EGO Gen3 Pack Repair #2

[@Cubiceng1]

Another great informational video. Thanks. Without an adapter board the best way to mount the replacement coil would be to dead bug it (mount it upside down) and solder wires from the pins to the correct pads. It will slightly change the inductance but should be fine.

[@ThriftyToolShed]

That is exactly how I would do it. I may have to do that on my next one that possibly has the same issue. Thanks for your kind comment!

[@sixtyfiveford]

Great info. I've worked on a handful of these 56v Ego packs now. The last one I did had a low cell set though in isolating them and charge/ capacity testing them they were good. So possibly a bad BMS circuitry. I sent it out to a family member to use/test but feedback from them is pretty non informative. I've had a few with good boards/bad cells I sold on ebay and ones with bad boards I salvaged all the cells. I'll have to keep this transformer in mind as I think I have 3 packs waiting for me to look at right now.

[@ThriftyToolShed]

Thanks man!

[@ElectromagneticVideos]

Amazed how the conformal coating can be easily removed. Years ago had customer who decided it would be a good idea to cover the embedded motherboards in a product we shipped them with conformal coating. Caused numerous failures due to overheating of some of the the ICs that no longer had free airflow - what a mess that was!

[@ThriftyToolShed]

Excellent example of unintentional consequences of covering electronics. I bet that was a mess. How easy was it to remove? I have seen a little bit of that and more issues with the design issues of trying to pack too many components in a small area. I am thinking of testing out the Raytech Magic Power Gel to use to replace the coating on these boards. Have you ever used it? I have been asked many times about what is best to use as replacement of the silicone coating on these boards and I have mentioned the electronics grade silicone possibly, but I believe it will be very difficult to work with afterwards if needed to go back in. The silicone type coating originally used on these boards is very unique in the way it removes easily to me. The power gel seems to be reusable, but it may be a sticky mess? I may have to do some testing on a couple different kinds and see how it works out? You would actually know much more about this testing though, have you ever thought about a conformal coating comparison video? Just a thought...

[@ElectromagneticVideos]

@@ThriftyToolShed Well the solution was to replace the motherboards with new ones and throw out the failed coated ones. Was a lucrative customer and they were told "dont do that again" so it was a cost od doing business thing. That really my only experience with conformal coating - so you probably;y know more about it them me. I would think this biggest issue besides it providing an insulating layer around already hot components is making sure doesn't corrode anything on the circuit board over the course of many years. The silicone coating they use must be unique as you said - the acidic smell from some home waterproof silicone caulking is probably corrosive to some extent. I had never heard of Magic Power Gel - looks like a neat product for the right situation. Comparison video - hmm - maybe sometime we do a joint one on that?

[@ThriftyToolShed]

@@ElectromagneticVideos We can do that for sure!

[@ElectromagneticVideos]

Great! maybe sometime this fall!

[@ThriftyToolShed]

@ElectromagneticVideos Sounds great!

[@MrNfury8]

You are incredibly insightful, thank you for sharing 🇦🇺

[@ThriftyToolShed]

Thanks so much for your kind comment!

[@MikeTwoPoint0]

Ego will make these harder to repair with each iteration.

[@robertgreen4050]

Great job enjoyed it

[@ThriftyToolShed]

Glad you did. Thanks for your kind comment!

[@markgilbert9930]

Nice repair. I wonder what is killing the x-formers..

[@ThriftyToolShed]

Thanks. I wonder if more LEDs in the newer Gen3 boards are harder on the same style transformer current wise with 5 instead of 2. I also wonder if dropping the battery could cause this by breaking the very fine wires on the windings to the feet. I have noticed some broken for sure. The potting helps some but maybe not completely . The older boards also had this problem, but did not seem as common of a failure point on them to me.

[@jdmccorful]

Would wonder if EGO knows they have a problem. It will take some time to see if fix works but could be "Covid" era sloppy engineering . Enjoyed watching, you're telling me potentials with my EGO blower. Thanks!​@ThriftyToolShed

[@Cubiceng1]

Has anyone in a state that has enacted a Right to Repair law ever asked for schematics and parts list? I know NY already has a law that took effect in March of 2023 and CA has one that takes effect 7/1/24.

[@ernestol.guerraa.4040]

@thriftytoolshed why don't we all get in contact wit one manufacturer and get the transformer build to our specs for us; will that be to imposible to do?

[@ThriftyToolShed]

I think it is possible if it is enough of a need and no one else after seeing all of this can come up with a different option!

[@johnebhardt5385]

Are all the gen 3 BMS boards the same no matter the size of the battery pack?

[@ThriftyToolShed]

They are different. As far as I know they have always been different. The main difference is the pack communicates to the tool what size the pack is. The 2.5 packs do not have the middle boards for temperature monitoring as the 2P and larger packs do. So less wires on those (same connectors though). The main difference is the microcontroller program. The newer 10Ah and 12Ah packs have fuses that can be blown by the BMS for protection so that is also a difference between the sizes.

[@TomacFixesStuff]

I'm about to pull apart a gen2 7.5ah battery that shows green and fully charged but goes red after only a minute or so in the push mower. Any suggestions on what to look for?

[@ThriftyToolShed]

I would check how balanced the cells are. It is a 14S pack so 14 groups of cells in series. They are all monitored back to the board and once one group pulls low it will give that error. Most likely some cells have lost capacity. You could get lucky getting the cells back balanced, but many times the capacity has just dropped too low and cell replacement is meeded. I will show going around the board and testing the individual cells groups in the next video once I get it edited. I also shared this years ago on some older EGO pack repair videos. I just go around the test points on the board once the silicone is removed. You can do it by separating the pack halves and checking at the cells also of course.

[@baddriversofcolga]

I just had that problem, and I took the battery apart as much as can be done easily and put it back together and magically it started working fine again. Seems to be some kind of connection issue or something...

[@waynetaylor2784]

Any idea if you can buy those transformers ?

[@ThriftyToolShed]

No not just like it just the ones as mentioned in the video that Andrey shared that we would have to use bodge wires or adapter board because the pin out is different.