shell Recharge points just 50 yards from my local O2A Tesla chargers which are ½ the cost. All I can think is the Tesla chargers aren't listed in the nav like non Tesla chargers are. Tesla doesn't come up on our Ioniq 5 charger listening, it's marked as "other" instead.

Like Ali, it's the exception for us to use public charging, with 300 miles of range, we seldom go more than 150 miles away from home.
 
Nodge68 said:
I'm amazed at the number of EV drivers that use the Shell Recharge points just 50 yards from my local O2A Tesla chargers which are ½ the cost. All I can think is the Tesla chargers aren't listed in the nav like non Tesla chargers are. Tesla doesn't come up on our Ioniq 5 charger listening, it's marked as "other" instead.

Like Ali, it's the exception for us to use public charging, with 300 miles of range, we seldom go more than 150 miles away from home.
Click to expand...
I avoid Shell like the plague.
I often wonder at Reading West, sat on the open Tesla chargers watching everyone use the Gridserve opposite 🤔.
I think you’re right - it’s just not well known or highlighted on mapping.
 
So, can anyone use the Tesla chargers?
I was under the impression they are different to the usual.
This is all new to me, my missus has a new EV Mini.
 
bukko said:
So, can anyone use the Tesla chargers?
I was under the impression they are different to the usual.
This is all new to me, my missus has a new EV Mini.
Click to expand...
Some, not all, are open to any vehicle but must be used via the app.
Download it, then take a look - when you don’t link the app to a Tesla, it’ll show the open ones only. You can also filter a map via their website.
 
bukko said:
So, can anyone use the Tesla chargers?
I was under the impression they are different to the usual.
This is all new to me, my missus has a new EV Mini.
Click to expand...
There are several hundred Tesla charging stations that are open to all, in EV circles these are known as "O2A" Superchargers.
If you download the Tesla app, you have the option of only showing O2A locations.

While I'm not impressed with Musk and his moronic ideologies, his Supercharger network is pretty much the cheapest way to fast charge an EV, unless you have an 800V EV like us, which is slow to charge on a 400V unit, although it's still very cheap by comparison to faster charge operators.

You don't need to pay by app at all locations.
If it's a V4 charger, then it has a screen and contact-less payment window for direct card payments.
 
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Nodge68 said:
Sorry for taking you thread slightly off topic Ali.
Click to expand...
LOL, no probs, anything EV related is OK for here.

On that note I needed to make a small adjustment to one of the cells in the pack.
I'm not sure why but the last few times I checked my BMS I noticed cell 89 had drifted a bit low so decided to manually pull it back up.

PXL_20250419_152608251.jpg
PXL_20250419_160130940.jpg


I'm using an old eBike 36V (nominal) battery through a DC to DC buck/boost to charge it. Most of the other cells are around 3.74V so I'll bring it up to that but it has taken a few hours to charge this far from around 3.695V.
55mV may not sound like much but it's important to keep the battery balanced and as some cells are a little bit higher the imbalance had crept up to 65mV.
The issue I have with my setup is the BMS can only be used when the car is stationary (long story) so when I charge the car I'm going by total voltage to decide when it is fully charged rather than the voltage of the highest cell. If a cell was to get too high or too low it would get dangerously close to the maximum or minimum voltage for a Li-Ion battery which would not be good.
I try to keep all cells at least 50mV below 4.2V when the car is fully charged so having one cell a bit low would not effect the charging too much but could cause issues at the lower end. If I need it I have spare battery modules so can replace this one fairly easily, thankfully it wasn't one of the ones in the fuel tank area.
 
Alibro said:
LOL, no probs, anything EV related is OK for here.

On that note I needed to make a small adjustment to one of the cells in the pack.
I'm not sure why but the last few times I checked my BMS I noticed cell 89 had drifted a bit low so decided to manually pull it back up.

View attachment 339253View attachment 339252

I'm using an old eBike 36V (nominal) battery through a DC to DC buck/boost to charge it. Most of the other cells are around 3.74V so I'll bring it up to that but it has taken a few hours to charge this far from around 3.695V.
55mV may not sound like much but it's important to keep the battery balanced and as some cells are a little bit higher the imbalance had crept up to 65mV.
The issue I have with my setup is the BMS can only be used when the car is stationary (long story) so when I charge the car I'm going by total voltage to decide when it is fully charged rather than the voltage of the highest cell. If a cell was to get too high or too low it would get dangerously close to the maximum or minimum voltage for a Li-Ion battery which would not be good.
I try to keep all cells at least 50mV below 4.2V when the car is fully charged so having one cell a bit low would not effect the charging too much but could cause issues at the lower end. If I need it I have spare battery modules so can replace this one fairly easily, thankfully it wasn't one of the ones in the fuel tank area.
Click to expand...
Maybe you have a weak cell Ali? Or perhaps there's an issue with the BMS balance circuit on that cell? Does the BMS carry out active balancing or passive balancing?
 
Nodge68 said:
Maybe you have a weak cell Ali? Or perhaps there's an issue with the BMS balance circuit on that cell? Does the BMS carry out active balancing or passive balancing?
Click to expand...
I'm thinking it might be a weak cell, maybe from the second pack as it had more miles on it so I'll keep an eye on it and if it goes out of balance again will replace it.
The BMS is not turned on enough to do any balancing and TBH probably wouldn't make much difference if it was on all the time. It came from a Nissan Leaf that had a 24kWh pack and as far as I know the Leaf packs commonly go out of balance too so I suspect the BMS wouldn't make much difference to my pack which is almost double the size. I think the balance resistors only adjust by a few milliamps.
 
I tested charging at four more locations today and it worked perfectly so I'm now reasonably confident that If I drive to Dublin in August (100 miles) I'll be able to make it home. :oops:
The Dublin trip is for a meet up with other EV conversion guys that I attended three years ago (in an ICE car) but wasn't able to make the last two years due to diary clashes.
The current plan is to leave early so I can charge enroute while having breakfast. If I charge for an hour or so then making it to the meet shouldn't be an issue and I should be able to drive a little faster. Driving 100 miles at 45mph doesn't appeal. :rolleyes:
I'm hoping to be able to plug in while there for a 3 or 4 hours so making it home should only require one stop albeit a long one.
It will be a long day but I looking forward to the challenge.
On the battery back front it is much better balanced now, I also added a little to a few other cells that were a tiny bit low so pushing the range should be a little safer.
 
Loafer61 said:
I admire what you are doing Ali, but lordy these EVs are a bit of a pain! Proper range anxiety.
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Range anxiety is not an issue for normal EV's which have a better range and can fast charge at 100kW or higher. I could drive to Dublin and home again in my MG5 with nothing more than a 10 or 15 minute breakfast or lunch stop. Many EV's like @Nodge68 Hyundai Ioniq 5 have a range well over 200 miles so wouldn't need to stop at all. I've been using the MG since last June as a daily driver for my work as a computer engineer all over Northern Ireland and have not yet had to charge away from home so complaints about range anxiety in EV's are massively overblown by the press. I wonder who might be paying them to do this?????

On the other hand my Freelander has a Max range of 100 miles and I can only charge at 3kW so it takes much much longer to recharge.
Faster charging is on the to do list.
 
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Loafer61 said:
In Kenya, you need the twin 90L diesel tanks of the Landcruiser to give you 1000 plus kms of range… to be on the safe side! 😆
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The best bit is I only noticed your location AFTER leaving the last post and it occurred you might find EV's a little more challenging. 🤣
 
I guess you get what you pay for.
This is the part I ordered for £5.99.
It was the cheapest on Ebay but for a reason. The spring that keeps it in tension is so weak when I go to open the door the window doesn't drop and I needed pulled down manually. This was the temporary solution I came up with.

PXL_20250421_151317518.jpg


I wrapped a length of copper wire around the spring so it wouldn't take up all the slack when the window goes to drop a few mm to open the boot door. You can also see the missing piece at the top of the plastic where it snapped off while I was installing the regulator in the car. So not just a weak spring but also brittle plastic.
This will probably only last a month or two before I need to sort it properly so I've done what I should have done in the first place and ordered a complete regulator. I know the replacements aren't always a great fit but I'm not aware of any kits that are better
quality than this one was and I've had better luck with the complete units.

This is the one I ordered
 
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Loafer61 said:
In Kenya, you need the twin 90L diesel tanks of the Landcruiser to give you 1000 plus kms of range… to be on the safe side! 😆
Click to expand...
Thankfully in the UK and most of Europe, there are charging facilities almost everywhere now.

We have a 300 miles range EV, so only need to use public charging when doing road trips, when finding somewhere to charge isn't a problem, if more expensive than I'd like.
 
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