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Is A Lithium Battery Charger Right for a Gotway 18"?


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Posted

My first charger went *bang* as soon as I plugged it in & Jane kindly sent me another. The new one worked for a couple of weeks but went *pop* when I plugged it in earlier this week.

Now I have two lights left so I need another charger. The only one I can find which is 67.2V is a lithium battery charger. Will this be Ok to use on my wheel or is it the wrong type?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Posted

Definitely have more than one charger. I have three now, one from my 14-inch wheel and two Firewheel. The Firewheel chargers don't have a fan and feel a lot more well built, but I carry the cheapo 14-inch one with me for travel because it's lighter.

Posted

Too late, but I would recommend this one from Banggood, since I have the same : http://www.banggood.com/Electric-Unicycle-Charger-AC-to-DC-Power-Supply-p-966060.html

You can't beat the price and the service. With eBay vendors, for an on-off buying, it can sometimes be a lottery game (one of the most annyoing quirk being power supplies stinking plastic).

Note that the Pinwheel use the same GX16-3 pin connector but wires are soldered to pins 1 & 2 instead of pins 1 & 3 on other wheels (Firewheel, Gotway, Airwheel & clones...). And the Ninebot has a completely type of connector (I and Ironfox are searching what it is and where to buy it).

Posted

I might try BangGood when I have more money. I haven't been getting many hours at work & am currently moving house so paying rent on two places for the next month.

"Note that the Pinwheel use the same GX16-3 pin connector but wires are soldered to pins 1 & 2 instead of pins 1 & 3 on other wheels (Firewheel, Gotway, Airwheel & clones...). And the Ninebot has a completely type of connector (I and Ironfox are searching what it is and where to buy it)." sounds like useful advice but I don't understand a word of it lol. I'm not an expert in batteries or motors etc. I basically know bits I've learnt off this forum.

Posted

I might try BangGood when I have more money. I haven't been getting many hours at work & am currently moving house so paying rent on two places for the next month.

"Note that the Pinwheel use the same GX16-3 pin connector but wires are soldered to pins 1 & 2 instead of pins 1 & 3 on other wheels (Firewheel, Gotway, Airwheel & clones...). And the Ninebot has a completely type of connector (I and Ironfox are searching what it is and where to buy it)." sounds like useful advice but I don't understand a word of it lol. I'm not an expert in batteries or motors etc. I basically know bits I've learnt off this forum.

​It means that on the inside (wheel-side) of the battery-connector, the pins are wired differently, so the Pinwheel-charger won't work on Firewheel/Gotway/etc, unless you resolder the wires on the wheel to correct pins or modify the charger-plug wiring. If you don't know at all what you're doing, just don't use the Pinwheel-charger on other wheels.

Posted

Regarding charging:

Please really following this order to plug in. First disconnect all power and turn off the power point. Connect with the leads into adaptor and unicycle. Then turn the power on from power point. I have seen pictures some unicycles ended up with a burned socket on the unicycle because it generated spark when owner trying to plug in a live charging head.

 

Regards,

Mengke

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103704604858097234749

Posted

Yeah, I always do the wheel first when plugging it in & disconnect it from the wheel before turning it off as the green light stays on my charger until I disconnect it from the wheel. I guess there's nothing to stop the wheel powering the charger which I don't want it to :-)

Posted

I find that with the Gotways if I plug in an unpowered charger I always get a large spark whereas if I plug in and turn the charger on first the difference between the voltage of the battery and the charger is relatively small and I get very little if any spark on connection.

 

Posted

I find that with the Gotways if I plug in an unpowered charger I always get a large spark whereas if I plug in and turn the charger on first the difference between the voltage of the battery and the charger is relatively small and I get very little if any spark on connection.

 

​The spark is due to the battery current rushing into the charger's discharged capacitors (because the charger is off).

It means that the Gotway's BMS has no reverse polarity protection diode. On the many BMS I've seen, that protection diode is always here, so that you can short the two charging wires, no current will flow. But on the Gotway, a short will go boom. So on the Gotway, the advice to turn on the charger only after connecting to the wheel is indeed a BAD advice.

The plus side of this absence of the protection diode is you have a 64V power source right on the wheel's connector. Using a step down converter, you can power many things, a powerfull spotlight, led bands, your car...

Posted

What would be GOOD advice then mate? Do I turn the charger on at the wall before connecting it? I would have thought that would cause a spark. I've never had a spark before but have only charged it a few times.

Posted

The advice with Gotways is to turn on before connecting. That way the voltage difference is minimal across the connection so you'll get no spark most of the time.

A small spark is more likely if you've run the batteries really low as then the voltage difference is greater.

Posted

You need to realise that sparks only happen when you connect contacts with a significant potential difference.

As the charger is putting out roughly 67v and even a low battery is likely to have 54v or more the difference is only going to be about 13v or so whereas if you plug it into a charger that's turned off the difference between it 0v and the battery is about 54v.

Posted

I was just picturing the electric jumping from one point to another if it's running when there's a gap. I've always been wary about plugging things in before turning the power on in case there's a power surge or something lol. Probably all nonsense I imagined as a kid & never checked up on.

Posted

Why you guys talking about "turn on"?

I only can plug my chargers.....one side to the 220V System and the other to the wheel wit 67Volt.

Since I have the timer, I plug first the wheel, then turn on the timer.

I am not sure, but the spark at 220V is less when I plug in the wheel first (so I will have a spark there too).

Now I am confusied at all.

  • 9 months later...
Posted
On 6/7/2015 at 11:31 AM, Gimlet said:

I find that with the Gotways if I plug in an unpowered charger I always get a large spark whereas if I plug in and turn the charger on first the difference between the voltage of the battery and the charger is relatively small and I get very little if any spark on connection.

 

Yes, I learned that the hard way and had to replace the burnt pin, now I power on the charger first and it makes for a smooth connection. :)

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