Water damaged disabled scooter

[ukracer]

I have a water damaged controller on my wife's electric scooter.
It seems these controllers are all programmed differently so I can't just but a replacement.

As it works a bit but then stops I am not sure if it's the electrics on the motor brake or this controller.

Seems like movement causes it to error. It might be only a quick connection but then it's too late as its already thrown an exclamation mark so the scooter needs turning off and on again.

So as the controller is scabby I am thinking of cleaning it up with a toothbrush.

But not sure whether to use contact cleaner or if there is something better.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I would chuck it in my ultrasonic bath for a couple of minutes with some distilled water if it was me..

 

[knighty]

did the motor get wet too?

it'll probably have hall effect sensors inside it (or them? if there's 2?)

what you're describing is a lot like when there's a hall effect sensor problem on an ebike

how many wires coming out of motors?

 

[Kram]

Looks like its been wet for a while and has some bad/corroded solder joints. Get the board out of the housing, clean it up with brake cleaner, let that flash off, bake in oven for an hour at 50c to drive off any remaining moisture. Flux and resolder any bad joints.

Thats how Id go about it. Could you get a photo of the whole board and a better one of the centre area

 

[a111r]

Buy a cheap breaker with duff batteries for spares?
I got one for free off a local FB group.
These things are not high quality items.

 

[stuartc44]

Isopropyl alcohol and toothbrush for cleaning electronics.

 

[bourbon]

clean it up and see, dry it out well as described. I took my partners scooter to a mobility place to see what the fault code was ( we were on holiday and no computer) the guy asked where it had been stored (outside) 'scrap it, it's corroded inside' That was 7 years ago! still going now.

 

[ukracer]

did the motor get wet too?

it'll probably have hall effect sensors inside it (or them? if there's 2?)

what you're describing is a lot like when there's a hall effect sensor problem on an ebike

how many wires coming out of motors?

Not sure. The cover ripped whilst we were in a months shutdown during the big storms.

I had probably the same problem last year after it was left out and we had a flash storm.

But I let it all dry out and after a bit of WD40 freeing the brakes (it has a hand brake like a bike for emergency) off a bit, it seemed to run fine. In fact it went round the lake a few time. So it was OK.

This time I cut of the bolts I could not remove last time and found that water damage. I thought the box was fully sealed.

To be honest I felt that putting the manual or push mode lever on the motor on and off a few times made it work...but as soon as I got movement the error exclamation mark appeared on the dash and movement stopped. So you might be well on the mark regarding the motor.
I have just not had time to check it out yet.

 

[ukracer]

Buy a cheap breaker with duff batteries for spares?
I got one for free off a local FB group.
These things are not high quality items.

This one was it was 4.5k new... I can't find this model at all. Its a TGA vita

I can find that controller on my other scooters but this is the reply I got when asking if they could be swapped out.

 

[ukracer]

Looks like its been wet for a while and has some bad/corroded solder joints. Get the board out of the housing, clean it up with brake cleaner, let that flash off, bake in oven for an hour at 50c to drive off any remaining moisture. Flux and resolder any bad joints.

Thats how Id go about it. Could you get a photo of the whole board and a better one of the centre area

Will do... I will take the board out as it has security screws and I grabbed a kit to remove crews.

 

[ukracer]

I would chuck it in my ultrasonic bath for a couple of minutes with some distilled water if it was me..

Water with an electronic board?? Wow you live and learn.

 

[ukracer]

 

[qwakers]

water to clean it in a ultrasonic bath is the correct industry approved method. water is not bad for electronics, water is bad for ENERGISED electronics.

 

[Kram]

Generally water doesnt damage most components unless theres power - power gets out of components in places it shouldnt and can burn IC's.
Some components will be hard to dry or trap moisture so I wouldnt recommend using water for cleaning unless you can give it a good bake. Solvent will do everything as good or better.

Now from the pics that looks like a lot of corrosion. most should clean up ok, however the bit that stands out is where the green solder mask coating has lifted off with the copper track looking a little burnt. Is the copper track lifting too or firmly bonded to the pcb?

Also when done, after testing, you'd want to give it a good spray of clear coat, which many boards would be from new, for extra protection. This looks like it was not.

Do you have a pic of the component side?

 

[ukracer]

water to clean it in a ultrasonic bath is the correct industry approved method. water is not bad for electronics, water is bad for ENERGISED electronics.

Guess I Need to read this thread then.

Ultrasonic cleaners ?

I found this one when I was looking a while ago, decent price but postage was a killer :laughing: That's the one I have. Gosh I don't think I paid that much. I would buy from a UK seller as these low cost things have a habit of randomly breaking. I'm not sure if you still get five years...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

 

[ukracer]

Generally water doesnt damage most components unless theres power - power gets out of components in places it shouldnt and can burn IC's.
Some components will be hard to dry or trap moisture so I wouldnt recommend using water for cleaning unless you can give it a good bake. Solvent will do everything as good or better.

Now from the pics that looks like a lot of corrosion. most should clean up ok, however the bit that stands out is where the green solder mask coating has lifted off with the copper track looking a little burnt. Is the copper track lifting too or firmly bonded to the pcb?

Also when done, after testing, you'd want to give it a good spray of clear coat, which many boards would be from new, for extra protection. This looks like it was not.

Do you have a pic of the component side?

Copper track is sound... just tarnished.

 

[MoreWellie]

Water with an electronic board??

Where cups of coffee or tea have been spilt in equipment I have previously chucked boards in a sink and used a nail brush to clean them off, rinsed in running water and then left on the boiler or airing cupboard to dry out

Tea and Coffee are especially bad when people take sugar in them as it is a lot more conductive

 

[Nomad]

If using water to clean it up, make sure it's 100% dried before you connect the power, I tried it on something and it popped whatever had shrinkwrap around it (I guess the shrinkwrap held the water and the magic smoke escaped along the wet bit)

A very helpful forum mainly for electric bikes but they will have the answers https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/whats-new/

How many wires go to the motor? If 2 it's a simple brushed motor, the more modern brushless motors often have 3 heavy wires + 5 or more thin signal wires.
You can test them if you have a multimeter but it takes time...

Hope you get it fixed, I'd be lost without my electric bike !

 

[Kram]

Id focus cleaning where corrosion goes accross pins on the ICs and small traces.

Ideally then you'd get the board reflow soldered with plenty of flux to re-wet all of the corroded joints. Flux is important, solder needs to be clean and fluxed to wet properly. There may be some on here with access to a proper temp controlled oven for it?
Some on the internet claim to have done done laptops and graphics cards in a domestic oven successfully but its a bit risky without accurate temperatures.