Battery problems

jimmydoc

Finding my (electric) wheels
Nov 23, 2019
17
2
Hi, we have 1 Pendleton ebike and 2 Pulse zr2 ebikes bought at halfords 2 years ago. 1pulse went dead ,so we put it on charge, it wouldn't charge. As the batteries are exactly the same, we interchanged the batteries and chargers for elimination purposes,and we now have 3 dead batteries that won't charge! I checked voltage from the Pendleton charger, 40 volts d.c. , 2 other chargers For Pulse bikes are only reading 5.3 volts d.c. 3 chargers are identical but the Pendleton has a different label. As the Pendleton bike is hardly used, that battery should have charged o.k. Have we ruined the batteries with a faulty charger ? Three pensioners in our 70's, HELP!
 

cyclebuddy

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 2, 2016
1,564
746
Beds & Norfolk
As the batteries are exactly the same, we interchanged the batteries and chargers
I'm not sure they are the same. The Pendleton is a Halfords own-brand ebike and uses a battery made by Phylion and a charger made by Sans (probably branded Joycube). The Pulse bikes are made by Ebco who use TranzX batteries, the chargers AFAIK made by Modiary. Both chargers may look very similar, but both makers use odd wiring arrangements in their plugs which may not be compatible with each other (the plug wiring is usually shown on the charger label). Both makers also use "fault" sensing, so it may not be as straightforward as measuring voltage across the charger plug pins.

Both battery makes need to be maintained between 60% and 80% charged (3-4 LEDS on the battery) when not being used regularly. As a first step, you'll need to measure the battery voltages from the output pins with a multimeter: these are most often the two outer pins on the bike connector. You need to see at least 28/30 volts as a bare minimum. 41/42 volts would be fully charged. If you're below the minimum, you'll likely need new batteries.
 

jimmydoc

Finding my (electric) wheels
Nov 23, 2019
17
2
Thank you so much for your speedy reply cyclebuddy, this is more involved than I imagined, after reading this I think we will go to Halfords and see if they can check out the damage that we've done! will keep in touch , jimmydoc