Specialized levo 2017 500w ebike

Joined
May 17, 2019
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2
I have had to purchase a new battery for my 500w levo at great expense due to water damage to the switch and that I am not the original owner. I have taken the damaged battery to a 'local' electronics engineer to test and see if I can have it repaired. Apparently the electronic board is damaged however the battery cells etc are all 100%. I have been in contact with specialized to obtain a new/2nd hand board with zero response. If anyone can assist with a board or help please respond as I am sitting with a possible spare battery that is unusable.
 
A larger bike shop that sells specialized bikes might have the leverage with the supplier you need. But you'd need to have them like you first.

Most of us here at ES, would just run the battery naked, or fix it to run another bike. that sort of thing easy for us that have lots of experience.

For you, its possible to tap into all this experience here, by posting very good clear pictures of all the stuff in question, the switch, the board, and any other info you may have. Like a battery spec sheet from specialized. We might be able to assist you with repairing the battery using generic parts.


BTW, set your camera or phone to 1 megapixel to take those photos, so they will be a size that is possible to post on the forum. Use the attachment button below, when you type your post, to add a picture.
 
Thanks Dan. I now have a bit of homework to do so when I've got all the suggested info I will be back on.
 
MTBR forums under the ebike thread would be your goto, they seem totally anal about branded store ebikes.

We here at Endless Sphere are the cooler people, we are more handsome and the few ladies on E.S. are more beautiful.
Yes that is right, we'd end up using that battery naked, and on a QS 5000 watt motor and sell the Levo.

But you came here for advice, well besides the advice already mentioned, them store bought ebikes are proprietary. I was in a local bike store a few weeks ago and snapped some pictures of a display motor and battery.

Since I got home, and put on some dry clothing and just relaxing, I will throw what I got up on the interwebs.

Here ya go, electronics....
 

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If the cells did not get wet, then they should be fine for use. If they did get wet, then they may have issues later from corrosion, unless they were quickly dried out thoroughly. (water gets under the caps on the + end, for instance) You may not see a voltage problem from this initially...but later on problems can occur.


That said, if the cells really are ok, then you may be able to use them "paralleled" with the cells in the new pack, to double the capacity of that pack, and use that pack's electronics to monitor old and new. But if the cells aren't ok, then they could cause problems with the cells paralleled with them.

There is a possible problem with usign these cells "naked" as it were, or with an alternate BMS: Most of these OEM ebikes will only work with their OEM batteries, as the controller/etc talks ot the battery to get status, and if it cant' get it it won't operate at all (or it only works in some very basic mode, maybe not ridable, for troulbehsooting or something).

Only way to find out if that's true is to try the old pack on the bike but with the + and - of the actual battery inside connected directly to the output + and - pins on the case, completely bypassing the electronics board.



BTW: I think that OEMs that don't completely waterproof critical expensive systems like batteries are making bikes that are really useless for real-world applications. Even here in Phoenix, AZ, middle of the desert, when it does have severe rains, I have to ride in them anyway, and if the bike couldn't take that, I'd be screwed. I've ridden thru one flooded area that submerged a significant amount of the trike, past the electronics and battery, and while I didn't have it waterproofed, I was lucky nothing failed from it. It could have stopped me cold, and destroyed stuff I couldn't afford to replace....

I expect a lot better from OEMs.
 
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