Please help me repair/fix a Native Z6 Lithium battery charger that won't charge unless the relay is bypassed.
This battery charger has been working fine. The Native Z6 electric scooter wasn't used for 3 weeks but was fully charged (until the charger stopped) three weeks ago.
When the XLR and the "sensor" (? not sure what it does) cord is plugged into the charger, the 1st LED lights up. When the charger is plugged into 110AC and is switched on, the charger doesn't power up.
We have over 10 years experience with dozens of electric bikes and scooters and fixed numerous battery charger problems.
However, the Native Z6 Lithium didn't come with any user guides or specifications, even.
Using our instruments, we determined that the piggybacked relay (from EMS, the manufacturer) doesn't switch on.
So, for now, we shorted the AC output at the relay, so at least we can use the battery charger as a "dumb" battery charger. (We are careful to not overcharge, of course.)
FYI, we were told that the "sensor" wire was for a temperature sensor at the battery or the BMS.
FYI, there is no voltage coming from the "sensor" socket at the scooter. The relay is labelled as a 4-32 volt relay on the "input" side.
We have determined using multimeters and AC/DC current sensors (we have such instruments) that all the fuses, cables, on the charger side are functional. i.e. nothing is loose or oxidized.
Any idea how to fix this?
We haven't opened the BMS cover to see if the red LED is still blinking.
Please advise.
Thanks in advance.
Leo
Also, does anybody know what the normal (standby) voltage reading should be at the "temperature sensor" (?) port on the scooter?
Also, the 4-32V relay works (light goes on) when connected to a digital bench power supply.
the first people to ask would be EMS.
if they dont get back to you, perhaps take some pictures of the BMS.....we might be able to identify it.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
The BMS is marked MODALIS REV.2 and is relatively sparse, compared to the other BMS units we've seen. The BMS (each BMS, I suspect) sits on top of a group of 4 cells. The (main?) BMS has 6 really tiny LED bulbs, but only the left-most is blinking, very very slowly, maybe a long flash every 10 or 15 seconds.
The cells are at 3.344 V each in the top most pack of 4 Thundersky yellow 40AH cells; which is the only one that is easily accessible.
The system voltage reads 53.5V with a multimeter on the XLR charging port; 53.5 divided by 16 cells works out to 3.344 V per cell.
We took photos of the BMS and a video clip of the LED flashing.
Here is a link to one photo. We uploaded 4 photos, or so:
http://visforvoltage.org/blog/greenbiker/9664
http://visforvoltage.org/blog/greenbiker/9664#comment-53277