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Razor Ecosmart Upgrade to Lithium

Hello all, I hate to come on here and ask a repeated question, but I'm totally foreign to wiring batteries and though I read all of the forums on this scooter, I'm still left with wanting a simple and concise answer to my question before I drop a bunch of money on an upgrade. I have a Razor Ecosmart scooter, I want to upgrade for distance. I'm totally fine with the speed. From what I read I can upgrade it with 3, 12v 15ah lead batteries, however that will also increase the weight and therefore also affect the battery usage. If I'm going to upgrade, I might as well look at ion as a more long term solution. Am I understanding correctly that I can buy 1 36v 12 or higher battery to replace the 3 12v 7ah? And what's this about changing to 48v? Does that just involve changing the charger to a 48v capacity charger? Or does it affect other gears . Also is it hard to include one of the electric battery gagues into your setup? I saw a diagram that had be posted, but does that mean you just add it into the line between the power controller and trip? I'm open to any suggestions. I would rather drop the money now than go through multiple sets of 3 packs of batteries that I'll have to replace more than once even though they are a much more cost effective solution.

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When switching from a lead-acid battery pack to a lithium battery the Voltage should be the same unless you are overvolting the scooter, however, there are other factors to consider also such as the lithium battery's maximum continuous discharge current rating and its open circuit Voltage range/discharge cutoff Voltage. 


Lithium batteries have a battery management system (BMS) boards inside of them which control how much current can be demanded from them and how low their Voltage level can be drawn down to. If either of these limits are exceeded the BMS will shut down the battery to prevent damage to it. Usually, the battery will need to be connected to the battery charger to reset itself back to a functioning state.


In the case of an unmodified EcoSmart scooter, the controller has a 30 Amp current limit and the original battery pack has a 30 Amp fuse, so a lithium battery with a 30 Amp or higher maximum continuous discharge current rating should be used with it. 


Regarding a lithium battery's open circuit Voltage range, this is the range of Voltage that the BMS will allow the battery to operate between. The lower Voltage number is important because this is the Voltage that the BMS will shut off the battery at when it is reached. Sometimes this is also called the discharge cutoff Voltage. The controller also has a low Voltage cutoff (LVC) level so optimally the battery pack will deeply discharge before the controller reaches its LVC so the full amount of the batteries capacity can be used. 


For example, the EcoSmart scooter's controller has an LVC of 31.5 Volts so optimally the lithium batteries discharge cutoff Voltage should be at or above 31.5 Volts otherwise the full capacity of the battery will not be able to be used. 


We carry a 36 Volt 30Ah LiFePO4 battery that has a 36 Volt discharge cutoff Voltage so its full capacity can be fully used well before the controller reaches its low Voltage cutoff (LVC) level. However, we have seen other 36 Volt lithium batteries with 30 Volt discharge cutoff Voltage ratings and since the controller would shut down when the battery reaches 31.5 Volts these lithium batteries would never be allowed to become deeply discharged and be used to its maximum capacity.


If the scooter is overvolted to 48 Volts then its motor will run faster and stronger and consume more power from the battery pack if the scooter is driven faster than it was when running at 36 Volts. Overvolting may also overheat the controller and motor depending on how hard the scooter is driven. 


A battery indicator gauge can be installed by splicing it into the wiring harness between the on/off power switch and power connector to controller. 


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