Alien Aurora gone blank - any ideas why?

[Pabs]

I have an Alien Aurora just over 6 months old – last Friday the power went blank i.e. no power while cycling. I had initially ridden 5 miles to a City Council office base and returned back to my base. On going back home the control console showed all lights on and then after literally 100 yards, all went blank. I returned back to my base and locked the bike in my bike storage locker and took the battery and the charger home via bus.

At home I started charging the battery, however it showed green light on the charger, which means the battery is fully charged (when it should be red as I have already done 10 miles earlier in the day).

I managed to get the bike home in the car and tried the ‘recharged’ battery - but no power, even the front & rear lights did not light up.

I think the battery is faulty. It is a Phylion Battery 36v 10Amp (fits on the rear rack)

Welcome assistance from the Forum:- 1) Is it the battery gone? 2) Where to get a replacement battery?

By the way I am the second owner of the Aurora and have cycled everyday since beginning of April, 8 miles each way to my workplace (16 miles total).

Look forward receiving assistance from fellow e-cyclists.

Pabs

 

[NRG]

A poor or broken connection when charging will make the green light come on and result in a non charged battery. If the battery is fused check that its OK. Does your battery have a small test button on one end the three LED's?

 

[jbond]

Put a volt meter on the battery. If it's showing a healthy ~40v it's ok. I've seen one battery that had broken the connection between the 10th cell and the other 9. That 10th cell had space between it and the BMS assembly and the pack had been assembled so the heavy cell was at the top with not enough support. Bumps and vibration stressed the tabs just enough to break it. If it's something like this it can be rescued but *TAKE CARE*. Probably better is to see if you can do a deal with Alien on a replacement.

If the battery looks ok, then start looking for loose connectors.

 

[Pabs]

Thanks for the assistance. Just to let you know that I have checked the fuse with a multimeter and this is ok. The fuse was a 30amp 250volt, if this was blown, I would struggle to find a replacement here in Nottingham.

I have already posted the battery to Jim at AlienOcean on his instructions and hopefully he will come back to me early next week for a battery replacement.

Its a good job I am off work this week and looks like next week I will have to use either my Brompton or the Dahon Expresso to cycle 8 miles to work, anyway its only 4 working days next week.

Pabs

 

[NRG]

The service provided by Jim @ Alien has always been top notch in my book so I'm sure he'll sort you out quickly.

 

[Pabs]

Received reply from Jim @ Alien today - "When we received your battery we did a voltage test and it showed a reading of 35v. We put the battery on a charger for 4 hours and took another reading but it had not moved from 35v. We tried it on another charger and got the same results".

I am not clear why there is a drop in voltage - any ideas from anyone?

When I receive the battery back, should I check each of the cells and ensure all the connections are in place, as I have reasons to believe that it is due to the bumps on the road (traffic calming humps, plenty of them on my journey to work) which may have caused the fault in the battery.

Also welcome suggestions where I may get a replacement battery (36v 10amp) from?

As for the warranty, Alien did point out to me when I bought the bike that the warranty was not transferrable and therefore are not obliged to provide a replacement battery - therefore anyone buying a second-hand bike please check the issue of warranty!

Pabs

 

[banbury frank]

Hi

Can you please post photos off the battery and the connections then i may be able to recommend where to buy a replacement

Frank

 

[banbury frank]

new battery

Hi Pabs

you can buy from china the following battery and charger but you will need to change the connector for the old one on your battery simple soldering job


36V9Ah LiFePO4 Alloy Shell EBike Battery Pack - BMSBATTERY


about £175 including delivery

Frank

 

[jbond]

If it's stuck on 35v, then I think it's unlikely that there's a broken connection in the battery. That sounds like a single cell has gone short circuit. These batteries are configured as 10s1p although each cell is possibly 2 in parallel but in one internal case. There is a potential problem with them that has struck me twice. The cells are laid out as 4 by 3 with the last group of 3 being Cell-space-BMS. My battery had the 10th cell at the top of the case and no padding between it and the BMS box. Over bumps there was enough movement of the heavy cell to snap the connection to the next one. I soldered a bit of heavy copper wire across the connection and inverted the pack in the aluminium case so the 10th cell was at the bottom. I also added some thick foam between it and the BMS. The whole thing has held up for a year now despite lots of riding on bone dry and rutted off road tracks.

The battery is easy to get into but there there's a lot of tape and film round the cells and epoxy board that encases them.

If you go in there please BE VERY CAREFUL. I can't stress this enough that BATTERIES ARE DANGEROUS. Be slow and methodical, keep metal bits away from them and cover any exposed terminals with tape except for the one you're working on. I'd even recommend removing watches and rings before hand.

The Alien-Phylion battery uses a weird connector and I don't think anyone has ever found out what it is or where to find one. It's possible that the existing female battery connector could be swapped from the old to a new battery. Those BMSBattery-ECityPower cased batteries may well fit the Aurora rack. The BMSBattery rack looks very similar so it's possible it would fit. It's probably going to be hard to find this out before ordering.

If I was in the same situation, I think I'd look at this one
36V 15Ah Li-Ion Shrink Tube EBike Battery Pack - BMSBATTERY
for the extra range and light weight and then construct something to mount it in the triangle. It's LiNiCoMn not LiFePo so claimed lifetime is less but it's also more AHr for less weight and money than the LiFePo. The larger capacity should also mean less voltage sag under full power. I'm not sure what current the Aurora controller pulls at full power but I suspect a 10AHr battery is a bit marginal under this load.

 

[Pabs]

Received the battery back from Jim @ AlienOcean. Decided to open the battery case, and guess what I want. One of the wires to the cells was not fixed, seem to have come off the solder joint. I have managed to fix this, and now find that the battery is charging.
Therefore have the Aurora fully working, so don't need to get a replacement battery. Will be going out for a ride today, once the battery is fully charged.

Many thanks to all at the forum for the guidance and assistance, much appreciated!!

Pabs

 

[jbond]

Was that a BMS sense wire (thin), a power tab (thick, bendy) or one of the main power wires to the BMS?

 

[Pabs]

It was the thin wire to the BMS (black in colour) which seems to have come off. Had to solder this back. By the way I have learned more about the battery with your assistance.

I tested the Aurora yesterday evening and managed to get to 22mph and rode for 30 minutes or so, checking all is ok.

Looking forward to my journey to work tomorrow using the Aurora, no more sweat and don't need to use my Dahon Expresso and will get to work much more quicker.

Pabs