Wilderness Energy

Hi Dogman and others,

I still have an expensive battery (Lifepo4 - 48V, 20A) with less than a year's worth of use not working... ARG... Since my last post, I installed a new BMS board. It was really straight forward and not a hard swap... Unfortunately, it did not solve my problem. I also reworked the connections on the charger to make sure the charger wiring was not the problem.

The charger indicator stays green when trying to charge the battery and the battery still will not accept a charge... I am listing a few questions that I hope you may know the answers...

The charger wiring connector I have been using from the beginning (charge hook-up) is very similar to the connector from the battery to the controller (discharge hook-up) . The controller connector is just much more heavy duty. I accidently hooked the charger to the discharge connector (one going to the controller). Do you think that might have damaged the BMS board or the battery?

I tried charging the battery again today after it sat idle for weeks. It still will not accept a charge. Again, (stupid mistake or not) after I tried charging it and got nothing, I pulled the connection and hooked it back up again. This time I hooked the charger to the discharge connector and the charger began charging. Quickly I realized I had the wrong connection and unplugged it…

So, A big question: Can I go ahead and try to charge the battery by hooking it up to the discharge connector without damage to the battery???? It seems like it wants to work that way and worth a try if it won’t destroy the battery….

Second big question: Anybody know where I can get the battery worked on? I don’t have the smarts, courage or equipment to tackle it any further….

Thanks to all for your review and help.

Cheers,
Matt (ajw)

Can you step this kit up to 48 volts safely? How many amps will the Wilderness hub take without heating up?

I have not been on the forum for a while but wanted to pass on some info. If you are thinking of getting one of these kits do not buy it from ivtowing on ebay. I just bought a bl36 for my 26" bike. The ad on ebay said that delievery would be 4 to 5 days. After nearly 2 weeks (Dec. 18 to Dec 30) I get the kit with what has to be at least a 28" rim. There is no way this will fit on my bike. When I tried to resolve the issue Here is their response was basicly, "Too Bad". I failed to tell him that the casing on the battery charger was cracked. All in all the worse dealer I have ever dealt with.

I just replaced the controller on my BL36 kit (because the screws came lose from the heat sinks and shorted the board on the case) The new controller works (I guess?) But now there is a chattering sound coming from the hub motor. its the same shuttering/chattering that it used to make if I didn't get rolling a little first,like from a dead stop. but now it does it till I'm going about half speed. I have a lifepo4 20Ah battery pack and thought that might be the problem, So I switched it with a set of SLA 12Ah but still have the same problem. Is there some thing that can come lose in the hub that could cause the problem. Or did I fry the hub or the throttle. I rely on my bike as my only form of transportation. Please help me with any feed back or advice.
Thank You

I just replaced the controller on my BL36 kit (because the screws came lose from the heat sinks and shorted the board on the case) The new controller works (I guess?) But now there is a chattering sound coming from the hub motor. its the same shuttering/chattering that it used to make if I didn't get rolling a little first,like from a dead stop. but now it does it till I'm going about half speed. I have a lifepo4 20Ah battery pack and thought that might be the problem, So I switched it with a set of SLA 12Ah but still have the same problem. Is there some thing that can come lose in the hub that could cause the problem. Or did I fry the hub or the throttle. I rely on my bike as my only form of transportation. Please help me with any feed back or advice.
Thank You

I have had my 36volt Wilderness Engery set up for over a year and every thing was great untill the other day when it seemed to lose about half power, when I checked the conections they were all good. But if I wilggled the wires going to the motor it would work fine. I got it home discovered all the screws that hold the transistors to the heat sink had fallen out and the board was rattling around lose it the case. I found new screws and replaced them but it still dosent work. Is there a way to test the controler? and how would I go about finding something to replace it with. I have looked on ebay and seems like it would almost be cheaper to buy a whole new kit and ideas would help.....
Peace

Hello Dogman, others, Anyone who can help,

My last post, I thought I blew my controller but then realized I charged my Ping 48V 20AH battery on the bike and forgot to turn off the controller... So, I believe the battery just discharged sitting idle with the controller turned on... Thats the background for my problem...

Now, I recharged the ping and my SLA pack and went riding yesterday... I started with the Ping and only traveled about a mile and it went dead... Glad I had the stock SLA battery pack with me and was able to travel on the old pack about 15 miles (to and from where I was going).

When I got home, put the ping back on the charger and it would only charge for about 2 minutes. The charger went from green light to red light and you could tell it was charging...

I thought that maybe the battery really wasn't needing a charge and it was just a "fluke" that it shut down before... So the battery charger was on green light indicating the ping was charged. Put the Ping on the bike and was only able to ride for about 20 seconds and again no power...

I don't think it is the charger. and I know its not the controller or motor hook up because the old SLAs work fine...

I tried one more thing... I hooked up the SLA 36Volt 2 amp charger to the ping. Both chargers run on house current at 50-60 hrtz. So I thought I'd see if the SLA charger would do anything. It didn't start charging with the 36 volt charger either... Put the 36 volt charger back on the SLAs and it continued to charge the old SLAs with no problem

Finally, I put the ping charger back on the ping and left it hooked up overnight.

The battery is just a year old (bought it October 2008)... Could it be something in the circut board that is mounted to the top of the Battery? I hate to think about going back to Ping and seeing if I can send it back to him to fix!!! Are there places in the U.S. that can work on it? I don't know if I could get it back into China!!! Should I maybe ask ping to send me a new circuit board. If I bought a new circuit board, I wouldn't know what to do with it.... I hate to be out the $700.00... What to do???

Dogman, others, please advise....

Cheers,
Matt (ajw)

Hi Dogman and others,

It's been a while since I've been on the site but needing advise once again...

I've had the Crystalyte 24-72V 20Amp controller on my bike for a little over a year... Last rode the bike a few weeks ago... Charged the battery (my ping and my stock one)... When I turn on the controller, the on/off red light comes on very weak and then fades off (within 2-3 seconds)... I checked the connections and they were OK.. Got the same problem with both batteries.. I guess something inside the controller has gone bad... What do you guys think?

As always, thanks for helping out... I think I'm back to Bernson EV to buy the Wilderness Energy heavy duty one he sells.

Cheers,
AJW

I have a 48volt lithium batt into a crystalite 48volt 30amp controller into a WE bd 36 26" wheel and when i put any load on it the controller cuts out and needs to wait 15minutes before it will work again but it does the same thing. I had a 36volt controller on there and it was working fine for almost a year and is only recently that it started acting up. When I replaced with the 48volt crystalite I thought I had solved the problem but the exact same thing happened which makes me think it is something in the wheel or Amps or I dont know but it is soul crushing to not be on my bike. The other thing that happened is that i replaced the brushes and brush holder and maybe the timing is off? Would the effect of off timing be a shut down when load is applied?How do I know where the right timing is?
Please Obi Wan your my only hope....

Was running WE BL-36 at 61 volts overvolted.

I think I have the 50Amp controller.

The Current draw on the Watt's UP meter, only showed 23 Amps.

Had been running fine.

I was stopped still, at red light.

Went to accelerate, and the front wheel fell off, I think the bolts had come loose.

It might have been that I didnt' pedal, and only used throttle,
or the wheel might have just come loose on it's own.

I put everyting back together, the wires seemed fine going to the motor.

Now the motor makes funny sounds, and doesnt draw as much currrent.

The Watt's Up meter, shows it only draws about 1 to 2 AMPS now,
before it was anything up to 20Amps, but usually just around 10Amps.

Speed is only about 8mph with the wheel off the ground.
It used to be more than 30mph.

Lots of vibration and noise coming from the motor.

Any ideas on what i broke ?

I need to probably take apart the motor ?

Anyone fixed a BL-36 ?

No brushes, but what is there that would need fixing ?

Thanks for any help or ideas.