August 4, 2011: This Ford Ranger EV has commuted reliably to work for 14 consecutive days with no problems. Our Goal: 30 consecutive days of commuting. On 8/4, I drove the EV another 9 miles. Afterwards, pack voltage was 152.5 V. State of Charge was 75%. Ambient temperature at charge was 80 degrees F. Five BMS regulators were still communicating. High voltage limit for all 5 regulators is set to 14.5 volts. Started Charge:
Turned current to 23 Amps (automatically migrated to 23 Amps because of ambient temperature) for 50 minutes to 170V. At this time, Regulator #2 reached 14.50V. High voltage limit was reached green light blinking on MK3 and regulator started regulating.
Turned down current to 15 Amps for 10 minutes to 170V.
Turned down current to 10 Amps for 13 minutes to 170V.
Turned down current to 5 Amps for 22 minutes to 170V.
Charge time was 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Final Voltage Warm 166.8V.
Final Voltage Cold > 8 hours later 156.1V (next morning).
NEXT: Install additional 7 BMS regulators so that all 24 batteries are regulated and equalized during charge.
August 23, 2012:
August 24, 2012
August 23, 2012: There have been approximately 20 charges and 250 more miles since my