Charger or Battery

[FrodoBaggins]

Ok so I am probably now using my full quota on this forum.
I have an Oxygen City Ebike. It works great and never has any issues.
Anyway I bought a cheap bike off eBay as a project and was trying to resurrect it.
I tried my oxygen ebike battery on it but it didn't work fine.
I also tested the charger from the oxygen on the duff bike and nothing happened.

Problem is now my oxygen battery won't charge. The battery is fine and works on the bike.
The charger comes on red clicks a few times but then just stays red.
Previously it used to have a fan kick in and then the light goes orange, after a few hours it then go s green.

What do you think has happened.
I measured the voltage coming out of the charger and it seemed normal.
Could something have blown in the battery to stop in charging?

I will send some pics in a sec.

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Here are some pics of the

 

[Andy-Mat]

Ok so I am probably now using my full quota on this forum.
I have an Oxygen City Ebike. It works great and never has any issues.
Anyway I bought a cheap bike off eBay as a project and was trying to resurrect it.
I tried my oxygen ebike battery on it but it didn't work fine.
I also tested the charger from the oxygen on the duff bike and nothing happened.

Problem is now my oxygen battery won't charge. The battery is fine and works on the bike.
The charger comes on red clicks a few times but then just stays red.
Previously it used to have a fan kick in and then the light goes orange, after a few hours it then go s green.

What do you think has happened.
I measured the voltage coming out of the charger and it seemed normal.
Could something have blown in the battery to stop in charging?

I will send some pics in a sec.

A few questions:-
1) are the batteries of the exact same type/chemistry?
2) Are they of the same voltage (Nominal)?
3) Are the connectors of the same polarity?
4) You measured the charger voltage, what did you measure and what was the polarity?

If you don't know even just one single question, then that would explain why you have apparently damaged something.
You need quite an extensive knowledge of batteries and chargers to allow safe "playing" as you have done.....
I tend to think that even if all else was correct, the polarity was maybe wrong, but its only a guess...
We all here will try and help you further.
To "resurrect" an old bike, you need a whole lot of electrical knowledge, there is no way round that.
If you don't have that, remember that old saying:-
"Where angels fear to tread.......!"
I wish you luck, but if something is damaged, you have still learned something important!
Best wishes
Andy

 

[Nealh]

You need a meter to check polarity and voltage to try and diagnose issues.

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Many thanks for such swift replies

So the other bike is really a mess and that's fine.
The battery is shot but I just wanted to test the charger in case it was that simple.
The oxygen ebike is a 36v battery and the controller on the broken bike is 36v

Totally naively I thought I could just plug one into the other to test the motor etc.
They have male XLR pins on the cable and a female input on the battery. So they just fit

I am a typical man. If I can see something that fits in a hole I just do it and reap the ramifications later on. Hmmmm

Would this have damaged it?
I didn't actually plug the broken bikes charger into the oxygen battery. But I did plug the oxygen charger into the broken battery.

The battery on the other one is 36v according to the manual. Although bizarrely the charger says 48v

Using a meter and turning the charger on I get a reading of 41.7 v coming out.
The red light comes on but when plugged into the battery nothing happens.
So that suggests something with the battery maybe?

 

[FrodoBaggins]

41.7 for the oxygen charger. Btw

 

[Nealh]

48V charger is no good to charge a 36v battery.

XLR has multi pins, because they are /look the same doesn.t mean the pins are wired like wise.

Most batteries have a fuse, do you get a battery voltage reading at all from the discharge pins

 

[FrodoBaggins]

So I have just got the fuse out and it's dead .
Just off to Halfords
I dont know why it blew. maybe someone plugged something in when I wasn't looking.
I did have a helper

 

[Andy-Mat]

Many thanks for such swift replies

So the other bike is really a mess and that's fine.
The battery is shot but I just wanted to test the charger in case it was that simple.
The oxygen ebike is a 36v battery and the controller on the broken bike is 36v

Totally naively I thought I could just plug one into the other to test the motor etc.
They have male XLR pins on the cable and a female input on the battery. So they just fit

I am a typical man. If I can see something that fits in a hole I just do it and reap the ramifications later on. Hmmmm

Would this have damaged it?
I didn't actually plug the broken bikes charger into the oxygen battery. But I did plug the oxygen charger into the broken battery.

The battery on the other one is 36v according to the manual. Although bizarrely the charger says 48v

Using a meter and turning the charger on I get a reading of 41.7 v coming out.
The red light comes on but when plugged into the battery nothing happens.
So that suggests something with the battery maybe?

Remember please, some of this is partially guesswork as you have not told us all we need to know.
If the right charger says 48 volts, then at 41.7 volts, the 48 volt (nominal) battery is probably below the level that the normal charger can recover from.
Batteries are stopped from charging because when low, they can draw too much current, get damaged and catch fire.
A Li-ion battery fire is very difficult to extinguish, lasts a long time and generates huge amounts of heat! e.g. Very dangerous.
In Germany this year, a car transporter with 7 cars on board caught fire. The fire brigade put the trailer fire and of the cars in a very short time.
But they could not extinguish the two electric cars, for 12 hours, till in the end they had to bring a crane, a huge tank, which was then filled wth water, then they dumped the cars in the tank till the chemical reaction was finally cooled down!!!!!
Look at some of these videos:-

YouTube

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YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

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I do not know exactly what might happen when the wrong charger is plugged in, as I have never tried it....Maybe someone else here knows better.....but, as you now know, one must be most careful with both voltage and polarity.
I personally feel that every e-biker needs to have and to know how to use correctly, a small cheap Multi Meter. But that's only my opinion....
Regards
Andy

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Ok. I have fixed it
It was a 5amp fuse on the actual battery.

So it's worth noting for future not to mix up chargers.

So that's one bike fixed.

Many thanks to all the contributed.

 

[JPGiant]

So I have just got the fuse out and it's dead .
Just off to Halfords
I dont know why it blew. maybe someone plugged something in when I wasn't looking.
I did have a helper

Halfords for a fuse - money down the drain.
Samwise gamgee?

 

[FrodoBaggins]

Halfords for a fuse - money down the drain.
Samwise gamgee?

It was an emergency I couldnt be asked to wait!
I suppose I could have saved a quid!

 

[Nealh]

So I have just got the fuse out and it's dead .
Just off to Halfords
I dont know why it blew. maybe someone plugged something in when I wasn't looking.
I did have a helper

The fuse blowing is likely down to incorrect voltage being applied, the bms on a 36v battery expects to see 42v for charging and not 54.6v of a 48v charger.

 

[Deleted member 25121]

Pleased to hear that you're up and running again with your Oxygen bike, the controller and/or motor on the eBay bike could be duff so it might be worthwhile checking for shorts on those with your meter before investing in a new or refurbished battery for it.