[SOLVED] Satiator unable to charge (reverse polarity) Varstrom battery

[Valentijn77]

Hi,

Couldn't find anything with search. I have a satiator that works fine overall. But not with my new Varstrom 52V 20Ah downtube battery.
Turns out the Varstrom batter has a reverse polarity compared to what is usual. The charger that comes with the battery also has this, so works fine.
But the satiator shows "SHORT" on the display. This makes sense. But....

I bought some adapter cables to reverse/flip the polarity again. In my mind this should work as now the polarity of the satiator output matches what the Varstrom battery expects. However I still see "SHORT" on the satiator display. I tried with 3 different adapter cables.

Am I making a mistake in my thinking? Should I just open up the battery and resolder the plus/minus on the charge port?

Opper

 

[RunForTheHills]

Call Grin. There may be an internal short in the Satiator. Are there only two wires to the factory charger?

 

[Valentijn77]

Call Grin. There may be an internal short in the Satiator. Are there only two wires to the factory charger?

Yes, it looks like a very cheap, dumb and vulnerable charger.

 

[RunForTheHills]

Then you probably got the wiring right. If the factory charger works and the Satiator doesn't, the logical conclusion is that there is something wrong with the Satiator.

 

[Valentijn77]

Turns out my assumption was wrong. The charger box has a label REVERSE POLARITY. I assumed that's why the satiator didn't work. But I just found an older "normal" charger and it just works. Same polarity. So it must something else that makes the Satiator think there's a SHORT or other problem. I can charge my other battery just fine with the satiator, but that has a XLR connector.

 

[Valentijn77]

OK so the satiator somehow thinks there a SHORT or something wrong. Maybe it tries to detect what is connected as the voltage is only <1.0V. But when I long press the arrow down button it does a force start and starts charging the battery as normal.
TIL the satiator has a force start mode