Zeuser

Anyone have this problem with their bionx battery?

1 - I plug the battery to the charger, light goes yellow (charging) and less than 1/2 hour it goes green (charged) and the battery emits a buzzing noise
2 - I put the battery on the bike and the meter indicates empty.
3 - I can drive for a little while until there really is no juice left
4 - I do the "5 cycles of backlighting" battery reset trick and the meter does indicate full but the battery is still physicially empty
5 - Back on the charger it charges for 1/2 hour at most.

What's wrong here? Anybody have this issue with their bionx 36V LiIon battery pack?

kbdog

I live in the West end of Toronto if you want to try my charger.

Zeuser

Problem solved. I put it onto the bike, did the 5 cycle "battery reset" and immediately shut it off. Then I plugged the battery into the charger, turned on the charger and it worked, it charged up all the way.

I don't know what I may have done wrong the first time but now it seems to be fine.

SmartyNZ

I have a similar problem, with the charger only charing the battery for 3/4.
Be keen to try the battery reset procedure mentioned here.

Could some one please advise me what the "5 cycle battery reset" is?

borland

The charger is microprocessor based, so you need to initialize the charger by turning the charger's ON-OFF switch to the OFF position before connecting it to the battery. When you turn the switch ON, the microprocessor will be able to measure the battery voltage and be properly initialized for the charging cycle.

You can also check the actual battery voltage using the built-in diagnostic program. This will allow you to see if the battery is fully charged and ensure that the bar graph is properly displaying the graphic representation of a full charge.

With the battery fully charged, you can press and hold the MODE button for 20 seconds to force the bar graph to full charge display.

Here's a link to using the diagnostic test:

https://ilbcnu.org/file_share/bionx_instructions.html

Hope that helps.

SmartyNZ

Here's what I've experienced with my Bionx kit:

I bought a PL350 with Li battery. All very nice, installed it in my mountain bike. Charged the battery, connected it up to the bike, turned it on. It made all the right beeps however the battery indicator showed only a 3/4 full battery.

I asked Bionx what to do to adjust the indicator, they gave me the list of steps to go through from charging the battery, cooldown period, measuring the battery voltage (41.1V) and then holding down the mode button down for 20 sec. But nothing happened after 20 seconds; nothing even happened after holding it down for 3 minutes. I repeated it many times but the lights would not start flashing faster and the indicator would not adjust. We went several times back to Bionx but they kept insisting that it should work as long as I followed their 5 step procedure with a fully charged battery.

Several weeks passed with he indicator never getting higher than 3/4 full....until yesterday.
I established that Bionx are actually correct in that the battery has to be fully charged before the indicator can be adjusted. What I also have established is that the external charger actually doesn't fully charge the battery. Here is how I found out.

Yesterday, I wanted to get a good workout inside the house so I put the bike in my bike training stand. You know, the back wheel is clamped in a stand and the back wheel rolls against a roller. Prior to this the battery was charged in the normal way with the indicator showing a 3/4 full battery. I turned the Bionx system on and set it in Generation 2 mode. After about 20 minutes I noticed that the battery indication was getting fuller and fuller. I kept going and after about 40 minutes the indicator was completely full. Amazing!
I measured the battery voltage at this point which was 43.3V. This is quite a bit higher than when the battery is "fully" charged by the external charger. The external one only goes up to 41.1V.
I kept biking in Gen 2 mode and noticed that the charing current dropped back and the resistance dropped of too. The battery was now really full. I immediately did the procedure with the mode button holding it for 20 seconds and yep this time it worked. The lights started flashing faster and the indicator shows a full battery.

All this means that the external charger unit never fully charges the battery!

The question is now, what should the battery voltage be when the battery is completely charged by the external charger and is the charger working correctly?

Anyone having any similar issues? Suggestions?

borland

A 36-Volt battery should display at least 41.0 volts, which indicates a fully charged battery. My six month old BL350 shows a full charge of 41.5 volts.

raevyn

if you want to check the voltage on your batter, you can do it in two ways:
1) on the console, press and hold the mode and chrono buttons until the 4 zeros show at the bottom. put in the code 3772 (i think that's it) then on the bottom left side, it should tell you the voltage of your battery.

or if you have a volt meter at home, take your batter, and put the positive into port 4 and the negative on port 2 on your charge port, and that should give you a correct reading as well.

as well, sometimes plugging in your battery to the external charger until it is fully charged, then disconnecting it, letting it sit for an hour, sometimes helps to reset it.

JDubois1954

I have had a Bionx system for about 6-7 years. I replaced the controller last September. Tonight when I plugged in the battery to charge, the transformer on the charger made an odd clicking noise and the indicator light did not come on. This charger has not failed me in all the years I've owned the system. I've read some threads that suggest resetting the charger with the on/off switch. I don't see one on my charger. Am I missing something? If there were one, where would it be located?

edobellamy

Hi JDubois,

I imagine you solved your problem, but for the benefit of other, If the clicking sound is in the battery,I had the same issue. I reckon the clicking sound is an alarm at the Battery that the voltage level is critical, that means you rode until empty and you didn't charge it soon there after, or you didn't charge it in a long time . The charger may not charge then because your voltage is too low.
If you put the battery in your bike and your LCD still gets on, put your bike in Regen mod -1 or -2 and go for a ride, until you see some charge in the battery meter.
All of the sudden you will feel when the battery has enough charge because is starts behaving differently.
Once you have some charge in the meter you should be able to charge it normally.

Otherweis if is an issue with the charger, it sound like you have a sealed charger that you cannot service easily, probably you would need a replacement, unless you are good with electronics. There are some older charger that you could change the fuse, I even changed an onboard fuse (needs soldering) once because my girlfirend changed the voltage button with out unplugging it. This are big chineese ones that you can open and take the board out. The sealed ones look like laptops's chargers.

Needless to say I was very happy when my battery started charging again.

Cheers,

Ed