6 Mo. Old Battery in Kit from Ampedbikes - Need advice

[SolidGoldSpork]

Hello,

I'm running a kit from Amped bikes, the Stealth, which was awesome until the battery started acting up. To be fair, the battery was ordered by their recommendation from a chinese vendor so I don't have very many details about it's make or model other than it's a lipo and has some sort of charging controller on top of it that shows battery level and such. This morning when trying to take it out for the commute, it wouldn't turn on, when I got it back to the house, it looked like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc49dnVrhac

Does anyone have any friendly advice as to what is going on here? I was able to get it back running when I hooked it up to the charger for a minute. Seemed to be normal but after a few minutes off the charger it was flashing again. I'll take it off the charger and hook it back to the bike and see if it continues to act up, but I have no idea what the flashing lights mean or how to test this battery.

I'm a total newbie but if anyone wants to give me guidance on where to start researching, please let me know, otherwise I'll be reading the forums. Thanks!

 

[dnmun]

you need to take some pictures and upload them here so we can see what you have.

do you have a voltmeter?

 

[USAEBIKECO]

What kind of battery is it? Does it still work with your bike? Do you have any images?

There is a wealth of knowledge on this forum but we need details.

 

[SolidGoldSpork]

I posted a video of the lights.

The brand, I'm not sure, I purchased from a chinese vendor that only had a yahoo email address. I'm going to email them directly.

The bike was able to get working after a little bit of effort, removing the battery from the bag, laying out the wires etc. I have yet to put it back together and try it again.

I really wish I had more information about the battery but ampedbikes seems to be out of business and they have taken down their site and inventory, so I don't even really know what kind of parts I have in my kit. If anyone knows details about the stealth kit they sold last year, that's the one.

I don't have a voltmeter but I do know how to use one. I'll try to pick one up at the hardware store in the next day or so.

 

[SolidGoldSpork]

Actually it looks like a battery from Ping:

http://www.pingbattery.com/servlet/the-36V-LiFePO4-Battery-Packs/Categories?gclid=Cj0KEQiA-aujBRDqj772vpGfgooBEiQAzWAZUp98hnLB-axZN2CEdpmY_Kty42XzNhjTS1_00hgxHkIaAh6J8P8HAQ

36V 15AH

 

[dnmun]

sometimes you can get the harbor freight voltmeter on sale for really cheap or sometimes free when they have special sales.

you will need to get a camera too so you can take pictures of the battery and load the images here on your thread.

 

[SolidGoldSpork]

Awesome, there's a harbor freight nearby, I'll head in there. Is there anything else I should pick up for general e-bike tools? apart from bicycle tools I mean. crimpers, meters, anything like that?

Like I said, I'm a newbie, so my questions might be pretty far afield.

 

[dnmun]

they have soldering irons and the little jumper wires with alligator clips on the ends, and heat shrink tubing, but for now we just need to measure voltages on the BMS which may still be inside the battery. won't know until you post up some pictures of the battery and then we can tell you where to open it up.

 

[SolidGoldSpork]

Also, it is definitely a ping and I'm downloading their documentation. Nothing seems to tell me why the bike didn't run this morning, but at least I can get a key for the light blinking patterns.

 

[dnmun]

so these are leds blinking on the front side of the BMS? all in a row in line with each channel? it is a black pcb with the mosfets soldered onto one end?

 

[dogman dan]

Do the lights ever go all on, after a long enough time on the charger? If so, that's the indication that it's fully charged. Each light means the bms is discharging that cell from full top of charge, to the lower charge you should have when in use. Make sense? The charger slightly overcharges each cell to balance the pack, and while the light is on, the bms is bringing that cell back down towards 3.65v.

Then, as the bms slowly brings all the cells down to the lower voltage, The lights go off one by one. As they cross that threshold, they can flash on and off like that for a time.

The reason that bike won't run may be that one group of cells won't hold a charge at all, so then the bms shuts off the discharge. You will need a voltmeter to check things, but right now put the pack back on the charger for a long time, perhaps for days. If you can get all the lights lit up, then see if it will hold a charge. If it cannot hold 56v, then you have one or more cell groups falling below 3.5v. A really good ping will hold 58v, overnight, after the charger is removed. A decent one will hold 56v. One that's got problems will drop to 53v or less overnight.