Where to remove weight from a track only car?
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I wanted to get a lithium battery until I spoke with a Miata racer in COMSCC (summer 2015) who said that his caught ablaze. The fire crew just filled his trunk with water and waited for it to burn out. No serious damage, but he is back to lead. I am not saying it will, but I have not heard of lead on fire.
Alright, I'm going to do something I rarely do now and **** all over a specific brand of aftermarket automotive component. Mostly because the level of ignorance and/or disregard for customers displayed in this product is... shocking.
I should note this is my personal opinion, and in no way connected with my employer.
Braille Batteries - **** you.
We start with our patient, a Braille ML7 family lithium ion racing battery which has failed: (I have four or five of these sitting here failed, ordered over the course of several years. This is not an isolated example.)
Since it's junk anyways and the engine manufacturer prohibits the use of lithium ion batteries unless they contain a charge balancing circuit I might as well find out why my $400 racing battery failed, right? Time to void that long-expired warranty and crack this sucker open.
Oh.
(Yes, the filament tape was cut by me.)
I'm seeing a lot of hamfuckery going on in here...
The vent is installed using what appears to be large gobs of gel cyanoacrylate. They didn't even get full coverage, there are gaps in a few spots.
Oh dear. :stare:
The terminal wires appear to have been soldered by me when I was nine. That looks remarkably like filament tape someone bought at the post office and electrical tape purchased at home depot, as well.
And what the **** is up with a 6ga wire in parallel with a 12ga wire? Just use the right size in the first place.
:wtf:
The nickel terminal strips seem to have been cut with a set of rescue scissors and a loose idea of what size they need to be rather than any sort of machine or die. The terminal spotwelding appears to have been done by a drunk or someone suffering from Parkinsons and the holes "drilled" (I'm being rather generous here) in them for positive terminal alignment appear as if they were chewed out by a rabid badger.
Other end of the pack.
Wait a minute, is that a logo I recognize?
Yes it is.
Southwire THHN. Excellent wire for home/commercial building plant wiring, not so much for a ******* race battery.
One wrap of filament tape holding the whole shebang together before it gets jammed into the case.
And most importantly - ZERO evidence of any sort of charge balancing/management hardware. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Not only that, there are no inter-cell taps connected to a small charge balancing controller connector on the outside of the case, either. You can't do that with lithium batteries. They MUST be charge balanced regularly. If you don't, one set of cells will fully discharge and become impossible to recharge and/or present a fire risk. Every reputable manufacturer of lithium batteries for motorsport either builds one into their pack or provides a connector to which one can be attached occasionally to rebalance the cells before any dip below minimum charge.
The best part? Braille states that for optimal battery lifetime you should regularly use their charge balancing unit. Which is nice and all, but it connects to the same two external connectors any other charger does, and doesn't have access to the inter-cell taps since they didn't wire any such thing up, so it's physically impossible for it to determine if the cells are unbalanced, nevermind balancing them. Pure snake oil.
Even the guy in Florida home-building his battery housings from clear plexiglas and selling them from a website that looks like it belongs in 1993 on Geocities knows enough to build better battery packs than this. I'm disgusted - by Braille, not the other guy, he seems to have gotten the electronics right if not the packaging.
Cell pair voltages for this pack at present, positive to negative: 3.656V, 3.662V, 3.710V, 0.291V. One of these things is not like the others! (I wonder which pair of cells failed...)
Guess what? The best condition pack I had left caught ******* fire today. Wish I had pictures of it for effect, but it was basically unrecognizable and got whipped into a dumpster and vigorously assaulted with a garden hose and is now gone.
Buy better lithium batteries that either explicitly state they contain a charge balancing circuit or have an external connector for one - unless you want to risk a fire and experience vastly reduced starting battery lifetime. Then, Braille batteries are right for you! :thumbsup:
I should note this is my personal opinion, and in no way connected with my employer.
Braille Batteries - **** you.
We start with our patient, a Braille ML7 family lithium ion racing battery which has failed: (I have four or five of these sitting here failed, ordered over the course of several years. This is not an isolated example.)
Since it's junk anyways and the engine manufacturer prohibits the use of lithium ion batteries unless they contain a charge balancing circuit I might as well find out why my $400 racing battery failed, right? Time to void that long-expired warranty and crack this sucker open.
Oh.
(Yes, the filament tape was cut by me.)
I'm seeing a lot of hamfuckery going on in here...
The vent is installed using what appears to be large gobs of gel cyanoacrylate. They didn't even get full coverage, there are gaps in a few spots.
Oh dear. :stare:
The terminal wires appear to have been soldered by me when I was nine. That looks remarkably like filament tape someone bought at the post office and electrical tape purchased at home depot, as well.
And what the **** is up with a 6ga wire in parallel with a 12ga wire? Just use the right size in the first place.
:wtf:
The nickel terminal strips seem to have been cut with a set of rescue scissors and a loose idea of what size they need to be rather than any sort of machine or die. The terminal spotwelding appears to have been done by a drunk or someone suffering from Parkinsons and the holes "drilled" (I'm being rather generous here) in them for positive terminal alignment appear as if they were chewed out by a rabid badger.
Other end of the pack.
Wait a minute, is that a logo I recognize?
Yes it is.
Southwire THHN. Excellent wire for home/commercial building plant wiring, not so much for a ******* race battery.
One wrap of filament tape holding the whole shebang together before it gets jammed into the case.
And most importantly - ZERO evidence of any sort of charge balancing/management hardware. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Not only that, there are no inter-cell taps connected to a small charge balancing controller connector on the outside of the case, either. You can't do that with lithium batteries. They MUST be charge balanced regularly. If you don't, one set of cells will fully discharge and become impossible to recharge and/or present a fire risk. Every reputable manufacturer of lithium batteries for motorsport either builds one into their pack or provides a connector to which one can be attached occasionally to rebalance the cells before any dip below minimum charge.
The best part? Braille states that for optimal battery lifetime you should regularly use their charge balancing unit. Which is nice and all, but it connects to the same two external connectors any other charger does, and doesn't have access to the inter-cell taps since they didn't wire any such thing up, so it's physically impossible for it to determine if the cells are unbalanced, nevermind balancing them. Pure snake oil.
Even the guy in Florida home-building his battery housings from clear plexiglas and selling them from a website that looks like it belongs in 1993 on Geocities knows enough to build better battery packs than this. I'm disgusted - by Braille, not the other guy, he seems to have gotten the electronics right if not the packaging.
Cell pair voltages for this pack at present, positive to negative: 3.656V, 3.662V, 3.710V, 0.291V. One of these things is not like the others! (I wonder which pair of cells failed...)
Guess what? The best condition pack I had left caught ******* fire today. Wish I had pictures of it for effect, but it was basically unrecognizable and got whipped into a dumpster and vigorously assaulted with a garden hose and is now gone.
Buy better lithium batteries that either explicitly state they contain a charge balancing circuit or have an external connector for one - unless you want to risk a fire and experience vastly reduced starting battery lifetime. Then, Braille batteries are right for you! :thumbsup:
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thank you for posting that, I was considering a Braille....not anymore.
Great thread. I have another way to remove a lot of weight, common around here.
Park car outside during winter, preferably in a water-logged field.
Following summer, remove all the rust - voila! Lighter car.
On a more serious note - someone asked a while back about 1 piece fibreglass front ends. Does anyone know of a source?
Great thread. I have another way to remove a lot of weight, common around here.
Park car outside during winter, preferably in a water-logged field.
Following summer, remove all the rust - voila! Lighter car.
On a more serious note - someone asked a while back about 1 piece fibreglass front ends. Does anyone know of a source?
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Back to the discussion of headlight conversions- I am planning to pick up some cheap ebay clear lenses for the front turn signal/DRL, separate the back of the housing and then mount two of these per side:
10W 2.6" Scalable Mono-LED Pods - Lang Racing Development
Thoughts on beam angle? Lang racing also has these:
10W Compact Long Range LED Pod - Lang Racing Development
Not sure exactly what light would be best for my application.
I am also looking around for a very small weather sealed LED turn signal I can cram in there. Maybe a motorcycle application.
10W 2.6" Scalable Mono-LED Pods - Lang Racing Development
Thoughts on beam angle? Lang racing also has these:
10W Compact Long Range LED Pod - Lang Racing Development
Not sure exactly what light would be best for my application.
I am also looking around for a very small weather sealed LED turn signal I can cram in there. Maybe a motorcycle application.
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Was appalled, but not surprised to see the grassroots and pro racing community falling all over themselves to buy them. Some of my direct competitors taking up the banner. Big money sponsorships indicating Braiile was making some serious coin with products and marketing I personally found highly questionable.
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I forgot to mention along with the lithium battery post: Supercap battery replacement. That should be comparable to lithium or lighter. They are supposed to hold a charge over days and weeks, but I think they would need a charge after a winter. I think the main issue would be a big chance of electrical fire should the main cable or terminals get shorted (capacitors dump their charge FAST). Price is comparable to lithium last time I checked.
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These would definitely fit into the turn signal area...
Bi-xenon: Morimoto Matchbox 2.0 - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source
Bi-xenon: Morimoto Matchbox 2.0 - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source
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If you want to go with halogen these have been used in the past:
Hella 60mm Projector Headlamp Module | Rally Lights
I want to do LED lights for the lower electrical load.
Hella 60mm Projector Headlamp Module | Rally Lights
I want to do LED lights for the lower electrical load.
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I have a set of these that I never used if anyone wants to give them a shot. They're just a hair too big to fit through the turn signal opening on the NA, but you could make it work. I'll let them go cheap. PM me if you want them.
Headlights « Destination SSM
Headlights « Destination SSM
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As an aside, thanks for not selling crap. There's a reason I prefer to order from California than from my state, Colorado.
Last edited by arbinshire; Oct 5, 2015 at 06:12 PM.
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If you want to go with halogen these have been used in the past:
Hella 60mm Projector Headlamp Module | Rally Lights
I want to do LED lights for the lower electrical load.
Hella 60mm Projector Headlamp Module | Rally Lights
I want to do LED lights for the lower electrical load.
I also used some eBay clear turn signals for a lens.
[/QUOTE]
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From: Beaverton, USA
Only reason I haven't done this yet. I just drove to MRLS and back from Portland. And probably 6 or 7 hours of it was dark, some of it was dark coastal roads. I need comparable or better light output.
Current plan is to take one of the new small projectors listed above, and retrofit it into the turn signal housing. Bumper marker light will be new turn signal.
Current plan is to take one of the new small projectors listed above, and retrofit it into the turn signal housing. Bumper marker light will be new turn signal.
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I have been running LED lights for most of the year and I'd do it again if I had the choice. Cost wise, with Amazon, it is dirt cheap and they have much lower load on the electrical system. Overall light output is close to stock with these...but the weight savings is worth it.
I also used some eBay clear turn signals for a lens.
I also used some eBay clear turn signals for a lens.
That looks great- I want to implement some kind of high beam/low beam function on my setup to make passing inspections easier.
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