I just came out from having a coffee at a Tim Hortons at Parkway Mall and bent over to plug my secondary battery pack into my Condor's charge port with my ignition key in my hand. I always unplug the battery packs to prevent the small drain the controller puts on it's power supply whenever I park. It was dark out and I was trying to fit the cable into the charge port when all of a sudden a large flash occurred and the key in my hand immediately got red hot. I dropped the key and pulled my fingers away by instinct. After my eyesight came back from the flash I realized my fingers and the charge socket was all black and the key was destroyed from being partially melted by the charge socket battery contacts. Luckily I always carry my spare in another pocket so I was able to ride home. Tuesday I will get the key replaced with a new copy from a locksmith that can copy scooter keys on Kingston Road. But lesson learned to be more careful, and to all E-Bike riders be aware that those batteries in our E-Bikes carry ALOT of amperage and will melt or vaporize any metal that short circuits the batteries. I learned the hard way today, slightly burnt fingers but I am fine though.

Ken Finch

Glad yer OK

...not sure exactly how this happened? Reversed polarity on the plug? The key shorted the plug?

I am reminded of one event where I was in the (bad) habit of carrying spare NiMH AA cells in my pants pocket, spares for a Walkman, and one day sitting at work the loose change in my pocket made a circuit and shorted one AA cell... No blinding flash but that millisecond when ya realize something is wrong then that your leg is burning...

Amazing power when it's all let go at once. I have a 480Wh pack to play with now for the scoot but the cells are spec'ed as capable of "5C"... they can be discharged at 5x their nominal value without serious harm, so EVen within this limit they would put out 2400 watts for 12 minutes. I have no idea how long they would output if short circuited, but if exhausted in one minute that'd be 28,800 watts! 38HP!

loCk

The key shorted out the charge plug contacts which are directly connected to the main battery wires. I recently replaced the very thin charge plug wires with lower gauge wires that is the same as the main battery wiring gauge. Thus now the charge plug wires can carry the full amperage of both battery packs together. But that is why when the key shorted out the charge plug contacts it was able to melt the key. I am going to save the melted key to remind me the amount of power my batteries carry. The charge plug still works so at least it will not have to be replaced.

Ken Finch

Well my experience definately was not as severe as yours. It just a little ignition key melting that is all. But it reminded me that a large pack of batteries ( 1 48V 20AH and 1 48V 9AH parralleled together for 48V 29AH) carries ALOT of electrical power. I was told you can weld metal together easily using battery packs like that, that is amazing if you think about it. And we all use that power every single day without much difficulty.

Ken Finch

yowzers, glad your okay