Hi everyone, I happen to have this broken down scooter in my backyard, and I'm wondering if there is a chance to make it running again?
More pictures: https://imgur.com/a/sAbrs
The owner said 2 years ago, he rode it up a very steep hill and it stopped running suddenly. He knows nothing more, he just towed it back home and parked in in the backyard where it has been sitting ever since.
The big questions are probably:
1.) what broke down? (I'm guessing he probably overheated the motor and cooked the windings? Or is there something else that typically breaks down in heavy load conditions?)
2.) is there a chance at all the batteries are still good? They appear to be prismatic LiFePo, but it's been 2 years outside with zero maintenance. If I turn on the keys, nothing lights up and power meter says empty. I reckon the batteries make bulk of the vehicle cost, so if they are bad, there is no point in trying to fix it.
I have some basic knowledge of electricity, I have a charger for the bike, a multimeter, but a very little practical experience. Are there some specific steps I can do to identify the problems? I will be happy for any tips, I plan to look into it this weekend and I can report back what I found.
From what I found, the motor appears to be 13" QS motor 60V 3500W
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UPDATE 1: I tried charging it, but the charger doesn't produce any current - I tried measuring the output cable while the charger was plugged in (red light was on, fan was on) and there is 0 volts. I tried measuring my ebike charger, and it has 54V, so I assume there shoudl always be some voltage even when it's not plugged into the motorbike? Picture of charger: http://i.imgur.com/06Kw50l.jpg
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UPDATE 2: I've identified the scooter as X-Treme XM-3500Li http://www.monstermotorscooter.com/xm-3500li.html
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UPDATE 3: I tried hooking it up with my ebike charger to no avail. Then I disassembled the covers and measured individual cells. There seems to be only residual voltage - like 0.1 V. So I'm guessing the batteries are toast.
But I will try one more thing - attach the entire pack to 12V car battery charger and see what happens. (inb4 RIP)
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UPDATE 4: MAJOR SUCCESS! Got it charging with original 72V charger! I used procedure recommended by Dauntless: Took a 12V car battery charger and connected it to 3 cells at a time, and let it charge up to 9.6V. I did this with all cells until they had at least 2.9V charge each - too around 20 minutes for one block. After this, I connected the original charger and it's charging!
Also to my surprise, when I turned on the key, the lights lit up and even the blinkers work, not bad Didn't try runnign the motor yet, will leave it charging for couple of hours.
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UPDATE 5: Left it charging for 3 hours, let it sit overnight and checked voltage in the morning - according to onboard meter, it dropped from full to 3/4. So probably not a good sign. I hope I will be able to at least use the half-dead battery to test the other components. I already tried twisting the throttle, but it's unresponsive. Gonna dig in further and try diagnostic tricks from Assstray http://www.ebikes.ca/learn/troubleshooting.html
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UPDATE 6:
Got it running using a new ebike controller https://youtu.be/ZS76oelta74
More pictures: https://imgur.com/a/sAbrs
The owner said 2 years ago, he rode it up a very steep hill and it stopped running suddenly. He knows nothing more, he just towed it back home and parked in in the backyard where it has been sitting ever since.
The big questions are probably:
1.) what broke down? (I'm guessing he probably overheated the motor and cooked the windings? Or is there something else that typically breaks down in heavy load conditions?)
2.) is there a chance at all the batteries are still good? They appear to be prismatic LiFePo, but it's been 2 years outside with zero maintenance. If I turn on the keys, nothing lights up and power meter says empty. I reckon the batteries make bulk of the vehicle cost, so if they are bad, there is no point in trying to fix it.
I have some basic knowledge of electricity, I have a charger for the bike, a multimeter, but a very little practical experience. Are there some specific steps I can do to identify the problems? I will be happy for any tips, I plan to look into it this weekend and I can report back what I found.
From what I found, the motor appears to be 13" QS motor 60V 3500W
__________________________________________________________
UPDATE 1: I tried charging it, but the charger doesn't produce any current - I tried measuring the output cable while the charger was plugged in (red light was on, fan was on) and there is 0 volts. I tried measuring my ebike charger, and it has 54V, so I assume there shoudl always be some voltage even when it's not plugged into the motorbike? Picture of charger: http://i.imgur.com/06Kw50l.jpg
__________________________________________________________
UPDATE 2: I've identified the scooter as X-Treme XM-3500Li http://www.monstermotorscooter.com/xm-3500li.html
__________________________________________________________
UPDATE 3: I tried hooking it up with my ebike charger to no avail. Then I disassembled the covers and measured individual cells. There seems to be only residual voltage - like 0.1 V. So I'm guessing the batteries are toast.
But I will try one more thing - attach the entire pack to 12V car battery charger and see what happens. (inb4 RIP)
__________________________________________________________
UPDATE 4: MAJOR SUCCESS! Got it charging with original 72V charger! I used procedure recommended by Dauntless: Took a 12V car battery charger and connected it to 3 cells at a time, and let it charge up to 9.6V. I did this with all cells until they had at least 2.9V charge each - too around 20 minutes for one block. After this, I connected the original charger and it's charging!
Also to my surprise, when I turned on the key, the lights lit up and even the blinkers work, not bad Didn't try runnign the motor yet, will leave it charging for couple of hours.
__________________________________________________________
UPDATE 5: Left it charging for 3 hours, let it sit overnight and checked voltage in the morning - according to onboard meter, it dropped from full to 3/4. So probably not a good sign. I hope I will be able to at least use the half-dead battery to test the other components. I already tried twisting the throttle, but it's unresponsive. Gonna dig in further and try diagnostic tricks from Assstray http://www.ebikes.ca/learn/troubleshooting.html
__________________________________________________________
UPDATE 6:
Got it running using a new ebike controller https://youtu.be/ZS76oelta74