Hello from Ireland!

[offib]

Long Time Fan and Lurker of this forum, First Time Owner of a C-Zero and couldn't be happier. Help! lol
Lovely little car to drive on Irish roads, but the Rapid Charging does call the quits at 60%, Canion assumes there's 27-28Ah of useable capacity from 100%, Delta voltage is <0.1V, 70km range in freezing cold but hypermiling (it's fun)
1st task is to find a 10Amp Type 1 charger
2nd task, top and bottom balance the cells as much as possible
3rd task, keep this puppy on the road for as long as possible until an accessible battery refurbishment comes
4th Lower my insurance any way poossible
5th task, maybe some competitive driving in Avoca?

0th task, find new tyres, diluted water for 12v, hook up solar trickle charger, any DIY maintenance where possible. Aero improvement is much to be desired.

 

[MickeyS70]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Lovely little car to drive on Irish roads, but the Rapid Charging does call the quits at 60%, Delta voltage is <0.1V

First cell to reach 4.1V will stop charging process, a well balanced pack is within a couple of mV, 100mV is not great, but probably the result of rapid charging

Canion assumes there's 27-28Ah of useable capacity from 100%,, 70km range in freezing cold but hypermiling (it's fun)

There may be more to it after a few battery calibration charges

1st task is to find a 10Amp Type 1 charger

A Leaf uses the same cable

2nd task, top and bottom balance the cells as much as possible

Balancing only starts @ 100% SoC, no bottom balance possible

3rd task, keep this puppy on the road for as long as possible until an accessible battery refurbishment comes

What’s on the clock?

4th Lower my insurance any way poossible

Add a named driver

0th task, find new tyres, diluted water for 12v,

Don’t bother, best to buy a new 12V aux and charge it overnight

Mickey

 

[offib]

Howya Mickey!

Surprised by no bottom balancing.
I'll have to check again the accurate delta voltage, I probably misremembered it given how frozen everything felt last night. Defrosting the car and keeping it warm is definitely a worry. I've seen YT vids of Russian owners DIY their own insulation for the roof, doors and heater core.
4hr +9.5kW charge to 97% from 1bar (% unknown). I like to think it has 11kWh out of the net 14kWh from new. Hypermiling can only get me so far and not enough buffer if a DC charger fails god forbid.

I have an 18V 400mAmpp solar cell with only the USB attached, crocodile clips lost, will that charge through the dashboard USB?

Offib - for Biffo backwards

 

[MickeyS70]

4hr +9.5kW charge to 97% from 1bar (% unknown). I like to think it has 11kWh out of the net 14kWh from new.

Charge efficiency is below 80%, so the 27Ah/8.5kWh capacity (SoH 60% -ish) seems about right.

I have an 18V 400mAmpp solar cell with only the USB attached, crocodile clips lost, will that charge through the dashboard USB?

A USB port is only 5VDC and not bi-directional, so no good.

Even you you still had your crocodile clips, 18V is too high to trickle charge a 12V battery, best to cut off the USB adapter and use a 10W DC/DC converter (18V to 14.6V) instead to connect directly to the battery terminals.

Defrosting the car and keeping it warm is definitely a worry. I've seen YT vids of Russian owners DIY their own insulation for the roof, doors and heater core.

Well, the climate in Offaly isn’t exactly comparable to Siberia; you should do fine with a 10min blast of full heat before you take off, then switch to heated seats and use the A/C to keep the windows from fogging up…

 

[Tech Admin]

Welcome! We're glad you joined us!

 

[michael8554]

"best to buy a new 12V aux and charge it overnight"
Good advice.
A 12V Aux on it's last legs will cause all sorts of warning lights to come on.
I've only ChaDeMo charged my MIEV once and it stopped at 60%, I guess when one cell reached max quicker than the others.
After that I've not found a ChaDeMo that recognises my MIEV !

 

[tomhanman]

Let me suggest this as an evse cable. I have one, and a higher power version for my Leaf. They have been great so far. Probably don't want to get too wet. But otherwise you can choose the charging speed from 6, 8, 10, 13, and 16a. It remembers last choice, so no need to set it every time. And it is really cheap. I mention this only as it really irks me that people are selling well used oem evse for silly money as so many ev owners believe that one needs oem. So, if you fancy one for 58€ delivered in under a week, Aliexpress is the place to go... Remember to choose type 1!

Regards, Tom.

 

[offib]

Charge efficiency is below 80%, so the 27Ah/8.5kWh capacity (SoH 60% -ish) seems about right.


A USB port is only 5VDC and not bi-directional, so no good.

Even you you still had your crocodile clips, 18V is too high to trickle charge a 12V battery, best to cut off the USB adapter and use a 10W DC/DC converter (18V to 14.6V) instead to connect directly to the battery terminals.

Well, the climate in Offaly isn’t exactly comparable to Siberia; you should do fine with a 10min blast of full heat before you take off, then switch to heated seats and use the A/C to keep the windows from fogging up…

I wish it had heated seats, then that's all I'll need plus some de-icer. But the warmer temperatures are coming soon enough, in May or June if we're lucky...

Anyways, good day all, sorry I haven't kept up with the chats over teh weekend, lots of friendly advice.
I've come back with some screenshots, not from Canion (not working likely due to cheapo OBD reader) but the OBDZero app does the job.
Forget my inaccurate memory from posts above. Driven 130km over the weekend and three overnight Type 1 charges (starting from 20%, 50% and 5%) to 100%. Given slight desperation I have been using the supplied 13A Duosida and an "EV-certified" 25m extension reel (don't kill me) and regularly checking the heat at the socket, it gets warm but a full (5% - 100%) doesn't take more than 4 to 5 hours on accounts to the rather aged and smaller capacity battery, convenient, lucky or not I'd still prefer a sub-13A Type 1 when I can.

With interest I've witnessed the top voltage balancing in action siphoning 4A@226V (4.105V zero DeltaV) which afterwards brought up the cells deltaV within 0.005V @100% 4.070V - 4.075V, estimated capacity actually went up from 28Ah to 28.5Ah and 9.7kWh yayy... that's way less than the 11kWh I assumed so not a perfectly healthy pack but I picked up this dote of a car for a friendly price from a friendly guy and I can still find plenty of use for this.

On Friday I was seeing a resting DeltaV of 0.015V @50% SOC and as much as 0.03V when blasting the heater. I did not for a second glance at the imbalance when driving, but I did notice when flooring it whilst overtaking the handbrake light comes on! Is that a normal nanny feature or a sign of things/faults to come?
I do try to avoid heavy power draw (needle after 12 O'clock) or heavy regen with a cold battery but that's not a problem when cell temps are above 5 Celsius, right?

OBDZero screenshots embedded below

 

[offib]

Welcome! We're glad you joined us!

I've been a long time lurker for many years but I'm happy to be a part of the community!

 

[offib]

Charge efficiency is below 80%, so the 27Ah/8.5kWh capacity (SoH 60% -ish) seems about right.


A USB port is only 5VDC and not bi-directional, so no good.

Even you you still had your crocodile clips, 18V is too high to trickle charge a 12V battery, best to cut off the USB adapter and use a 10W DC/DC converter (18V to 14.6V) instead to connect directly to the battery terminals.

Well, the climate in Offaly isn’t exactly comparable to Siberia; you should do fine with a 10min blast of full heat before you take off, then switch to heated seats and use the A/C to keep the windows from fogging up…

Months before acquiring the car of my dreams I've been researching on the likes of Temu or Alibaba for heated seats (no luck) and 12v solar battery maintainers, the latter were often +16V.
And I'm not awfully far off from Offaly, but I could make it if there's a car meet. Just sad how the few handy rapid chargers in small rural towns are all CCS EasyGos.
Getting a CCS to Chademo adaptors should be on my santa's list for the end of the year, or 2026...

iirc last Wednesday during the bitter frosty night it barely took 10 minutes to get the windscreen barely see-through to safely drive a few hundred meters and I mean barely, I think that consumed as much as 500Wh before being able to set off. Would refreshing the radiator/element fluid or insulating the pipes to and from the element help?

I swear with the myriad of affects from fossil fueled climate change, warmer oceans and larger water content in the atmosphere, the frosts and the deep chill in the bones are no joke compared to what I remember.

 

[offib]

Let me suggest this as an evse cable. I have one, and a higher power version for my Leaf. View attachment 1804 They have been great so far. Probably don't want to get too wet. But otherwise you can choose the charging speed from 6, 8, 10, 13, and 16a. It remembers last choice, so no need to set it every time. And it is really cheap. I mention this only as it really irks me that people are selling well used oem evse for silly money as so many ev owners believe that one needs oem. So, if you fancy one for 58€ delivered in under a week, Aliexpress is the place to go... Remember to choose type 1!

Regards, Tom.

Thanks a million!
I'll have to give that a look later when I can, but I'll definitely be trying to get a 10M charger, I think that's the length of the granny lead I have now and honestly any less and I would not be able to charge at home.

 

[tomhanman]

Ah yes I forget people don't always have access like here. Well 10m are available, just double the money

 

[offib]

Ah yes I forget people don't always have access like here. Well 10m are available, just double the money

oooof

 

[MickeyS70]

I wish it had heated seats

It’s standard on most versions, what year is yours?

With interest I've witnessed the top voltage balancing in action siphoning 4A@226V (4.105V zero DeltaV) which afterwards brought up the cells deltaV within 0.005V @100% 4.070V - 4.075V, estimated capacity actually went up from 28Ah to 28.5Ah and 9.7kWh yayy... that's way less than the 11kWh I assumed so not a perfectly healthy pack but I picked up this dote of a car for a friendly price from a friendly guy and I can still find plenty of use for this.

Most capacity readings are actually on the low if a battery calibration charge wasn’t done regularly, it’s very likely yours will increase with usage.

, but I did notice when flooring it whilst overtaking the handbrake light comes on! Is that a normal nanny feature or a sign of things/faults to come?

I think you’re talking about the infamous ‘tortoise’ light? It means that (at least) one cell dropped below 3V under load, usually happens at low(er) SoC.

I do try to avoid heavy power draw (needle after 12 O'clock) or heavy regen with a cold battery but that's not a problem when cell temps are above 5 Celsius, right?

No problem, the chemistry used in OEM LEV50 cells isn’t affected by NMC charging limits

OBDZero screenshots embedded below

Nothing unusual, except the ‘Cells’ tab isn’t available, usually takes a while to get all data collected.

Months before acquiring the car of my dreams I've been researching on the likes of Temu or Alibaba for heated seats (no luck)

Look out for heated car seat cushions running off 12V

iirc last Wednesday during the bitter frosty night it barely took 10 minutes to get the windscreen barely see-through to safely drive a few hundred meters and I mean barely, I think that consumed as much as 500Wh before being able to set off. Would refreshing the radiator/element fluid or insulating the pipes to and from the element help?

There is a ‘knack’ to this, first turn on the cabin heat for 5min, then switch to windscreen defrost, recycle air, AC and fan full blast (additional functionality if you push the buttons, not just turn the dials).

If that doesn’t improve things, you may have a faulty heater element (quite common).

 

[offib]

It’s standard on most versions, what year is yours?

Most capacity readings are actually on the low if a battery calibration charge wasn’t done regularly, it’s very likely yours will increase with usage.

I think you’re talking about the infamous ‘tortoise’ light? It means that (at least) one cell dropped below 3V under load, usually happens at low(er) SoC.

No problem, the chemistry used in OEM LEV50 cells isn’t affected by NMC charging limits

Nothing unusual, except the ‘Cells’ tab isn’t available, usually takes a while to get all data collected.


Look out for heated car seat cushions running off 12V

There is a ‘knack’ to this, first turn on the cabin heat for 5min, then switch to windscreen defrost, recycle air, AC and fan full blast (additional functionality if you push the buttons, not just turn the dials).

If that doesn’t improve things, you may have a faulty heater element (quite common).

That is a good knack and makes perfect sense, recycling the heat with AC. Heater element wasn't roasting but not useless, no data on it yet.

CZero is a 2012, 130,900kms, old enough to get brain wormed by smart phones and social media.

The previous owner swore that not only was the 13A modified "16A" Duosida safe with nightly use as the primary charger for the car so I should assume that the battery is calibrated enough, maybe it was the two 15 minute rapid charges getting the car home on the St.Brigid's bank holiday that may have thrown the DeltaV out of line. Or maybe the car had been sat for a period as he was planning to sell asap given change of circumstance but very kindly remembered my interest in the car months prior. I should mention that the car did have a rigorous life as a fast food delivery car but a busy night he would have no more than 1 DC Rapid .

No tortoise light but the simple, red handbrake light would appear for a brief moment while under full acceleration.

So far I've only seen pretty meh looking heated pads for garden chairs that should probably have an additional seat cover over them. Am I mistaken that max 12V output is 120W? That's less than most air pumps.

 

[offib]

Most capacity readings are actually on the low if a battery calibration charge wasn’t done regularly, it’s very likely yours will increase with usage.

With the help of God!

 

[MickeyS70]

No tortoise light but the simple, red handbrake light would appear for a brief moment while under full acceleration.

Which one do you recon is the ‘red handbrake’ light (see picture attached)?

So far I've only seen pretty meh looking heated pads for garden chairs that should probably have an additional seat cover over them.

Search Amazon for ‘heated car seat covers 12V’

Am I mistaken that max 12V output is 120W? That's less than most air pumps.

Correct, the OEM built in heaters use similar power, you could always run an extra (fused) wire from the battery if you need more ‘juice’..

 

[offib]

Which one do you recon is the ‘red handbrake’ light (see picture attached)?

Left of ABS

 

[offib]

Search Amazon for ‘heated car seat covers 12V’

Correct, the OEM built in heaters use similar power, you could always run an extra (fused) wire from the battery if you need more ‘juice’..

Well I avoided Amazon and on few occasion used Temu soo I'll keep browsing.
Would have to look into any threads regarding the extra 12V power

 

[MickeyS70]

Left of ABS

Sound, attached is what the manual has to say about it, might want to check the brake fluid level…