Adding 12v lights in series to 48v battery and shitty soldering and sparks ensue.

[William]

Hello,

New to ebikes and failing early and fast at basic electrical things. I was using my volt meter and absolutely fried the Anderson connector when I connected the black to the red coming off the battery cradle. If I was testing whether I can melt the connector and my volt meter I have succeeded.

What I was trying to do before ruining the connector was trying to wire four 12v lights for my evening commute. I pulled off the plastic cover on the battery cradle and soldered on wires coming from the black and red sides. I was treating black as power and red as ground but I may have absolutely no idea what I'm doing at all since my only experience is with AC current. Anyway, what I did was take black from the battery and run it to a on/off switch, took that and ran it through the four lights in series, and then returned it to the red wire side of the battery cradle.

That did not work. Should that work in theory? That didn't result in a sparkball like when I started trying to check my work, but may have made a little noise when I first flipped the lights on switch (or may be just when I put the battery on, not sure). The battery and everything still work fine after the big spark. I ended up soldering the battery cradle wires directly to the BBS02 wires but have some xt-60 connectors ordered and will fix my mess when they arrive.

Any help/criticism/pointing and laughing greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

William

[Poco Askew]

IDK the color code of your wiring, but usually black is ground/negative and red is hot/positive.
Voltage measurements are done with probes in parallel to the circuit being tested. Current measurements are taken in series with the circuit.
As long as nothing is grounded or part of another circuit, polarity of non-LED lights is not important. Bulbs in series will work, but is not nearly as well as if they could be wired in parallel - especially if the lights are LEDs.

[William]

The battery is the 13.5ah/48v that comes with the BBS02 kit. It seems like I did it all backwards when I assumed that black was always hot. Thanks for the reply.

[Gr8fun]

Series will work. Big wattage bulbs will spark bug. And draw more power than motor.

Remembering the hours spent getting the old christmas tree lights to work, and my first shocking experience. Series sucks. Sloppy soldering cured with practice and shrink wrap.

i remember burning up my first three voltmeters many years ago. I actually have to change batteries in them now. Education is worthwhile, but experience can be expensive.

[calfee20]

Hello,

New to ebikes and failing early and fast at basic electrical things. I was using my volt meter and absolutely fried the Anderson connector when I connected the black to the red coming off the battery cradle. If I was testing whether I can melt the connector and my volt meter I have succeeded.

What I was trying to do before ruining the connector was trying to wire four 12v lights for my evening commute. I pulled off the plastic cover on the battery cradle and soldered on wires coming from the black and red sides. I was treating black as power and red as ground but I may have absolutely no idea what I'm doing at all since my only experience is with AC current. Anyway, what I did was take black from the battery and run it to a on/off switch, took that and ran it through the four lights in series, and then returned it to the red wire side of the battery cradle.

That did not work. Should that work in theory? That didn't result in a sparkball like when I started trying to check my work, but may have made a little noise when I first flipped the lights on switch (or may be just when I put the battery on, not sure). The battery and everything still work fine after the big spark. I ended up soldering the battery cradle wires directly to the BBS02 wires but have some xt-60 connectors ordered and will fix my mess when they arrive.

Any help/criticism/pointing and laughing greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

William

Black is hot in home wiring, AC. Basically you can't trust anything or anyone. Always test with a high impedance multi-meter first.

[Fred]

That did not work. Should that work in theory?

Note that if they are LED lights, the polarity DOES matter. Could explain why your lights didn't come on?