Does anyone know a source of the charging connector that fits the Aventure? I have a Grin Cycle Satiator that I would like to use but no connector. Grin sells a ST3 connector which is very close, but no cigar. Aventon most have tweeked it just a bit so it doesn't work. The Cycle Satiator can charge to any level like 80% or 90% which the included charger can not.
Charging Connector for Aventure?
- Thread starter al62286
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6zfshdb
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Northeast Pennsylvania
Welcome to the forum! You've come to the right place to ask questions.
A similar thread was posted earlier this year:
electricbikereview.com
Unfortunately, no solution was offered.
It depends on how much you are willing to spend on the problem but you could do this. First, buy a cheap Aventon Adventure charger. I've seen them on ebay for around $25. Cut off the ST3 lookalike connector and wire it to this $13 raw ended Satiator charge cable:
Determine the pinout configuration from your OEM charger & Grin cable and match it to the connector you cut off.
Doing it this way, the project should cost less than $40
A similar thread was posted earlier this year:
Aventon Aventure Brake Pad Supply, Battery Connector Proprietary
The Aventon Aventure is a nice bike and worth the money but with a few important, potentially debilitating drawbacks. When I first got the bike, the front brake pads made a terrible scraping, grinding sound and never bedded properly. I tried sanding them, but it didn't help. Support said the...
electricbikereview.com
Unfortunately, no solution was offered.
It depends on how much you are willing to spend on the problem but you could do this. First, buy a cheap Aventon Adventure charger. I've seen them on ebay for around $25. Cut off the ST3 lookalike connector and wire it to this $13 raw ended Satiator charge cable:
Determine the pinout configuration from your OEM charger & Grin cable and match it to the connector you cut off.
Doing it this way, the project should cost less than $40
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OK No luck. Let me explain in case someone else wants to try. So the Aventure charger has three terminals, positive, negative, and a sense line. I was hopping it was easy to debug, but no luck. Unfortunately this is a trend I've seen, making the charger paired to the battery.
So if you attach the sense line to the negative terminal, then you can measure the 54V charge voltage on the + and - but ONLY if you plug the charger in the wall FIRST, THEN ground the sense wire. If you ground the sense wire first, THEN plug it in to 120V, then NO charge voltage.
OK I thought, maybe the sense pin in the battery is grounded so when you plug the charger connector in, it then starts.
So In spliced the Aventure connector to the Cycle Satiator. Plugged it in and no cigar. The Cycle Satiator has to "see" battery voltage or it won't start. There are two reasons why that might be. First, maybe Aventon has a diode in the battery so the charger can't see the battery voltage. Second, maybe something else with that sense line turns on the battery. I don't know. I could figure it out if I spent more time, but didn't. So now it looks like the Aventure charger or nothing. One good thing, it looks like the battery light turns blue when the battery is around 90%, so if you unplug it then, it will last longer, but you must watch it constantly, so not very practical.
So if you attach the sense line to the negative terminal, then you can measure the 54V charge voltage on the + and - but ONLY if you plug the charger in the wall FIRST, THEN ground the sense wire. If you ground the sense wire first, THEN plug it in to 120V, then NO charge voltage.
OK I thought, maybe the sense pin in the battery is grounded so when you plug the charger connector in, it then starts.
So In spliced the Aventure connector to the Cycle Satiator. Plugged it in and no cigar. The Cycle Satiator has to "see" battery voltage or it won't start. There are two reasons why that might be. First, maybe Aventon has a diode in the battery so the charger can't see the battery voltage. Second, maybe something else with that sense line turns on the battery. I don't know. I could figure it out if I spent more time, but didn't. So now it looks like the Aventure charger or nothing. One good thing, it looks like the battery light turns blue when the battery is around 90%, so if you unplug it then, it will last longer, but you must watch it constantly, so not very practical.
6zfshdb
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Northeast Pennsylvania
This same issue occurs when charging my Pedego batteries with the Satiator. If you press the down arrow on the Satiator with the battery connected, it will force start the charge cycle.
I don't know if this will work for you but it's worth a try.
I don't know if this will work for you but it's worth a try.
I also own the Cycle Satiator and the Aventure charger. Would it be possible to post a diagram of the Aventure connector that indicates which of the pins are pos, negative and sensing? If my Aventure charger fails, I could cut off the connector and splice it into what I have from Grin. This might also help another Member who needs an Aventure charger. Thanks.
m@Robertson
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
To get around this with a couple of other proprietary connectors, Grin offered for sale a special connector just for that manufacturer. the Satiator itself has enough smarts inside to handle this sort of thing. But the connector has to be wired up right to feed back what the battery or your controller expects to see.
As noted there is a way to force-start the Satiator's charge cycle but probably not something you want to mess with long term.
As noted there is a way to force-start the Satiator's charge cycle but probably not something you want to mess with long term.
Thanks, but I still would like to see a diagram for the pin configuration for the Aventure charger; positive, negative, sensing. I am aware of the force-start capability of the Satiator. Also please provide a link to the special connector Grin offered. I was unable to find anything on Grin's site. I even called them 6 months ago and they said nothing they have fits the Aventure battery charger socket.
Daveo111
Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Monterey
I'll give you 120 for it lol (but seriously)
Daveo111
Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Monterey
The connector is called the ST3 - but it IS NOT the right one
Daveo111
Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Monterey
no unfortunately - at least I have had no luck.
So, I cut off the connector from an existing charger and spliced it on the Cycle Satiator. So that part is not the problem. The original charger uses three wires, positive, negative and handshake. The Cycle Satiator can be forced to start, but the bike battery can not. It needs the proper handshake to start. Tried connecting it to positive or negative with no luck. So it's a bit more complex, and will take more investigation which I haven't done. The Cycle Satiator doesn't support something like that, so you would need to build something to fake out the bike. I'm not sure it's worth it.
Thanks for the reply. It sounds like the Aventure charger and the battery must communicate via handshake in order to charge the battery. If that is the case, owners are hogtied for the life of the bike by Aventon when it comes to a battery and charger unless a battery of equal size case (that fits the frame) could be found when/if a replacement is needed. I'm not sure it's worth the money. The bike has a few quirks and is fun to ride, but buying this bike is now a huge regret. I feel compelled to warn others who may be considering this bike to consider this problem and NOT buy it.
Tom@WashDC
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Loudoun County, VA.
My riding buddy has an Aventure. I'll check his system and get back to you. So you never had a charger for your Aventure?
Yes, I got a charger with the bike when I ordered directly from Aventon last May. Since I have the Cycle Satiator for another ebike, I wanted to adapt it to the Aventure. I always plan ahead and look for how to replace items that are out of warranty. Also, my neighbor is a hunter and is interested in buying the bike. I can't in good conscience sell this bike to anyone, knowing the potential pitfalls of parts replacement.
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Not charging the batteries correctly can be very dangerous to both the batteries and your physical health, so Aventure has the right to guard that this process is safe. Aventure will sell you a replacement charger if yours breaks. I think it's like $60, which is hundreds cheaper than the Cycle Satiator. You could get five of these chargers for the price of one Cycle Satiator. With these cheaper chargers, you can't set a charge level less that 100%, but the Aventure LED does turn from green to blue at around the 85% to 90% level, so if you watch the LED and unplug the charger as soon as it turns blue, you will be in good shape.
m@Robertson
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
It was discussed in a thread that covered a similar vein on another one of the bike brands here. Its for one of (all of?) the Specialized bikes. I wasn't saying there was something that fits an Aventure. But they have done special sockets to fit specific brands that have data links. If they'll do one for another popular brand, maybe if enough people call them they'll do one for you.
m@Robertson
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
A Cycle Satiator is extremely safe by its nature. Thats a part of why its more expensive - that and the GUI and multiple profiles built into it. Its so efficient it doesn't need a fan, and fans on these chinesium lowest-bidder specials are a known common failure point. Further, its weatherproof. For me thats useful as I mount chargers on a lot of my bikes (the cargo bikes in particular). The core tech underlying a Satiator is a weatherproof LED power supply that supports both CC and CV modes (what is commonly called "smart charging") and meant for use in all weather with commercial street lights. These units have a Mean Time Between Failure measured in the hundreds of thousands of hours. Good luck getting that kind of reliability out of a cheapo Chinese unit of any stripe. Here's how to have that same underlying tech on a charger at roughly 1/3 the Satiator's cost (which won't help those of you with proprietary systems that are complicated like this not for safety but to protect the manufacturer's sales curve).
An Ultra Reliable Ebike Battery Charger…
How about a charger – quickly adjustable for voltage and current – that is rated for hundreds of thousands of hours of use before it typically fails?
talesontwowheels.com
If you want to have a reliable method of limiting your charge on a charger that cannot limit itself, add a mechanical countdown timer (not an electronic one). Drain your battery several volts down from 100%. Check your at-rest battery voltage at time index :00. Charge for exactly 1 hour (set a timer on your phone). Stop the charge and let the voltage level come to rest again (just give it a couple of minutes) and take another reading. You just figured out how many volts your charger pumps into your battery pack in an hour. Now set your countdown timer so it will charge to about 80% (80% on a 48v pack is 51.5v. on a 36v pack an 80% charge is 39.6v). Or 90% if you like.
Or if you want it to go to 100%, set the timer so it will cut the power to the charger at about the right time. That way if the charger's cutoff fails (it happens) and it keeps charging, you have a fail safe that cuts the power and keeps very bad things from happening as a result.
here: $10 from Amazon delivered. My order history says I have five of them spread across two residences and my office. And I use a Satiator or a Mean Well (or a lab power supply but those are expensive and can also fail... nothing beats the Mean Wells if you aren't chained to your manufacturer) https://amzn.to/3IrsgER
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