Did I fry something?

GooseRider

10 µW
Joined
Jul 28, 2021
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5
So I'm finishing up my first build. It's an ebay hub motor with a 35 amp peak controller. It was dark, I just finished soldering the last connections I needed on the battery, and I was excited to hook up the motor just to see it spin.

I had attached a female xt60 to the male xt60 coming off my battery while soldering those connections to act as a heat sink for the plastic. In my hurry, I had left the female xt60 on. In going to connect these two female ends together to test the motor, I got a couple very terrifying sparks. Nothing heated up battery or controller wise as far as I could tell. The connectors were quite warm though.

I realized what was wrong, removed the female connector, and then plugged it in properly after it cooled. The sw900 fired right up, and the motor span super fast without any load on level 5. I'm wondering if this kind of situation could have blown any controller components that I won't be aware of until the build is complete, or I'm 40km from home on a heavy ass broken down bicycle.

Thanks for helping out a noob.
 
Hooking up the battery to the controller you'll get a spark and hear a pop, that is normal.
If you used XT60 Anti-Spark connectors it wont do that.

Heating of the connector could have been your soldering job. leave iron on to long and those bullet connectors inside the plastic housing melts and moves the bullet connector and deforms the housing.
 
markz said:
Heating of the connector could have been your soldering job. leave iron on to long and those bullet connectors inside the plastic housing melts and moves the bullet connector and deforms the housing.

It was my first time soldering since high school computer engineering class...

Glad to hear I'm most likely ok. Haven't been this pumped since I rode my motorcycle for the first time! I'll definitely be back to tell you guys just how fast the ol' chinesium special goes.
 
markz said:
Its great you did not buy an ebike from your local bicycle shop :thumb:

Probably great for the local bike shop, too. Our cherished e-bikes are usually a can of worms best kept to ourselves.
 
markz said:
How many DIY ebikes do you see riding around in Austin TX?

Some. In my neighborhood, it might be predominantly those I've built or helped out with.

Seems like the majority of e-bikes here are ready-made, with the balance split between DIY bikes and horrible, borderline unusable mail order bikes like Ancheer (which I consider "unready-made").

There are lots of Rad Runners and other scooters with pedals that were never intended to be pedaled. I wish they'd get license plates and stay out of the bike lanes.

One of the guys I built a bike for recently decided to get an expensive Trek model instead. I found out about this because he listed the bike I built on FB Marketplace or whatever, and my ex-GF bought it. She's stoked about it.
 
Now you are an infamous eBike builder?


See more mid-drive recumbent trikes on the greenways and few eBikes. Mostly store bought, few shop built. No DIY.

by Chalo » Sep 24 2021 11:13pm

markz wrote: ↑Sep 24 2021 11:02pm
How many DIY ebikes do you see riding around in Austin TX?
Some. In my neighborhood, it might be predominantly those I've built or helped out with.

Seems like the majority of e-bikes here are ready-made, with the balance split between DIY bikes and horrible, borderline unusable mail order bikes like Ancheer (which I consider "unready-made").

There are lots of Rad Runners and other scooters with pedals that were never intended to be pedaled. I wish they'd get license plates and stay out of the bike lanes.

One of the guys I built a bike for recently decided to get an expensive Trek model instead. I found out about this because he listed the bike I built on FB Marketplace or whatever, and my ex-GF bought it. She's stoked about it.
 
Chalo said:
markz said:
How many DIY ebikes do you see riding around in Austin TX?

Some. In my neighborhood, it might be predominantly those I've built or helped out with.

I didn’t know you lived in the states. I thought you lived elsewhere
 
markz said:
How many DIY ebikes do you see riding around in Austin TX?

That’s a great question. I always wondered the same. In my city I’ve seen a handful of DIY ebikes and everything else is store-bought. How many E bikes do you see in your city or also how many DIY E bikes?
 
GooseRider said:
I got a couple very terrifying sparks. Nothing heated up battery or controller wise as far as I could tell. The connectors were quite warm though.

Yeah I still hate that spark you get when you connect a controller to the battery. It’s because the capacitors are empty in the controller. The best way to avoid the big spark without making it complicated is plug the two ends together fast and hard, Don’t do it slow! You’ll hear a tiny pop but it’s not near as bad compared to when you plug the 2 ends together slowly. The two contacts are actually arcing before you touch so make sure you connect the ends quickly and you won’t get that hard spark. And the XT60s seem to spark worse than other connectors from my experience but I’ve only used a few of them
 
I don't know the ratio of store bought vs online bought but there are a lot of Radcity (??), Jetson (Amazon), Townies (Local Bike Store). A ton of 20" wheeled fat ebikes from god knows where, probably Amazon that I figure their condo dwellers and not so much RV'er and not much sailboat action here.

I see very little diy ebikes, very little. There might have been one a day or two ago, but I was in a zen moment doing a type of pas at slow speed, basically cruise control as I dont have pas, but pedaling along to burn calories. So I had zero interest in opening up the throttle and eyeballing the guys ebike hard to figure out what it is. Normally I cruise in behind them and wait to slowly cruise by and eyeball them. Most of the time its easy to figure out what they have at a glance but ebikes are so common this year I dont care much anymore as I used to years past. Theres just to many ebikes out now which is great, but the private stand up scooters are out there to, onewheels too.

https://youtu.be/IxB2j-egWcQ?t=2284
This was an interesting statement in a video I was watching last night.
I didnt get the timestamp right on it but listen to when he starts talking about
"The type of customer we attract" meaning the type of customers are Do It Yourselfers who want to learn. I was going to post this to Chalo's post but held off as it was late.

Eastwood said:
markz said:
How many DIY ebikes do you see riding around in Austin TX?

That’s a great question. I always wondered the same. In my city I’ve seen a handful of DIY ebikes and everything else is store-bought. How many E bikes do you see in your city or also how many DIY E bikes?
 
I am not sure what the OP did, but I have had vendors place male Xt60 charge cnnectors on batteriies, and an exposed 4mm screw head fits right between the prongs. Zap, but no damage to pack. I swapped everything coming out of my batteries to female XT's. Twice, I've soldered up some XT harnesses and in my rush, I flipped the leads. KaZap! Melted the male prongs on the XT60's. I used to have the larger anti-spark XT90's, but have gone to Xt60's, and am used to the little pop when I connect things.
 
I used to see two regulars on DIY ebikes, but our paths haven't crossed for months. The ebikes I see are about half fat tire models. For a while, I'd see bikes like the Giants with a svelte frame and integrated battery, but now everything new appears to be heavy massive frame with integrated battery, Some of these step thru bikes look like a pair of 2x4's making up the frame.
 
markz said:
https://youtu.be/IxB2j-egWcQ?t=2284
This was an interesting statement in a video I was watching last night.
That was a very interesting vidoe. Thank you for posting the link :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:
 
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