Ride1up Prodigy charger

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Aug 15, 2014
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Just bought a new Ride1up Prodigy mountain bike.

To my dismay .. the charger is only 2a … while the battery is a 14ah (36v) that can safely charge at 5A.

The battery connector is a funky configuration that I have never seen before called a Stellar 3 Pin.

The 3rd pin is probable some sort of data pin for high temp or safety shutdown.

Anybody have any suggestions for how I can best circumvent the charger and utilize my variable power supply for charging at 5 amps?
 

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Davidericrosenberg said:
while the battery is a 14ah (36v) that can safely charge at 5A.
Do you have a link to the specifications for the battery that show this? Just to be certain that it really is capable and you won't be damaging the cells, wiring, or BMS, causing a future possibility of dangerous failure modes.

The battery connector is a funky configuration that I have never seen before called a Stellar 3 Pin.
I've never seen that one either. A search on that name doesn't find anything like it. An image search might, with a picture from the right angle to match any pics that might exist of one. If you want a spare connector that's your best bet, short of contacting the charger manufacturer directly.

The 3rd pin is probable some sort of data pin for high temp or safety shutdown.
What do you measure with a voltmeter, relative to battery negative, on that pin during charging, at start of charging and various stages during charging?


Anybody have any suggestions for how I can best circumvent the charger and utilize my variable power supply for charging at 5 amps?
You'd need to verify which pin is battery positive, which is battery negative, and either find a matching connector, move the existing one over to your PSU, change the connector on the battery to match what you use on the PSU, or use a likely more dangerous temporary connection method.

If the third pin does measure something on it during charging in the testing done above, you'd need to figure out what that something means, to be able to use it as a safety feature (if that is what it is intended for, and not just an OEM charger interlock).

If it is actually (one or) two way communications and the battery won't charge without receiving the correct data from the charger, you'd have to at least record the data during an actual charge cycle and play it back to the battery as needed to emulate the OEM charger, or reverse engineer the data/protocol, or else replace the BMS with a non-OEM-locked one to allow universal charging.
 
• Cells are Samsung 35e and std. charge is 1/2 C.
• I measure 10.4v to the labeled neg. pin
• on closer inspection of the charger boilerplate .. the 3rd pin is labeled ID (not T as I might expect if it connects to a thermistor in the batterypack ☹️)

I thought maybe matching the normal thermistor resistance (say with a 10k ohm resister) would simulate “Temp OK”

If ID means that there is some kind of handshaking going on … then I might have to cry uncle.
 
Clarification:

I measure 10.4v from ID pin to Ground pin while charger is plugged into AC (but not connected to the battery).

There is no voltage on the Positive pin … as expected.
 
Davidericrosenberg said:
• Cells are Samsung 35e and std. charge is 1/2 C.
But what is the BMS and the rest of the charging circuit rated to do? If it's like many and uses really cheap FETs (or even just a single one wiht high resistance, worse if not turned on fully), it might not handle much current without generating significant heat. 5A is two and half times the 2A "design limit" if it is made for that limit--it can be problematic to use parts at that much more than intended. Sometimes the heat doesn't do anything bad, but sometimes it's enough to cause the charging FET to fail stuck "on", and that means the BMS can no longer protect against overcharge or damage that can lead to a fire. (and if the discharge FETs are on the same heatsink, they'll heat up at the same time to a similar degree, and could fail the same way). Just a thought based on what we've seen happen in other designs.

Usually...it's not a problem. But I would never guarantee that. ;)

Usually the reason chargers don't do more than they do is the manufacturer cheaps out on the charger itself, but sometimes they had other reasons to limit charge, such as pack lifespan vs their warranties, or cost savings on wiring, connectors, BMS, etc.


• I measure 10.4v to the labeled neg. pin
• on closer inspection of the charger boilerplate .. the 3rd pin is labeled ID (not T as I might expect if it connects to a thermistor in the batterypack ☹️)

I thought maybe matching the normal thermistor resistance (say with a 10k ohm resister) would simulate “Temp OK”

If ID means that there is some kind of handshaking going on … then I might have to cry uncle.

It's probably not a data signal--you'd usually read about 2.5v on those (a 0-5v signal switching on and off rapidly).

Whether the "ID" is signal from the charger to the BMS or the other way round, will determine how easy it is to use a different charger. Depends on the circuitry inside the battery on that pin.
 
Thank you for your input…!

I’m pretty sure that I will not have a problem with the bms as I have never even seen a small cheap eBay 20a bms rated at less than 10a max charge current.

But your are right … can’t guarantee it…!

The 2 reasons that I wanted to charge with my cv ca power supply was (1) to charge faster and charge just prior to a riding so as to minimize the time that the battery sits fully charged and (2) to charge to 40v instead of 42v in order to greatly increase (~4x) battery life. Automobile and power tool manufacturers (Dewalt for example) do not fully charge
to 4.2v per cell in order to trade off greatly extended battery cycle life for a relatively small gain in capacity.

I would much rather get 8-10 years out of my battery and not have to replace it after 4 years (600 cycles at 3/week)..!

My Chevy Volt will get 10years worth of cycles because the designers avoid both high a low cell voltages.

Anyway … thanks again for you input
 
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