New battery/motor cut out?

Jeanette Morgan

Pedelecer
Nov 29, 2006
114
0
CORNWALL
Hi all,

I had a good run on my Sprint with my 14 Ah battery and finally got it as near to empty as possible, that's my two early total discharges out of the way. I believe after this I can top up every time I use my bike, give or take a few round the village to the shops trips - only about 4-5 miles, so I'll probably do two of them and then recharge if they're within a few days of each other. I hope to keep it pretty charged tho' so that I can jump on the bike when I feel like it and not be hampered by a half filled battery, in case I want to go further.

I had two problems tho' which I'm sure can be answered.

1. I'd ridden about 24 miles on Friday, with only one hiccup (detalied in 2-below) and then this morning when I set off, the battery cut out a few times almost immediately. This settled and I was then riding around to about 33 miles trying to wear the battery out! but mainly on the flat. It was a warm day, but I have to climb a hill to get anywhere. I actually cycled back down the hill dissapointed but then I thought I'd give it another go and it got me up that hill and an even bigger one! It did have cut outs during some of my ride, 6 flashes on the bottom red light, which I believe is low power?

2. The more concerning thing is that yesterday during my 24 miles at a couple of points, there seemed to be a surge of power and the motor seemed to rev up and then, of course, stop. I just switched on and off and all was well. The same thing also happened twice this morning, but not so fiercly.

I wonder if this is because the bike has been standing still for a long time and the motor is just sorting itself out?

Will the cut-outs continue when the battery is towards being empty? Fortunately the way home is all downhill from a certain point, but I remember this is why the NimH was meant to be superior for hills, however I know they're no longer available anyway. Any hints on how to avoid the two issues mentioned above. Thanks very much, yet again, hope you don't get fed up of my questions but I really do appreciate your help, especially now I've no-one to talk through my concerns. :cool:
 

morphix

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 24, 2010
2,163
119
Worcestershire
www.cyclecharge.org.uk
Hi all,

I had a good run on my Sprint with my 14 Ah battery and finally got it as near to empty as possible, that's my two early total discharges out of the way. I believe after this I can top up every time I use my bike, give or take a few round the village to the shops trips - only about 4-5 miles, so I'll probably do two of them and then recharge if they're within a few days of each other. I hope to keep it pretty charged tho' so that I can jump on the bike when I feel like it and not be hampered by a half filled battery, in case I want to go further.

I had two problems tho' which I'm sure can be answered.

1. I'd ridden about 24 miles on Friday, with only one hiccup (detalied in 2-below) and then this morning when I set off, the battery cut out a few times almost immediately. This settled and I was then riding around to about 33 miles trying to wear the battery out! but mainly on the flat. It was a warm day, but I have to climb a hill to get anywhere. I actually cycled back down the hill dissapointed but then I thought I'd give it another go and it got me up that hill and an even bigger one! It did have cut outs during some of my ride, 6 flashes on the bottom red light, which I believe is low power?

2. The more concerning thing is that yesterday during my 24 miles at a couple of points, there seemed to be a surge of power and the motor seemed to rev up and then, of course, stop. I just switched on and off and all was well. The same thing also happened twice this morning, but not so fiercly.

I wonder if this is because the bike has been standing still for a long time and the motor is just sorting itself out?

Will the cut-outs continue when the battery is towards being empty? Fortunately the way home is all downhill from a certain point, but I remember this is why the NimH was meant to be superior for hills, however I know they're no longer available anyway. Any hints on how to avoid the two issues mentioned above. Thanks very much, yet again, hope you don't get fed up of my questions but I really do appreciate your help, especially now I've no-one to talk through my concerns. :cool:
I'm not familiar with that bike so maybe this is something best answered by someone else... but power cut-outs on very steep hills sometimes is quite normal.. it's normally just the controller protecting the motor if it's really struggling.. best way to avoid it is to help the motor as much as possible, and avoid using power on a steep hill from a standing start..

Also I find on my bike, when I've been riding a long time (near to the limits of the battery) the battery will suddenly cut out even though it's not showing as empty on the gage still.. as I understand it, the BMS on the battery is designed to do this to protect the battery from complete discharge/damage, once the voltage drops below a certain level..

If you're getting random cut outs and not long into your journey or on steep hills, might be an electrical/controller problem worth getting your dealer to check out?
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,761
30,348
Its very unlikely that one of those new 14 Ah batteries will cut out due to low voltage Jeanette, in my experience they slog on even with the more powerful SB motor fitted to some eZee bikes like the Quando and Torq 1.

A loss of contact at the base of the battery is possible, especially if the contact blades on the bike have some slight corrosion while long out of use. Try cleaning the contact blades, they look like brass 13 amp plug pins, you can use a clean household scourer pad to do that to achieve a clean metal surface on the sides of the pins.

If that solves the problem or greatly reduces the cutout incidence you are on the right lines, but if that doesn't help, it may be a controller problem.
.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,761
30,348
It's hard to be sure Jeanette, but it might have the same association, variable contact for current flow. The eZee controller is very sensitive to poor battery contact, it can cause marked delay in the response of the throttle for example.
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