Charger Power Jack on Battery Shorted BANG

[creativepart]

I made a bonehead move and shorted the positive pin and the negative spade on the charger input jack on my eBike's battery. If you must know... I was using a multi-meter to test voltage and was too dumb to test it at the main power connections and tested it at the charger input jack. DON'T DO THIS! I was being super cautious to not touch the two multi-meter probes. I was, really. But BANG FLASH!!! I guess I wasn't careful enough. No harm to the battery's operation but the negative spade on the input vaporized a portion of the spade and it was just enough that when you plug in the charger it's difficult to get a good contact. If you hold the charger cable jack just right it will connect but it's tough to hold that long enough to charge the battery.

I found a guy on YouTube that rebuilds batteries for a living and he said this happens a lot because people stick their Key into the battery charge input and BANG FLASH!!! destroy the jack in a similar fashion.

So, following his instructions I opened my battery and sure enough it was super easy to remove the existing jack. I found a 10-pack of replacement 5.5mm x 2.1mm 3 Pin Female DC Power Jacks on Amazon for $6. So, this problem is a solvable problem.

If you... ahem, stick a key in your battery's charger input jack and BANG FLASH!!! there is hope for you yet.

 

[creativepart]

New part was delivered today and the repair was completed in 20-minutes. The part I received is identical to the part that was damaged and everything works normally.

Here's a link to this part in case you need one:

Amazon.com

And here is the YouTube video that gave me the confidence to undertake this repair:

 

[Gionnirocket]

If you want to test at the charge port... Use a male plug with a short piece of wire that you can then separate enough between meter probes.

 

[creativepart]

If you want to test at the charge port... Use a male plug with a short piece of wire that you can then separate enough between meter probes.

Yeah... if you want to test your battery's voltage use the + and - at the cradle connection.

It was really a bone head move on my part. The second it happened I knew exactly how stupid I'd been. I'm just happy it wasn't fatal for the battery or, I guess, me.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Yeah... if you want to test your battery's voltage use the + and - at the cradle connection.

It was really a bone head move on my part. The second it happened I knew exactly how stupid I'd been. I'm just happy it wasn't fatal for the battery or, I guess, me.

Yes... DC can create quite an arc.
But then again I can tell you a story about changing the guts on a 110/220v AC meter pan live that vaporized about a quarter inch of steel from the tip of a 5/16 screwdriver Now that was an arc.
Removing the battery can be a pain so it depends on all circumstances. It's also good for comparing voltages as when the discharge port starts to fail. Making up little test leads comes in handy at times
I have it set up now that when I plug in the charger it tells me the battery voltage before I start charging.

 

[Dallant]

Glad I never have to screw around with such things, costing me even more money and loss of use.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Glad I never have to screw around with such things, costing me even more money and loss of use.

Well my little experience happened over 30 years ago. And actually I was doing just fine until my boss showed up and wanted to help. This quickly ended up being a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. Once we lost the screwdriver he took my advice to leave and I finished up without further incident.
I can't remember why we were inclined to do it live... But I doubt very much that I would attempt to do something similar now unless it was the only choice and of great importance. Electricity has massive potential, but understanding it is all about safety. Ever see line workers making repairs live and in bad weather?
But with testing in situations as above... fabricating a test lead is more than safe enough and can be quite helpful in troubleshooting. It also would have been cheaper and easier than the replacement port and have future use.

 

[Dallant]

Well my little experience happened over 30 years ago. And actually I was doing just fine until my boss showed up and wanted to help. This quickly ended up being a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. Once we lost the screwdriver he took my advice to leave and I finished up without further incident.
I can't remember why we were inclined to do it live... But I doubt very much that I would attempt to do something similar now unless it was the only choice and of great importance. Electricity has massive potential, but understanding it is all about safety. Ever see line workers making repairs live and in bad weather?
But with testing in situations as above... fabricating a test lead is more than safe enough and can be quite helpful in troubleshooting. It also would have been cheaper and easier than the replacement port and have future use.

Given the Midwest’s tendency for bad weather, I’ve seen lots of line workers trying to get power back up at all times of the year. I’m a real chicken when it comes to electricity!