Battery doesn't work!?!? Any assistance would be appreciated

[opimax]

Joe, I do not believe that is a fair blanket statement to be made about this site and its members

 

[PowerMe]

@JoePah, I specifically posted something for SondersNate to try. Granted, I don't have a Sonders bike, but I do have a battery that can be persnickety, so I shared what I have to do in the hopes it might be useful. to him.

Do you consider that trolling?

 

[JoePah]

No i think your comments are positive and helpful.

@opimax And i'm not referring to everyone here just the constantly negative and dysfunctional commenters who have nothing better to do than make false, misleading and unhelpful comments. It's just a hobby and they are poisoning the well.

 

[flymeaway]

I think I speak for everyone when I say we are here to help, as well as learn.

I think most posters are here for that reason....

Court J.

 

[George S.]

At first I wasn't sure what @JoePah meant but then I went through and found something from my Numero Uno Blocked Commenter. After I unblocked the comment, I knew exactly what Joe meant. The Sondors thing is history on IGG, at least on Friday. It's pointless to rehash the CF things if the issue is the bikes that are out there.

I think the OP wants to fix the problem. If he needs another battery, he needs to connect with the Sondors people, probably Phil and the Goso folks. If Joe can make that happen, that's good, in my book. If the owners are down on this site, maybe we should just guide people over there immediately. (Yes, that's a little sad.)

The real expertise is with people who own the bike. With a group of people on the web, sharing common issues, everything becomes part of a knowledge base. Battery and electrical troubleshooting will show up again and again, so they might as well get that on their books. Not sure FB is a great format for building up the database, not real searchable. You want something like Endless Sphere.

 

[sondorsnate]

Thanks again for all the posts/replies everyone. I ordered my voltmeter and pick it up today. I tried different ways of plugging in the battery as suggested but no difference. I'll keep everybody updated. Thanks again everyone!

 

[sondorsnate]

So I purchased the voltmeter and I hooked it up to the battery and this is what it shows. I assume this means that it is holding charge. Any recommendations from here on?

 

[George S.]

I was looking at the picture of the meter on my computer. Can you move the dial over here, too '200'? The voltage looks OK, but you are in the wrong setting. I deleted an earlier post. I think you an in an AC range. This will move to DC and up to 200 volts. There's a yellow arrow on my version of your picture.

If the voltage is around 43, the battery is probably OK and the next step would be to try to check that the contacts on the bike so the battery is connecting solidly.

 

[harryS]

George S is right. Your meter is connected incorrectly. You have it set to measure current, not voltage. It is reporting 43 microamps, not 43 volts. I also believe your battery is turned off. If you had connected a meter in current mode across a live battery, it would have short circuited the battery and you blow a fuse in the meter or blow the circuits. Some meters are even robust enough to take the current and melt the probe wires.

 

[George S.]

Read the manual if you have one. Start from scratch. Don't turn the battery on until you are sure the probes are plugged into the meter in the right positions, and the meter is set for voltage type and range, the '200' V and DC.

If you can get the probes plugged in right and keep the dial on the DC voltage side, you will have a voltmeter. @harryS is correct. Right now you are set up to measure DC amps.

So, please, set the meter for volts. Get the black wire in the Ground (COM) Socket and the Red wire in the V socket, on the meter. There are two probes and three sockets. One socket is the unfused high Amp socket. Avoid that, for now. The other socket covers volts and low amps. If you put set the meter to read amps and want volts, from this socket, you will normally just blow a fuse. In general, the meter will still read volts if this fuse is blown, but it won't read amps. We just want volts. One quick reading.

Put the two probes, the 'pin' ends, into the output sockets, positive and negative, but you can do this backwards and the meter will just show a negative voltage.

When you are sure you are connected correctly, with the meter on DC and 200 V, then turn the battery on.

 

[harryS]

On your bike don't you have to turn the battery switch to ON and then press a button on the throttle to get the bike's system started?

 

[SamIAmNot]

@sondorsnate Let's start from first principles, to eliminate user error.

Here's my procedure for charging the battery:

1. Plug charger into outlet
2. Wait for green light to come on
3. Unplug charger from outlet
4. Plug charger into battery
5. Plug charger into outlet
6. Wait for charger light to change from green to red

To check that the battery is holding a charge (after charger light turns green):

1. Unplug battery from charger
2. Turn battery on
3. Press and hold the button at the top of the battery
4. 5 lights should be lit (4 green, 1 red)

The procedure to install the battery into the bike and turn it on:

1. Turn battery off
2. Install battery into cradle, making sure that it locks securely into place
3. Remove plug from lunch box
4. Switch battery on
5. Replace plug in lunch box
6. Press the grey power button on the throttle control to turn on the bike
7. 3 lights on throttle control should be lit

 

[JoePah]

Just FYI, the Sondors team replied to Nate, and they will be sending him a new battery.. not sure if it was the contact we provided him on FB or the IGG contact email address.

There was quite a bit of troubleshooting and Nate tried everything, so good effort on his part. And good response time (not great) from Sondors.

For comparison when I had a hardware issue on my Stromer it took them around 4 days to respond.. Sondors took around 9 days with Nate.

 

[J.R.]

Good effort on the spirit and intent of help offered by EBR members. Way to go EBR members!