My battery died of heatstroke 😥😭

[ChezCheese:)]

I went to Seattle today to lunch with someone visiting from Europe. I stashed my BH Atom Diamond Wave Pro in an enclosed side yard while we walked a few blocks away to a restaurant. Two hours later, the sun had heated up that side yard so much and the heat reflected off of a galvanized tank so that even though the bike itself was in the shade, it got very hot anyway. The controller couldn't wake up the battery. Dead of heatstroke. I guess I was lucky it didn't explode. And lucky that the ferry dock was all downhill. How on earth am I going to find a replacement battery?? BH pulled out of the US market shortly after I bought my bike, so the LBS I bought it from can't help me anyway. I am very sad.

 

[LimboJim]

Looks like a Brose motor, and they leave battery sourcing to bike manufacturers. I know Bulls used BMZ to make theirs - maybe EasyMotion did too? It probably says on the battery somewhere. Still, the battery case might be unique.

You could try a repair service. I haven't tried them, but I've heard good things about these guys - Court did a YT video on them a few years ago:

The best Ebike battery repair shop

Get the best Electric bike battery replacements and repair. FTHpower is a leading Ebike battery repair shop to meet your needs. Visit us!

www.fthpower.com

 

[Tars Tarkas]

Durn! Check out getting it repaired or rebuilt. I don't know if they work on bike batteries, I don't know why they wouldn't, but battery rebuilders for cordless power tools have been around for a long time in a lot of cities. If you can find some place fairly local you can avoid the shipping hassles associated with batteries.

Maybe by some miracle the battery will recover when it cools down completely.

Good luck.

TT

 

[tomjasz]

Looks like a Brose motor, and they leave battery sourcing to bike manufacturers. I know Bulls used BMZ to make theirs - maybe EasyMotion did too? It probably says on the battery somewhere. Still, the battery case might be unique.

You could try a repair service. I haven't tried them, but I've heard good things about these guys - Court did a YT video on them a few years ago:

The best Ebike battery repair shop

Get the best Electric bike battery replacements and repair. FTHpower is a leading Ebike battery repair shop to meet your needs. Visit us!

www.fthpower.com

EM3EV used them for a couple of california ebike cus. An absolute nightmare. Duggan in Colorado I believe. Should be able to find him searching here ? @m@Robertson has a lead too.

 

[tomjasz]

Hi-C Patrick Duggan

 

[ChezCheese:)]

It is a Brose motor. The battery is well and truly dead. Non-responsive even though it is totally cooled down now (overnight). I've emailed to BH in Spain. Heck, we are going to Spain in October, I could bring one back with me, except I doubt if one can bring it on the plane. How do batteries get shipped? By sea only?

My concern with a rebuilder is the chance of fire or explosion. All over this forum, people talk about how only OEM batteries are to be trusted.

 

[ChezCheese:)]

Battery lists TD HiTech Energy Inc as the manufacturer. I have emailed them, too.

 

[JRA]

You might reach out to Crazy Lenny's in Madison, WI? They were the premier dealer for BH before they left the US but rumour is that the person that headed up BH in the states took over the shop from Lenny awhile ago?

 

[PedalUma]

Hey, others please chime in here so I am not just going out on a limb. What about jumping it? It could be that the BMS shut it down for self-preservation. And it just needs to be woken up again now that conditions are okay. @ChezCheese:), do you know which output terminal is positive? Is there any fractional voltage, like 0.82 volts showing? You might want to read up on jumping a BMS from other independent sources, so I am not holding the bag on this one alone. That heat dome and other recent weather events are scarily becoming 'normal.'

 

[tomjasz]

In the early days if Luna their batteries had a fault with the BMS. They were often resurrected by “jumping”. I’m certain that procedure can still be found with Google. Next call Patrick Duggan at Hi-C. If he can’t I’m quite certain hed have some insights. He’s a for real expert.

 

[tomjasz]

Sure enough, i googled this phrase. See also the video tab.

luna jump start bms

I’d talk to Duggan first.

 

[ChezCheese:)]

I don't know which is pos and which is neg. However, my husband, who is an electrician, used his voltmeter on it and can't get it to register anything.

Meanwhile, normally, when I plug in the charger, the green light on the charger flashes green, then when I plug it into the bike it turns to solid red while it charges, and then when fully charged, the light is solid green. When I plug in the charger to the bike now, there is a click, sounding like a spark or a fuse, and the charger light shows solid green. Something in the battery is shorting it out.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Hey, others please chime in here so I am not just going out on a limb. What about jumping it? It could be that the BMS shut it down for self-preservation. And it just needs to be woken up again now that conditions are okay. @ChezCheese:), do you know which output terminal is positive? Is there any fractional voltage, like 0.82 volts showing? You might want to read up on jumping a BMS from other independent sources, so I am not holding the bag on this one alone. That heat dome and other recent weather events are scarily becoming 'normal.'

From what I remember the jump start procedure is to resurrect a battery that has fallen bellow LV cutoff.
I'd ASSume that any thermal cutout would self reset after cooling and that any thermal fuse would be rated at a higher temperature then was experienced.
This said the only way to know would be to have a detailed schematic of the BMS or open her up and start testing.

 

[PedalUma]

This email message just came in:
Hi There, this is Rick ___ I bought a pedal assist system from you last September with a Li-ion batter Model ___ Now, less than a year later, it seems that battery will not charge. I purchased a replacement charger and the even with the new charger, the battery will not charge. Any thoughts about this. Please respond.
I wonder if he left it in direct sun. I will try one of my chargers. Maybe I will need to try jumping it. People will do things like repeatedly running a battery to zero and leave it like that for a couple of weeks. Batteries need to be treated like living things.

 

[tomjasz]

From what I remember the jump start procedure is to resurrect a battery that has fallen bellow LV cutoff.

Those I wrote about were not about being below the LVC. It was a poor BMS design. But that said I’ll repeat. A fellow like Duggan or the builder your arch nemesis uses.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Those I wrote about were not about being below the LVC. It was a poor BMS design. But that said I’ll repeat. A fellow like Duggan or the builder your arch nemesis uses.

Well in the world of electronics there's a million ways to have poor design. Back feeding the discharge port couldn't hurt to try but without knowing the particulars of the BMS in question we're all just guessing.
And who be me arch nemesis?

@ChezCheese:)... if your husband is an electrician he should be able to open it up and tell what is causing the shutdown. More than likely the cells are still intact.

 

[tomjasz]

And who be me arch nemesis?

Currently?Just poking for fun…

 

[ChezCheese:)]

I'm going to wait to see if I hear back from either BH or the battery company, before I open up the battery myself. And if there is a chance of sending it to a repairer, I wouldn't want to mess it up by opening up the case. You know, sometimes it's more than a few screws, there might be a bit of plastic that snaps together and by opening it up wrongly, it could break and truly be unfixable.

 

[Gionnirocket]

Not a bad course of action... Getting some more information up front is always a good idea. They might be able to shed some light on which component is the cause of the shutdown and whether or not there are any field replaceable items like a fuse inside.

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

My condolences! As @tomjasz suggested, Hi-C shows they can possibly, possibly rebuild your BH battery. Here's the link, in case some other BH owner needs their battery repaired: https://www.hicbattery.com/EBike-Battery-Rebuild-Services_c_17.html

Right now, looking at the HiC site, not really sure if they can rebuild your battery, but your options are really limited. BH leaving the US screwed alot of Brose powered folks. Their external battery, Yamaha powered ebikes are easily repaired or replaced cause there is an active source of Yammy parts out there, including Euro sources like Ridewill in Italy, who ship to the US. But it seems that any online stores that once carried BH repair items have cleared out their stock.