Emily VelascoStep one of rebuilding the e-bike my co-worker gave me is grafting a different battery management board onto the battery pack.
I still need to figure out how to wire up the charger plug. They used an XLR connector with four pins, and the charger doesn't turn the power on until it senses something (maybe a temperature sensor?)
Edit: i just needed to check the back of the charger for the pinout
A lot of fiddling later and i have the charging port connected and everything stuffed back in the original case.
It's Friday night hacker meetup and i am working on reviving the e-bike with the parts i ordered from AliExpress
It's gonna work!
That took hours longer than it should have because of dumb and fiddly little problems, but it's a working e-bike now. I just took it out and got it to to 24mph. That's faster than i like!
Things left to do: tidy up the wiring, figure out how to mount the pedal assist sensor, attach the headlight, give it a less boring paint job
fredy cosmoline 
@MLE_online you should coat it in bed liner, i hear that bed liner is a really good coating for bike frames
@fredy it is, actually, but only for those with the magic touch
@MLE_online that's true, it can sense if you are pure of heart
@fredy my heart is very pure. i wonder if i know anyone who has a heart of evil who's ever tried it
@MLE_online surely you'd never associate with such a sinner
@fredy Like the Christ, i seek out sinners and spend time with them. Only through their love for me will they be saved.
Joshua A.C. Newman@MLE_online
That is really cool.
May I recommend retroreflective tape for color? Comes in all sorts of colors, great for racing stripes and flat areas alike, and makes you super visible at night. If you have access to a vinyl cutter, you could even do shapes!
a high doom
ideaPDishMaybe you need a sloe gin fizz
Dave bauer@MLE_online Good work! Thanks for sharing the problem solving.
myerman@turtleisland@MLE_online this is fuckin punk rock!
DianeCongratulations!
AI6YR Ben@alienghic @MLE_online Oooh, no random tariff madness with AliExpress anymore?
I have bought some random cheap junk for my family like pens or stuffies and everything went through smoothly.
I think china bullied trump into behaving by threatening to take away the rare earths needed to manufacture the fancy weapons
There may be tariffs but the chinese vendors know how to include it into the price.
@alienghic @MLE_online Good to know! (not that AliExpress would let me order last time... they were using some phone number checker, which I swear is tied to FB, and believes I do not exist. 🤷 )
i gave in to that identity validation to deal with begging by kid.
@ai6yr @alienghic the prices of everything on AliExpress are considerably higher than they were a year ago, so maybe they're just adding the tariffs into the prices now. The prices are still good though
T. J. Bombadil@MLE_online IT’S ALIVE!!!!!!.gif
Legit_Spaghetti
FeloniousPunk@MLE_online Man, I wanna be on your team when shit goes down.
Acesabe
.vad//hakara🧭
hextheplanet@MLE_online hell yeah!! really fun to watch this project from start to finish, thanks for posting it!
jbaggs@MLE_online It spins!
Dean Segovis@MLE_online You are awesome!
coleen@MLE_online hell yeah
Toughest Bastard on the Fedi@MLE_online
The smile of success is the best part of this video. I love it when there's geeky success, mine or anyone else's.
The smile of success is the best part of this video. I love it when there's geeky success, mine or anyone else's.
@TTFKA_Tay0 it's exciting when things work!
@MLE_online
Yes, thanks for sharing that video.
Yes, thanks for sharing that video.
💀 𝓕airchild 💀@MLE_online
That's what a good time looks like. :)
That's what a good time looks like. :)
Gaëtan Perrault@MLE_online I love this whole thread. Not just that you're doing the thing, but that you're doing it with Community.
Fixing stuff with friends is definitely a part of the future I want to see!
@MLE_online Congrats! Love seeing the re-use and problem solving.
@davebauerart Just a few more high-stakes steps and I might have another working ebike!
@MLE_online this looks like fun!
@coleens_ yes! I love hacking a thing back into working
Rue Mohr@MLE_online "50V can bite really badly please be careful"
what did the old circuit have? Disability scooters have a pin on the charger to disable the controller so people dont drive away with the charger plugged in.
@RueNahcMohr I'm going to ignore your first sentence
It's not clear what the old circuit had. The wiring for that plug is somewhat confusing. And it's not to keep the bike from turning on while charging. It's to keep the charger from outputting 52V unless it's plugged into the battery
ChuckI would guess that 'T' is the temperature of the battery pack for two reasons, one it doesn't want to charge batteries that are 'hot' (fire hazard) and batteries start heating "faster" when they are fully charged. (I had a NiMh charger that used this to trigger the 'full/float' state). You might be able drive it with a voltage (start from zero and go up slowly) LM35 worked that way.
@ChuckMcManis @RueNahcMohr There's a thermistor stuck in the pack, and that's probably what this is supposed to be wired to.
a HOT Rubie @RueNahcMohr Pin 3 on the XLR plug is typically jumpered inside the plug to pin2 to pull the inhibit line down while the charger is plugged in to the chair/scooter. It is this way on PGDrives controllers and a couple other minor ones. Generally, chargers do not communicate with the controller. There is no sensors or ground/earth connection.
@hotarubiko @RueNahcMohr It's a temperature sensor. I've just figured it out.
@MLE_online That makes sense. Such is not typically needed on most chairs/scooters. @RueNahcMohr
just to be clear:
you mean on the *charger side* plug these are jumpered?
(I think thats what you mean)
@RueNahcMohr Yes. It´s the only side with a plug. Male plug. Perhaps some funky chair/scooter doesn´t follow the standard, though? @MLE_online
Stormgren@MLE_online I dimly recall that on the 3-pin XLR connector chargers, pin three has to be pulled to ground on one side or another as a sort of lock to keep the wheelchair or scooter moving while charging. Never seen a 4-pin, but wouldn't be surprised if one of those pins had the same function and the other was a temperature sensor.
@Stormgren On further examination, the four-pin plug is only connected to three wires, and one of them was definitely going to a temperature sensor
@MLE_online Okay, sounds like the electric zero turn motor than I re-used the charger when I did a VRLA to LiFePO4 conversion a couple years ago. Three pin "golf cart" connector that one of the pins is a thermistor that had to be present for the battery to charge properly, so I reinstalled it and bolted it to the frame, so it's just kinda hanging out there not doing much and I let the BMS handle temp monitoring on the cells themselves.
@MLE_online Oh, that would do serious damage to a scooter/chair... I hope there are safeguards... The diagram suggests a different keyway, so that´s good.
@hotarubiko It doesn't turn on the charging voltage unless it detects the temperature sensor
@MLE_online Very good!
myrmepropagandistEmily.
Please don't try to travel with this. I know those are 8650s but some dim security fellow will think it's a payload.
Although they are a kind of payload, I suppose, for a minor fire if not charged properly. But, you know all of that.
@futurebird I would definitely not take any of my homemade lithium projects anywhere near an airport. All of them give off IED vibes