Suggestion on Motor Controller and Battery

[Ryzen]

I think I might have fried one of my motor controllers when I plugged my battery into it. There was a big spark when I touched the positive leads and it never made my motor turn to begin with. I have a new controller and I was looking for advice to make sure I don’t fry a second one (VEVOR). I attached images of my setup. Big thank you to anyone who tries to help in advance!

 

[harryS]

Many problems in your pictures.
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The battery looks pretty unsafe to me. Look at the cell where the PVC wrap appears missing. If it's not there, it's too easy to short circuit that cell group. Insulating washers were needed on all the positive ends. Do you have a BMS for the battery?
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Is the left side negative and the right side positive? If so, why does the meter say -81.6V. If the red lead on the battery is positive, is that a black wire from the controller connected to it, or was it just a black jumper. There are polarity questions raised here.
.
You should try a forum like endless-sphere, as it seems you have a lot of other questions to resolve other than controller sparking. Good luck.
.

Stand-up EScooter/ESkateboards

endless-sphere.com

 

[Ryzen]

Many problems in your pictures.
.
The battery looks pretty unsafe to me. Look at the cell where the PVC wrap appears missing. If it's not there, it's too easy to short circuit that cell group. Insulating washers were needed on all the positive ends. Do you have a BMS for the battery?
.
Is the left side negative and the right side positive? If so, why does the meter say -81.6V. If the red lead on the battery is positive, is that a black wire from the controller connected to it, or was it just a black jumper. There are polarity questions raised here.
.
You should try a forum like endless-sphere, as it seems you have a lot of other questions to resolve other than controller sparking. Good luck.
.

Stand-up EScooter/ESkateboards

endless-sphere.com

View attachment 136856

Q: "If it's not there, it's too easy to short-circuit that cell group. Insulating washers were needed on all the positive ends. Do you have a BMS for the battery?"​

I acknowledge that this is unsafe, it's melted because I dropped it on a metal table and some of the batteries exploded and I replaced them. I plan to shrink-wrap and put plastic around the whole thing if I can get it to work first. All of the batteries in this are from free power tools and laptop batteries my community has thrown away or no longer needed. To make sure they were viable I powered cycled and tested them to check capacity, resistance, and if they heat up significantly when under load. This was done with a LiitoKala Lii-500.

There is no BMS, I was thinking that if I got my motor to spin then it would be worth the investment. Is it needed for my setup to function properly?

Q: "Is the left side negative and the right side positive? If so, why does the meter say -81.6V? If the red lead on the battery is positive, is that a black wire from the controller connected to it, or was it just a black jumper? There are polarity questions raised here.​

When I soldered the wires I accidentally put them on backward, the wires are on pretty well but when connecting them to the controller I am aware of the correct polarity. Thank you for clarifying that since I wasn't clear on it!

Thank you for the link, I'll see what I can find there. I appreciate your help! Any other comments would be welcome as well!