Safety when battery is disconnected

[Narcine]

I recently converted my bike to electric with a Bafang BBS01B kit. I removed the battery and unscrewed the mounting plate to adjust something and the screw touched + to - and it sparked. I hadn't considered motors were capacitive.

I have a 1.5 year old kid that seems to love the battery cables, so now when I remove the battery I'm discharging the capacitance with a resistor. I'm removing the battery at the moment because the weather is nice and it's getting pretty hot where I store the bike. Plus I'm still making some adjustments to the cabling, maybe eventually it'll be easier to keep the battery connected longer term. Seems weird the whole thing seems safer with the battery connected.

What do people normally do? Should I be keeping the battery on the bike as much as possible to avoid this issue? Do I rely on one of the banana connectors having a rubber sleeve so if I detach the motor cable from the battery holder it's unlikely my kid will be able to short circuit the motor? I'll also be keeping my kid away from the wires, but it's not always that easy. Perhaps there's something I can put in place of the battery to cover the pins.

 

[Tarka]

I've done the same when fitting the mount, makes you jump doesn't it. There is a very easy way to discharge the capacitor.

Once the battery is removed from the bike, press and hold the on switch of the handlebar controller. The screen will likely show for a very short time afterwards. The contacts will now be safe.

 

[Narcine]

Tarka you genius! That hadn't crossed my mind.