Disconnect controller when charging?

[motomech]

System brief;

12S (46V) Lipo battery pack

Elifebike 48 V controller w/ the 810 LED display

The problem;

A year or so ago, I damaged a controller (heard it go "pop", dead afterwards) when I connected the charger leads, in parallel, into the pack to controller leads. The controller was turned off via the 810 display.

Since then, I have always disconnected at least one connector @ the controller to be safe.
But this is getting old and I would like to get back to my more "plug and play" procedure, but would prefer not to damage another controller.

Any opinions on this?

Should I connect the leads first, then turn the charger on, or visa versa? I have a different charger now (Mean Well HLG), and it seems indifferent to which procedure is used.

Thanx in advance for any replies.

 

[danielrlee]

There shouldn't be any risk from having both your charger and controller connected to the battery at the same time. The failure of your old controller was probably nothing to do with this and would have failed anyway (sounds like the input cap(s) went pop).

I'd put it down to bad luck and continue as you wish to do, by leaving the battery plugged into the controller whilst charging.

 

[dogman dan]

It should not have caused the pop that time. Unless you hooked up wrong polarity or something, which would have popped the charger too.

But disconnecting the controller can save your battery, its a definite positive turning off of the power.

 

[d8veh]

The display only switches the voltage to power the controller. The battery wires are permanently connected to the motor, but blocked by the Mosfets. One or more capacitors sit permanently accross the battery wires. If the controller went pop, that probably means that the capacitor across the battery wires blew. That only happens if you go over it's rated voltage or reverse the polarity on the battery wires. Was the battery connected and switched on when you connected the charger? were you over-volting the controller?