An easy and expensive mistake: Vado Battery Related

dollarbin

dollarbin

Member
Yesterday I was trying to insert my key into the battery lock on the bike (green arrow), and in my haste to get on the road I accidentally briefly put the key into the uncovered battery charging receptacle (red X). The metal key made a short across the two terminals and there was a pretty good spark, but no other visible damage. The battery was fully charged and I was able to ride my bike 16 miles home with 35% battery power remaining. When I got home, however, I plugged in my bike to recharge as usual and the battery did not start to recharge. The light on the charger stays green indicating that it is not charging the battery, either on or off the bike. I assume that when I shorted the connector, I have burned out some component of the charging controlling hardware in the battery.

Vado Fuckup.jpg


After a phone call to my LBS and a little online reading, it seems like this is not an uncommon occurrence. Unfortunately person on the phone at my LBS did not think this was something they could repair other than selling me a $1,000 replacement battery. Does anyone have any experience fixing this kind of accident without replacing the whole battery? Is there a fuse or something in there that can be replaced? Or a company that will replace the failed board in the unit? Or should I just bring it into my bike mechanic and see if they can get a solution from Specialized to fix this?

Clearly I'm 100% responsible for this, but it also seems like a design flaw that a moment's inattention bricks a $1K component without any circuit protection.

Whether this is a cheap or expensive lesson for me personally, consider this a public service announcement to be vigilant about replacing the charging port cover as soon as the bike is unplugged.
 
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Looks like I'm far from the first person on this forum that this has happened to:
electricbikereview.com

Battery short turbo Vado 3.0

Was removing battery in my 2020 Vado 3.0 when the key went into the charging port, there was a spark now when I plug in charger cable no charging lights go on. Bike still works but don’t think battery is charging. Any ideas if there’s a fuse of a fix?
electricbikereview.com electricbikereview.com
electricbikereview.com

HELP - Specialized Vado/Como Battery motherboard replacement.

I have a low use Vado 5.0 , less than 1000 miles. Yesterday I went to charge it and a staple (the kind you use on paper) had become attached to the magnetic socket of the Rosenberger connector, and when I plugged it in there was a spark; then Battery would not take a charge. Battery turns on (3...
electricbikereview.com electricbikereview.com
 
That's sad.
Strangely enough, I still have battery terminal (magnetic) caps on all of my 3 batteries...
 
Wow. That's just stupid design.

On two counts - #1 that there's voltage on the charging terminals which ought to be "intake" only IMHO and #2 placing the charging port adjacent to the keyway.

Hope you're able to get it sorted, but from the other threads it sounds like you're SOL.
 
Yeah, I'm going to edit the word potentially from title of this thread: "An easy and potentially expensive mistake: Vado Battery Related"
 
gpburdell said:
Wow. That's just stupid design.

On two counts - #1 that there's voltage on the charging terminals which ought to be "intake" only IMHO and #2 placing the charging port adjacent to the keyway.

Hope you're able to get it sorted, but from the other threads it sounds like you're SOL.
Click to expand...
agreed that design is way stupid. even my cheap stuff does not have battery thermanls as male.
 
dollarbin said:
Yesterday I was trying to insert my key into the battery lock on the bike (green arrow), and in my haste to get on the road I accidentally briefly put the key into the uncovered battery charging receptacle (red X). The metal key made a short across the two terminals and there was a pretty good spark, but no other visible damage. The battery was fully charged and I was able to ride my bike 16 miles home with 35% battery power remaining. When I got home, however, I plugged in my bike to recharge as usual and the battery did not start to recharge. The light on the charger stays green indicating that it is not charging the battery, either on or off the bike. I assume that when I shorted the connector, I have burned out some component of the charging controlling hardware in the battery.

View attachment 117647

After a phone call to my LBS and a little online reading, it seems like this is not an uncommon occurrence. Unfortunately person on the phone at my LBS did not think this was something they could repair other than selling me a $1,000 replacement battery. Does anyone have any experience fixing this kind of accident without replacing the whole battery? Is there a fuse or something in there that can be replaced? Or a company that will replace the failed board in the unit? Or should I just bring it into my bike mechanic and see if they can get a solution from Specialized to fix this?

Clearly I'm 100% responsible for this, but it also seems like a design flaw that a moment's inattention bricks a $1K component without any circuit protection.

Whether this is a cheap or expensive lesson for me personally, consider this a public service announcement to be vigilant about replacing the charging port cover as soon as the bike is unplugged.
Click to expand...
Same arrangement on my Comos, so not just the Vados. Specialized owners beware.
 
Stefan Mikes said:
It is how the Rosenberger magnetic plug is designed.
So far, I have always managed to replace the magnetic cap.
The OP has had bad luck...
Click to expand...

I think the issue isn't so much that the bike side of the connector has exposed terminals. It's that those exposed terminals are energized and there's nothing shielding them from shorting together with a key or a staple stuck to the inside of the magnetic cover.

Is there anything that plugs into that port receiving power from the bike?

The concept of Poka-Yoke would suggest the design avoid having energized terminals not physically separate from one another, and it would also suggest not placing a keyway anywhere near a place that a key could cause extremely expensive damage with a moment's inattention.
 
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It looks like the latest Vado/Tero/Como's use a slightly different layout, possibly to mitigate the chances of the pins being accessible. On my Tero it would take a conscious effort to rotate the door between the frame and the latch to stay open. Otherwise it just flips back and covers the pins. It's unlikely I'll be removing the battery much but thanks to the op for the heads up. It is unfortunate that the pins are accessible and the battery does not appear to have short circuit or overload protection for the pins. The SL design is much better protected. The bike has recessed female contacts while the power brick has the exposed pins - presumably the power brick is safety certified and has required short circuit/overload protection.

From my viewpoint, the most significant aspect of all this is that leaving the bike unattended would potentially expose the battery to intentional malicious damage if the battery pins are not protected by the battery's electronics. Even the SL power pins could easily be shorted if that is all it takes. However I thought the data pin(s) have to be connected before the power pins are enabled. The data pins would engage before the power pins so that if you disconnect the plug under load it would prevent arcing. On the Tero power brick power connector there is only one data pin. While it appears to be longer than the recessed power contacts that doesn't help that all the pins on the bike battery side are all exposed. So possibly shorting those pins in the right order leads to shorting the battery. Clearly the OP experience and links to other peoples same experience point to some issue with the exposed pins used on the removable battery designs.
 
How is that a stupid design? Should the engineer expect people to pay zero attention and shove the key into a charging terminal that they ignored putting the cover over? I was an engineer, and there is no way that every single stupid thing a human can do can be anticipated and have a solution engineered for those acts.
 
rich c said:
How is that a stupid design? Should the engineer expect people to pay zero attention and shove the key into a charging terminal that they ignored putting the cover over? I was an engineer, and there is no way that every single stupid thing a human can do can be anticipated and have a solution engineered for those acts.
Click to expand...
Yes, exactly. US wall sockets should be designed the same way. With two male prongs sticking out of the wall where they could easily be shorted out.
 
really hope specialized can help you with this, bad design
i am 90% sure all my bikes have fuses to protect the battery

so sorry this happened
 
rich c said:
How is that a stupid design? Should the engineer expect people to pay zero attention and shove the key into a charging terminal that they ignored putting the cover over? I was an engineer, and there is no way that every single stupid thing a human can do can be anticipated and have a solution engineered for those acts.
Click to expand...
Eggs Ackley!
1648161491961.jpeg
 
i have never had this happen either, but realize i am a casual rider and almost always make sure the rubber plugs are back in place etc

can see this happening if someone commutes or is in a hurry

at the very least it seems an expensive battery like that should have a fuse to protect from this , things happen

bricking a $1000 battery is no joke and hope those cells get recycled
 
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