Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

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Arno J. Wulfert
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Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

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)

antiscab
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Hi Matt,

do you have a volt meter handy?

take the covering off the circuit board, and measure the voltage of every cell.
do this by locating the small wires going to the actual battery (it is a ribbon cable) and measuring the voltage between the pins.

if any of the cells are below ~2v, chances are its the battery.
if you have a lab power supply, or any other ~3.6v power supply available charge up the cells individually.

Matt

Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km

marylandbob
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

If you are in the USA, I may be able to assist. I have the lasboratory type supply and skill to test and/or individually charge each cell separately. If they can be ressurected, I am willing to try, providing that you pay shipping charges.(I am in Maryland, north of Washington, D.C.-Bob

Robert M. Curry

Arno J. Wulfert
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Thanks Bob,

I very well might do that... I will get back when I know more...

Cheers,
Matt (ajw)

Arno J. Wulfert

Arno J. Wulfert
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Thanks again Bob,

I am in Missouri... I will stop by the post office and maybe UPS and get an estimate on shipping to and from... I will ask you to email me later with your address, etc... and an Idea of the repair costs once you look at it... maybe I should send the charger with it if need be... I'm guessing I fried something by leaving it hooked to the controller while turned on.... dumb and expensive mistake....

I will be back to you some time tomorrow after a trip to the post office...

Cheers,
Matt

Arno J. Wulfert

blairg
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Contact Ping....he will give you detailed instruction on how to diagnose and if battery is < one year he will supply circuit board. If older than one year he will give you one at discounted price. They are easy to replace...just a little soldiering. Over the summerI went through two cards with the same problem you are having. I doubt very much it is the cells in the battery.....good luck !

amberwolf
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Joined: Monday, December 31, 2007 - 03:19
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

For any of you that have had blown BMS boards, if you still have them and are willing to part with them, I'm looking for some to experiment with in building my own packs. I don't know if I can fix and modify them for Li-Ion instead of LiFePO4 voltage levels, but if cheap enough, I'd be willing to try.

Reply in this thread:
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/7831-wanted-your-blown-bms-lipo-packs
to keep this one uncluttered.

Thanks!

--
Michael Elliott
Cybernetic Necromancers, Discorporated
Phoenix, AZ
Watch me build an electric-assisted recumbent bike from recycled junk:
http://electricle.blogspot.com

Arno J. Wulfert
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Last seen: 14 years 1 month ago
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Thanks Blairg,

I am emailing Ping today... hopefully he will provide the BMS board free or cheap... Battery was bought last October (just over a year).. I will keep you posted what I find out...

Bob,

I still may need you to put it all together (not sure if I want to tackle installing a new board)...

Cheers,
Matt (ajw)

Arno J. Wulfert

Arno J. Wulfert
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Last seen: 14 years 1 month ago
Joined: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - 15:46
Points: 94
Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Thanks Blairg,

I am emailing Ping today... hopefully he will provide the BMS board free or cheap... Battery was bought last October (just over a year).. I will keep you posted what I find out...

Bob,

I still may need you to put it all together (not sure if I want to tackle installing a new board)...

Cheers,
Matt (ajw)

Arno J. Wulfert

Arno J. Wulfert
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Last seen: 14 years 1 month ago
Joined: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - 15:46
Points: 94
Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Bob, Blairg and others,

I should have a new BMS circuit board in a couple of weeks... I will see if installing a new one is something I can handle.... I will keep you posted and may be asking for more help...

Thanks to all,

Matt (AJW)

Arno J. Wulfert

dogman
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

The symptoms you describe could also be simply that the plug on the battery, where the charger connects has a loose or broken connection. It could be on the plug, the wires connecting to the bms, or even a discontinuity on the wire itself. So check all that while you wait. A broken wire will make the charger go green, just like a charged battery.

Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global

Arno J. Wulfert
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Last seen: 14 years 1 month ago
Joined: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - 15:46
Points: 94
Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Thanks Dogman,

I can always count on good advise from you... Thats why I adress my blogs with you specifically IDed.... I will strip all the tape, etc off the leads and check it out before anything else....

Cheers,
Matt (ajw)

Arno J. Wulfert

Arno J. Wulfert
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Last seen: 14 years 1 month ago
Joined: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - 15:46
Points: 94
Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

Back again,

I should have mentioned I tried charging the battery again yesterday, after it sat in a colder garage for a few days... The battery did charge but only for about 3-5 minutes... So it just won't accept charging with whatever is wrong...

Cheers,
Matt (ajw)

Arno J. Wulfert

Themotorman
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Re: Help!!! Lifepo4 Battery not working...

I have 10 packs with similar problems. wouldn't charge. It seems to be either the BMS or most likely that one or two cells have gone below the magic 2.0 volts. I found that leaving the pack alone for 12 hours and then giving it short bursts via the charger that keeps thinking they are charged, they did recover but with lower output voltage. still same Ah though. I am cycling one to see if this is repeatable so far it is!!
Trying to deal with it via my Chinese battery supplier but i think it is a cell problem and affects only some cells. More later.

building the future... one crappy Lipo at a time!!

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