Brammo Project
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:40 am
Hi all,
Here's the project I've started, trying to fix my Brammo Bike. I know this isn't a conversion project so if you want it gone or posted elsewhere let me know.
It's a 2014 Brammo Empulse R. The battery was having various faults and making the bike unusable for the previous owner. I'm very much a DIY person, love tinkering and love bikes so I thought I would grab it and have a go at repairing it. I narrowed the fault down to a balancing issue. The onboard charger stops charging if it detects one module out of limits, tries to balance the cells by bringing down the high cells then commences charging again. The problem was that the high cell wasn't coming down so the charger refused to charge anymore.
The module out of balance was no 1 of 7 and after pulling apart the battery I found out why. The battery has 4 internal heaters that are used for heating (obviously) and also for balancing when commanded to. Due water ingress part of the module's controlling PCB had some corrosion and component damage which has stopped the heaters from working which is why the charger couldn't balance the pack. I've cleaned up the corrosion with some vinegar which seems to have worked. I now need to identify the damaged components and replace them and hopefully get this bike working again.
Here's the project I've started, trying to fix my Brammo Bike. I know this isn't a conversion project so if you want it gone or posted elsewhere let me know.
It's a 2014 Brammo Empulse R. The battery was having various faults and making the bike unusable for the previous owner. I'm very much a DIY person, love tinkering and love bikes so I thought I would grab it and have a go at repairing it. I narrowed the fault down to a balancing issue. The onboard charger stops charging if it detects one module out of limits, tries to balance the cells by bringing down the high cells then commences charging again. The problem was that the high cell wasn't coming down so the charger refused to charge anymore.
The module out of balance was no 1 of 7 and after pulling apart the battery I found out why. The battery has 4 internal heaters that are used for heating (obviously) and also for balancing when commanded to. Due water ingress part of the module's controlling PCB had some corrosion and component damage which has stopped the heaters from working which is why the charger couldn't balance the pack. I've cleaned up the corrosion with some vinegar which seems to have worked. I now need to identify the damaged components and replace them and hopefully get this bike working again.
- Brammo - Pre-disassembly
- Brammo - Disassembled
- 7 modules
- Module 1
- Module 1 - Cover removed showing the PCB
- Module 1 - Corrosion
- Bottom of Module 1 showing the pouch cells
- Top of the module with the PCB removed. 4p9s Config
- Underside of the PCB
- Corrosion cleaned with vinegar