Have not been here for a long time as my GEM has been running great for 2 years since the conversion to lifepo cells. My GEM was a 2007, rebuilt in 2016 when i bought it, and in 2018 I swapped the lead acid cells for a set of 25 LifePo from INWO / Dave, with a new controller (DeltaQ programmable). Been loving the lifepo cells, really makes it fly up the hills around town with my family.
Worked perfectly for 2 years, and then about a month ago, after it charged, error code “16” came up and it would not start. Believe error code 16 is “voltage too high”. After draining most of the battery, the error went away and it would start. I thought the spoof had somehow gone bad, and Dave kindly sent me two spares, but that has not worked, and it remains error 16 unless battery almost completely drained.
Not sure what has happened? Maybe controller went bad? Maybe controller somehow reset itself for an even lower voltage than the 86 volts with spoof?
Open to any thoughts / suggestions / troubleshooting, etc., but would really like to keep the lifepo cells as they make a huge difference in performance.
Not sure if this can be applied to what’s going on with your setup but when I had too high a voltage( error -16 ) and I’d already built a spoofer but it wasn’t enough I found a large momentary push button switch with it in the NC(normally closed) position. What I did was put another spoof in series with the existing spoofer and then wired the switch across the 2nd spoofer. Then if I got a -16 error I would turn off the key, press and hold the button which activated the 2nd spoofer and when I heard the contacter clunk I’d put it into reverse and as soon as I started moving I’d release the switch button and the drain on the batteries while moving would be enough to keep working and away I’d go. I’d not have to worry about it until the next full charge.
But it does sound like you’ve already replaced the first spoofer with a replaceemnt and that didn’t fix it and you must drain the batteries til nearly flat before it’ll work. That is odd.
To help more, can’t you provide actual cell and battery voltages? All module voltages and pack voltage when charged and the same when it finally doesn’t throw the -16 error?
The most you should see from 25s is 90v. 7.5 spoof should be adequate.
Something may be frying them. Take a measurement both sides or from one side to the other.
Remembering that my 2002 T1 controller was pulling something just over 1A so I had to parallel my string of diodes to make my spoof otherwise the single string of diodes were get too hot. If the original spoof did fail, maybe putting the 2 replacements in parallel will help them last the life of the vehicle.
1 amp is too much. Parallel won’t evenly divide the load.
May seem silly, but use 15 x 1n5004 3amp diodes in series. They each drop .6 volts.
Or pick up some 3amp bridge rectifier. Each one drops 1.2 volt.
Larger is fine. Any silicon junction is about the same drop.
1amp x .6v is only .6 watt per diode.
1amp x 7.5v is 7.5 watts. A 5watt zener is largest common size.
2x 5v 5w z in series will dissipate 5watts each. Still too much. Lower voltage is not common.
There are other ways, but diodes are simple and cheap.
Ya, we talked about this but I measured multiple times and it is what it is on the old T1 and the paralleled strings have been working for months. When I lost one of my Gen4 Leaf cells I no longer need the momentary switch setup but it’s still connected incase I run across a replacement gen4 leaf module but 21S is working well enough.
Will try that this weekend and let you know - hopefully it is that easy!
One more stupid question - would it be possible that the controller somehow reset itself so that it is expecting a lower voltage (ie - 72v or something like that) and that it needs to be reprogrammed at the higher level, or does it automatically adjust?
Is there a way to check what voltage level it is currently programmed for?
Forgot to get back to you on this, but when we put the two spoofs you sent in series, then the cart worked perfectly.
Think the old spoof must have gone bad for some reason, and the two new sppofs you sent were the wrong coltage individually, but fine when in series. Really glad you thought of that, because I would never have thought to try them in series.
Was wodneing if it was possible to buy one more spoof from you in the correct voltage so that if this happens again I will be ahead of the game.
Cart is 28 cell LifePo, so think that is 96 volts. Believe you were originally meant to send 2 spoofs at 15v, but I think by mistake you sent 2 spoofs at 7.5 volts? Could be wrong on the spoof voltage numbers, but per your suggestion, when they were put in series they acted as one spoof that worked.
