Satiator Won't Recognize My Battery

[6zfshdb]

I have five Pedego 48V, 15AH batteries which I use on my three Interceptor bikes. In order to properly maintain the batteries, I bought a well reviewed Grin Satiator charger. I bought the correct XLR connector adapter but when connected, the Satiator will not recognize any of the batteries. The "Connect Battery" message just flashes on the screen.

Through a lot of experimentation, I found that if I first connect the OEM charger for a few seconds and switch to the Satiator, the charge cycle will start. Pedego tech support says their batteries go into "sleep" mode after a period of inactivity. The OEM charger "wakes" them but the Satiator will not.

Another issue is, the Satiator will not charge the Pedego battery to 100% even though the settings are correct for a 48V battery. The Satiator shuts off at what it thinks is 100% but only 4 of the 5 bars on the battery gauge are lit. It takes another 40 minutes on the OEM charger to bring the charge up to 100%. I could play around with some of the Satiator parameters, like the resistance of the charger cable or the cutoff voltage, but I don't want to risk battery damage.

Rather than go through this hassle every time I charge a battery, I've simply been using the OEM charger and the expensive Satiator just sits on the shelf. Anyone else have this problem and if so, what work around do you use?

 

[tomjasz]

FWIW

There are some bugs in the latest firmware.

From Grin support posted on endless_sphere.

Hola everyone!

Just received an email from Grin about a potential bug in the v1.032 and v1.034 firmwares. They recommend reverting back to the v1.026 firmware which has been stable for a number of years. Continued use of v1.032/v1.034 has the potential of bricking your charger wherein you’ll have to send it back to Grin to get fixed.

Here’s their email in its entirety:

“Hi there,

If you are receiving this message it's because we have you on record of having purchased a Satiator that may have a 1.032 firmware version. We've begun seeing occasional instances of devices with this firmware suddenly stop working, with nothing displayed on the screen and no ability to communicate with a computer either. We are actively trying to understand the cause of this bug and remedy it but in the meantime, we have reverted back to the long-standing 1.026 firmware on devices we ship now.

We would ask that you power on the Satiator device and look at the firmware that it shows on the splash screen. If it shows 1.032 or 1.034, we recommend downgrading the firmware to the 1.026 release to prevent this bug from occurring and potentially bricking the device. The options to do that are as follows:

1) If you have the USB->TTL programming cable and a suitable adapter, simply follow the instructions here for downloading the Satiator software suite and running a firmware update. The firmware that comes bundled with the software is 1.026 so that will already be present as the default firmware option.

2) If you don't have the programming cables, but you are comfortable reflashing the unit based on the description above then let us know what cables are missing (USB->TTL and/or XLR adapter) and we can arrange an expedited shipment of those parts to you.

3) If you would prefer not to reflash the device yourself, then let us know and we will send an RMA# and return shipping label to send the device back to us. Once it is received we will reprogram the unit here and ship it back immediately, covering the shipping expense both ways.

Please let us know which of those options you prefer. It is also possible to continue using the device as it is, but be aware that there is a possibility of experiencing this bug and the only way to repair it after that is to ship the unit back to Grin.

We're very sorry about this extra trouble and appreciate your understanding while we iron out this wrinkle and continue to work on making new improvements and features in the Satiator charger.


Kind regards,
Ben
RMA's and Product Support”

 

[6zfshdb]

FWIW

There are some bugs in the latest firmware.

From Grin support posted on endless_sphere.

Hola everyone!

Just received an email from Grin about a potential bug in the v1.032 and v1.034 firmwares. They recommend reverting back to the v1.026 firmware which has been stable for a number of years. Continued use of v1.032/v1.034 has the potential of bricking your charger wherein you’ll have to send it back to Grin to get fixed.

Here’s their email in its entirety:

“Hi there,

If you are receiving this message it's because we have you on record of having purchased a Satiator that may have a 1.032 firmware version. We've begun seeing occasional instances of devices with this firmware suddenly stop working, with nothing displayed on the screen and no ability to communicate with a computer either. We are actively trying to understand the cause of this bug and remedy it but in the meantime, we have reverted back to the long-standing 1.026 firmware on devices we ship now.

We would ask that you power on the Satiator device and look at the firmware that it shows on the splash screen. If it shows 1.032 or 1.034, we recommend downgrading the firmware to the 1.026 release to prevent this bug from occurring and potentially bricking the device. The options to do that are as follows:

1) If you have the USB->TTL programming cable and a suitable adapter, simply follow the instructions here for downloading the Satiator software suite and running a firmware update. The firmware that comes bundled with the software is 1.026 so that will already be present as the default firmware option.

2) If you don't have the programming cables, but you are comfortable reflashing the unit based on the description above then let us know what cables are missing (USB->TTL and/or XLR adapter) and we can arrange an expedited shipment of those parts to you.

3) If you would prefer not to reflash the device yourself, then let us know and we will send an RMA# and return shipping label to send the device back to us. Once it is received we will reprogram the unit here and ship it back immediately, covering the shipping expense both ways.

Please let us know which of those options you prefer. It is also possible to continue using the device as it is, but be aware that there is a possibility of experiencing this bug and the only way to repair it after that is to ship the unit back to Grin.

We're very sorry about this extra trouble and appreciate your understanding while we iron out this wrinkle and continue to work on making new improvements and features in the Satiator charger.


Kind regards,
Ben
RMA's and Product Support”

Thanks for the information.

I never updated to the latest firmware. I'm running the original V1.026 that was shipped with the unit.