CONNECTING THE BATTERY
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Take care not to short circuit the terminals on the battery.
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Make sure the terminals and connectors are clean and free of corrosion.
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Connect the positive cable to the positive (+) battery terminal.
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Connect the negative cable to the negative (-) battery terminal.
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The terminals on the G31 are 3/8-16 UNC and should be torqued to 16 ft lbs.
Operation & Charging
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Firefly batteries can be operated in a partial state of charge for long periods of time
without sustaining any permanent damage.
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The batteries may emit gas during the first 10-20 charge cycles. This is normal.
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Max discharge Current: The maximum recommended discharge current is 0.7C for
extended periods of time to ensure the longevity if the battery. The FF battery can
discharge up to 3C for short periods.
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Max Charge Current: The maximum recommended sustained charge current is 0.5C. 3C
can be tolerated for 10-20 seconds in the case of regenerative breaking
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Peukerts Constant: If you have hardware that requires a Peukerts constant to be entered,
we recommend that you do not change the factory settings due to the large inaccuracies
based on varying discharge rates. The Peukerts constant for the FF battery for the 10hr
and 20hr rate is 1.07. It is 1.12 for 6.5hr and 1.8hr rate. Keep in mind that whatever
Peukerts correction you use, you will lose accuracy with extremely slow discharges.
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Temperature Compensation: If you have hardware that allows the user to enter a
temperature coefficient, use 24mV/C° for temperature compensation for a 12V battery &
48mV for a 24V battery. Contact us for higher voltages. The temperature compensation
should be zero at an ambient temperature of 25°C/77°F. This means that for every
degree the battery is ABOVE 25°C, the charge V should be reduced by 24mV/48mV. For
every degree that the battery is BELOW 25°C, the charge voltage should be increased by
24mV/48mV. Note that with Firefly batteries, the battery temperature sensor only
needs to be near the batteries to measure ambient temperature. It isn’t necessary to put
the sensor directly on the battery. This is different than other Pb batteries.
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Complete Charge Cycle Recommendations: For a complete charge cycle, charge the G31
to 14.4V/L16 to 4.8V with temperature compensation (bulk phase) and continue
charging until the charging current drops to 0.5A for the G31 or 2A for the L16
(absorption phase time will vary). You DO NOT need to fully charge the batteries each
cycle in order to maintain the capacity, however, we recommend doing a complete
charge cycle at least once a month when cycling once per day or every 30 cycles if