Wavecrest Labs Tidalforce B Battery Arrived!

I received the Wavecrest Labs B battery from Narayan yesterday. It is a thing of beauty! It fits onto a standard Topeak MTX rack which I happen to use with my Tidalforce S-750 frame to hold my Bosch Fat Pack 74V battery now! This is what it looks like on the bike. Very nice!

There is the standard Topeak catch on the front of the battery that latches on to the rack.

The B wasn't working (0V on the outputs) so I decided to open it up to take a look inside. Here's a shot of inside from the back.

You can see the NiMH cells inside. They are grouped into sixes which are glued into the case. There's a shelf on the inside where the BMS is located. It's a tight fit!

Here's the other end of the battery with the output leads. There's a hole in the case, but that can be easily patched.

While I had it open, I tried to give the battery a charge directly, bypassing the BMS. The battery had a voltage of 17.1V!

My Astroflight 112D NiMH charger didn't like it. It kept turning off showing a "no battery" status. I am having a problem with the "Start" button though. It's very intermittant and may need to be replaced soon. I'm going to give AF a call to find out how much it costs. It may also be that the Wavecrest BMS inside the battery is acting up. I need to figure out how to remove it from the circuitry. Here's a shot of the tight space where the BMS is located.

There are four holes in the top of the case that look as if something was attached there at one point, however, when you look through the holes, you can see directly to the wires and batteries inside. Strange!

Here are shots of all four sides of the case.

Finally, here are some more shots of the case.

I expect to receive a TF A front hub battery shortly so photos and a take-apart of that shortly!

Ambrose