New TidalForce M-750 owner - user manual?
technogrouch
I picked up a fairly pristine M-750 today for a few hundred bucks, and
I'm looking for a user manual and anything else you can throw my way
to get the most out of my new bike. The battery seems to be original
and I took it on an 8 mile test ride this morning, running it in turbo
mode almost the whole time. I did pedal some, and when I got back,
there was still 2 bars on the battery level.
I've been searching the forum quite and bit and the info you have here
is great! I found the "Everything TidalForce" page, but was
disappointed to see that many of the interesting files are referenced
as being located in the "files section" that doesn't exist anymore.
Does anyone have the manual (and any other recommended files) that
they would be willing to post a link for, or send me?
Thanks!
Scott
L-A-commuter
For the manuals in pdf format, go to http://www.texaselectricbikes.com
then look for the "information" tab. You will have a list of different
manuals & publications. Doug, the owner of Texas Electric Bikes has
been a big help in keeping oiur bikes up and running.
You're fortunate to have a battery that is still going strong. I can
only recommend that you keep it in a cool (but not freezing) storage
area and let the battery cool off for a while before charging it.
excessive heat seems to be the bane of Nimh batteries.
Best
Mean-Green
Ambrose Liao
It looks as if the Texas electric bike links to the TF manuals are linked to the Tidalforce.com website which is long gone. However, I found the M-750 Owner's Manual on the "Wayback Machine" at www.archive.org here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060712010438/http://www.tidalforce.com/docs/M-750_OM.pdf
Ambrose
Sent from my iPad
OptOut
Best,
Joe (mobile)
On Dec 2, 2011, at 8:32 PM, L-A-commuter <mean.g...@yahoo.com> wrote:
OptOut
Good find :-)
Best,
Joe (mobile)
technogrouch
on storage in a cool place. What is the school of thought on leaving
the charger attached? Is it best to leave it trickle charging when not
in use, or to disconnect and only recharge when needed?
Thanks again,
Scott
On Dec 2, 8:56 pm, Ambrose Liao <ambrosel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Welcome. Congrats on a terrific find. There seems to be quite a few new owners of TF bikes recently!
>
> It looks as if the Texas electric bike links to the TF manuals are linked to the Tidalforce.com website which is long gone. However, I found the M-750 Owner's Manual on the "Wayback Machine" atwww.archive.orghere:
>
> http://web.archive.org/web/20060712010438/http://www.tidalforce.com/d...
>
> Ambrose
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Dec 2, 2011, at 8:32 PM, L-A-commuter <mean.gree...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hi Scott and welcome:
>
> > For the manuals in pdf format, go tohttp://www.texaselectricbikes.com
Joe
But... the OEM NiMH batteries slowly self discharge and eventually will drop to a harmfully low voltage. The general rule of thumb is to recharge them at least once every 30 days if you're not using the bike or at least check the voltage with a volt meter. You never want the resting voltage to go below 36 V. It normally tops out at about 42 V when fully charged. The 5 LEDs are NOT a good indication of state of charge of the hub once the hub has been sitting in storage for more than a few days because they only measure the current as it is discharging through the power circuit, not from self discharging or voltage measurement. The LEDs will (almost) always reset to all 5 lit once you put it through a full charge cycle, even if the battery is old and won't deliver full capacity.
As Mean Green said, heat is bad. High heat can cook and kill your NiMH battery quickly so be careful in hot weather to either put a fan on your battery while it is charging or bring it into an air conditioned environment while charging if possible. It normally reaches it's highest temperature at the end of it's rapid charge cycle and that normally trips an internal thermosensor to end that portion of high-current charging. I suspect that a malfunction that has occasionally been reported here is due to ambient temperature being so high that the battery starts out so hot that the sensor is already tripped so the charger never shuts off it's high current charge cycle, and that kills the hub. The BMS and charger logic are supposed to prevent this from happening but don't expect them to work flawlessly in all circumstances.
OK, finally one last caution. Avoid regenerative braking while going down long hills. Our TF motors pump out incredible energy in both directions and the original batteries can be easily overwhelmed by all that current, especially in hot weather. The cells get hot very fast from all that current flowing into them during regenerative braking.
Best,
Joe
technogrouch
to everyone for additional manuals and pdfs, I really appreciate it!
On Dec 3, 10:01 am, Joe <optib...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Here are the official Wavecrest TF battery and White Charger documents.
> Tables of Range estimates and the meanings of the charger LED indications and charge sequence.
>
> TF_Battery_Care.pdf
> 242KViewDownload
>
> TF_White_Charger.pdf
> 284KViewDownload
>
>
>
> On Dec 3, 2011, at 10:38 AM, technogrouch wrote:
>
deerfencer1
Larry
OT P.S. for Joe: Vicki and I just bought a very sweet 2010 Prius in
Danbury to replace our 10-year old Chrysler van with 165K miles. Van
dropped its second differential a couple weeks ago and has been
becoming a black hole for repairs. It's gone as of monday.
We looked at Priuses and Jetta TDIs--both great vehicles but the Jetta
TDI wagons are very hard to find and the sedans aren't nearly as
practical as the Prius hatch. Also, there's that sickening .60/gallon
spread right now on diesel vs regular unleaded. Looking forward to
40-50 mpg! How many miles have you put on your Prius?
OptOut
Larry,
We've got about 70k flawless miles on our 2005 Prius. Most notable recent amazing story was in that big surprise pre Halloween snow storm I got caught 50 miles from home helping a friend sort out some networking issues at his house in New Fairfield, CT. All the highways closed and many of the other roads between me and home because the roads were almost as slippery as ice and trees and power lines were falling everywhere, cars and SUVs were sliding into each other and off the roads. It took me 4 hours but I made it home in those worst of all possible driving conditions.
I love the Prius.
We looked at the TDI and a few other vehicles too before we bought the Prius.
I should mention I replaced the OEM tires a while ago with Michelin HydroEdge all season (not even snow tires). They are not as low resistance rolling as the OEM but they have better traction in wet conditions. I immediately noticed about a 10% reduction in MPG bringing our average down to around 44 MPG. But we still sometimes get over 50 on relatively flat long and or slow trips (ie New Jersey).
The NiMH battery is showing no signs of change with age.
Best,
Joe (mobile)