Help needed

[Jim Burns]

Hi,
I'm in need of some expert advice. I bought a Mountain Bike which had been adapted to an E-bike. It worked well at the time but over winter It's been in storage, with my caravan. Recently I tried charging it but it looks like the battery has failed. The bike is powered by a Currie motor of which I know nothing and from what I've seen, I believe the original battery is Ni-Cad ? I e-mailed Currie in USA but all they told me was originally it was powered by a 12v 12ah SLA or Sealed Lead Acid battery. Can anyone shed light on what size the motor might be and tell me if I can possibly replace the battery with a lithium battery pack,to reduce weight.

Thank you.

 

[trex]

it looks like a NiMH battery (nickel metal hydride), 20 cells, 24V.
You could probably replace them with a 6S or 7S Lithium ion battery.

Something like this:
https://bmsbattery.com/ebike-battery/605-24v10ah-li-ion-battery-for-giant-ebike-battery.html

 

[Jim Burns]

it looks like a NiMH battery (nickel metal hydride), 20 cells, 24V.
You could probably replace them with a 6S or 7S Lithium ion battery.

Something like this:
https://bmsbattery.com/ebike-battery/605-24v10ah-li-ion-battery-for-giant-ebike-battery.html

Thank you for your reply. Could I increase his this to A 36V 10ah battery or must I keep to the 24v?

 

[flecc]

Stay with 24 volts, these side mounted Electrodrive motors from at least two makers were not the most reliable during some periods. Also I don't know if their internal controller can take 36 volts.

It shouldn't be a big disadvantage, they were always good performers and around the best of 24 volt systems in that respect. They were originally powered by a pair of 12 volt SLAs, but a small number of later versions used a pannier mounted NiMh battery. A lithium replacement as Trex suggests will be ok as well.
.

 

[Jim Burns]

I took your advice and bought a 24v 10ah battery from a company called Vpower . I duly charged this (was told it would charge in 2hrs, is this correct) and connected it, but nothing happened ? I had to change the connector on the bike from a two pin to a kettle type plug, to fit to the battery but apart from that, nothing else was changed. any ideas what I might be doing wrong ?

 

[Tim]

We used to sell something similar a long time ago, here's what I found on an old spec sheet

Lithium-ion, Rear Rack Mounted, 24V / 10AH Pack, (7) 3.7V Rechargeable Cells, Advanced BMS, Extra Energy and UL + CE Safety Tested

UL Listed Li-ion Smart Charger with LED Status Display

Exclusive Currie Electro-Drive®, 24 Volt Fully Potted with Power Gauge Function

818 734 8199 izipusa.com I sales@izipusa.com

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Did you check the polarity with a meter before you connected? What's the present voltage on the connector?
How did you charge it? Did the charger give the green light?

 

[Alan Quay]

Are there any other cables coming out of the battery? Kettle lead is usually just for charger.

 

[Jim Burns]

Here's a picture of the battery concerned. It seems to charge OK, there is a fan in the charger which spins while charging and stops when complete and a green light comes on. I have also tried to measure output and that seems to be slightly above 24v. Also as the output is a female kettle outlet that's where the kettle input come in. I have access to another battery source would this harm the motor if I tested it with this.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You can use use any 24v battery you like as long as you connect it the right wsy round. If you connect it the wrong way, you'll, wipe out your controller. I ask again, did you check the polarity?

Your battery should be about 29v fully charged. I ask again, what is the actual voltage?

 

[Jim Burns]

The battery came with the kettle connector which indicated on it L, E, N and I wired the motor accordingly. I'm not sure what you mean by your last sentence what voltage do you mean. As I'm really a beginner in this field, I'm trying to suss it out.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You need a voltmeter. Set it to 200v scale (or nearest). Stick your red probe in the hole marked L and your black probe in the one marled N. The reading on the voltmeter is the actual battery voltage. Note whether a minus sign appears in front of the reading. Switch your probes round so that you can see what it looks like. If the minus dign appears when the red probe is in the L, the polarity is reversed.

You then have to check the controller side to see what colour wire is attached to the pin that goes in the L hole. Follow that wire all the way to the controller so that you can see what volour it is where it enters the controller. It should be red.

Unfortunately, you can't ignore these things. They need to be checked before connecting the battery. You cannot go by markings on connectors. A Chinese guy has never seen a L or a N before.

 

[Jim Burns]

Thank you, Thank you,Thank you. That indeed was the trouble. As I said I'm a novice at this game, had charged the battery and checked it using a multimeter but until you explained the minus thing I wasn't savvy to this . I reversed the polarity and it now works. Again thank you.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

We all had to learn it from somewhere, often, by making mistakes. With this stuff, you soon lean not to make assumptions.

 

[Alan Quay]

Thank you, Thank you,Thank you. That indeed was the trouble. As I said I'm a novice at this game, had charged the battery and checked it using a multimeter but until you explained the minus thing I wasn't savvy to this . I reversed the polarity and it now works. Again thank you.

You are lucky. Normally that will cause all the magic blue smoke to escape.

Glad you fixed it!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Yes. Very lucky. The battery management system must have protected you. The main capacitor might still be compromised. That would show up as rough running at high speed.