Topic: Terrible start - battery exploded

[Elias]

Hi,

I can't believe my bad luck! I have an extra main switch beside the battery. Apparently I managed to short the negative pole of the battery into the positive terminal of the switch when I was pushing the battery backwards after charging it. Result: the battery exploded violently. Fortunately I did not get any acid on me.

The unfortunate thing is that the power surge broke something. The motor does not work anymore. I am getting a whizzing or buzzing noise underneath. Also if I turn on the turn signal, the pod LEDs dim when the light is on.

Where shall I start checking what I've broken? 

Of course, I am going to change the wiring and cover the apparently dangerous poles of the main extra switch I have.

[Elias]

Are there any schematics around for C5?

[alan1310]

my pod lights dimmed when my head light was on and motor was running but that was on my old battery so that might help

[Elias]

Alan's hint was a good one. Actually I found the problem even before reading it.

The buzzing sound was made by the main relay that connects the power to the motor. My testing battery was so bad that the voltage (10,6 V) was not enough to operate the relay. The battery LEDs show still full voltage in spite of this.

I opened the control box - nothing seemed to be fried on the PCB.

A good battery from the car and wow - nothing broken. Well - the beep signal does not work  but that is all. Where is the beep located?

Life smiles again 

[jomac]

what are the chances of some pics? your description is a little vague and i personally think you may have more then 1 problem, can you identify the area of the buzzing??,charge your battery and try again, the more feedback you can give, the more help you can get from the mebers and the site..good luck

PS use photobucket.com and upload your pics, click on IMG and post here

[Elias]

John,

The reason of the buzzing sound was too low voltage. It was similar to the sound that the x-relay of a car makes if the battery voltage is too low.

The only thing that does not work after the incident is the sound signal or beep - whatever one wants to call it. I'll have a look on that later this week.

The next thing I'm gonna do is to buy proper battery or batteries. Would it be better to have one big (say 90 Ah) battery or two smaller ones (2 x 60 Ah for example)?

[Karl]

ith batteries there is always the compromise to make between size and weight of the batteries versus performance obtained or lost.

I run "Moneypit" on a 70ah leisure battery and my wife gets a very good range from it. She completed the first 15mile Horsham run and only lost 2 segments on the pod display..larger leisure batteries are available,but they weigh more.

Car batteries seem to provide good ranges ,usually between 7-12 miles, and are lighter. But you would need to carry two to equal or better the range of the 70ah leisure battery, and that would weigh more.

All down to personal choice at the end of the day 


If you've got serious cash to splash, Li-ion batteries are an option...

[Elias]

I have been thinking about Li-Poly cells. The only problem in addition to price is that the nominal voltage of a Li-Poly cell is 3,7 V. Multiplied by 3 makes 11,1 V which is too low. But is 4 x 3,7= 14,8 V too much?

[Karl]

I have been thinking about Li-Poly cells. The only problem in addition to price is that the nominal voltage of a Li-Poly cell is 3,7 V. Multiplied by 3 makes 11,1 V which is too low. But is 4 x 3,7= 14,8 V too much?

I believe 14.8v may be too high, I remember Adam Harper advising me anything over 13v wasn't good.

You could always go for the 24v option....