Anyone ever seen this behavior?

[extravaganttraveler]

Battery about fully charged. Put it on the bike and the display initially reads ~52v
As soon as I pedal in any PAS gear the voltage drops to about 30 and does as in the video.
No power is ever supplied to the motor. No wattage shows as being used on the display. Sometimes the voltage will slowly creep back up to it's original level but drop again as soon as I pedal in PAS 1.
(setup is BBSHD and Killer Whale)
Anyone??

[JPLabs]

I've experienced similar things with other battery powered things, just not on my bike. Voltage drops way too much with load and it won't supply enough current to run the device. That's a classic response to a high resistance in the circuit. Sounds to me like you probably have a bad connection someplace. I'm sure you've checked this already, and I certainly don't mean to be condescending about it, but I'd start with checking connections again.

Has the bike been run before, or is this a new build? How old is the battery? Is there a headlight or taillight, and do they work OK?

[extravaganttraveler]

The entire system is less than 2 weeks old. It was running fine (kind of) for a while, and then one day after a long ride that was all she wrote.
The only connectors that are not from Lunacycle are the ones I had to do myself from the battery cradle to the motor. I went to about 7 hardware supply and electronic stores trying to find the proper female for the red/black one that was already on the motor but was unsuccessful so I cut it off and went with these:

[Eric Luna]

you are petty close by in san diego please open a support ticket on this one here: http://lunacycle.com/trouble-ticket/

[extravaganttraveler]

you are petty close by in san diego please open a support ticket on this one here: http://lunacycle.com/trouble-ticket/

Thanks man. Yah they're looking into it already but I was curious if it was anything I may have done wrong as to avoid the same thing possibly happening to any replacements.

For example are those connectors ok?

[extravaganttraveler]

I ordered some XT90S Anti-Spark connectors today for the new gear when it arrives. Hopefully they will be better than what's on there now.

[HarryS]

Some users swear by crimp connectors, but I hates them. I agree with JPLabs in thinking that you've got a bad (high resistance) connection between BBS02 and battery. It's in your spade connectors, inside the BBS02 wiring, or in the battery,

One way to diagnose is to slip two thin wires inside the spade connectors so you can measure the voltage there. Do it carefully w/o getting a short circuit. If you measure 54 volts there when the throttle is held on, the trouble is downstream in the BBS02.

[extravaganttraveler]

I unhooked the battery and pulled the connections apart. Then rehooked the battery and measured with voltmeter ~52v.
Unhooked battery again, rehooked connectors, rehooked battery, measured voltage POST connector by stabbing my leads through the insulation until they hit wire. Got ~52v there as well until I pedaled in PAS 1 and then everything drops to about 30v again.

I can't make any sense of this at all. I'm thinking it's in the BBSHD wiring. I replaced the male/female connectors with new ones for the black line and got no change. Haven't replaced the ones for the red line yet.

A new motor is on the way as well as my new connectors. We'll see what happens. Just hoping nobody else ever has this issue. It's no fun looking at this bike and not being able to ride it.

[HarryS]

Good diagnostic work. 30 volts after those connectors means it's in the battery or you're dropping 20 volts in the connectors. More likely the battery has a problem with high internal resistance. You could stab in front of the connectors to prove that,

[marjamar]

Weak spot weld in a battery set most likely. Reads OK until you put a load to it, heats up instantly and expands until it cools down enough to show good contact again not under load.

[extravaganttraveler]

Weak spot weld in a battery set most likely. Reads OK until you put a load to it, heats up instantly and expands until it cools down enough to show good contact again not under load.

I hope you're wrong about the battery. I can see amazing potential with these kits and the company but to be honest about 90% of my order was defective from the get go and I'm finally starting to lose it. So far they've been pretty good about replacing stuff but their communication channels take forever and now they are sold out of the Killer Whales not expecting more for weeks. If I hook a new motor up to a bad battery (bad how you describe) can it damage the new motor?

[LI-ghtcycle]

I honestly think those connectors could be your problem, most automotive connectors you get from a hardware store are nowhere near rated for the wattage you will pull with a 52V battery + current draw of the BBSHD controller.

It's very easy to have a poor connection in those circumstances and it won't always be obvious.

You have a detachable battery from mount of yours right?

Try just soldering directly instead of using that connection, or go to a local R/C hobby shop and get some 4mm gold bullet connectors, and if you're not handy with a soldering iron, you might just see what they would charge to do that for you (would be very simple, and shouldn't cost too much).

I really like the XT 90 with anti-spark circuit connectors since they are impossible to plug in backwards, a just make sure you have them soldered with the side that has the exposed pins on the controller side, don't want to be able to accidentally short the pins with the edge of a metal tool on the battery side.



I recently repaired a guy's battery connection wires that he accidentally damaged trying to get more slack out of them to move his battery around a bit, and his simply stopped turning on reliably.

I suspect your situation is similar, perhaps the crimped connection isn't as solid as it needs to be to take the full current the battery is putting out

[marjamar]

Anyplace where there is a poor connection can be the problem. You are also right about the spade terminals used. They would be limited to perhaps a max current of 20 or at most 30 amps. You need to have over rated connectors perhaps in the 50 amp range to hold 30 amps without heat issues. In the RC business we always used Dean connectors for high amp loads. Also a good idea to use silver solder for higher heat tolerance.

[extravaganttraveler]

Thanks guys the help has been great so far. When the new connectors arrive I'll wire it up properly and see what happens.

[thead73]

could be a bank or two of batteries are not connected in your whale battery. only one bank of 14 batteries give you 58 volts but there are 4 banks in parallel making 56 batteries total. these extra banks are there so you can pull 30 amps. maybe some of the banks lost there connection and thats why you see the voltage drop under load and motor doesn't get enough amps to run?