Shimano steps error E020… What can I do?

Last night, fortunately just after changing up ready to pull away again, my eBullitt started beeping and flashing “E020” at me.

Normally I would take it to the place I bought it and let them deal with it.
However, they’re closed till 11th Jan and and it’s my only transport other than the gravel bike and don’t much fancy sitting with all the mouth breathers on public transport.

Communication error between battery and drive unit.

Anything I can do?

Battery turns on when not connected to the bike.

Wiggle some cables?

Proper shitty timing…..

Overloaded the drum?

*based on old shimano knowledge, so suggest some internet checking/verification for your specific battery/model

There is (apparently/allegedly), a bms reset function that can be initiated.

See Merida manual (but yeah clean and check cables at both ends)
https://www.merida-bikes.com/en-gb/p/e-bike-systems/maintaining-your-shimano-steps-ebike-466.html

My levo had a leccy wobble with dirt between plug/connecter, ok once cleaned.

Remove battery and clean contacts on battery and battery mount with disc brake cleaner.

Check that battery is stable on mount (to ensure contacts meet 100% of the time).

Check condition of power cable between battery mount and motor, and check that the cable is correctly plugged into the motor.

If all above fails, you probably need dealer/supplier support.

If you take the plastic cover off the lh side of the motor then you can access all the connections there. The battery lead is the thicker cable that has a sliding connecter. I’d disconnect them all, clean them out and make sure they’re all seated correctly.

Also, there was a big update to steps last week that changed a lot of the parameters that usually bring up error codes. Download that and give it a try. There’s a good chance it’ll fix it.