New here, dead bike

mtiberio

mtiberio

New Member
Region
USA
New to forum. Here because my 4 year old Radpower mini has been cutting out. Now power doesn't stay on for more than 10' out of the garage. $550 battery in my future I believe.
 
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That's crazy that you would have to pay $550 for a replacement battery should be less than that. If the diagnosis is the battery, check amperage/volts with a meter and obviously charge it as fully as possible first? If you do need a new battery contact herbert@dtbattery and send him pictures of the case and carrier and if they have it or a close enough replacement it won't be more than $300 I bet
 
Are you seeing any error codes? This sounds like it could be a bad connection somewhere. Maybe disconnect everything you can, put a dab of dielectric grease on all of the contacts, including the battery, and work them in and out two or three times. There are a lot of possibilities but it could be just a tiny bit of corrosion somewhere, plus checking out the connections is the cheapest possible fix.

If you have a voltmeter check the battery, or have it checked at an LBS. It's certainly possible that your battery is at the end of it's life but it seems unlikely to me. Go to some effort to figure this out before plunking down $550, or even $300.

TT
 
Don't troubleshoot by buying random parts. Some information on the battery performance this year would help. Very rare for a battery pack to go from fine to dead, unless it blew a fuse. And it wouldn't move 10' with a dead fuse.
 
4 years old., odo at 1234. 6 months ago died once. console out, no restart until charger applied. State of charge showed good. then happened last week. same-o. Then the other day, after I developed a field solution (remove battery and re-seat), it happened 10 times on the way to the h/w store to get some dielectric grease. (connector solutions being explored too). Finall it started happening within 10' of garage door. Radpower folks asked to make video of the following. Put on charger, push the state of charge button on the battery for over 3 seconds. (it showed all on 1 red 4 green). Then do the same with charger off. I did and all the lights came on and stayed on. Sent them video, no reply. Took battery apart. Spent day dicking with it. Fuses were confirmed yesterday. Bypassed on/off switch. Now when I do the SoC button test on the battery after having it on the charger but off, the red light comes on, nothing else and then red quickly fades. Even when the charger says the battery is charged, a throttle test in the garage is slow and quickly fades to zero.

So the charger thinks its charged, but the battery isn't?
 
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My bike is a rad mini with the 20" baloon "knobby" kenda's. I have crashed it plenty. Plenty of shock loads. I wonder if there isn't an open in the circuitry somewhere. My daughter is getting married this weekend, so credit cards torched. No battery buying for a while. Might as well do a deep dive into the battery. Peel back all the black tape, beep out the runs.
 
mtiberio said:
My bike is a rad mini with the 20" baloon "knobby" kenda's. I have crashed it plenty. Plenty of shock loads. I wonder if there isn't an open in the circuitry somewhere. My daughter is getting married this weekend, so credit cards torched. No battery buying for a while. Might as well do a deep dive into the battery. Peel back all the black tape, beep out the runs.
Click to expand...
What do you expect to see when you pull off the tape? Ever diagnosed a battery pack before? Nothing will tell you battery health more than measuring the voltage. Chargers and displays quit much sooner than battery packs. But 4 years with only a 300 mile average doesn't bode well with battery health. It's been sitting a long time between charges, and that is not kind on them. Especially if it gets frozen in the winter.
 
I have a fluke, and know how to use it. So just start measuring? Where is battery voltage exposed?
 
mtiberio said:
I have a fluke, and know how to use it. So just start measuring? Where is battery voltage exposed?
Click to expand...
Are you familiar with and have you ever done a balance charge on the battery?
That is my first go to procedure for battery issues.
 
mtiberio said:
nope
Click to expand...
Over 4 years w/ no balance you battery may be too far gone for a balance to work.
the procedure is to fully charge the battery then simply leave it on the charger for 12 to 15 hours. The BMS only balances at full charge, so if you have cells triggering a shut down you need a trickle charge over 12 to 15 hours.
One indication of out of balance cells is the voltage never gets to what it originally did with a full charge.
 
Had a "Eahora" which went from marvelous and "fleet' too hard to pedal slug, what happened to it was this when I replaced the controller I could never get the battery to "lock in" the solution was to remove the cable sheld under the battery and using real tight velcro encirclement to hold it in, now it works fine,I liked that bike OTH the Folks at Eahora were not good on helping Me with followup problems( probably they have lost a customer forever) And it seemed to have a too tight cable routing I didn't bother to move the shifter and brake cables to the other side of the divider had I done that I think I wold have solved the problem( the thing is I am all thumbs and have a tendency to not leave well enough alone) check and see if you can identify the type or generic group battery this bike takes you will probably be able to repower it a lot cheaper.
 
I noticed that the battery (and by extension the pins) have some up/down play even when battery "locked".
 
mtiberio said:
I noticed that the battery (and by extension the pins) have some up/down play even when battery "locked".
Click to expand...
Connection faults are always a probable cause, just have to wiggle and "jiggle" (giggle if you like) everything, to find the fault.
 
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22v would indicate a bad battery that has sunk below the LVC of the BMS and caused a bad cell group and while repairable not easy for those that don't have the tools and knowledge. 55v on the charger would indicate a fully charged 48v battery which is 54.8v. Not sure what is going on there other than the influence of the charger? Off the charger after being on it all night would be the measurement I would go by. Plus the fact that it doesn't work and that it wasn't stored properly it sounds like. Lesson learned?

The DT battery is just a standard Hailong case as used across the RAD brand as well as others. Trick is that there are several different ways that the battery connects to the plate on the bike and if you send a picture of that to DT they may be able to match it for you there. Otherwise the battery will come with a new matched plate that you will have to take off the original and replace with.
 
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