# E-Spyder Dead, Troubleshooting Not Successful



## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

Put your multimeter on one batteries terminals and check voltage. Then move the neg over one battery and check two batteries at once and check the voltage. Then the next and next and next until all are checked each time adding one battery to the check until done. It sounds like your not checking the the most positive battery terminal and the most negative battery terminal. 

Where are you connecting your multimeter to check the most positive and neg? You need to check at the battery terminals first to rule out any issue with the pack. Then move on to the other components between the motor and battery pack. 

Photos would be good too so we can see what your doing. Trouble shooting blind is hard.

Pete


----------



## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

Batteries first. Then with it all connected check to see that the power into the DC DC is your pack voltage. Then turn it on to see if it is putting out the proper voltage. If that checks then that is good. 

It is a systematic movement through the system. Check the input voltages to the components. Check fuses. Check ground connections. Sitting can cause loss of good ground connections. Not likely that the controller or any large component is dead. Sounds more like crappy connections. Disconnect and clean and reconnect even the small connectors. 

Pete


----------



## grammhowe (Apr 16, 2013)

Thanks Pete: I'll be out in the shop in about an hour to do those tests. I don't know if on my profile you can see the photo of my car. It's got about 50 miles on it and is always garaged, but I'll see if a connection went bad. Post again this evening with result. Thanks again. Dale


----------



## grammhowe (Apr 16, 2013)

Pete: Battery # 1: 12.4v
+#2: 25.0v
+#3: 37.1v
+#4: 50.0v
+#5: -46.0v (minus)

Here is a photo of #3 and #4 and all that is involved there.
R-L. #3 is the battery on the right
#4 is the battery on the left. They are connected traditionally.
Then, there is a bus bar on #4 + for the Paktrakr (which is dead, too)
Then, the + cable goes to the Solonoid. At that point, I measure 50.0v.
The other side of the (bran new) Solonoid reads -46.0v (minus, on the multi-tester). This is with the e-stop off. With e-stop on, there is no change. Going up the firewall, that is a shunt with analog voltmeter wires.
Still 46 in and out to #5, which is top right.
Does this mean the e-stop has failed, since the solonoid isn't closed?
Or...
Also in the photo are two braided brakelines, and the charger wire (black).
Dale


----------



## dougingraham (Jul 26, 2011)

It sounds like you do not have a connection between the positive terminal of battery 4 and the negative terminal of battery 5. Figure out why that is and you will probably have it resolved. The brand new solonoid as you call it is not closed. What is supposed to energize this?


----------



## kennybobby (Aug 10, 2012)

The negative terminal of batt 5 is looking like the most negative point in your pack. Where does the negative terminal of battery #1 connect--is it coming off the positive terminal of battery #8? Is the pack isolated from chassis? 
Is the current shunt isolated from chassis? 
Might want to upgrade the fastener on the #4 positive--tiny bolt with flat washer to connect a big terminal lug is not good practice, the joint will slide and get loose.


----------



## Woodsmith (Jun 5, 2008)

Testing both ends of the short jumper leads between the batteries would also help find which lead and which end of it is causing the problem.


----------



## tomofreno (Mar 3, 2009)

Could you explain exactly how you took the measurements? Pete said:


> Put your multimeter on one batteries terminals and check voltage. Then move the neg over one battery and check two batteries at once and check the voltage.


 Which battery are you calling #1, the most negative in the series string of 8, or the most positive? Did you start with the voltmeter measuring the voltage of the most positive battery in the string, then move the negative of the voltmeter over to the negative of the second highest battery in the string? That would explain the first 4 measurements and indicate the 4 most positive batteries in the pack are connected and have reasonable voltages. 

But you may also have started at the most negative battery in the pack, which most people would call #1, then moved the positive of the voltmeter over to the _positive_ terminal of the next most negative cell in the pack, typically called #2, for the second measurement, etc, which would indicate the 4 most negative cells in the pack are connected and of reasonable voltage. 

Please measure the voltage of _each_ of the two batteries at the center of the pack, # 4 and #5, i.e, the voltage between the positive and negative terminal of #4 and the same for #5.


----------



## kennybobby (Aug 10, 2012)

A schematic is worth a thousand words...


----------



## grammhowe (Apr 16, 2013)

OK. All fixed. It would be easy to make up a story here, so I don't sound so dumb, but, I myself actually caused the problem. Here is the true story:

It was a long cold winter here in CT, USA. I decided to bring in the house the 12 volt lithium battery (accessory battery) to use on some RC electric aircraft experiments I'm doing. I disconnected the hot wire to the E-Stop (on off), and the ground wire to the chassis, and some other wire that was on negative also. It is the brown/yellow shown in the photo, connecting to the solonoid/contactor. Months later, I put the lithium 12v battery back in, and I connected the wires. But, I connected the brown/yellow to positive.
Contactor remains open, aluminum body of the car shows 12v when I test the solonoid leads to the body. Swapped the yellow/brown back to ground on 12v, where it is happiest, and the sounds I like: Solonoid, clicks, vacuum brake pumps up; turn on the car and controller clicks, fans come on, and pump for coolant runs. Back in business. Except I have to replace a bad battery way back in the pack. Thanks for helping, the problem was between 4 and 5.


----------



## onegreenev (May 18, 2012)

Thanks for letting us know what you found. It is a systematic run through the system and you did find an issue. Excellent. Thanks for posting. Sorry to hear you have to replace a battery but its far better than the controller or some other more expensive component. 

Pete


----------

