Bionx Battery puzzle.

[jocoman]

I have successfully done a cell transplant on my Bionx 36v Li-ion.
I have opened the case and clipped the positive battery lead and ran it outside of the case to a connector. That way i can connect and disconnest the internal cells. I run my new pack of cells thru the charge port. So far so good. note I only brought out the positive lead.
Here is my question.
With the battery in its case and off the bike when I connect and disconnect the positive lead I see a spark. This is at my connector that I put in as described above. It is also a good sized spark.
Sure enough there is 40 volts when I measure each side of the plus lead. The battery doesn't discharge, so why the spark?
I don't like connecting things when they spark. Any ideas?
I know its a long shot.
Txs
Jim

 

[miro13car]

spark is normal when you connect any source of voltage to electronics which have 1000microfards capacitors or greater.
Bionx electronics BMS must have such capacitors.
In the moment of connection capacitors charge and this is causing spark.

 

[Pure]

What he ^ said.

You can install a precharge resistor to stop the spark. Search the forums, there are many threads on this mod.

 

[itselectric]

I have successfully done a cell transplant on my Bionx 36v Li-ion.
I have opened the case and clipped the positive battery lead and ran it outside of the case to a connector. That way i can connect and disconnest the internal cells. I run my new pack of cells thru the charge port. So far so good. note I only brought out the positive lead.
Here is my question.
With the battery in its case and off the bike when I connect and disconnect the positive lead I see a spark. This is at my connector that I put in as described above. It is also a good sized spark.
Sure enough there is 40 volts when I measure each side of the plus lead. The battery doesn't discharge, so why the spark?
I don't like connecting things when they spark. Any ideas?
I know its a long shot.
Txs
Jim

Jim:

it is very easy to take out battery and substitue other type of battery. But a word of caution what you are doing. It depends on your model of Bionx system. If your system dated back pre-2009 and IC2. You may want to disable the regen setting. The older model of Bionx do not have upper limit on regen. When your battery is fully charge, and going down on steep hill. It may cause it to over charge the battery, and if the BMS reject the over current, it will blow up the circuit board.

Another Bionx topic had mentioned here as well:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18954&hilit=bionx+lifepo4&start=30

Ken

 

[silentflight]

Glad to hear of a successful battery transplant on a Bionx, any chance you might share some pictures? Would love to see it.

 

[jocoman]

So... How do i disable the regen? Since I am using exactly the same cells, it may not be an issue, but i would like to know how to turn it off anyways.
Jim

I have successfully done a cell transplant on my Bionx 36v Li-ion.
I have opened the case and clipped the positive battery lead and ran it outside of the case to a connector. That way i can connect and disconnest the internal cells. I run my new pack of cells thru the charge port. So far so good. note I only brought out the positive lead.
Here is my question.
With the battery in its case and off the bike when I connect and disconnect the positive lead I see a spark. This is at my connector that I put in as described above. It is also a good sized spark.
Sure enough there is 40 volts when I measure each side of the plus lead. The battery doesn't discharge, so why the spark?
I don't like connecting things when they spark. Any ideas?
I know its a long shot.
Txs
Jim

Jim:

it is very easy to take out battery and substitue other type of battery. But a word of caution what you are doing. It depends on your model of Bionx system. If your system dated back pre-2009 and IC2. You may want to disable the regen setting. The older model of Bionx do not have upper limit on regen. When your battery is fully charge, and going down on steep hill. It may cause it to over charge the battery, and if the BMS reject the over current, it will blow up the circuit board.

Another Bionx topic had mentioned here as well:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18954&hilit=bionx+lifepo4&start=30

Ken

 

[jocoman]

I had a lot of help from Doctorbass and i will write up a report with pictures soon.

Glad to hear of a successful battery transplant on a Bionx, any chance you might share some pictures? Would love to see it.

 

[itselectric]

So... How do i disable the regen? Since I am using exactly the same cells, it may not be an issue, but i would like to know how to turn it off anyways.
Jim

If you are using the same Konion battery cells, without the BMS. You don't have to worry about anything. It is the BMS that reject the over current regen which cause the problem.

To turn off the regen, the simple and quickest way is to disconnect the ebrake sensor.

 

[jocoman]

Ken
How do i do that?
If I take the magnet away the regen function is always on.
I wan it to be always off.

 

[jocoman]

Nevermind, figured it out. You just disconnect the entire sensor.

 

[GCinDC]

So you left the original cells inside doing nothing? Love to see the pics.... I did something similar last summer, with lipo, but connecting via charge port, paralleling to original pack... I have a feeling I'll have to do it all again soon...