I167 cover removal

[Tom52]

Hey,
I thought this would be an easy search - but I'm coming up empty somehow. I have an I167 that was supposedly good except for the batteries. I got some good batteries off ebay and everything worked fine on a few rides over the period of a month or so. Then I parked it for a month - plugged in though. When I went to ride it again - no display and a beep when the key is engaged. I removed the batteries and one reads 74 volts or so and the other reads 8.6. So - I'm screwed it seems. I have a few questions to get me to the next step;
1. when the unit is plugged it with no batteries installed - should I be able to read voltage at the battery connection pins on the bottom of the Segway? If so - what should the voltage read with no batteries installed?
2. How do I get the top cover off to see if I have loose wires? I've removed all the screws on the top including the 3 on the handle mount. I also removed the nut inside the handle mount (the one the cable goes through).
3. Any ideas how a unit just sitting that was fully functional could end up with one battery at over 70 volts and the other around 8?

Any ideas/thoughts are much appreciated. I'm $1500 in now and have a marginal boat anchor at best
Thanks
Tom

[gsouser]

I believe your unit runs on NIMH batteries, you can send them off to get rebuilt for around 800. I have done this a few times over the last 12 years. I have 3 older models as planes will allow these.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dgbint]

Any ideas how a unit just sitting that was fully functional could end up with one battery at over 70 volts and the other around 8?


It is rather straight forward, perhaps even a design fault.

Think of your TV sitting idle for a few weeks, just waiting for you to press a button on your remote.
In the TV scenario, yes your TV consumes a few cents worth of power over that time.
No big deal.

Now for a battery powered device like your Segway.
That's a bit worse.
It is sitting there waiting for you to insert the key.

Over an extended period, yes it will drain the one battery that is powering the internal computer stuff.

1
Charge your batteries once a week ( OK one a fortnight is probably OK too ).

2
Do not pull it apart.
The risk is great that you will cause damage.

Michael

[Tom52]

SOmething here does not add up though. First off - these are the lithium batteries. The Segway was sitting for only a few weeks and was plugged in the entire time. To make matters even more confusing - only one battery has a problem. I'm not concerned too much about breaking anything taking it apart - the entire unit (except batteries) is junk as far as I'm concerned. Oh - also these are AJ revision batteries. I assume they are in good shape. I would like to verify the voltage on my Segway though. If possible - I'd like some answers to my original questions
Thanks
Tom
I should state that I'm a retired electrical engineer. I also worked many years as a mechanical engineer as I took many mechanical engineering college courses before I switched my major to electrical. I've been taking things apart since I was a very small kid - just to see how they worked. That's actually why I switched to electrical - you can't figure it out by taking it apart.

[RMullins]

Hopefully I can help you understand a few issues and the symptoms you experienced.

1. Low voltage battery: To fix this you will need to increase the voltage back above the safety cutoff level to allow the battery pack to be fully charged. This forum has a few threads on how to accomplish that. You can use your own judgement if you want to try that fix. The safest way is to use a battery reviver or conditioner like the unit MTO battery was selling and renting.
2. The symptom you described could be the result of two issues. First, if this battery was installed on the front side position, then it’s possible that even though it was plugged in, you may have not have had the cord fully seated into the charge port. I have personally witnessed this on numerous occasions. The tabs on the electric cord prevent it from fully engaging into the charge port at times. The solution is to trim-shave them back about a 1/4”. When I would show this to customers they were shocked at how much of a better fit it was. The second possibility could be a faulty CSB. Or in simple terms, your charge controller. The most common failure I experienced was that the CSB was not charging batteries in the maintenance mode of the charging process. So even though it’s plugged in, and you think all is fine, the voltage is dropping because maintenance mode has failed. My personal unit has this issue, and I use a timer to reset the charging process everyday.

If you want, PM me your email address I can email you some further directions to access inside the CSB if you want to try and diagnose an electrical failure.

Football game is back on, so maybe I can help more later. Lol

[dmurphy]

Hey,
1. when the unit is plugged it with no batteries installed - should I be able to read voltage at the battery connection pins on the bottom of the Segway? If so - what should the voltage read with no batteries installed?

The rest has been covered but here's the link you need ... Rene's guide really works well. I used a digital power supply and a couple of roofing nails to float mine up to charge. Cautious of course but successful. No problem at all. Hurry up though - that one with 8V is on the threshold of beyond-no-return. No guarantee of results, and please be careful - these are POWERFUL batteries we're working with here.


https://forums.segwaychat.org/showthread.php?t=36096