Question Genesis DPV, storage/discharge and the charge connector cap

[stuartv]

@Rick Brant: You could just put one of those Remove Before Flight tags on the plug cover. Not AS reliable as turning it into a key chain fob, I guess. But, still pretty eye-catching, and no worries of losing your car key.


Or attach the RBF tag to your car key when you're diving and then attach it to the plug cover when you remove the plug cover from the charging connector.

I have been diving a BlackTip. I am pretty used to remembering to disconnect scooter batteries at the end of the day....

 

[flymolo]

When the cap is off, the bungee is just long enough to run through/around something, then stick the cap through it, with no chance of coming undone by accident.

I tied a small o-ring to mine which does pretty much the same thing

 

[stuartv]

More corroboration. I put my charging cap on, with the scooter all hooked up and ready to run, last Friday, around lunch time. I left it that way because I wanted to see how fast it runs down.

I have learned two things:

- The BMS app (on the iPhone) shows that it was at 90% on Friday at lunch, and it's still at 90% now.

- The voltage drops with the cap on. In a VERY rough guesstimate, it seems like maybe (very roughly) around 1 volt per day. Sadly, I did not pay attention to the actual pack voltage when I put the cap on on Friday. But, full is just under 75V. It is now down to a bit over 65V.

So, the BMS app is wrong on the percent left. I believe it doesn't track charge that is lost due to internal leakage. Thus giving further corroboration to what I think was a post I saw from Jon Nellis that said not to pay attention to the charge percentage but rather to the actual voltage shown.

The documentation says that the pack is best stored with the voltage between 62 and 67 V. At 57V, it is down to its last 10 - 15% of charge.

So, I conclude that a day, or even two, is fine. But, a week or two with the cap left on is not a good idea. If the scooter is already at half charge, a week sitting with the cap on could kill the battery pack. I don't know, but I'd guess that the 2.1/3.1 will leak the same, but with only half the batteries it means that the actual voltage will drop twice as quickly. So, it would take half the time to go from full to dead.