Another super nube question (or uh-oh!)

[john7700]

Just to preface, I am not very knowledgeable about electrical matters and this is my first
venture in to E-biking.

So, I went out and bought a volt meter so I would have a way to check things out and after
fooling around a little I decided to check the amperage on my 36v 30AH Ping. I set the meter
to amps and touched the test leads to the battery leads and promptly blew the hell out of my new
meter with a loud pop and spark. Every thing seemed ok with the battery and after about two
weeks of getting a bunch of stuff worked out with the rest of the motor, bike, etc. I had every thing
running well. I took the bike for a long ride yesterday and ran it until it started to cut out so
I could begin to judge my distance range. Every thing worked well and I got about 22 miles out of
my 9c before it began shutting down. Parked it in the garage and shut the controller off, plugged in
the charger and shut the lights off in the garage. Just went out to check on it tonight and it is not
charging. I did had the controller shut off but I didn't think that should matter. I just turned it on
and have it on the charger hopping it will charge up?

So, my question is, did I blow the BMS ? I'm sure I'll know in a few hours but this is killing me. What
say you most knowledgeable Sphere folks.

Thanks,
John

 

[auraslip]

Well, you can probably just change the fuse in the DMM.

As for the battery, the battery would most likely not work if the BMS was damaged.
Was the charger on at all?

 

[dogman dan]

I suppose it's possible. Get in contact with ping.

Meanwhile check for some obvious stuff, like has the charger failed or something. Sometimes won't charge is just a broken wire to the plug. Green light means charged, or broken. Of course, to do that you need a voltmeter. And be careful about not shorting the charger with the leads while checknig it.

Having the controller connected, or turned on won't affect charging, but you may have zapped a connection in the bms, or the plug to the wires to the bms from the charger.

 

[john7700]

First off, thanks for your quick reply's guys! I really appreciate it.

So I just went out and checked on it and the whole system had shut down. No
power to the CA and no throttle response and the red light was off on the charger.
I disconnected the battery from the controller and re-connected the charger and
now the red light is coming on again on the charger? I once again did a visual inspection
on all wiring and cant see any thing that looks damaged.

Now, here is another thing that I probably should have mention in the initial post but did
not realize was abnormal until I just did some poking around here just now. The CA was
reading 36.2 volts when I put it away last night but after I took it for a little spin around
the block tonight to ensure that it indeed had not charged it was reading 33.2V. Like I said
inmy OP, I did leave the system on for about 2 hours

If I can arrange for a ride to the store tomorrow, I will get a new meter.

Please keep any and all suggetions comming. After waiting a long time for my parts because
of back order I was on such a high last night. Tonight, not so much

 

[john7700]

Update, the charger shut itself off again (red light off) after being plugged in for a while

 

[john7700]

Just a quick post to say thanks again guys. I got it straightened out. Turns out the old
knob and tube outlet in the garage was shorting in and out whenever the garage door
opener went up and down. Charger is operating properly, but now I've got to fix
the outlet :lol:

This forum (and the members that make it up) are an incredible resource for a clueless
nube such as myself.

Thanks again,

John

 

[auraslip]

8)
make sure you get a good ride in before the rapture tomorrow
:lol:

 

[john7700]

8)
make sure you get a good ride in before the rapture tomorrow
:lol:

Higher voltage but fewer wires

 

[dogman dan]

Well, that's the first one of those too for me to hear. The fault being the house. Goes to show how looking at everything may be useless, but seeing one thing makes all the difference.

Good for you for noticing it was the plug. That could have had me ripping out hair for quite some time too.

One more thing, to check the amps, or watts or capacity of the battery you will need a different tool.

A wattmeter, or a tool that includes a wattmeter like the Cycleanalyst. The CA will allow you to monitor how the battery is doing while you ride. Voltage, Amps, watts, Amp hours, watthours per mile, etc can all be displayed on a CA.

You can do some rudimentary battery performance monitoring with just a voltmeter and knowing how long it took to recharge. Voltmeter alerts you to something really wrong when it drops too low sooner than normal. Charge time can give you a rough estimate of AH used with some calculations.