never , i despice anything electric , the world needs to stop with electric cars right now , it will be a lithium hell hole in a couple years with alot of power - outage's , i still drive diesel cars , and will keep diesel cars simply bequase they ar always ready to go , wont break down after 6-8 years , its much , MUCH safer in an accident , just fck electric cars / motorbikes / steps / these things / etc etc .
Nice video,Vince :) The BMS board will not let those cells take any charge if they are under 3V. The BMS uses power to monitor the cells even if it is outside the suitcase. This cannot be disabled. So eventually it will be drained to zero no matter what. And you don't have to take a cell out and disconnect it as long as the others are not connected in parallel.
But you can get some BMS boards that do completely shut off and stop using the batteries if not used for a couple of weeks, and all you do to wake the BMS is to connect external power.
The way the charger plugs in and the way it delivers power indicates it uses regenerative braking, which is why the braking force slows as it slows down. Nice feature to have less batteries and have it go for longer. You should definitely overvolt it! :)
Absolutely! I said the same exact thing! Build a 13s battery pack with Molicel 21700-P48B cells that can output 45 amps continuous, and use a good 13s 20A BMS. You could then 3D print a new plastic shell for the battery pack that fits in the original connector on the suit case and insulate the inside with foam to avoid damage to the cells. He could also wire in his own separate buck converter on a small PCB to power the USB ports, if there isn't already a PCB inside the luggage responsible for that function. There are plenty of PCBs for sale that include the USB ports and everything else you need to input full battery voltage and output 5v3a and 11.1v3a fast charging USB ports. These are usually sold for diy battery banks to charge phones and tablets other hardware. He could theoretically get a PCB that could output at least 20w to fast charge iPhones and iPads, or Samsung Galaxy S phones and tablets, depending on your personal taste in Tech. Ok, I'm getting carried away now, but I would still love to see a nice beefy battery pack built and connected to a 13s1p 20A BMS, even if he stays with 18650 size cells and uses Molicel P28A or P28B cells (40A continuous). It would be even better if he built a 13s2p battery pack made out of SPIM08HP'S and stuck that inside the suitcase. That would be a 16Ah 13s 48v nominal pack capable of outputting 200A continuous easily. If he was thinking about turning this into a mobility scooter, a 13s4p 48v lithium ion or a 16s4p 48v LiFePO4 prismatic cells at 50Ah each, and capable of 5C discharge bursts, would be a safe and long lasting battery pack. Obviously you would have to find more powerful hub motors that fit into bigger wheels, and those would need a better motor controller that can output more power, but once you have a good source of reliable parts, it would be fairly easy and probably not that expensive to make the ultimate mobility scooter or even start making kids toy cars, like power wheels, with a controller that limits output or a 24v battery pack with 2x capacity for all day battery life. I love the idea of using LiFePO4 cells because the battery is very unlikely to have a catastrophic event, plus LiFePO4 cells have a cycle life of around 3,000 to 6,000 cycles before you hit 80% of original capacity. In the worst case scenario, charging and discharging twice a day, the battery pack would last for 5 to 6 years if a kid even was interested in playing with the vehicle non stop for 5-6 years. I feel like the battery pack is extremely likely to outlast the kids interest in the toy. Ok, I've rambled on for far too long, but these kinds of projects that get me excited about working with awesome lithium batteries and motors. There's just no feeling better than making a solid plan, and creating something awesome that works well and is extremely fun!
you think a guy that barely calculates watt hours from capacity is capable of that? in the few videos i've seen i already know he's a butcher @@catch22frubert
Hi Vince, i repaired a mobility scooter recently with dead batteries. And the principle is the same. The charger had been left in the charge port while not in use, and totally flattened the batteries. So its possible that the same thing has happened here. Great video my friend. 👍👍👍👍
I said it before and I say it again. Variety is amazing on the Vince channel. I mean, just look at it. A rideable suitcase? If you made a competition to guess what the next weird thing on My Mate Vince would be, I doubt anyone would have even come close.
Well done! I don't know about hours of fun, but at least 15 minute intervals of fun for sure 😂. I wonder if the batteries aren't balanced enough for it to fully charge. In all my airport visits I've only ever seen one of these suitcases out in the wild. Needles to say I was a bit jealous. I guess the other owners are in some secret suitcase racing club.
Nice job. Remember a BMS always works even if the main switch is off. The BMS tries to keep the voltage of each cell equal at all times.But this BMS is not smart enough to shut down in time. So you will have to charge the battery pack regularly.
Thanks for another enjoyable fix! It's great that you are mindful of the dangers regarding the batteries on a plane, but I bet there are some folk who won't care. So for that reason ( and because of the risk to pedestrians!) I can see these being banned from airports within a few years.
The voltage converter chip for the only USB port on the powerbank didn't have to be exchanged, it contributes nothing to the function of the airwheel - in particular if the suitcas itself has 2 other USB ports available with their own converter. Just removing the defective thing should do. But exchanging all of the cells with high-quality new ones could reinstate the function of the suitcase-scooter :)
The board in the suitcase also likely has the exact same chip - so it could have been taken from there for a swap test ... instead of spending the 15 pound.
It has balance leads to each cell. A BMS of that quality should be able to deal with that. I suspect the cells are actually damaged due to being ridiculously over discharged.
maybe the fact that all cells were so low voltage damage them in a way and now they refuse to take 4.2 volts.. new cells will say if the fault is on the board or the cells
and btw i am saying this because i have lots of power tools battery's with 18650 cells and with age or problems they charge at different voltage with same charger even.. so usage and problems makes them take less voltage and also affects the amps they can hold
Oh wow! This thing looks.... unique. Great job sourcing a quirky product to work on. I love it! I can't believe they're charging $300 for ten 18650 batteries. Those things go for $5 maybe. That's a disgusting amount of markup.
Not really. Because you're not paying that for 10 batteries. You're paying that for 10 batteries, plus the board, plus all the development costs, plus everything else involved in bringing a product to market (especially to make as sure as possible that the battery pack remains safe for air travel, probably including a wedge for certification and testing), plus a reasonable profit for the manufacturer. I mean it's not cheap, by any means, but it's a premium product and the production numbers will be very low in terms of an electronic product meaning the development costs are amortised across far fewer units, so the dev costs per unit are pretty high.
@@TheMatthooks A 10 cell powerbank with BMS and USB out is not a premium product 10s of thousands if not more produced annually and most don't cost $300
"I don't think I'll be able to fix this". Oh yeah, sure :D I've decided to try fixing a bluetooth speaker myself, after watching your videos. I hope to make it a really good hobby :) Thanks!
For months i was wondering, does he never accidently make a short with those fat test probe pins? Well here we are 😂 Very relaxing video as always! Really enjoyed it!
Remember Vince, there's no reason why you can't use that powerbank around your workspace. You've spent £20 but ended up with a monster powerbank that yes, it can't go on a plane but it can still be used in your home.
Lithium Cells like this can generally be recovered safely as long as they haven't been reverse-charged. The correct way to do that is to trickle charge them extremely slowly until they get back up to a safe voltage range. That is typically what the charging circuitry will do automatically in this situation.
Finally, usually when cells are in series for high voltages (like this one) there is active cell balancing that keeps the cells all at the same voltage. It does this by draining the highest voltage cells until they match the lowest voltage cells. If you have one cell that self-discharges (either due to damage or just a defect) the active cell balancing might drain all the rest of them as well to keep the pack in balance. In order to measure this effect you have to measure current from each cell individually as it will not show if you are only measuring the full pack output. This is because it's not draining the entire pack, but each cell individually.
Luggage stays sitting in a closet for probably 99% of its life, so that's what I think happened. It just sat for so long that it discharged to nearly 0. I think if you replaced the cells it would be fine
That's what I was thinking. I've had a hair trimmer I rarely used. And it refused to charge. Because it sat doing nothing for a year. I only gotten it to charge one time. And it would never get to full power again. Had to toss it.
I had to laugh when you mentioned a 'ridable shopping trolley. I have mobility issues & can't drive. When I saw you testing it in the house I had that thought of having something like that & riding it down the street to the near by market, getting a couple bags & riding it back.
Another entertaining video Vince, however you broke one of the cardinal rules of fault finding 😮....only try ONE fix at a time . When you replaced the chip you also reflowed the other joints on the board in case one was cracked...so maybe that was the original fault but we won't know 😂
it is most likely a short in the 2 cells... i assemble these kind of packs for a living and i have found that the lithium ones don't like to be dropped as the positive pip tops sort of curl over the negative outer layer... only thing that seperates the + from - is is thin layer of resin that easily cracks when dropped... and looking at both cells shown @13:30 it seems that the positive side has taken the brunt!
I think that you drop a toothpick into those slots by the digital wheels, and 'feel' the difference. Then you turn those wheels in line, and it will open.
Hi Vince. Nice video. Here's my 2p's worth. Those are crappy, no-name lithium cells. Most likely they will have self discharged quite rapidly due to their poor quality. The battery management circuitry will also try to draw some current from them even when the pack is disconnected from the suitcase. The crappy cells themselves have no self protection chips built in, so they won't disconnect themselves when they fall below 3V. Also, some energy saving USB driver chips require a reasonable load before they will turn the USB supply ON. If all you did was plug your USB doctor into the socket, this might not be enough to properly enable the USB socket and power it on. Did you try plugging something else in? A phone, perhaps? Your meter did read the voltage to the USB socket, so maybe it draws a bit more than your plug in USB tester.
Not sure if you've covered it but 18650s have two other ratings that should be considered when rebuilding a pack. The charge rate and the discharge rate with the discharge rate usually being a multiple of the charge ("c") rate. Higher current draw devices will need higher discharge rate 18650s. Proper "vape" 18650s are somewhere around 2Amp charge 30c discharge (or a max of 60Amp discharge). Ones found in laptops are generally far lower "c" ratings as the peak draw is far lower in operation. Running 18650s beyond their rated discharge rate is "not a good idea" (tm).
You big kid lol.. good video like how you look at the repair side I have a room totally dedicated to electrical repair my thoughts on the fault was more the BMS and if you have 1 battery that won't balance it drags the hole pack down most likely the cell you replaced keep at it 👍
you should move both spot welding probes to not put heat in one spot over and over again like water in a bowl with a hole in the bottom you can fill it if you overcome the amount going out :)
Fab video as usual, keep the good work up. I wonder if the embedded charging controller is detecting or has detected a cell imbalance, this could limit the charging capacity of the power bank 50%
How would it do that if all the cells are wired in series? I can't really see how the controller would ever be able to check individual cells. There could still be something off like the total charge current or voltage/current curve or something. I also noticed a thermistor in there, so I'd assume the controller shuts down if something gets hot. Edit: someone else below points out that there are balance wires to each cell, I take that first part back!
I think most of those cells are perfectly fine. 18650's charge up to 4.2v and discharge to between 2v and 3v depending on the cell spec. A lot of cells you called out as being really low at 2v, were actually showing more than 2v. Like the test you did at 18:11, that's 2.7v which is in the higher end of the safe scale for discharge. if one goes bad, it will discharge the others for sure. No reason why you can't replace the damaged cell and carry on using the battery pack as long as you test that all the cells appear to be charging at similar values so they are performing in a similar way. They are safer than you think, as long as you give them some respect, which clearly you're doing. Just DON'T carry any around lose in your trouser pocket with your house keys, you've been warned 🙂
Yeh, ok, I missed the '.' was watching my phone, my bad. Personally I would still use them if they are holding a charge, but your comments are correct, I was wrong, apologies
Also (commenting whilst watching - bad habit I know!) some USB / Powerbank chips will only work when they sense a load on them. Do you have a USB dummy load? Or even a spare powerbank / mobile phone with a low battery that you could plug in, to put a load on the USB output? Love your "can-do" atttitude in your videos Vince - especially in the face of danger of LiIon battery packs!! :) It would be worth even having a watch through some of Big Clive's Lithium Ion battery videos - he's got some useful tricks and info that I'm sure you could pinch with his blessing :D
Vince once you have around 2v back into lithium and lipo batteries it will charge once more, the charge circuit will cut out because it sensed too low a voltage. I had a car booster pack, it sat in my glove compartment forgotten for months and completely flattened itself, I had to do the same as yourself by inducing voltage into the batteries before it would take a charge, once charged up it worked well once more. I wonder how many motorists have starter packs that are completely flat hidden somewhere in their cars? Especially lipo ones, they can puff up and catch fire.
*It wouldn't really be a waste of money, if you replaced all of the cells... It could then be used.* New nickel strips, and new cells, and it's pretty much a refurbished battery. It would be safe.
Excellent presentation. Liked, subscribed, and rang that bell. P.S. I created a shortcut on my Windows desktop labeled "Fix" that takes me to your channel. Why? Because after years of my own DIY fixes of stuff around the house, I find your videos the most valuable to folks like me (kinda know what we are doing, but not really).
Another really interesting video. The final outcome of not fully charging is also Interesting. You could be right about the charger cutting out before fully charged. That would depend on what the battery is requesting if it has a BMS. If it does have a BMS then how could the cells have got that low? Unless the bms is at fault. Surely a company producing Lithium Ion battery packs that can be taken on an airplanes would incorporate a bms that would be the last line of a number of safety features. When those batteries got close to 2.5v the bms should have shut down access to the cells. Another great analytical watch 👍🏻
Crazy it doesnt have any padding for the batteries especially with that cheap plastic shell. Btw You should only attach the battery in series when it has the same voltage as the rest otherwise the voltage will be out of whack and confuse the bms
Although it is not recommended I think I would be charging the cells bypassing the BMS to see if they recover... of course it could go up in flames instead.. but why not LOL, if it works then replace all of the cells so it can be put back into service.
What I think is happening is what others have already said. I believe some of the cells in the pack are not at the same state of charge. And any time you have cells in a pack that are out of balance the pack will act weirdly. Not allowing the pack to come to a full charge. And if there is a dead cell or even just a lazy cell this could also cause the pack to go dead over time as the bms is always trying to balance all the cells, so it’s always trying to give power from the good cells and charge up the lazy cell thus killing the pack over time. The only way to do a proper diagnosis is to disconnect and isolate every cell and put each cell in a lithium ion 18650 charger that monitors charge and discharge state of each cell. After putting the cells though a few charging and discharging cycles you will then see if each cell is in fact healthy or not. They sell this type of charger on Amazon and they are pretty affordable. If it was me I would just go out and replace all the cells with new ones and be done with it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the bms at all. And most battery pack failures usually conclude with bad cells.
ah yes, from consoles to suitcases to rolls royces - you really try to fix everything. Someone should make a bob the builder style song about you - Can we fix it? Yes we can! vince the fixer Can we fix it? vince the fixer Yes he can!
the BMS will stop working to cut off the charge if one cell is a higher voltage than the rest, which ever reaches the maximum voltage first will be the one that limits the maximum charge, you could manually charge each cell to the same level and then it might help balance it back out. Probably best to just replace all of the cells, certainly cheaper than getting a new pack ! BMS units often float up the negative rail to the batteries when it thinks the pack if fully charged, so it will reduce the load on the charger, and it is probably just detecting a drop in charge current.
Thanks Scott, I have just filmed a revisit video on this and it was THIS exact problem. Really obvious to me now, but I thought the BMS would have balanced the cells. Lesson learnt. Cheers mate 👍👍👍
Since the battery can be dismantled non destructively (most are glued or welded together) then re-celling that battery with known good cells is perfectly feasible. You have a spot welder, so all that is needed is new nickel strips. Fabricating solder tags is easy to do with the nickel strip and tin snips. Soldering to solder tagged batteries is not a problem as long as you don't dwell on the connections. Such a rebuild would be perfectly reasonable. A couple of points about lithium batteries: When they are fully discharged they are not particularly dangerous. The fires caused by short circuits are usually in batteries which have a large amount of charge. The electrolyte is alcohol based which promotes the fires in their build up when shorted. 18650 cells have a physical safety feature which is an overpressure switch which shorts out the external connections if excessive gassing occurs, and thus disconnects the internals from any applied voltage. If their voltage falls below cutoff, usually either 2.5V or 3V then a chemical reaction within the cell starts causing deterioration of the electrodes and lithium migrates through the electrolyte causing internal short circuits. If a cell fails to hold charge then this signifies that the cell is damaged in this way and is unrecoverable. If they still hold charge at this cutoff voltage (specified in the cell datasheet) then they can be recovered by slow charging at 100mA until the normal discharged voltage is achieved. They can then be fully charged using a CC/CV charge pattern. I suspect some of the cells in the rebuilt battery are damaged in this way and why it will not charge fully because of this. Personally I wouldn't use it and may think of a rebuild with good cells as that would be much cheaper than a new battery. HTH
When spot welding Vince you need to move both probes everytime, if you keep one probe in the same place you will end up blowing through the nickle plate due to excessive amounts of heat in that one spot. I don't want to be a saftey Nellie but I would not have recharged those cells as the voltage had dropped way to low. Have a look at the video on YT "DO NOT recharge a dead Tesla LV Battery!" He explains why very well and there is CCTV footage of one going off like a firework in a workshop as the tech was trying to save buying a new battery as it had gone flat so was pumping voltage in with his DC power supply. Thank goodness nobody was next to it when it exploded. The danger is from Lithium Dendrite growth. I would say it needs all the cells changing for new ones and it will charge to 100%. All the best Adam
Thanks Adam, I have just filmed a revisit video on this and found the reason it would only charge to 50%, but you are completely correct with regards to the safety of these cells 👍 The owner will NOT be using these and I will make sure they are discharged fully to save them going up in flames.
Maybe it won't charge to 100% because the cells aren't balanced. When you added the green battery it was probably more charged than the others so it's stopping because the green one is fully charged.
I was thinking the same thing. Lithium cells MUST be evenly balanced and should really be of the same manufactured group if possible. They do have chargers that are just for lithium cells that take care of the balancing and checking. RC enthusiasts use them all the time in their model planes, cars, boats, etc.
Seems to making fun but it would make me lazier than I am already and for me it's a waste of battery/energie. But I never saw something like that before and I am always amazed how far we have come with everything.
You're likely right about the USB charge circuit being at fault. They can have a parasitic draw if they don't go properly into standby mode. If it doesn't have anything to cut the battery off when it drains to a certain level it could well make the battery go flat like it has. While those cells did go flat charging them the way you did was adequate to reform the chemistry in a way that should be relatively safe. You might try putting each cell on your bench power supply and limit the current and voltage to 4.2v @ 150mA. You shouldn't need to disconnect anything on the battery to do so. Just clip on the solder tabs for each individual cell and it should be fine. This will take quite awhile but it will charge them all the way up safely.
Just replace all batteries Vince. Or get new ones with more capacity, so they would last longer ( takes also longer to completely drain, which you obviously want to prevent ).
Charging the entire pack when one or more cells might be bad is a BAD idea, it's inherently dangerous even at ultra-low amperage. The way to do it safely is to charge each cell individually to a reasonable voltage (2.5-3V) with a fairly low current - I'd say 1/10C max, less if you don't monitor temperature which you don't (but your 200mA should be well below 1/10C for those cells). Then IF you can get them all to say 3V, leave them for a little while and see if they STAY charged (if not there's bad internal shorts), then plug everything back into an balanced charger (like the original BMS) for the final charge, it likely won't try unless all cells are above probably 2V or so. But given the application the right thing to do is to replace the batteries, there WILL be internal damage from this but even high-quality high-draw cells won't cost more than a fraction of that $300 they want for a battery pack. And you have the spot welder and wanted to use it. But with possibly other damage and/or faulty charger it probably doesn't make sense. And the batteries say INR 18650P 25H so meaning it's 2500mAh (like you computed). Most cells of that color that I've seen has been 30A "high-drain" cells, which also explains the relatively low capacity for the a quality cell, high quality normal-drain cells are usually 3400-3600mAh. But it could be a 20A cells like your green one or even a something even spicier - as comparison normal-drain cells are often rated up to something like 5A. These high-drain cells are used when a device needs a lot of power in a small (light) battery pack - many flying things use them to keep weight down but still get enough power, but sacrifice run-time in doing so - but with a bigger battery pack capable of delivery enough power would be too heavy.
can you check the internal resistance of the batteries ?????? or maybe they the batteries just worn down to a percentage because of the internal resistance ...
I might make a suggestion vince.. hear me out I know this might sound a bit ikky but have you considered as an occasional video where you dumpster dive some Tech warehouse dumpsters to see if you can find anything worth repairing i dont mean the minging food dumpsters or that just tech waste and stuff like maybe once every three months as a fun extra video .
The powerbank board will shutdown output as long as there is not current withdrawals, so when you turn on the powerbank by pushing the buton it turns on and USB works but after short time with no current it turns off
Allowed international carry-on luggage can typically weigh between 7kg to 8kg (~18lb) a piece, depending on the airline. An empty piece of luggage at 7.5kg (16lb) is kind of useless for airplanes.
@@renataavgeri1132 Depends on what the batteries are designed for. Batteries have temperature ranges (they do not like freezing temperatures or being too hot) and pressure ranges (typically listed as a maximum altitude). I am not aware of quality batteries, that are not designed to survive airline travel - even shitty batteries are clearly not crashing planes all over the world… Phones, notebooks, etc. are typically manufactured overseas and are all transported via planes. Especially laptop batteries can have quite a high capacity. This luggage has a removable battery in what looks like a reasonably secure case. Vince emphasized it nicely: his repair could potentially disable/damage safety measures in the battery circuit and therefore his luggage battery is no longer airline safe. The general statement "Batteries explode in those altitudes" is not correct.
I think lock picking lawyer brought the the combo method. Shine a light, find the notch on each reel, then move them 5 numbers in the same position. Essentially moving the notch to the back but still being in line.
Charge each cell in turn to the same voltage, right down to 3 decimal places, using your bench power supply, then use the supplied charger and it should charge to 100%. If it doesn’t then it’s most likely faulty cell/s.
Simply change the cells for ~2€/each, they are likely massively out of balance. One should always check all cells individually when recovering a pack, and that before and after charging. Even better: Charge them individually as recovery procedure, therby top balancing themn. All BMS detect out of balance cells - but not all can do balancing. As others have written: The USB port is just a gimmick and it would have been enough to remove the chip.
Great video. One thing I’m not a huge fan of is the the massive read off and the sponsor read off along with the ads TH-cam pushes. Makes a lot of the video just feel like an advertisement. Oh well, your videos are still great regardless
My guess is you still have 1+ faulty cells that is capping now at 3.5-3.7 and the intelligent charger sees this cell reaching capacity and stops charging the whole bank (safety feature) 10 c healthy cells should reach maybe 42.4 total but 37 is a decent enough charge. Can still be used on holidays but obviously wouldnt risk it on a plane
When you're using these batteries a lot like us Vapers, you see them deteriorate in time, especially when abused like this. A new set of batteries will get it back up and charging to 100% and you could replace them with up to 4000MAH ones that would give you a longer riding time.
It would also be interesting to see how a Nitecore (or similar) desktop 18650 charger would handle them. They're pretty good at trickling them back up to full and you might get them working properly again. As another person said, you should charge them all up equally and that might be why that other battery was getting hotter as it was pulling itself up faster to meet the others.
Spoiler Saver
Would you ever ride one of these at an airport now or in the future when the price drops?
I'm pretty sure they're illegal here in the USA due to the battery
@onometre should be illegal everywhere. If it is in the US it's illegal everywhere mate
@@renataavgeri1132 not necessarily. The FAA tends to be early to these things
@@onometre generally airline operations are pretty similarly strict everywhere except Africa, South Arabia and generally the eastern countries
never , i despice anything electric , the world needs to stop with electric cars right now , it will be a lithium hell hole in a couple years with alot of power - outage's , i still drive diesel cars , and will keep diesel cars simply bequase they ar always ready to go , wont break down after 6-8 years , its much , MUCH safer in an accident , just fck electric cars / motorbikes / steps / these things / etc etc .
Stumbled across your channel and now I’m hooked. Your videos are very therapeutic and educational. thanks Vince keep them coming
Vince it is recommended to make sure all of the lithium 18650 batteries are at the same state of charge
Nice video,Vince :)
The BMS board will not let those cells take any charge if they are under 3V.
The BMS uses power to monitor the cells even if it is outside the suitcase. This cannot be disabled. So eventually it will be drained to zero no matter what. And you don't have to take a cell out and disconnect it as long as the others are not connected in parallel.
But you can get some BMS boards that do completely shut off and stop using the batteries if not used for a couple of weeks, and all you do to wake the BMS is to connect external power.
@@tyronenelson9124 Yes, but those crappy, no-name lithium cells will likely self discharge quite rapidly even when disconnected from the BMS.
The way the charger plugs in and the way it delivers power indicates it uses regenerative braking, which is why the braking force slows as it slows down. Nice feature to have less batteries and have it go for longer. You should definitely overvolt it! :)
Absolutely! I said the same exact thing! Build a 13s battery pack with Molicel 21700-P48B cells that can output 45 amps continuous, and use a good 13s 20A BMS. You could then 3D print a new plastic shell for the battery pack that fits in the original connector on the suit case and insulate the inside with foam to avoid damage to the cells. He could also wire in his own separate buck converter on a small PCB to power the USB ports, if there isn't already a PCB inside the luggage responsible for that function. There are plenty of PCBs for sale that include the USB ports and everything else you need to input full battery voltage and output 5v3a and 11.1v3a fast charging USB ports. These are usually sold for diy battery banks to charge phones and tablets other hardware. He could theoretically get a PCB that could output at least 20w to fast charge iPhones and iPads, or Samsung Galaxy S phones and tablets, depending on your personal taste in Tech. Ok, I'm getting carried away now, but I would still love to see a nice beefy battery pack built and connected to a 13s1p 20A BMS, even if he stays with 18650 size cells and uses Molicel P28A or P28B cells (40A continuous). It would be even better if he built a 13s2p battery pack made out of SPIM08HP'S and stuck that inside the suitcase. That would be a 16Ah 13s 48v nominal pack capable of outputting 200A continuous easily. If he was thinking about turning this into a mobility scooter, a 13s4p 48v lithium ion or a 16s4p 48v LiFePO4 prismatic cells at 50Ah each, and capable of 5C discharge bursts, would be a safe and long lasting battery pack. Obviously you would have to find more powerful hub motors that fit into bigger wheels, and those would need a better motor controller that can output more power, but once you have a good source of reliable parts, it would be fairly easy and probably not that expensive to make the ultimate mobility scooter or even start making kids toy cars, like power wheels, with a controller that limits output or a 24v battery pack with 2x capacity for all day battery life. I love the idea of using LiFePO4 cells because the battery is very unlikely to have a catastrophic event, plus LiFePO4 cells have a cycle life of around 3,000 to 6,000 cycles before you hit 80% of original capacity. In the worst case scenario, charging and discharging twice a day, the battery pack would last for 5 to 6 years if a kid even was interested in playing with the vehicle non stop for 5-6 years. I feel like the battery pack is extremely likely to outlast the kids interest in the toy. Ok, I've rambled on for far too long, but these kinds of projects that get me excited about working with awesome lithium batteries and motors. There's just no feeling better than making a solid plan, and creating something awesome that works well and is extremely fun!
you think a guy that barely calculates watt hours from capacity is capable of that? in the few videos i've seen i already know he's a butcher @@catch22frubert
I'm not one to use the word brave lightly...but you are a very brave man. Keep it up sir
Hi Vince, i repaired a mobility scooter recently with dead batteries. And the principle is the same. The charger had been left in the charge port while not in use, and totally flattened the batteries. So its possible that the same thing has happened here. Great video my friend. 👍👍👍👍
Vince. The new Lock Picking Lawyer. Great vid.
I said it before and I say it again. Variety is amazing on the Vince channel. I mean, just look at it. A rideable suitcase? If you made a competition to guess what the next weird thing on My Mate Vince would be, I doubt anyone would have even come close.
😂👍
@14:24 - One should always have a metal fire-containment pie tin at the ready when tinkering with lithium lightning cans.
Someone's been watching way too much Big Clive!
That was so much fun Vince. I changed my windshield wipers the other day and felt like a real man!😂 Be blessed sir.
The spirit of snoopy lives on ..suitcase races for the win !
Well done! I don't know about hours of fun, but at least 15 minute intervals of fun for sure 😂. I wonder if the batteries aren't balanced enough for it to fully charge. In all my airport visits I've only ever seen one of these suitcases out in the wild. Needles to say I was a bit jealous. I guess the other owners are in some secret suitcase racing club.
I've just done a revisit video on this, spoiler alert...You're correct Shawn, not balanced buddy 👍👍👍👍
Nice job. Remember a BMS always works even if the main switch is off. The BMS tries to keep the voltage of each cell equal at all times.But this BMS is not smart enough to shut down in time. So you will have to charge the battery pack regularly.
Hey Vince, you can get a 10 pack of 18650's for about $30-$35 USD. May be worth it since you already have the spot welder.
😂😂😂😂
LOL! That's nuts! Great job as per usual ;) I will post my thoughts on this later once its public!
10/10 for weird shit I never thought I’d see Vince (or anyone!) repair on TH-cam!!
Forget cars, motorbikes, bicycles or anything else.
This should be the future of personal mobility!
You had me at “rideable suitcase”. Lol. Looking forward to this one.
Thanks for another enjoyable fix! It's great that you are mindful of the dangers regarding the batteries on a plane, but I bet there are some folk who won't care. So for that reason ( and because of the risk to pedestrians!) I can see these being banned from airports within a few years.
51:00
Now I know where the LockPickingLawyer did get his knowledge from. Nice one Vince! :)
Haha.. coulda done with one of those while I was waiting for my surgery- scare some of the old people in Sainsburys as I whizz by on a suitcase! 😂
😂 Would have been ideal for the former Kip!
The voltage converter chip for the only USB port on the powerbank didn't have to be exchanged, it contributes nothing to the function of the airwheel - in particular if the suitcas itself has 2 other USB ports available with their own converter. Just removing the defective thing should do.
But exchanging all of the cells with high-quality new ones could reinstate the function of the suitcase-scooter :)
The board in the suitcase also likely has the exact same chip - so it could have been taken from there for a swap test ... instead of spending the 15 pound.
51:32 When My Mate Vince becomes Lockpicking Lawyer
I think it is not charging to 100% because one cell is peaking at 4.2 volts, and when the charging circuit detects it, it cuts the whole charging.
It has balance leads to each cell. A BMS of that quality should be able to deal with that. I suspect the cells are actually damaged due to being ridiculously over discharged.
maybe the fact that all cells were so low voltage damage them in a way and now they refuse to take 4.2 volts.. new cells will say if the fault is on the board or the cells
and btw i am saying this because i have lots of power tools battery's with 18650 cells and with age or problems they charge at different voltage with same charger even.. so usage and problems makes them take less voltage and also affects the amps they can hold
Brilliant fix Vince, I would replace all batteries it will be cheap to do 😊
Oh wow! This thing looks.... unique. Great job sourcing a quirky product to work on. I love it!
I can't believe they're charging $300 for ten 18650 batteries. Those things go for $5 maybe. That's a disgusting amount of markup.
Not really. Because you're not paying that for 10 batteries. You're paying that for 10 batteries, plus the board, plus all the development costs, plus everything else involved in bringing a product to market (especially to make as sure as possible that the battery pack remains safe for air travel, probably including a wedge for certification and testing), plus a reasonable profit for the manufacturer.
I mean it's not cheap, by any means, but it's a premium product and the production numbers will be very low in terms of an electronic product meaning the development costs are amortised across far fewer units, so the dev costs per unit are pretty high.
@@TheMatthooks A 10 cell powerbank with BMS and USB out is not a premium product 10s of thousands if not more produced annually and most don't cost $300
@@sceptic1958 A 40-V powerbank that's been tested for air travel isn't anywhere as common as your bog-standard 5 V/10 Ah USB power bank.
"I don't think I'll be able to fix this". Oh yeah, sure :D I've decided to try fixing a bluetooth speaker myself, after watching your videos. I hope to make it a really good hobby :) Thanks!
For months i was wondering, does he never accidently make a short with those fat test probe pins? Well here we are 😂 Very relaxing video as always! Really enjoyed it!
Great fix and first time a see a suitcase like that.
that is absolutely brilliant especially for those who use Ryanair when the gate is always at the end of the terminal.
Remember Vince, there's no reason why you can't use that powerbank around your workspace. You've spent £20 but ended up with a monster powerbank that yes, it can't go on a plane but it can still be used in your home.
He can’t burn down a plane with it but he can burn down his home, is what you are saying. 😅 just kidding
Lithium Cells like this can generally be recovered safely as long as they haven't been reverse-charged. The correct way to do that is to trickle charge them extremely slowly until they get back up to a safe voltage range. That is typically what the charging circuitry will do automatically in this situation.
Big Clive has a very useful video explaining and demonstrating how this works and why.
Finally, usually when cells are in series for high voltages (like this one) there is active cell balancing that keeps the cells all at the same voltage. It does this by draining the highest voltage cells until they match the lowest voltage cells. If you have one cell that self-discharges (either due to damage or just a defect) the active cell balancing might drain all the rest of them as well to keep the pack in balance. In order to measure this effect you have to measure current from each cell individually as it will not show if you are only measuring the full pack output. This is because it's not draining the entire pack, but each cell individually.
I have a ninebot max and it’s crazy fun to take for a spin around the neighborhood. 20mph is crazy on a scooter.
Luggage stays sitting in a closet for probably 99% of its life, so that's what I think happened. It just sat for so long that it discharged to nearly 0. I think if you replaced the cells it would be fine
That's what I was thinking. I've had a hair trimmer I rarely used. And it refused to charge. Because it sat doing nothing for a year. I only gotten it to charge one time. And it would never get to full power again. Had to toss it.
I had to laugh when you mentioned a 'ridable shopping trolley. I have mobility issues & can't drive. When I saw you testing it in the house I had that thought of having something like that & riding it down the street to the near by market, getting a couple bags & riding it back.
This is a great video. They're all great but this one is the greatest. Great music at the end.
Another great video. Best wishes from the USA
Thank you for another great video again! I’m looking forward to the new Rolls video coming soon!
Another entertaining video Vince, however you broke one of the cardinal rules of fault finding 😮....only try ONE fix at a time . When you replaced the chip you also reflowed the other joints on the board in case one was cracked...so maybe that was the original fault but we won't know 😂
"I don't think it's fixable". *Looking at the remaining time of the video* ... I bet you will Vince 😂
Some 5V converters for USB automaticcaly shut down with a too small load.
I'd make the test with a usb device connected, not only the usb powermeter.
it is most likely a short in the 2 cells... i assemble these kind of packs for a living and i have found that the lithium ones don't like to be dropped as the positive pip tops sort of curl over the negative outer layer... only thing that seperates the + from - is is thin layer of resin that easily cracks when dropped... and looking at both cells shown @13:30 it seems that the positive side has taken the brunt!
Hi Vince, you have to open the lock at least twice, so that we can see, it was not a fluke. Btw your multimeter is not a fluke too. 😁
I think that you drop a toothpick into those slots by the digital wheels, and 'feel' the difference. Then you turn those wheels in line, and it will open.
Hi Vince. Nice video. Here's my 2p's worth.
Those are crappy, no-name lithium cells. Most likely they will have self discharged quite rapidly due to their poor quality.
The battery management circuitry will also try to draw some current from them even when the pack is disconnected from the suitcase. The crappy cells themselves have no self protection chips built in, so they won't disconnect themselves when they fall below 3V.
Also, some energy saving USB driver chips require a reasonable load before they will turn the USB supply ON. If all you did was plug your USB doctor into the socket, this might not be enough to properly enable the USB socket and power it on. Did you try plugging something else in? A phone, perhaps? Your meter did read the voltage to the USB socket, so maybe it draws a bit more than your plug in USB tester.
Not sure if you've covered it but 18650s have two other ratings that should be considered when rebuilding a pack. The charge rate and the discharge rate with the discharge rate usually being a multiple of the charge ("c") rate. Higher current draw devices will need higher discharge rate 18650s. Proper "vape" 18650s are somewhere around 2Amp charge 30c discharge (or a max of 60Amp discharge). Ones found in laptops are generally far lower "c" ratings as the peak draw is far lower in operation. Running 18650s beyond their rated discharge rate is "not a good idea" (tm).
You big kid lol.. good video like how you look at the repair side I have a room totally dedicated to electrical repair my thoughts on the fault was more the BMS and if you have 1 battery that won't balance it drags the hole pack down most likely the cell you replaced keep at it 👍
Change all of the batteries Vince 😊
you should move both spot welding probes to not put heat in one spot over and over again like water in a bowl with a hole in the bottom you can fill it if you overcome the amount going out :)
well done vince that was a longggggggg one dont the handle bars go forward on that model
Fab video as usual, keep the good work up. I wonder if the embedded charging controller is detecting or has detected a cell imbalance, this could limit the charging capacity of the power bank 50%
How would it do that if all the cells are wired in series? I can't really see how the controller would ever be able to check individual cells. There could still be something off like the total charge current or voltage/current curve or something. I also noticed a thermistor in there, so I'd assume the controller shuts down if something gets hot.
Edit: someone else below points out that there are balance wires to each cell, I take that first part back!
I think most of those cells are perfectly fine. 18650's charge up to 4.2v and discharge to between 2v and 3v depending on the cell spec. A lot of cells you called out as being really low at 2v, were actually showing more than 2v. Like the test you did at 18:11, that's 2.7v which is in the higher end of the safe scale for discharge. if one goes bad, it will discharge the others for sure. No reason why you can't replace the damaged cell and carry on using the battery pack as long as you test that all the cells appear to be charging at similar values so they are performing in a similar way. They are safer than you think, as long as you give them some respect, which clearly you're doing. Just DON'T carry any around lose in your trouser pocket with your house keys, you've been warned 🙂
They were 0.2v, not 2v
Exactly. Order of magnitude below even the lowest of the low safe voltages.
😂
@@MizuhoChan Precisely, all between 0.2 and 0.3 V, one down to 0.05 V.
Yeh, ok, I missed the '.' was watching my phone, my bad. Personally I would still use them if they are holding a charge, but your comments are correct, I was wrong, apologies
Also (commenting whilst watching - bad habit I know!) some USB / Powerbank chips will only work when they sense a load on them. Do you have a USB dummy load? Or even a spare powerbank / mobile phone with a low battery that you could plug in, to put a load on the USB output? Love your "can-do" atttitude in your videos Vince - especially in the face of danger of LiIon battery packs!! :) It would be worth even having a watch through some of Big Clive's Lithium Ion battery videos - he's got some useful tricks and info that I'm sure you could pinch with his blessing :D
Vince once you have around 2v back into lithium and lipo batteries it will charge once more, the charge circuit will cut out because it sensed too low a voltage.
I had a car booster pack, it sat in my glove compartment forgotten for months and completely flattened itself, I had to do the same as yourself by inducing voltage into the batteries before it would take a charge, once charged up it worked well once more.
I wonder how many motorists have starter packs that are completely flat hidden somewhere in their cars?
Especially lipo ones, they can puff up and catch fire.
"I don't think I'm going to be able to fix this" with 51 minutes left in the video. This is going to be a good one.
*It wouldn't really be a waste of money, if you replaced all of the cells... It could then be used.*
New nickel strips, and new cells, and it's pretty much a refurbished battery. It would be safe.
Excellent presentation. Liked, subscribed, and rang that bell.
P.S. I created a shortcut on my Windows desktop labeled "Fix" that takes me to your channel. Why? Because after years of my own DIY fixes of stuff around the house, I find your videos the most valuable to folks like me (kinda know what we are doing, but not really).
43:55 Wonder if 1 or 2 of the Cells are failing and that’s what’s causing it to not charge past 50% ?
it may be "memory effect" from the initial 20v charge you revived pack with ?
44:59 - Could the third and fourth LED be broken?
The battery was dropped maybe the LED was shocked.
Another really interesting video.
The final outcome of not fully charging is also Interesting.
You could be right about the charger cutting out before fully charged. That would depend on what the battery is requesting if it has a BMS.
If it does have a BMS then how could the cells have got that low? Unless the bms is at fault.
Surely a company producing Lithium Ion battery packs that can be taken on an airplanes would incorporate a bms that would be the last line of a number of safety features.
When those batteries got close to 2.5v the bms should have shut down access to the cells.
Another great analytical watch 👍🏻
Crazy it doesnt have any padding for the batteries especially with that cheap plastic shell. Btw You should only attach the battery in series when it has the same voltage as the rest otherwise the voltage will be out of whack and confuse the bms
Although it is not recommended I think I would be charging the cells bypassing the BMS to see if they recover... of course it could go up in flames instead.. but why not LOL, if it works then replace all of the cells so it can be put back into service.
What I think is happening is what others have already said. I believe some of the cells in the pack are not at the same state of charge. And any time you have cells in a pack that are out of balance the pack will act weirdly. Not allowing the pack to come to a full charge. And if there is a dead cell or even just a lazy cell this could also cause the pack to go dead over time as the bms is always trying to balance all the cells, so it’s always trying to give power from the good cells and charge up the lazy cell thus killing the pack over time. The only way to do a proper diagnosis is to disconnect and isolate every cell and put each cell in a lithium ion 18650 charger that monitors charge and discharge state of each cell. After putting the cells though a few charging and discharging cycles you will then see if each cell is in fact healthy or not. They sell this type of charger on Amazon and they are pretty affordable. If it was me I would just go out and replace all the cells with new ones and be done with it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the bms at all. And most battery pack failures usually conclude with bad cells.
ah yes, from consoles to suitcases to rolls royces - you really try to fix everything. Someone should make a bob the builder style song about you -
Can we fix it?
Yes we can!
vince the fixer
Can we fix it?
vince the fixer
Yes he can!
I am really missing the rolls Vince, whens the next instalement please. I keep checking every night. Sad I know hee hee.
I released the next part on Patreon last night so it will be on TH-cam in a few days time 👍👍👍
Maybe he can mount a "spirit of ecstasy" on this suitcase and make it a Rolling Royce?
@@Mymatevince Yipee!!! Thanks matey.
@@DobuDobuDobuDot ha Ha, brilliant
could it be that the 75% LEDS have failed ,or there is a break in the circuit between them ?
would be really fun just riding around on this!
the BMS will stop working to cut off the charge if one cell is a higher voltage than the rest, which ever reaches the maximum voltage first will be the one that limits the maximum charge, you could manually charge each cell to the same level and then it might help balance it back out. Probably best to just replace all of the cells, certainly cheaper than getting a new pack !
BMS units often float up the negative rail to the batteries when it thinks the pack if fully charged, so it will reduce the load on the charger, and it is probably just detecting a drop in charge current.
Thanks Scott, I have just filmed a revisit video on this and it was THIS exact problem. Really obvious to me now, but I thought the BMS would have balanced the cells. Lesson learnt. Cheers mate 👍👍👍
Since the battery can be dismantled non destructively (most are glued or welded together) then re-celling that battery with known good cells is perfectly feasible. You have a spot welder, so all that is needed is new nickel strips. Fabricating solder tags is easy to do with the nickel strip and tin snips. Soldering to solder tagged batteries is not a problem as long as you don't dwell on the connections. Such a rebuild would be perfectly reasonable.
A couple of points about lithium batteries:
When they are fully discharged they are not particularly dangerous. The fires caused by short circuits are usually in batteries which have a large amount of charge. The electrolyte is alcohol based which promotes the fires in their build up when shorted.
18650 cells have a physical safety feature which is an overpressure switch which shorts out the external connections if excessive gassing occurs, and thus disconnects the internals from any applied voltage.
If their voltage falls below cutoff, usually either 2.5V or 3V then a chemical reaction within the cell starts causing deterioration of the electrodes and lithium migrates through the electrolyte causing internal short circuits. If a cell fails to hold charge then this signifies that the cell is damaged in this way and is unrecoverable.
If they still hold charge at this cutoff voltage (specified in the cell datasheet) then they can be recovered by slow charging at 100mA until the normal discharged voltage is achieved. They can then be fully charged using a CC/CV charge pattern.
I suspect some of the cells in the rebuilt battery are damaged in this way and why it will not charge fully because of this. Personally I wouldn't use it and may think of a rebuild with good cells as that would be much cheaper than a new battery. HTH
Are the higher charge level LEDs broken?
When spot welding Vince you need to move both probes everytime, if you keep one probe in the same place you will end up blowing through the nickle plate due to excessive amounts of heat in that one spot.
I don't want to be a saftey Nellie but I would not have recharged those cells as the voltage had dropped way to low.
Have a look at the video on YT "DO NOT recharge a dead Tesla LV Battery!" He explains why very well and there is CCTV footage of one going off like a firework in a workshop as the tech was trying to save buying a new battery as it had gone flat so was pumping voltage in with his DC power supply. Thank goodness nobody was next to it when it exploded.
The danger is from Lithium Dendrite growth.
I would say it needs all the cells changing for new ones and it will charge to 100%.
All the best
Adam
Thanks Adam, I have just filmed a revisit video on this and found the reason it would only charge to 50%, but you are completely correct with regards to the safety of these cells 👍 The owner will NOT be using these and I will make sure they are discharged fully to save them going up in flames.
On a multiple battery pack, look for a cell that is reverse charging (+ve is -ve and -ve is +ve!) - that one is the faulty one.
Maybe it won't charge to 100% because the cells aren't balanced. When you added the green battery it was probably more charged than the others so it's stopping because the green one is fully charged.
I was thinking the same thing. Lithium cells MUST be evenly balanced and should really be of the same manufactured group if possible. They do have chargers that are just for lithium cells that take care of the balancing and checking. RC enthusiasts use them all the time in their model planes, cars, boats, etc.
you have a battery welder put new batteries in it and put that thing back into service And I love the video
ebike goe's up to 48v what is the range of this and what wpuld you see on the x rays units
Seems to making fun but it would make me lazier than I am already and for me it's a waste of battery/energie. But I never saw something like that before and I am always amazed how far we have come with everything.
You're likely right about the USB charge circuit being at fault. They can have a parasitic draw if they don't go properly into standby mode. If it doesn't have anything to cut the battery off when it drains to a certain level it could well make the battery go flat like it has. While those cells did go flat charging them the way you did was adequate to reform the chemistry in a way that should be relatively safe. You might try putting each cell on your bench power supply and limit the current and voltage to 4.2v @ 150mA. You shouldn't need to disconnect anything on the battery to do so. Just clip on the solder tabs for each individual cell and it should be fine. This will take quite awhile but it will charge them all the way up safely.
New cells are maby a good idea
Just replace all batteries Vince. Or get new ones with more capacity, so they would last longer ( takes also longer to completely drain, which you obviously want to prevent ).
You need a thermal imaging camera, I reckon you’d see things warming up
Super video again Vince
Charging the entire pack when one or more cells might be bad is a BAD idea, it's inherently dangerous even at ultra-low amperage. The way to do it safely is to charge each cell individually to a reasonable voltage (2.5-3V) with a fairly low current - I'd say 1/10C max, less if you don't monitor temperature which you don't (but your 200mA should be well below 1/10C for those cells). Then IF you can get them all to say 3V, leave them for a little while and see if they STAY charged (if not there's bad internal shorts), then plug everything back into an balanced charger (like the original BMS) for the final charge, it likely won't try unless all cells are above probably 2V or so.
But given the application the right thing to do is to replace the batteries, there WILL be internal damage from this but even high-quality high-draw cells won't cost more than a fraction of that $300 they want for a battery pack. And you have the spot welder and wanted to use it. But with possibly other damage and/or faulty charger it probably doesn't make sense.
And the batteries say INR 18650P 25H so meaning it's 2500mAh (like you computed). Most cells of that color that I've seen has been 30A "high-drain" cells, which also explains the relatively low capacity for the a quality cell, high quality normal-drain cells are usually 3400-3600mAh. But it could be a 20A cells like your green one or even a something even spicier - as comparison normal-drain cells are often rated up to something like 5A.
These high-drain cells are used when a device needs a lot of power in a small (light) battery pack - many flying things use them to keep weight down but still get enough power, but sacrifice run-time in doing so - but with a bigger battery pack capable of delivery enough power would be too heavy.
You say can’t go back into service. But a handy powerbank for the desk.
can you check the internal resistance of the batteries ?????? or maybe they the batteries just worn down to a percentage because of the internal resistance ...
I might make a suggestion vince.. hear me out I know this might sound a bit ikky but have you considered as an occasional video where you dumpster dive some Tech warehouse dumpsters to see if you can find anything worth repairing i dont mean the minging food dumpsters or that just tech waste and stuff like maybe once every three months as a fun extra video .
The powerbank board will shutdown output as long as there is not current withdrawals, so when you turn on the powerbank by pushing the buton it turns on and USB works but after short time with no current it turns off
Allowed international carry-on luggage can typically weigh between 7kg to 8kg (~18lb) a piece, depending on the airline. An empty piece of luggage at 7.5kg (16lb) is kind of useless for airplanes.
We aren't talking about useless here. This is dangerous. Batteries explode in those altitudes even in the pressurized cabin or baggage components.
@@renataavgeri1132 Depends on what the batteries are designed for. Batteries have temperature ranges (they do not like freezing temperatures or being too hot) and pressure ranges (typically listed as a maximum altitude). I am not aware of quality batteries, that are not designed to survive airline travel - even shitty batteries are clearly not crashing planes all over the world… Phones, notebooks, etc. are typically manufactured overseas and are all transported via planes. Especially laptop batteries can have quite a high capacity. This luggage has a removable battery in what looks like a reasonably secure case. Vince emphasized it nicely: his repair could potentially disable/damage safety measures in the battery circuit and therefore his luggage battery is no longer airline safe.
The general statement "Batteries explode in those altitudes" is not correct.
I think lock picking lawyer brought the the combo method. Shine a light, find the notch on each reel, then move them 5 numbers in the same position. Essentially moving the notch to the back but still being in line.
A thermal camera is useful for detecting shorts. If a chip were draining the battery, it would also be generating heat.
Just hook up any 36V power tool battery to it and off you go! Two 18V ones in series would also work.
Charge each cell in turn to the same voltage, right down to 3 decimal places, using your bench power supply, then use the supplied charger and it should charge to 100%. If it doesn’t then it’s most likely faulty cell/s.
The BMS has onboard balancing. It should automatically bring the batteries up to a state of charge close enough to equality for practical purposes.
We have got to set up a race for these things.
Suitrace.
Interesting item there Vince.
37:30 looked really dangerous. The 2 desoldered wires seemed pretty close to each other, shorting the whole pack😮
That did look super close! The wires used looked to be telecoms/network size, so probably (hopefully!) would have quickly blown clear
@@Sparks0001 I thought about this, too. Either way, could have a fun outcome for pyromaniacs
Simply change the cells for ~2€/each, they are likely massively out of balance. One should always check all cells individually when recovering a pack, and that before and after charging. Even better: Charge them individually as recovery procedure, therby top balancing themn. All BMS detect out of balance cells - but not all can do balancing. As others have written: The USB port is just a gimmick and it would have been enough to remove the chip.
Great video. One thing I’m not a huge fan of is the the massive read off and the sponsor read off along with the ads TH-cam pushes. Makes a lot of the video just feel like an advertisement. Oh well, your videos are still great regardless
The usb output needs some minimum load to remain active
My guess is you still have 1+ faulty cells that is capping now at 3.5-3.7 and the intelligent charger sees this cell reaching capacity and stops charging the whole bank (safety feature) 10 c healthy cells should reach maybe 42.4 total but 37 is a decent enough charge. Can still be used on holidays but obviously wouldnt risk it on a plane
When you're using these batteries a lot like us Vapers, you see them deteriorate in time, especially when abused like this. A new set of batteries will get it back up and charging to 100% and you could replace them with up to 4000MAH ones that would give you a longer riding time.
It would also be interesting to see how a Nitecore (or similar) desktop 18650 charger would handle them. They're pretty good at trickling them back up to full and you might get them working properly again. As another person said, you should charge them all up equally and that might be why that other battery was getting hotter as it was pulling itself up faster to meet the others.