Re: KU63 KU93 KU123 controller hacking

stesteste

1 mW
Joined
Mar 19, 2012
Messages
13
hi i am buying a pro rider
( heres link)
http://www.proridermobility.com/detail.asp?productID=332 VOYAGER ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN BIKE ( heres link)
i asked for some info on the bike and this it what they said
We can confirm that it is a 36V 15Amp controller. There is no need to fit a bigger controller as a 250W peak motor(maximum allowed by LAW) at 36V is just under 7Amp at maximum – Ok peak can be a little higher on load but you are also restricted with a 10Ah Battery.
is the anything i can do to derestrict it ,i beleive it will do 18/19 mph but restricted to 15 uk law ( i will take pic of controller later) i can i change anything on controller to get 10amp or buy different one its only for work but would like to go 18/19 mph thanks in advance
 
hi i am buying a pro rider
( heres link)
hi i am buying a pro rider
( heres link)
http://www.proridermobility.com/detail. ... ductID=332 VOYAGER ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN BIKE ( heres link)
i asked for some info on the bike and this it what they said
We can confirm that it is a 36V 15Amp controller. There is no need to fit a bigger controller as a 250W peak motor(maximum allowed by LAW) at 36V is just under 7Amp at maximum – Ok peak can be a little higher on load but you are also restricted with a 10Ah Battery.
is the anything i can do to derestrict it ,i beleive it will do 18/19 mph but restricted to 15 uk law ( i will take pic of controller later) i can i change anything on controller to get 10amp or buy different one its only for work but would like to go 18/19 mph thanks in advance VOYAGER ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN BIKE ( heres link)
i asked for some info on the bike and this it what they said
We can confirm that it is a 36V 15Amp controller. There is no need to fit a bigger controller as a 250W peak motor(maximum allowed by LAW) at 36V is just under 7Amp at maximum – Ok peak can be a little higher on load but you are also restricted with a 10Ah Battery.
is the anything i can do to derestrict it ,i beleive it will do 18/19 mph but restricted to 15 uk law ( i will take pic of controller later) i can i change anything on controller to get 10amp or buy different one its only for work but would like to go 18/19 mph thanks in advance
 
hi i am buying a pro rider
( heres link)
http://www.proridermobility.com/detail.asp?productID=332 VOYAGER ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN BIKE ( heres link)
i asked for some info on the bike and this it what they said
We can confirm that it is a 36V 15Amp controller. There is no need to fit a bigger controller as a 250W peak motor(maximum allowed by LAW) at 36V is just under 7Amp at maximum – Ok peak can be a little higher on load but you are also restricted with a 10Ah Battery.
is the anything i can do to derestrict it ,i beleive it will do 18/19 mph but restricted to 15 uk law ( i will take pic of controller later) i can i change anything on controller to get 10amp or buy different one its only for work but would like to go 18/19 mph thanks in advance
 
Stesteste,

If you have one of the controllers mentioned in the original post then it comes equipped with a pair of speed limiting wires. With the wires connected the speed is limited, with them disconnected it is not.

IMAGE001.JPG

-R
 
I bought the ewayfarer from them for the wife, then the mother in law bought one aswell, they are great bikes for the money, hers did an easy 25+ miles on a charge and cruised at 17/18mph no problem. But what your interested in is can it be tweaked up a bit, i tried this by adding some solder to the shunt legs, on the first test ride it took off like a scolded cat for about 3 seconds then the bms tripped out (i believe all the different models use the same battry/bms) i kept reducing the amount of solder untill it would stay engaged, the added performance is usefull but not massive. it pulls hills better and accelerates better but the top speed is not changed much, max range is now 24 miles. I dont think it would be worth changing the controller as the batteries bms will be the limiting factor.
The batteries are very good, i have monitired them over the winter while the bike has not been used and it just holds the charge, i expected it to drop a little each month but this is not the case, it has been sat at 40v all winter.
The head lamp bracket broke but it was no loss as the light was pants and not worth having anyway but the rest of the bike is surprisingly good.
When we visited them they had all the models available for test riding and it looked quite a popular little business.

Cheers Simon.
 
thanks for reply
have you tried to derictrict seperating wires simon and how much solder did u put on the shunt when the bms trips out is it just a case of removing some solder
thanks for comments guys
 
I only added some solder around the legs of the single wire shunt to build a small fillet up, when this was too much i just melted it again and some was taken back on to the soldring iron, i reduced it untill it would not trip the BMS. I didnt disconect any wires as speed was not my concern, the small wheeled wayfarer model is fast enough at 20mph. They do pull more than 250w during accelaration as standard, it is quite sprightly now and fast enough, you would probably want more than the BMS will allow for the mountain bike though but taking it to the limit like i have is a good improvement.
I imagine that the cells are 1c so the pack is restricted to a 10a max current? 10a x 40v is 400w, this is about all you will get from the std battery BMS.

Simon.
 
On these sort of bikes, it's not the controller that limits the speed. It's the motor/battery.

Some controllers have a pair of wires to fix the speed to 15mph max. They're easy to spot because they're single wires. Most of the other wires are two or more to a connector, so, if you find two single wires connected, disconnect them and see what happens. The most you can expect is to go from 15mph up to about 18mph

You can increase average speed by adding some solder to the shunt in the controller, which gives more torque, as has been indicated above, but often the battery can't give much more and you run the risk of early battery demise and frequent cut-outs.

A very easy way to increase speed is to get a higher voltage battery. A 12s lipo pack at 44v will work with your existing controller and will give about 20% increase in speed (as long as the controller doesn't have speed limit wires connected). You might be able to go to 48v without burning the controller, but you'll have to look inside to see the rating of the capacitors. They need to be 63v or more. 48v will give a 33% increase in speed.
 
thanks very much some very interesting information given here 18mph on flat will do me just for going to work bike comes tomorow so i look in controller waiting for another member to post pic on how much solder to put on the shunt without it tripping the bms ,,,,,might make a fun project bike in the future for kicks
thanks for all replys,,, learning on each comment thx
 
stesteste said:
thanks very much some very interesting information given here 18mph on flat will do me just for going to work bike comes tomorow so i look in controller waiting for another member to post pic on how much solder to put on the shunt without it tripping the bms ,,,,,might make a fun project bike in the future for kicks
thanks for all replys,,, learning on each comment thx

Normally about 1/3 of the legth from one end. You have to be careful that ablob of solder doesn't form on the other side of the pcb and shorts out something. Solder will run through the hole with the shunt in when it's liquid. Turn the controller on its side to prevent this.
 
Hi, i have taken some pics of the shunt with the solder added, any more than this caused the bms to trip, and of the controller label, it doesnt have the white wires but there was a single blue wire that came out of the controller and also another it would plug into, these where allready disconnected, they could be alternative timing wires?

P1000123.jpg

P1000122.jpg


Did you get your bike today? are you pleased with it?

Simon.
 
Bike came yesterday fixed it all up mud guard was broke tested lights and pop, smoke tripped motor out. engineer coming on Tuesday peeved off
 
Has anyone experienced the KU 123 controller increasing speed as the throttle is turned then dropping speed a bit at full throttle. Max motor speed is at about 3/4 throttle.
I am running a bmc. Motor is unloaded in a stand. Hall type throttle connected.
Also on another note I assume the controller goes to maximum power mode when nothing is connected to the 3 speed switch plug.
 
The controller doesn't go to maximum speed with nothing connected to the three-speed switch. Sometimes you can get a significant speed increase, other times you get very little difference. It seems to depend on the exact motor/controller combination. You can get two of the same type of motors that behave differently, and the same with two of the same type of controller. Don't ask me how it works. It must be timing related. One 350w Bafang CST motor I had with a KU123 would only do 20mph (no load) in the middle position (nothing connected), but did 33mph (no load) in position three.
 
I wish I had bought a 3 speed switch. I will try to find one locally before making another bms battery order.
 
mr.electric said:
I wish I had bought a 3 speed switch. I will try to find one locally before making another bms battery order.
I believe you will find the 3-speed switch is just an SPDT center-off switch. Find out the connections from someone who has a production switch (a few minutes of multimeter work) and either just jumper it for 'High' or pick up a toggle at Radio Shack or the local auto or hardware store.
 
I will just use trial and error to find high then permanently connect those wires.
 
I don't know if you guys have noticed but I just received a new KU123 after I blew my last one.
This new one has changed a bit, there is now an easy way to convert the KU123 between 36v and 48v mode. You can now just merely disconnect a red wire plug and it changes to 48v mode which is good for me since I have both battery types. Also they changed the sticker, notifying buyers of the new option.


Some of the other leads have changed a tiny bit but I don't know what the difference is. One plug has two different plugs joined to the same 2-3 wires, not sure what its for.
 
mr.electric said:
I wish I had bought a 3 speed switch. I will try to find one locally before making another bms battery order.
You don't need a three speed switch. You can just shove a bit of wire up the connector. The black is the common wire, so connect each of the other two in turn to the black. One make it go slower and the other will make it go faster. If you decide that you want to keep it in either mode, you can cut the connector of and twist the wires together (or solder them) permanently.
 
What's the difference in the 36V and 48V settings?

My KU63 operates without a problem at 12s (50V fully charged)
So, I don't understand,what it does.
By the way, I received a new KU123 this week as well. Haven't tried it out yet, so I'm kinda curious
 
schwibsi said:
What's the difference in the 36V and 48V settings?

My KU63 operates without a problem at 12s (50V fully charged)
So, I don't understand,what it does.
By the way, I received a new KU123 this week as well. Haven't tried it out yet, so I'm kinda curious
The external connection is basically a jumper that brings an additional resistor in parallel to one in the voltage sensing divider.
Read all about it here:
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/13365-problem-ku123-controller.html
 
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