Just wanted to give an update after 2.5 years or 30 months my Shorai has finally died. During that time I was careful to keep it on the Shorai charger, if I was to not use the car for more than 2 weeks, which was mainly during the winter. I am the type of user that drives my car almost everyday during the spring, summer, and fall so during that time I did not have to charge my battery and it worked just fine with starting my car up everytime. I have to say this has surprisingly been a great battery. From my past experience most batteries I've used in any of my previous vehicles have never lasted more than 3 to 3.5 years so 2.5 years is not bad at all (considering the cost and weight difference) imo.
I am not sure if it could of lasted longer. I was able to start it up last weekend with no sign of hesitation but I didn't check to see if the charger set itself off when I did that. So now I'm wondering if I made a mistake by not setting the charger back in store more after my start up. Either way I say if you are someone like me who uses there NSX regularly this would be a great buy.
Below was sent to me by Shorai. It brought mine back from the dead or what I thought was dead.:wink:
Section
#1 is a Recovery Guide designed for use with your Shorai Charger.
#1 - BATTERY RECOVERY WITH THE SHO-BMS01
Shorai SHO-BMS01: Charging A Deeply Discharged Battery
A volt meter will greatly help you in this recovery process. All voltage readings are for 12V batteries, please halve for 6V batteries
. **The Shorai charger does NOT automatically go into Store Mode after fully charging. You must place it into Store mode and hear a triple beep in order for it to keep it at a constant 13.35V
Alternating Green and Yellow Lights (Below 50% Charge)
The green and Yellow lights will flash alternately (back and forth) if your battery is less than 50% charged (~13.116V). In order to fully charge your battery at this point, please follow these instructions:
1. Make sure that all cables are connected correctly to your Shorai battery.
2. If the charger lights are already on, proceed to Step 3. If not, press Charge to wake up the charger. The lights should turn on and beep.
3. Press the STORE button momentarily
(do not hold down) and listen for the triple beep to indicate the charger is active and it is in the mode you selected.
The triple beep is the key indicator of any successful mode selection.
4.
The lights will continue to flash alternately until the battery reaches above 50% charge (13.116V).
5. The yellow light will then begin blinking until you reach ~13.35V, after which it will turn solid yellow. This may take up to 24 hours depending upon how discharged your battery was. Keeping it in STORE MODE will also allow your battery to balance overnight.
6. STORE MODE (solid yellow light) will maintain/float the battery at approximately 13.35V
7. When you are ready to fully charge your battery, press the Store Button to cancel the mode. Then press the CHARGE button momentarily and listen for the triple beep. The Green light will then begin to flash. It may take up to 30 minutes for the battery to reach full capacity, approximately 14.4V. It will change to a solid green once it reaches ~14.4V. Newer chargers will turn off within 30 seconds of reaching full charge. Please
promptly remove the battery from the charger if you do not intend to place it back into STORE MODE to avoid any a draining of your battery.
8.
How long will it take? Smaller capacity batteries may reach their full capacity within 15 minutes. Larger capacity batteries may take up to 30 minutes. However, batteries in good health, can take as little as 5-10 minutes to fully charge from Store mode.
Error Code (Lights Flashing Simultaneously With Alarm)
- 2 Flashes, Pause, repeat: Polarity Error (rare). Return the battery and possibly the charger to Shorai.
- 3 Flashes, Pause, repeat:
- If this is a Case #3 (LFX24, 27 or 36) and you are using your battery for the first time, be sure that the Series Bar is installed.
- Determine that the cables are hooked up correctly. If they are, they may be worn.
- Check to see if all 5 pins are present in the battery charging port. If not, the battery is unrecoverable and cannot be repaired.
- Check another outlet as well.
- 4 Flashes, Pause, repeat: There may be a High Cell Variation. Some cells' voltages may be high, while some may be low. High Cell Variations may give you a normal voltage reading (your battery may, in fact, have ~14.4V but most of it will be in one or two of the cells, and very little in the other two. This will result in a faster discharge as the cells are designed to hold 3.6V each and will discharge faster to reach this ceiling. Cell imbalances can occur from using an incorrect charger, jumping the battery, sitting unused for long periods, or your regulator may be faulty.
How To Recover From A 4-Flash Error
1. It is best to start with a full charge (14.4V) from your Shorai charger. However if the error code is still present, after charging you can start the bike a few times to discharge the battery so that the too-high cells can discharge. Be sure not to discharge below 12.86V
2. You would then use the
50% Charge (Alternating Lights) instructions above to slowly recharge the battery. Sometimes, you may have to repeat this process several and equalize times to correct very imbalanced cells.
3. Use a 3-stage cgarger (2A or less, no desulfation) for no more than 15 min for a superficial charge and then place on the Shorai charger in STORE mode.
**The Shorai charger does NOT automatically go into Store Mode after fully charging. You must place it into Store mode and hear a triple beep in order for it to keep it at a constant 13.35V
Increasing Charge Density of a New Battery
Anything from 13.9 to 14.4V is common with the Shorai charger at first, but in the interim, for a new battery, the charge density can be increased so that it may reach its full capacity improve performance overall throughout its life (i.e. slower discharge rate).
You can increase your capacity to the full 14.4V by completing several charge cycles with the Shorai Charger. Press the charge button once, or until it
triple beeps. It will begin charging the battery until it reaches ~14.4V and displays a solid green light indicating such (or turns off after 30 seconds if you have a charger with the firmware update, below). You can check with a voltmeter to determine after each charge cycle as to if you have reached 14.4V. Press Charge again. After it is finished charging this second time, you may press charge once more to complete increasing the charge density. Occasionally this can be done throughout the life of the battery to ensure that it is still reaching 14.4V. **Note: The LFX discharge rate is non-linear. It will discharge faster at first, but will then level off so do not be alarmed if you see it drop in voltage right away.
California-mandated Powersaving Mode was implemented in all charger firmware in units with serial numbers S040014C to present. This update causes the charger to turn off automatically if (A) No command is given within the allotted time of first turning the unit on. (B) After Charging is complete.
The Unit will not turn off automatically if the STORE mode was successfully initiated (triple beep). Your charger will continue to deliver voltage to your LFX battery to maintain the storage voltage at 13.3V. If you chose to use the Charge mode and the charge is complete, please remove the charger from the battery as soon as possible.
If your charger is “off”, one press of the CHARGE button will “wake up” the charger. You must press a command button again to initiate a mode. If you hear a triple beep you were successful in initiating the command. If you were to press it again, the charger would emit a single beep which indicates it is in the idle status and waiting for user input.
If Your Charger Keeps Turning Off (even though you have heard that triple beep), your battery may be too low in voltage for the charger to recognize your battery. In this case you may possibly be able to recover the battery by placing it on a 2A or less charger
for 15 minutes ONLY--enough to superficially charge the battery--then place the battery back on the Shorai charger in
Store Mode. Repeat above instructions for a discharged battery.
Power Loss and Sag: Your charger will also turn itself back on if it detects a power loss or sag while it is either in Store more, or if it noted this sag before the battery could fully be charged in Charge mode. If you have an older electrical system in your building or are on a generator, you may notice the charger turn off and turn back on when in STORE MODE, or if the CHARGE MODE was incomplete.
Updated Shorai-BMS01 Installation Guide: https://system.netsuite.com/core/media/media.nl?id=4799&c=3379047&h=da117b98afdc728a1c0c&_xt=.pdf
....until I get stranded, its a great buy.
