I think the rain might have broke my ebike

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Diver

New Member
Sep 25, 2010
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Seattle
Can't prove it but I was riding in a moderate downpour yesterday and my brand new DIY ebike just turns off. My controller, throttle and wiring are all exposed on the outside of the bike and were pretty saturated with rain water when I pulled over- dead in the water, pun.

I check the connections and they're all tight (it's brand new). I took it home, unconnected everything and opened up the controller box and dried everything out. Put it all back together and nothing.

My question is - can the rain just break the controller or throttle?

How the heck do I test these devices? I can't find anything on the internet- it seems to devoid of electric bicycle repair tutorials. Just lots of reassurances about how it's OK to ride in the rain.
 
moonerdizzle

moonerdizzle

New Member
Jun 28, 2009
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Cheese head capitol
i dont own an electric bike, but i do know dry rice works very good for removing water and moisture from electronics. salt works too, but thats not for delicate parts.
 
Mike B

Mike B

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Mar 23, 2011
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Water doesn't hurt electronics, but conductive water will. Salt water is really bad.

Take it all apart again and flush it with tap water before you dry it out. Let it dry out real good before you re-assemble and power up.
 
paul

paul

Well-Known Member
Dec 23, 2007
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Kalamazoo, MI
hope you get everything working soon diver. i agree on some worthless posts. others that have had water problems opened everything up and let them dry for a day or more and seemed to help the problem. let us know on the progress. i am no expert and learning all i can
 
GearNut

GearNut

Active Member
Aug 19, 2009
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San Diego, Kaliforgnia
The vodka for both is not a bad suggestion, but I would use 100% denatured alcohol from a hardware store, not for both though if you get my drift.
The alcohol will displace/ absorb the water then evaporate quicker than water alone.
During mass production, alcohol is commonly used as a final rinse agent when assembling circuit boards before component installation and soldering begins. At least it used to be. I am sure that some new fangled product is out there now, but alcohol is cheap for the DIY person.

Either way, the board should be allowed to dry for a few days to insure that no moisture is anywhere in , under, or around any of the components. Using a fan would help too.
 
Velodrome

Velodrome

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2011
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I like the isoprople alcohol idea. My thinking with the distilled water was that all water except distilled has salts and minerals in it. Its not the water that causes shorts its these minerals. Washing / rincing with distilled will put the salts and minerals back into solution and the distilled water carries it away.
 
paul

paul

Well-Known Member
Dec 23, 2007
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Kalamazoo, MI
and vodka i don't think is a good idea. most alcohols turns into sugar when you drink it. i personally would just open everything up and let it dry for a few days with a fan on it like someone said. no salts! i live on the ocean and i know first hand what salt does to electronics
 
GasX

GasX

New Member
Oct 7, 2011
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Florida
Diver said:
God- you guys are useless. I've order a new throttle and controller to replace the current ones- I'll get back with the results.
Click to expand...
My answer may have been a bit tongue in cheek, but it was a good suggestion nonetheless. Too bad you just threw money at the problem instead of taking time to try and fix it...
 
D

Diver

New Member
Sep 25, 2010
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Seattle
GasX said:
My answer may have been a bit tongue in cheek, but it was a good suggestion nonetheless. Too bad you just threw money at the problem instead of taking time to try and fix it...
Click to expand...
That's what I told my brother when his alternator went out and he was headed to Autozone. "Too bad you're not a smarter guy instead of a debit card user with a car problem!"
 
Mike B

Mike B

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Mar 23, 2011
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I had an 8 dollar timex LED watch once, you know those plastic cheapies. Went swimming in a lake with it on once and the display was like in cryllic. Took the back off the battery out, flushed it with tap water and dried it over a light bulb. Worked fine.

I dropped a cell phone in the river once and dug it out of the mud the next day with a fish net. Same thing, worked fine.

I ran a small electronics manufacturing firm for a few years. The next step after wave solder was a trip through the Hobart (commercial dish washer) to remove solder flux.

Trust me, water will not hurt electronics. But conductive water or residue is just like a short circuit.
 
J

joshua97

New Member
May 8, 2012
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perth
hi, i have had the same problem and yes it was just my controller that was broken!!, $22.99 and she was running fine again, By the way someone please help me!!!! i am new to this forum and I know how 2 post comments (obviously) lol but how do i make my own thread/ post ??? thanks
 
GearNut

GearNut

Active Member
Aug 19, 2009
5,104
11
38
San Diego, Kaliforgnia
joshua97 said:
hi, i have had the same problem and yes it was just my controller that was broken!!, $22.99 and she was running fine again, By the way someone please help me!!!! i am new to this forum and I know how 2 post comments (obviously) lol but how do i make my own thread/ post ??? thanks
Click to expand...
In whatever section of the forum you want to start a new thread, look in the upper left side of the screen right above the section list. You will see a blue button that says "new thread".
Click on it.
 
D

Diver

New Member
Sep 25, 2010
95
1
0
Seattle
Success! 10 days later as I was about to replace the throttle and controller with new ones from China- I hooked everything back up and it turned ON. So I guess it needed to dry out after all. I have since covered all exposed wiring and box with Gorilla tape so hopefully that be that. Lesson: Don't assume your DIY ebike is weatherproof and take the time to make sure it is or it'll short out and you'll be s.o.l until it dries out.
 
kevyleven007

kevyleven007

Active Member
Sep 25, 2008
1,217
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texas
What really sucks is when your throttle wires short out and your throttle wont shut off.(happened to me,I left the power on and it started raining and the bike took off into a treelaff)Make sure its waterproof and you can turn the power off easy.
 
deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
Jan 15, 2008
8,114
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0
north carolina
best thing I ever learned about bikes was the need for a power kill switch on the power supply be it elec or gasoline. Without the emergency kill switch you could find yourself running a stop sign into traffic. On on the gasoline bikes it killed the spark to the plug. On the electric it is right on my battery box.
 
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