Flash of Light, Smell of Ozone and an Electrical Burn
At the moment, I'm inclined to pretty much put my DIY electric bike on hold. This first appeared to be a simple project.
- Buy a cheap bike
- Buy a hub motor kit
- Install the wheel and connect the basic connectors.
- Ride away.
First, the original bike didn't have enough room between the forks, so I bought a replacement bike after measuring quite a few.
Then, today, I finally had the time to put on the tire, install the motor, and hook it all together. My mom, Shelly and my sister headed out shopping for the day and the garage is mostly cleaned out after last weekend.
I got the wheel installed, and then wired the controller, the motor and the throttle together (they were just clip-together connectors) and went to hook the charged up batteries.
It was at that point that a bright flash of light blinded me. The smell of ozone filled the air and my fingers, newly scorched black and burned by the arc, dropped the connectors. Despite there really only being one way to hook this all together, something is apparently very wrong with one or more of the components.
Then, apparently proving which side of the scientific divide I'm on, I tried it again.
I think there was more ozone, but less scorching the second time.
This, combined with the fact that I nearly lit my pants on fire by casually tossing a couple of AA batteries into my pocket along with my keys a couple of weeks ago, thus shorting them out has me thinking it might be time for a refresher course in battery safety. Does anyone have some aloe vera?
May 12th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Maybe you've created the ultimate in bicycle anti-theft systems?
May 14th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Ouch!! As Einstien once said; "The definition of a truly stupid person is one that expects a different result from trying a failed experiment with the same variables twice". Careful with the positive and negative terminals and how you connect them…. Postive first… Negative(ground)second and always wear a good insulating pair of gloves when handling any battery over 6 volts.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:32 pm
The Wynia curse strikes again! be careful, man!
May 24th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I wish that the curse could be held at bay with mere caution, Tim.
I will definitely be getting some insulated gloves before messing with it again.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I built an ebike the same way about the same time though was lucky enough to get the right old bike the first time. I too have a bright spark every time plugging in the battery. I am told this is actually normal and is caused by the "substantial" capacitors charging in the motor. The spark can be eliminated by installing a fuse/switch setup… I've decided to live with the spark… Its kinda fun!
Did you ever go back and finish this project?