Internship Context and Purpose 

Edison Bicycles is an electric bicycle company with an emphasis on hyperlocal sales. Edison is changing the way people view electric bikes; instead of a heavy, lunky, motorcycle feeling bike, Edison prioritizes keeping the weight and shape of the bike as close to a normal bike as possible. The sales location handles all storefront sales of new bikes, and the service center is the location for maintenance appointments and bike assembly. 

A big goal for Edison has been maintaining a great relationship with all of the customers, and that is shown in multiple different ways. For example, you can trade in your old Edison when you upgrade models, and that old bike will be going to a future "bike library" for Drew students. In the service department specifically, instead of charging as much as possible to boost profits in the short term, keeping service appointments affordable maintains a relationship that boosts word of mouth sales.

We use many different tools at the service center, including soldering irons, spoke testers, and wrenches. We are currently working on setting up a Rigol battery tester to be able to send reports of customer's battery performance as a part of service. The software Simple Talk AI has become our new system for mangaging appointments, and it uses AI to filter out calls to Edison.

BMS Repair Deep Dive

Project Description

A Battery Management System (BMS) is the electronic brain that oversees a battery pack. Its main job is to monitor and protect the battery cells by preventing issues like overcharging, deep discharging, or overheating to ensure safety, longevity, and optimal performance. When a battery has something go wrong, the BMS turns "bad" first and shuts off the battery. When someone brings in a bike with power failure due to a fried BMS, a repair can be done to put a new BMS in without replacing the entire battery. The project for me was to accomplish a BMS repair from start to finish and get the customer's bike back on the road. Being able to do repairs like this benefits Edison because the owner can work on management tasks that help the company run instead of devoting time to repairs, the shop stays less cluttered with bikes in need of repair, and Edison profits off of the repair. My role was to help take the battery out of the bike, remove the old BMS, solder the new BMS in, and reinstall the battery.

Process + Engineering Methods

To repair the BMS, first I had to take the faceplate off of the bike using a 5mm hex wrench. I then removed the charge port from the bottom of the downtube by unscrewing the bolt, which freed up space to slide the battery out. Once the battery was out, I disconnected all of the wires and bullet connectors that connected the battery and the controller. I then carefully cut out the bad BMS from the top of the battery pack, and soldered off the the connection points to the battery pack. From this point I essentially did everything in reverse, I soldered the connection points onto a new BMS, connected all of the wiring, inserted the now working battery pack, and installed the charge port and face plate. I didn't encounter many challenges during the repair, but I made sure to practice individual steps of the repair before trying it all at once. When testing the bike to make sure that everything was done correctly, I realized that the throttle sensor had disconnected during the installation, so I went back in reconnected it and everything worked well. 

Results + Impact

The result of my work was a successful BMS repair. This helped get a customer back on the road, generated money for Edison in service costs, and saved the customer from having to pay for a whole new battery. I learned that engineering in the workplace can be used to help others along with saving money for the company you work for, by turning big problems into cost effective solutions.

Evidence of Work

Engineering Skills Development

1. Engineering Design Process

I worked on the development of a hidden Airtag holder for the bike, so that if someone was to steal a bike it could be tracked without the thief knowing. 

2. Electrical Tools

I used solders for repairs on things like a BMS and other wiring fixes.

3. Communication + Teamwork

I co-built many bikes for maximum efficiency, and helped with certain steps of repairs when needed. 

4. Data Analysis

I am helping set up a battery tester to generate reports on customer's batteries.

Reflections

The most important thing I have learned during my internship has been that building long term relationships is more valuable than chasing short term profits. By charging fair prices for repairs, Edison earns the trust and loyalty of the bike community. I saw how this approach creates a business and environment that people feel comfortable recommending to others. Initiatives like the future Bike Library show that the company values helping people get on the road over maximizing every sale. I now realize that successful engineering is about creating solutions that benefit both the customer and the business.  In fact, Edison's newest A model was codesigned with a group of Edison super users.

I saw multiple different engineering practices/mindsets during my semester. For example, my mentor was able to repurpose an old charger by cutting half of it off and soldering it to another attachment. This way he could safely test batteries without risking frying a charger. My mentor is also working to find a way to repurpose battery packs if one cell in the battery goes bad. Resource efficient practices like these show me how a professional saves money and resources when possible by engineering solutions. 

One thing that surprised me about the engineering workplace was how accessible information is on the components going into the bike and how to work on them. For example, if I have a wiring question related to the controller for the bike, I could ask an AI system which color wire set connects to a certain port and it would be able to instantly tell me if I gave it specifics on my controller. Another thing that surprised me was that an engineering environment can also be a fun and enjoyable place to work. In my head, I pictured it being a quiet workplace, but it can actually be the opposite. While working, we often conversate about life and even occasionally shoot a basketball on the mini hoop!

This internship influenced my future goals by shining a new light on what an engineering career can be. People often talk about engineering as one of the hardest careers with little fun, and while running a business like Edison is definitely not easy, is seems like a very fun and rewarding way to participate in engineering. I have seen how engineering can have very positive and important impacts in ways other than just biking. As a biking example however, Edison worked with Georgia Tech to design the new bike frame to be accessible to more people than ever before while still passing high standards of frame integrity. Projects like this have positively influenced me to become an engineer in the future. 

A future student in this internship should be ready to learn with an open mind, because many people including myself were not familiar with how electric bikes truly work before starting. The student should also be open to partake in the many different possible aspects of the internship. This includes building bikes, repairing bikes, working at the sales location, and anything else that comes up like unique projects. Overall, the student should go into the internship knowing that there is a learning curve and that messing up can and will happen and not to be afraid to try things with repairs, because the work environment is very positive and supportive.

STEAM Career Day Slides

Below is my STEAM Career Day slideshow. I gave this presentation is the middle of the semester to both the elementary and junior academy students at my school. I gave this presentation to show what I was doing in my internship and show what students can do if they choose the engineering pathway at Drew. This connects to my internship experience because I was able to teach kids about Edison and who Edison is, and multiple students spoke out and said that their families owned Edison bikes.