I'm posting this here because my moped is almost exactly the same as the XB-500, at least in appearance. Mine is labeled "E-bike" on the tire and on the storage box. Also, it looks like the XB-500 uses 4 12v 10ah batteries, and mine uses 4 12v 12ah batteries. I see that the XB-502 uses 12v 12ah batteries, so maybe they are the same model. The 4 batteries used are labeled 6-dzm-12. This battery is not the same, but is listed as a replacement:
http://www.electricscooterparts.com/scooterbatteries12v12ah.html
My batter charger has this information on it:
Rated input: 110 VA
Rated output: 48V -- 1.7A
Compatible battery set: Let battery 48V 12Ah
That's the background, here's what happened. My battery was charging as normal. The red light was on. It had been charging for 5-6 hours. I smelt smoke and unplugged it. I took the cover off the charger and looked inside. When I turned it back on, a capacitor listed as 50v 47uf (actually μf) had smoke coming from it. Also, I diode (or resistor) listed as FR157 looked scorched. Suddenly, the capacitor blew apart.
I looked online and found a new 50v 47uf capacitor, but it seems that the FR157 diode isn't sold in the US. I don't know if the FR157 burned out and caused the 50v 47uf to smoke and pop, or if it was the reverse. So it doesn't look like I can repair the charger.
So I need a new one. I thought about getting one for the XB-500, but I don't know if it's the same. It looks like the XB-500 charger is for a 48v 40ah battery set. I can't find how what the output on them is. Can someone look at your XB-500 or XB-502 charger and tell me what the output is? I found this one which is 48v 1.6ah output:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Gas-Scooter-Moto-Atv-Quad-Moped-Bike-48V-Charger-Parts_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ65Q3a12Q7c66Q3...
and this one which is 48v 1.8ah:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Electric-E-Gas-Scooter-Bike-48-Volts-PC-Charger-Parts_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZQ7c301Q3a0Q7c29...
But I can't find one which is 48v 1.7ah. If I use one that is a little off will it damage the battery? Could I recharge the 4 batteries individually? Using what charger?
If you have some experience with batteries, please help. I'm a college student on a very limited budget and my school isn't near public transport, so this is my only way to get around. Without this I've no way to get around. I guess I've got 5 rides to the store before it's out. Please help!!!
I guess that's all pretty complicated. To make it shorter, I guess what I need to know is, Does the number of amps matter? So could I use a 48v 1.6ah charger to replace a 48v 1.7ah one?
By the way, it's 500w like the XB-500 if that matters.
I can't see where 0.1A one way or the other would make a difference in a 12Ah pack. Make sure it has a compatible plug as well. You can also charge each battery individually with a 12V car charger. You would need one that has a low (2 Amp) setting. Connect to each battery separately and then move to the next battery. It will be slow, but you will have your batteries better balanced when done. If you have a voltmeter, it would be a good idea to measure the voltage in each battery before and after each charge (and before and after each ride), regardless of how you charge.
Hope you get running again soon. Do you know WHY your old charger blew-out?
Since all 4 batteries are charged at 1.7ah, wouldn't charging just one at 2ah be too much? Sorry I don't know much about these things. With that way, charging individually, would I have to charge for a limited time or could I leave it on one over night?
You are confusing the AH (amp hour) of the batteries with the AMPs of the charger.
Look at it this way....
charging a 12ah battery with a 2Amp charger would take 6 hours for a full charge from empty.
Simply put you can use ANY charger made for SLA batteries (i am assuming thats what you are using) that is the correct VOLTAGE of your battery pack. The only difference would be the amperage output of the charger, anything LESS than the 1.7a of the old charger will take longer, while anything HIGHER will take a shorter amount of time to charge fully..
I agree with e-doggies though, if you have a 12V charger to charge separately I would first do that and test each battery with a Voltmeter to make sure you dont have a bad battery that fried your charger. Also double check ALL of the terminals and connections between your charging plug and all the batteries.
Hope this helps!!!!!
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
Okay, great! I found one for $15 that is 48v and 2.5ah. So that wouldn't harm my battery, right? What about polarity? I read that some chargers operate on a polarity specific to a vehicle.
2.5 Amps is only very slightly above a 0.2C charge rate for your 12Ah battery pack. Should be safe enough. Is it a multi-stage charger? Does it shut-off when the battery is fully charged? I'd want to monitor it closely the first few times I used it. Having a voltmeter to check the output and the condition of each battery would be very useful.
Polarity should not be a factor. Sometimes vehicles are referred to as negative-ground or positive-ground. But vehicles often use the frame/body to complete part of the circuit. Your scooter is all wired with positve and negative wiring throughout, so as long as you connect the positive of the charger to the positive of the battery, and the negative of the charger with the negative of the battery, you should be okay. Some "smart-chargers" will indicate a fault if the connections are reversed.
I think it is multi-stage. I think I know what I need now, thanks a bunch!
I've got a question just out of curiosity. I have 4, 12v 12ah batteries which adds up to 48v and 12ah, according to the manual. The XB-500 has 4, 12v 10ah batteris, for a total of 48v and 40ah. And I looked around and found some with 4, 12v 10ah that had less than 40 ah. Why the differences? Is it not that you add up the amp hours the same as the volts?
Thanks
The quick answer is NO, but let me explain. It depends on if you wire the batteries in SERIES or PARALLEL.
If you wire in Series.... you Add the Voltage but the ah is unchanged
If you wire in Parallel... you ADD the ah and the Voltage remains unchanged.
For example... you have 4x 12V 10ah batteries
if you wire them in series.. IE a + to - chain, you would have a 48V 10ah battery pack
if you wire them in parallel.. IE all the + together and all the - together, you would have a 12V 40ah battery pack.
likewise, you could wire 2 each together in parallel to make 2x 12v 20ah batteries, then wire those in series to get a 24V 20ah battery pack.
hope this explains it all....
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
Mention of polarity brings the importance of connecting the charger correctly to the battery. It may seem obvious, but the positive output needs to be connected to the positive terminal of the pack. Charging ports are polarized so they cannot be connected wrong, but if you are wiring your own connector on the charger, it is possible to hook it up backwards, with smelly and disastrous results. Double check.
With cheap chargers, reversing the polarity will let the magic smoke out, and you will have a second dead charger.
Batteries are chemical devices. All lead-acid batteries use the same chemical reaction. Electrons pumped in by the charger build up a chemical "bank" that can be released when needed. For a given state of charge, there is a fixed rate of combination that can be tolerated - more when the battery is low, less when the battery is almost fully charged. Smaller capacity (Ah or C) batteries will have a smaller maximum charge rate. A charge rate of about C/10 is generally reasonable; for a 20Ah battery, that would be a 2A rate.
Excess electrons are consumed in breaking the water in the electrolyte into oxygen and hydrogen (gassing). With sealed lead acid (SLA) batteries, there is less tolerance for excessive charge rates - while a small amount of water can be recombined, anything above that amount will be vented and lost, eventually drying up the battery.
Which brings me to balance. Your string of batteries consists of five separate batteries. If one of those was built with a ~very~ slightly smaller capacity than its neighbors and is charged as a series string, it will reach full charge first and start gassing while its neighbors are still accepting charge (and reducing the voltage "seen" by the charger - the sum of all battery voltages). It is possible to "cook" one battery in a string in this way. Battery balancers work to protect such low capacity batteries. Charging all five batteries in parallel at 12V also serves to protect the weaker battery, since the voltage "seen" by all batteries is the LOWEST value needed by any of the pack batteries.