Bionx - Can I swap batteries of different Ah and Watts?

[Pleask]

The battery on my daughters converted bike to the Bionx system is reaching it's end of life. I have found another battery but it has a slightly higher Ah and Watts rating (see bellow). I'd greatly appreciate an answer to my three questions below if you could please. Many thanks, Pat

- Can I use this "new" battery with the existing controller (what ever it is called) system assuming I can swap over the plug to the battery should it not match?
- If no to the above, can I use the motor in the rear wheel if I changed over the entire system?
- I read that these batteries go in to a deep sleep when not charged for along period of time and there for will not charge, this batter I have access to is a couple of years old with out having a charge, will there be any issues do you think?

Old battery 48V 6.6Ah 317W
"New" battery 48V 8.8Ah 423W

 

[indianajo]

According to Wikipedia, the last auction of bionx assets ended 8/15/18. Amego electric vehicles bought the patents. Bionx batteries were reputed to have a microprocessor in them that required digital communication with the controller to work. Unless your new battery has a leisger cycle logo on it, it is 4 years old or older. Probably not worth buying even if the software would actually permit its use.
You can buy an entire new hub motor kit with wheel controller battery brake handles pas pickup etc for under $1000. Grin tech is a canadian vendor, although I'm partial to ebikeling level of completeness. Or look for a new bike. Rize is reputedly canadian https://rizebikes.com/pages/about-us as is biktrix.

 

[RandallS]

The battery on my daughters converted bike to the Bionx system is reaching it's end of life. I have found another battery but it has a slightly higher Ah and Watts rating (see bellow). I'd greatly appreciate an answer to my three questions below if you could please. Many thanks, Pat

- Can I use this "new" battery with the existing controller (what ever it is called) system assuming I can swap over the plug to the battery should it not match?
- If no to the above, can I use the motor in the rear wheel if I changed over the entire system?
- I read that these batteries go in to a deep sleep when not charged for along period of time and there for will not charge, this batter I have access to is a couple of years old with out having a charge, will there be any issues do you think?

Old battery 48V 6.6Ah 317W
"New" battery 48V 8.8Ah 423W

If you are anywhere near Calgary, I know of a very good ebike mechanic, who is very familiar with BionX and can help you.
You can message me if that's a viable option for you - I can send you his contact details.

I just sold my old Townie with a BionX 36V system last Sunday.
Served me well and was my loaner for the last few years.

 

[tomjasz]

Yes, you can use that battery. And it might be OK. A decent eBike LBS should have a battery testing platform that monitors the battery discharge. I’m not a shop but I have a Grin(eBikes.ca) Battery Grinspector

 

[Pleask]

Thanks very much all, if I changed all the controller and equipment over with the new battery, should it be usable, are there any issues with the motor? Pat

 

[indianajo]

Batteries stored fully charged, or under 20%, for 4 years are likely damaged. Controllers & motors store for decades. I wouldn't waste money on a used 4 year old battery. You could take the battery out for a full discharge ride before purchase, if it was a local cash deal - which would likely take 2 -3 hours. Beyond the patience of most vendors.
If the serviceman in Calgary can change the cells for you, and reuse the original control board, then that might be worthwhile. Used bike batteries can't be mailed or shipped UPS or FedEx by regulation except by certified HazMat packers. .

 

[Jason Knight]

So long as the voltage is in range, the amp-hours don't matter. As to wattage that depends on WHAT wattage. Watt-hours or maximum draw? Same kind of goes for amps.

There's how long they last, and how much they can provide. Generally when it comes to maximum draw, so long as the number is higher you're fine. Devices generally don't pull more than they'll use safely. Part of why we have motor controllers.

It's like computer power supplies, where their rated wattage is how much they can safely provide without going boom. A 500 watt power supply doesn't sit there pulling 500 watts just because it's what it's rated for. That's just how much you can safely pull THROUGH it.

Using a higher rated supply or source is often a good thing, and is part of the engineering concept known as "overprovisioning". Many of these devices degrade over time in terms of what they can provide, so if you overprovision they can stay in your desired spec longer. It's why I've run 850 watt power supplies on my computers when max draw is closer to 500. It gives me overhead for future devices, and longer product life as things like capacitors wear out.

In that way, a 48v 10ah / 480 wh battery being replaced by a 48v 16ah / 768 wh battery is fine so long as that 768 watt hour battery can provide the number of amps in actual current draw -- or more -- needed to drive the motor. That extra capacity won't magically fry anything and is generally a plus in terms of durability.

Don't confuse amps/watts drawn with amp/watt hours. And that's something that would worry me about the numbers you provided, you've got no actual current draw ratings. That's amp-hours and watt-hours.

-- edit -- Oh almost forgot: The really stupid part is the "wont charge if left to rest" thing is a flaw in the controllers, not the actual battery cells which in all likelihood are fine. Something that's pissed me off about laptop batteries -- which are generally the same LiMh 18650 cells -- for over a decade. Planned obsolescence of something that is an absolute horror to just dump into landfills.

It's why I like to recycle used laptop batteries into custom packs to drive my lights separate from the rest of the bike.

I actually wonder if you disconnected the cells from the built-in manager to force charge them, then reconnected them if the management board would magically start working.

 

[Torquil Macleod]

The battery on my daughters converted bike to the Bionx system is reaching it's end of life. I have found another battery but it has a slightly higher Ah and Watts rating (see bellow). I'd greatly appreciate an answer to my three questions below if you could please. Many thanks, Pat

- Can I use this "new" battery with the existing controller (what ever it is called) system assuming I can swap over the plug to the battery should it not match?
- If no to the above, can I use the motor in the rear wheel if I changed over the entire system?
- I read that these batteries go in to a deep sleep when not charged for along period of time and there for will not charge, this batter I have access to is a couple of years old with out having a charge, will there be any issues do you think?

Old battery 48V 6.6Ah 317W
"New" battery 48V 8.8Ah 423W

I am sorry for the slow response, I just stumbled on this post. Yes you can directly swap out the 317W battery for the 423W battery and the system will automatically adapt to it. No other intervention is required. I run my BionX kit with both batteries of different capacities swapping them regularly with no issues.