LEAF Batteries are in the Vectrix!

Well, this past Saturday was a big day for the Vectrix upgrade project!

I got the battery in and the Vectrix IS NOW RUNNING ON NISSAN LEAF CELLS!

In my last video, I showed you how I got the battery together – 18 LEAF cell modules sandwiched together with spacers and threaded rod. This time, I installed an ammeter shunt, wired up the pack, got the batteries actually INSIDE the cycle, connected power, hooked up a Cycle Analyst, and got all the covers and trim back together.

To start with, the Cycle Analyst bike computer that I purchased uses a shunt, which needs to go on the negative end of the battery pack. I had some scrap fiberglass angle material and decided that it would be good to mount the ammeter to. I measured the fiberglass, then cut it and drilled a hole so that it would be mounted to the top two threaded rods of the battery pack.

Next, I mounted the ammeter shunt to the fiberglass angle  with a pair of 1/4-20 bolts. To electrically connect pack negative to the shunt, I repurposed one of the original Nissan LEAF pack bus bars. I removed the orange protective cover, bent the bar to shape, drilled a hole in it to match the shunt, and added a section of heat-shrink tubing. Then I connected the bus bar from pack negative to the shunt, and tightened down both bolts.

On the positive end of the pack, I planned to reuse one of the LEAF pack main power cables. I also needed to attach a very small wire to the positive end to power the Cycle Analyst. I noticed that the original Vectrix NiMH battery pack used the same size bolts as the LEAF cells, and that a few of the terminal bolts were tapped for tiny screws that mounted the temperature sensors. I removed one of those bolts and used it to attach the cable to the LEAF pack. The tiny screw in the head of the bolt will later be the power connection for the bike computer.

I was also trying to decide if I wanted anything between the cells and the bare frame of the scooter. I had some fancy “Tool Box Anti-Slip Material” and cut some out to fit the bottom of the box. I also cut a piece to go in the far front of the battery box and held it in place with some 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.

That was about the time that my new friend, Nick, showed up. Nick also has a Vectrix, the same make/model/year/color as mine. Essentially, he has THE EXACT SAME BIKE. He purchased 18 of my LEAF modules from the pack and is planning on doing the exact same upgrade I am. By showing up and lending me a hand, he’s also learning how to do this on his own cycle.

With an extra set of hands there, it was time to put the battery in the bike. We hooked the lifting strap on to the battery, connected that to the chain hoist, and started lifting. With the cycle centered under the hoist, we got the battery right where we needed it, and then lowered it back down, making sure that the pack was ALL THE WAY FORWARD in the compartment, and not letting the extra bit of threaded rod hit on the motor controller or anything else.

There’s only a very small gap on either side between the battery and the frame. I took an old political sign (corrugated plastic) and cut a pair of one-foot by one-foot pieces to slide in on either side of the battery.

After that, we ran the positive cable along the metal bracket that was on the top edge of the battery, and zip-tied it down. I even happened to have “High Voltage” Orange zip-ties! We connected the black negative cable from the motor controller to the other side of the ammeter shunt and tightened it down as well.

The next big moment is “Pre-Charging” before making the final connection to the pack, in this case the positive cable. I had a 100 watt / 120V lightbulb which I used to complete the circuit BEFORE connecting the positive cables. This lets the capacitors in the motor controller fill more slowly than they otherwise would, preventing a blown fuse or worse. After that, it was just a matter of tightening the connections, making sure they were insulated, and then protecting them from physical vibration (which mostly consisted of zip-tying things in place….)

To wire the Cycle Analyst, I threaded the cord through the glove-box hinge, through a frame grommet hole, and into the battery compartment. The Black and White wires connect to one side of the shunt, and the Blue wire to the other side. That only left the Red wire, which had to be all the way in the FRONT of the battery box. I stripped out the red wire, only to find that there was also a yellow and green wire cut off and hidden inside. Pulling on one of those wires was an easy way to split open the cable sheathing. I had another cord which was two conductors. I stripped both ends of both conductors of that cord. I then crimped the red bike computer wire to that cord, and then a very small ring terminal to the same end of the other conductor. That way, I could add a switch to the opposite end of the cord to turn the Cycle Analyst on and off. I screwed down the small ring terminal to the positive end of the battery pack on the fancy little temperature sensor screw on the + terminal. Both the Cycle Analyst and its power switch are temporarily going in the glove box until I decide where I want to permanently mount them.

After that, it’s just the less exciting process of reinstalling the battery cover, trunk switch, trunk release plate, trim cover, and seat. I DID remove the fans from the underside of the battery box cover. The LEAF cells do NOT heat up the way the original Vectrix NiMH cells did, and the upgraded charger software actually disregards the fans and the temperature sensors.

The project still isn’t done. Items of note that still need work are upgrading the main fuse from a 125A to 200 amp and connecting the BMS wire harness to some sort of connection that I can use to hook up a balance charger. Neither of those had to be finished this weekend, and were’t stopping me from going for a spin around the block. I hopped on the scooter and took it for a very mild ride around the neighborhood. Everything seemed to work fine. The Cycle Analyst was on and working, even though it’s temporarily stuffed in the glove box and still needs calibrating.

After the ride, I plugged the cycle in to charge and was AMAZED as how much quieter it is without those two  large fans under the seat.

That’s it for now! There’s a local Clean Transportation event tomorrow that I wanted to have the cycle ready for, and I’m feeling pretty pleased to have met that goal. You can still look forward to more on this project as I figure out how to balance charge the cycle, mount up the Cycle Analyst, and eventually put a new fuse in there.

Til next time, stay charged up!
-Ben N