Hi guys,
I have owned a SmartPie 5 (front wheel motor) with the small 36v bottle battery from golden motor for a few months now. Initially, pretty positive experience for the 25km pedal assisted commute, although occasionally the battery cut-off would kick in after riding for about an hour, even when drawing less than 5 amps. I found this a little worrisome, as by my back of envelope calc's, it meant I was only getting 4-5ah out of the battery when it is rated for 8ah. However, since my commute is just under an hour, I stopped worrying about it, and was just careful to keep power usage low near end of the ride.
![Shocked :o](https://goldenmotor.com/SMF/Smileys/default/shocked.gif)
But the past few days, it is now cutting out when drawing 5amps only a few minutes into a ride
![Cry :'(](https://goldenmotor.com/SMF/Smileys/default/cry.gif)
My suspicion is a bad cell in the pack, or perhaps a faulty
BMS not load balancing the cells correctly?
Before I open up the pack and start testing cells, can anyone offer me advice on the most likely scenario, and can I pursue an RMA with GM (I bought directly from goldenmotor.com)? The battery cost quite a bit, but return postage to my part of the world would eat up over half price of a new unit so my options are a little screwy - downside of long distance internet purchases I guess...
Any comments appreciated
![Cheesy :D](https://goldenmotor.com/SMF/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif)
Thank you,
Damian