Enertion SpaceCell sparking

Any idea what is happening? No issues in the past, but this morning when I plug the charger in it sparks every time. Any suggestions??

@onloop any suggestions?

Nervous!!! https://youtu.be/3TGpZo0MMxE

Was your charger plugged into the wall before you plugged it into the battery?

Yes, the charger is plugged into to power like it always is. Also the charger is the stock one that is provided by Enertion for the Spacecell.

Is the board / battery switched on when you plugged in the power ?

Maybe a broken discharge wire that touches only when you apply pressure

Plug into the board then the wall*. Does it charge?

Plug it into the board first, then the wall.

No the board is switched off.

Yes it does charge. If I push it in normally, it still does charge, it just sparks as the end of the charging cable touches the charging port. After the cable is in, it is fine and charges normally.

Does the board respond with the remote even when the switch is turned off?

I can do this, but as my charger is under my desk and I simply have the cable hanging out, it is a real pain in the ass. I haven’t had this issue with my other battery packs.

No the board doesn’t respond to the remote when turned off. There are no lights on the vesc’s so I assume there is no power going to them when the board is off.

Any suggestions what can be done?

You could leave it plugged into a surge protector and switch it on after you plug into the board.

My space cell gave a spark at the charging port a couple times too. Ever since I’ve been switching off the surge protector before I unplug the board. No spark since.

do you have a spare charger you can test with? My guess is failing BMS though.

I have an evolve board charger but from memory that charges at 2amp when the Enertion charges at 1.5amp. But I can try with that.

The right way to do it is plug the wall then plug the battery. The sparks could be due for many Reasons. If the battery works fine it is probably humidity inside the enclosure. While you find out you could make two adaptors with a xt90 at the end of both. So you just plug the xt90 and avoid sparks.

Yea try that, the charge rating is safe. If it doesn’t spark sounds like the charger is faulty which may be the case since it sparks even when you plug into the wall before plugging it in. If it still sparks, then it may be the BMS as I initially suspected.

Great ill give my other charger a go and try some different techniques. Thanks for the advice everyone!!

Does it still have warranty?

I never had the spark issue and I use a 4amp charger but I did have one of my Raptor space cells die on me with no warranty so I had to open it up and replace the BMS and found 4 spot welds that came loose I had to solder them back since I don’t have a spot welder. I would try a different charger before ripping into the battery.

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