Ping 36v 20 ah, 5000 mile review.

[snowranger]

I don't read Chinese, but the 1 on that xlr connector is + and 3 is -. Ping sent a word file prior to the shipment arriving.

 

[PetersReviews]

I don't read Chinese, but the 1 on that xlr connector is + and 3 is -. Ping sent a word file prior to the shipment arriving.

I know there's a 50/50 chance with the hookup and even though I'm pretty sure, I don't want to take any chances. I didn't get a word file from Ping. I dropped him an e-mail so maybe he'll send it soon.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[karma]

8)

all you need is a volt meter to find the + and - on the charger to solder up the wires.

cheers

 

[dogman dan]

2 or 3 smoked chargers later, I finally learned to use a voltmeter to check everything, and then check again after I put the plug on. Do get a voltmeter, if nothing else, for checking polarity of stuff. 10 bucks for an analog one is the most you will pay, even less at harbor freight.

 

[PetersReviews]

I can't believe that I didn't even think of using my meter to check. Also, Ping sent me a Word document showing the polarity but of course I'll check it before charging. I'm soldering the wires now...

 

[dnmun]

BELIEVE





famous last words, "i thought i tightened those lug nuts".

 

[PetersReviews]

I'm sure all of you can tell that I'm a bit of a newbie with all of the electronic stuff but I wired everything according to Karma's diagram which seemed to agree with Ping's Word document. So I'm going to now hook it up and if nothing starts catching fire or exploding, I'll let it charge for at least 10 hours or overnight for full battery balancing.

OK, no explosions. I was surprised to find that this little 2.5a charger has a little fan in it. The red light is on so it's charging and I'm so psyched to put this on my bike! It's a good thing tomorrow is a Saturday and I have some time to ride!

 

[nomad85]

congrats hope you enjoy it

 

[PetersReviews]

I was hoping to be cruising around by now but something isn't working. I wired it up, charged it for a whole day for battery balancing and put it on my bike. For some reason the controller isn't getting any power from the battery. My meter reads that the battery has power but for some reason there's no activity from the controller or motor. I double checked the wiring and even put the old SLAs back to see if they would work and they do.
So now I'm running the meter to check every lead but nothing seems to be wrong. I'm charging the battery again and I was expecting for the green light to come back on since I just charged it for over 24hrs but the red is on and it looks like it's charging. Hmmm...
I'm wondering if I should just bypass the original GoHub wiring with key/switch and wire the battery with Andersons (wish they sold them at Radio Shack).

Update: The battery looked like it just needed to be topped off and it reads a full charge. Still it's not working. Pictures below.

Here's the before with SLAs

Here's the after

 

[nomad85]

Why does it look so convoluted??

 

[PetersReviews]

Why does it look so convoluted??

I was trying to use the same wires from my old SLAs. There are extra wires going to the key/switch and to the charger but I should probably try to bypass all of them and go straight to the controller. It just seemed easier this way if I wanted to switch back to the SLAs for some reason.

 

[nomad85]

Try something more simple(one connection for charging and one for discharging, no excess crazy stuff) and see if that works, if not you may have a controller issue if both batteries are not working with it.

 

[PetersReviews]

Try something more simple(one connection for charging and one for discharging, no excess crazy stuff) and see if that works, if not you may have a controller issue if both batteries are not working with it.

I bypassed the extra wires even though I was getting power at the end of the Anderson connectors and still nothing. The battery has voltage but the controller isn't getting power. If I put the old SLA batteries on, it works fine.

 

[nomad85]

hmmm. maybe try bypassing the bms(don't cut it of, just expose a bit of wire before the bms and attach a wire, and see if that will power up the controller, don't ride the bike like that though, it might not even be safe so don't do it if you think its a bad idea, I was just thinking the problem may be the bms. Have you checked the cell voltages?

 

[PetersReviews]

hmmm. maybe try bypassing the bms(don't cut it of, just expose a bit of wire before the bms and attach a wire, and see if that will power up the controller, don't ride the bike like that though, it might not even be safe so don't do it if you think its a bad idea, I was just thinking the problem may be the bms. Have you checked the cell voltages?

I'm not sure where on the battery to open. Right at the BMS or where the battery wires go into the pack? I'd hate to start dismantling the whole thing.

 

[nomad85]

Tap into the negative wire feeding the bms, the one in the white sleeve. be very careful though. If that doesn't work you should contact ping and ask for some help(or do that first).

 

[JinbaIttai]

Does your ping spark when you plug it in? Maybe you need to redo the positive connector coming off the ping battery.

 

[PetersReviews]

Tap into the negative wire feeding the bms, the one in the white sleeve. be very careful though. If that doesn't work you should contact ping and ask for some help(or do that first).

I'll do both! I hesitated to ask Ping because of the language barrier but I've always heard that he's great with customer service.

 

[PetersReviews]

Does your ping spark when you plug it in? Maybe you need to redo the positive connector coming off the ping battery.

No, it doesn't spark but I've been using a switch. I'll double check the connectors but I am getting a good voltage reading from them.

 

[dogman dan]

Pings english is much better than mine.

To open up the pack, on mine there was a small ammount of tape holding the top on. the top, is a waxed cardboard piece that comes off leaving the majority of the tape that holds the pack together in place. Just look for the ends of the tape that hold together the top, where the wires come out. Peel very carefully, and don't use any knives or scissors. That should expose the tops of the cells and the bms wire connections. I wonder if your pack has the bms negative wires mis labled? I'd take a pic of the wires on the bms, and confirm that you have the right negative connected to the controller by sending the pic to ping. It's possible that something on the bms shook loose in the shipping, or just failed premature, and the test didn't catch it. My guess is that it is a bms problem, If so, bypassing the bms for a test should show that.

 

[PetersReviews]

Now I have even more troubleshooting to do... I put my SLAs back in to take a ride today and was surprised that my motor jerked a few times. I didn't think much of it as I got to my destination just fine. On my way back the motor stuttered a few more times and it was reading that my battery was low. This would mean that my batteries were completely dying in half the range that I usually go. So now I have to wonder if my controller for some reason is now acting up. I wish there were a more definitive way to figure this out. Should I get one of those meters that a lot of you are using to measure amps?

 

[nomad85]

a watts up meter is very useful, but I am not sure it would be able to figure out your situation. Sounds like your controller is being funky, what kind do you have? it helps to have a spare in situations like these, that way you can test it with the other controller.

 

[PetersReviews]

a watts up meter is very useful, but I am not sure it would be able to figure out your situation. Sounds like your controller is being funky, what kind do you have? it helps to have a spare in situations like these, that way you can test it with the other controller.

I don't have another controller but after doing some checking it looks like the stock controller for the Go-Hub is a 20amp Crystalyte instant start controller. Is this a good enough controller to handle the bump up to 20ah?

 

[nomad85]

Battery capacity would not make a difference to a controller, the controller only limits how many amps you can use at a given time

 

[dogman dan]

2600 miles on the ping today. I'm over 3000 ebike miles for the year with a month and a half to go till the anniversary of my first ride, that spun an axle, cut the wires, blew the controller, and the charger never did work. Amazing I didn't give up then. My goal from the start was to ride at least 3000 miles a year, which because I take a different route in a car, saved 4000 miles of car driving. 3000 miles was my break even point on the ping, vs driving. Just 400 miles to go till I'm riding free!