Wondering if there’s someone in the San Diego/OB area who could help me with converting to lithium? I’ve read all the posts but just don’t have the skills or time to do it on my own. I contacted a place that was recommended but they said they can’t do it, apparently they tried once before and failed. Any help is appreciated
@cedwards is 3 hours away. I just sent him batteries.
Best bet is to ship your Gem to @grantwest.
He will also make a drop in kit for your mechanic.
Grant is your best bet, if you want more of “turnkey” solution. I’d love to collaborate with someone to help with a conversion, but full disclosure… I’ve never done a GEM before! I have an old GEM sitting here that I want to get to… but haven’t really started on it. And I’m probably more like 4-5 hours away, in the high desert, Landers… 92285
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I am in Glendale, CA. Have done two 2002 conversions using @Inwo green lithium cells. I believe these maybe the same cells he’s sent to @cedwards in Landers. If you wanna consider bringing it up here on a trailer, happy to consider doing the install if @cedwards will provide the batteries. What shape is your GEM currently in?
If you were Intrested I could build you a kit and you could install it. You gonna need some basic skills and be willing to do some work. OR you could ship your car up here to NorCal I could get it here for $350
And I could build , install & test your car so you don’t have to do anything.
This would include Battery pack assembly
JST Leeds & BMS installation charger Reprogram & installation BMS calibrate Shunt install & calibrate and all your BMS settings dialed in. All the wiring & odds & ends to make it dialed in. I have 2 proven set up’s 20 cell and 24 cell. So depending on what you want/need and if your Intrested and you have the $ to play with I can get you set up.
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I just got done with a volt conversion on my 2000 and live in San Diego. I’m out by SDSU but down in Pt Loma all the time. I dont have a ton of free time between work travel and kids but would be more than happy to help out. I also think @dougl is in the area.
If you pick up gear from @grantwest, I’m sure we can get you going! Do it!
Look for my Leaf Gen4 conversion post for how I did mine.
My $0.02 on items of interest in Lithium upgrade:
Battery pack voltage:
-go too high and you’ll need a new contactor and new battery charger
-I use 22S( 22 lithium cells in series ) and the default Zivan charger charges to 4V each or 88V and all I needed to do was put some diodes in series leading to the input voltage to the controller so it didn’t see an over voltage situation.
Battery pack monitoring to protect from over charge and over discharge:
-you don’t want to discharge lithium cells too low so you need a way to watch what you are doing.
-Battery Management Systems(BMS) do this and it can require lots of little wires going to each battery cell since you want to monitor each cell. I don’t discharge less than 3.5V/cell and typically recharge at 3.6V/cell
-Often the BMS is involved in the charging too. This lets the BMS manage when a cell gets charged before others so it won’t over charge those first charged cells. Often a new charger is required so that the BMS can control the charging.
Battery pack balancing:
-the process if getting all the battery cells to the exact same charge/capacity level so they discharge evenly and recharge evently.
-Sometimes this only is done every now and then but often it’s automatically handled by the BMS
Battery pack placement:
-all 5.5 of my Leaf Gen4 modules fit under the back seat in the middle section.
-sometimes you have spread your batteries out and need a few extension cables to connect all the cells together.
-sometimes they can all be under the back seat, sometimes in the front and sometimes in both places.
Battery hold-down
-I purchased metal end caps and some long all-thread rod to make one pack
-Then I use plumbers tape(strapping) to hold the battery pack down
-I also wrapped a bit of cardboard around the battery pack to try to keep dirt, rocks, etc off the cells. I need to seal up the battery pack better since my lithium cell bags are somewhat exposed.
Wires:
-I just removed all the batteries and cables between batteries
-I took the one positive wire coming from the back to the front batteries and routed it to the controller
so no new battery wires were needed.
what year and model is your gem ?
Seems it was a hit/run post. User seems AWOL…
Or he could be looking into his options on shipping his gem to grant.
I’m in San diego also, and would love to do the conversion… but, would love even more to have grant do it for me.
I just feel safer having someone with experience do something of this nature. I wish I had known this before just replacing all the batteries last summer.
I have not heard from anyone so who knows?