Faraday keeps switching on

[mmwolfe]

Hey all, my partner has a Faraday Porter S, which she's had for years and LOVES. Besides it being a great bike, it also has significant sentimental value.

Unfortunately, when she got the bike serviced a couple months back, the repair folks power-washed around the box on the back and some water snuck into a sensitive region. Ever since, the bike has begun to spontaneously turn itself on. When we turn it off, it turns right back on again. We've tried basic stuff -- charging the battery all the way, letting the battery run down, opening the back of the bike and unplugging the power cable, etc... -- but it's still doing it. The bike been drying out for months now, so it's not a question of water still being in there.

We're wondering if there's ANY way of fixing this, up to and including replacing expensive parts or finding someone, somewhere, to do a firmware update? We understand the simplest thing to do is to just get another bike but, again, there's sentiment here and the bike otherwise runs great, so we're loathe to toss it. Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[DieselTech]

1st thing I would do is ask them to repair the bike for free. I would think you should never power wash a ebike & a repair shop should know that.

 

[mmwolfe]

Yeah, good call -- thanks. I'm taking it back this week and will see what they say.

 

[DieselTech]

Yeah, good call -- thanks. I'm taking it back this week and will see what they say.

@HumanPerson has a electrical chemical cleaner that might cure it if they dont fix it.

But I would be yelling up a tree if some repair shop did that to my ebike. They should be responsible for repairs.

 

[mmwolfe]

Yeah, no, me too. A series of events meant that we couldn't bring it in right away, but I'm finally able to address it.

Oh, thank you! I'll hit them up.

 

[DieselTech]

Here is that chemical cleaner if all else fails. ACF-50 & its sold on amazon as well as other places.

 

[mmwolfe]

Oh wow -- I didn't know this was even an option. Thank you! Just so I'm clear, if all else fails, I can potentially use this to try to clean off corrosion from water damage on the circuit board or what have you?

 

[DieselTech]

Oh wow -- I didn't know this was even an option. Thank you! Just so I'm clear, if all else fails, I can potentially use this to try to clean off corrosion from water damage on the circuit board or what have you?

Yes you will have to open things up & use a q-tip to apply it to the critical areas. If @HumanPerson would show up, he can give us both a better understanding of what the best application method is.

 

[mmwolfe]

Huge thanks. Really happy to know if nothing else works, I can pull the rip cord on this.

 

[HumanPerson]

water damage and any type of oxidation is cause for new equipment in my opinion.

dry out the circuit board, go over it with a toothbrush and make sure it's not dusty then apply
that acf-50

I just use it on circuit board of a display after water ingress and oxidation after it had dried
so i cleaned it all up as best as i could and applied that acf-50 and the display is still on my black bike.
Q-tips and toothpicks..

Hope this helps

 

[mmwolfe]

Ah, thank you so much -- this is a huge help.

 

[HumanPerson]

the mushrooms told me to ride 17 miles in the rain, it was an uncomfortable ride LOL

 

[DieselTech]

the mushrooms told me to ride 17 miles in the rain, it was an uncomfortable ride LOL

Lmao was everything BLUE?

 

[Papa K]

Smelling the color orange?

 

[HumanPerson]

Smelling the color orange?

It smells like green

 

[James340]

I would open the controller and check for moisture.We had a recall "campaign"a few years ago over water in the ECM of Freightliner truck.The "repair"drilling a drain hole.The truck would randomly start.You could also install a battery kill switch to cut battery power to any electrical component

 

[Brent Wilkes]

Hey all, my partner has a Faraday Porter S, which she's had for years and LOVES. Besides it being a great bike, it also has significant sentimental value.

Unfortunately, when she got the bike serviced a couple months back, the repair folks power-washed around the box on the back and some water snuck into a sensitive region. Ever since, the bike has begun to spontaneously turn itself on. When we turn it off, it turns right back on again. We've tried basic stuff -- charging the battery all the way, letting the battery run down, opening the back of the bike and unplugging the power cable, etc... -- but it's still doing it. The bike been drying out for months now, so it's not a question of water still being in there.

We're wondering if there's ANY way of fixing this, up to and including replacing expensive parts or finding someone, somewhere, to do a firmware update? We understand the simplest thing to do is to just get another bike but, again, there's sentiment here and the bike otherwise runs great, so we're loathe to toss it. Any advice is much appreciated.

Were you able to have your partner's Faraday Porter S fixed? I washed mine and I am experiencing a similar problem.

 

[mmwolfe]

Were you able to have your partner's Faraday Porter S fixed? I washed mine and I am experiencing a similar problem.

So, I put this off for a few months and am literally ordering the chemical cleaner today. I'll give you an update when I can. Let me know if you have any luck on your end.

 

[Brent Wilkes]

So, I put this off for a few months and am literally ordering the chemical cleaner today. I'll give you an update when I can. Let me know if you have any luck on your end.

Well, I discovered that I can prevent my Faraday Porter S from turning on by itself by plugging in the power charger with the charger unplugged from the wall. Unfortunately, the blue light surrounding the power button still turns on. In addition, I was able to turn everything off by removing the seat tube access cover and disconnecting the black power cable or the green bottom bracket communications cable (the green color is inside the plug so you have to disconnect it to see which is which). Unfortunately, this is hardly a long-term solution, however, I am thinking of rigging a kill switch by running some extension cables outside of the seat tube access cover which I could plug and unplug relatively easily.

Since the green bottom bracket communications cable runs to the Torque and Cadence Sensors of the drive side BB assembly, I am also thinking of disassembling that and trying to dry it out in case water got in there and that is somehow causing the bike to turn on by itself.

I also read online that some people have had luck by using the bike for a while, running the battery down and charging it back up. However, I have done that three times now without success. The first time I ran the bike and charged it back up the bike would not turn back on, but I was able to get it to turn on again by disconnecting and reconnecting the black power cable via the seat tube access cover. Will keep it posted if I get it to work again.