Yescomusa.com 500 & 1000 watt 48v rear kit review

Gmihestean, looks like you are in good hands. Wesnewell is the yescomusa guru on this form.

Here is a picture of my new 1000w kit.
new controller and throttle.jpg

Some of the cheap ebay throttles need to be modified slightly. Last year I cut off the connectors to my broken throttle and switched them with some modifications to the new throttle. I think this one was originally wired for a PAS function. Here is a picture.
re wired ebay throttle.jpg

Good luck!
 
Tires, tubes, lights and battery updates.

Sad news, my 22k front wheel tube had to be replaced. It did not get a flat but I was having trouble getting air out (or in) and just ripped the valve off. I needed to let the air out so I could rotate the tire and straighten out the valve stem but the valve was stuck and I did not have the correct tools. Playing around trying to get air in, it started to leak slime.

front tire valve rotation.jpg

View attachment 18

fixing flat.jpg

View attachment 16

My back tire lasted 4000 miles. I have been averaging 1 flat a year for the last few years (knock on wood).

4k back tire with new cyclops.jpg


For daylight saving, I leave in the morning when it is still dark so I added another light in the back. These Harbor Freight Tools lights are real bright. I have one in the front too. Probably take them off in a few weeks.

rear light.jpg

View attachment 13

My Samsung 22p (15s 12p) battery is doing fine and still in almost perfect balance. I am noticing some drop in capacity but I estimate it is still over 90%. I have close to 12,000 miles and more than 230 round trip (50 mile) commutes. I will show some pictures and test results later.

*************************

I did some more testing of my 4 year old 48v 15ah ping battery using my 500w bike. For 2 years I used this battery to commute to work with both a 500w (20amp controller) and a 1000w bike (30amp controller) and bottomed it out on about half the time. About 10k of 14k was using this battery. For the last 2 years it has been on my weekend/500w bike on my balcony and getting about 25 miles a week. It is usually charged and ready to ride. I did not protect it with cardboard or plastic but did place a bag over it for camouflage. It does get moist when it rains but it is protected with a motorcycle cover. My current charger is slightly over the recommended charge, 7amps, but it seems to be fine because it tops off at 57.5 volts.

Last night I put my 59.2v power supply on it over night and did a test ride today to see how much the range it still has.

500w topping off.jpg

Today was in the low 70s with 10mph winds. I had to peddle because there were lots of people biking on the road but I tried hard to do as little peddle power as possible. Here is my map and stats:

ping 48v 15ah bike ride test 3-27-16.jpg

ping test stats 3-27-16.jpg

My odometer was about the same:

Start:

bike at 1502-7 miles start of test.jpg

End:

bike at 5034-2 at cut-off.jpg

I stopped at the gym, track, and the beach so it was not constant ride. When I got home I charged the ping up using both my mean well NES 350-48 to get the voltage to 57.5 and my ebay dc to dc converter to get the battery balanced at 59.2 volts. Here is the total watts:

total watts for this charge..jpg

I never measured this battery when it was new but this seems pretty good after almost 4 years.

Also, the Mean Well NES 350-48 has been an good deal for about $35.00 dollars it has lasted 3.5 years and gets this battery to 57.5 which is full but not balanced:

power supply meanwell nes 350-48.jpg

When charging, it tops out at 485w

485w into ping with nes350-48 power supply.jpg

View attachment 1

To get the battery balanced, I use this ebay converter with a 12v power supply set at 59.2 volts.

ebay dc to dc inverter with dell 12 supply.jpg

ping at 59.2 with ebay inverter.jpg

The LEDs use between 12 and 16 watts of power so you do not need to worry about a power supply climbing above the set HVC.

watts at 59.0 volts while balancing.jpg

ping at 59.2v.jpg


I am looking at the LG MJ1 3500mah for my next battery, maybe a 7 or 8p to get close to 10 pounds. Will report later.
 
Finally got the 1000w kit and trying to sort out the battery sizing. Is 15s about the optimal voltage to run through the stock controller? What your thoughts on continuous/peak amps? I plan on building using RC lipo packs but small capacity to start; something that will get around 20 miles on relatively level terrain.
 
At least one person has reported the kit without the display not working over 61.5V. I think the display kit is limited to 60V, so 14s may be a better choice for the stock controller..
 
windtrader,

I used 15 AH of HK lipo (Turnigy 15s) in my front handlebar bag for about a year. On warm days, I could easily get 25 miles with the 1000w motor if I kept it around 25mph. On cold days, when I was in a hurry, I would get about 17 miles with the same 1000w kit. For a 20 mile flat commute I would recommend 9 (3s,3p) of these:



You could start with 3 and add more as you go. I rarely had to balance but I usually under charged to about 62.5 or so. With the 15s pack I could get over 35mph when fully charged without peddling. A 3p 3s pack of these would weight about 13 pounds.
 
Thanks for the specifics. Your real world experience is pretty unique, especially as you post over the long haul. Given how many trips you make in a year, I'm confident these will work fine go get going.

I think 6 will get me going 55.5v and 10amps. 600 watts when charged to 60 should be plenty to work out the kinks.

Did you find premade cabling or make your own?

Lastly, the Mean Well charger is still the call? The datasheet on the NES 350-48 states max voltage at 56v. Does it charge the 15s pack to 60+ safe volts?
 
if you buy lipo packs with 4mm bullets like above photo you don't need extra cabling. The conectors will split in half and all you have to do is plug them into one another, + to - to get the config you want.
 
mine came from SoCal to NorCal in a couple days; that was free. I'd think not more than a couple more days since you are right up the same road.
 
OK. batteries arrived 6x 5s 5000mah. i was able to connect three in series using the stock connectors. Need to get a couple of the cable adapters to combine them in parallel.

Do I need to worry about the cell balancing or can I just charge the whole pack for now?

thanks
 
Hey windtrader, I assume those are LiPo's you are talking about. You need to read up on the LiPo threads before you burn down your house! And no I am not kidding!
 
Windtrader,

If you plan to bulk charge, you need to monitor the cells. It can be done with a volt meter but it takes a while to measure each cell (15x) and it is easy to accidentally short a cell and melt a wire. I use one of these:

battery-medic-1.jpg

Hobby King Lipos usually ship at about 3.8v a cell so when you connect them up (15s) it should read about 57v. That should be good for a few miles before you have to worry about charging.

Good Luck
 
Thank! I'll add the BMS to the next order. To use this you plug the BMS into each battery pack to check the voltage of each cell.

I'd like to get a Meanwell charger as you've had good luck with them. Which one should I purchase that will charge the initial 10a 15s pack and also a 15a 15s pack? This is for a bulk charge I assume. If the BMS detects cell voltage variance, will this charger work or is different or additional charger or balancer needed?
 
Windtrader,

The battery medic can be used to drop the voltage of a high cell, but I would not use it for that much. I use them to monitor the voltage. I manually raise and lower cells.

To lower the voltage of a high cell 5 to 10 Christmas lights work great. If 4 of 5 cells are reading 4.15, and one is reading 4.18, you want to drop the voltage of the high cell down to 4.15. A (parallel) group of lights will take 2 to 3 minutes. The battery medic might take an hour. Here is my set-up:

xmass light balancer.jpg
This is an 8p set of lights that works great. You need some lights, some solid 18g or 20g wire, and some tape or connectors. Here I am bleeding down cell 6.

View attachment 6
To raise the voltage of a cell is also simple. This is what I have been using:

1 cell lipo charger 4.18hvc.jpg
You can get 10 for about $5.00 on ebay

Here I have my medic on a 5ah 6s hobby King pack. Cell #1 is a little too low:

low first cell.jpg

So I need to charge cell #1 for about 20 minutes with the single cell charger to get it equal with the rest of the cells. I have one that is soldered but a few alligator clips work fine with some solid 18g wire.

1 cell charger in action.jpg

charging cell 1 for 20 min.jpg

after 20 min.jpg

I have a lot of these single cell chargers and can send you one if you want. They take a mini connector (not a micro) from any usb port.

Just for you information, I commuted 2.5 years and almost 10k miles using hobby king packs, bulked charged every time, and only spent 15 minutes total balancing the packs. Some of the cells started to drop off at the low end so I had to stop riding as far, but I monitored/checked them a couple times each week and always under charged (62.5 or so). You may never need to balance them if your batteries are from a good batch. But you need to check them often, especially if you take a fall or the pack gets banged up. Also, I have a volt meter on my handle bars and on each charger so I always know my pack's voltage.

Here is my new school charging set-up:

new at work charger.jpg


I will report more on my experience with cheap 60v (400-600w) power supplies later.
 
Hi,

Again, thanks very much for the guidance.

With a regular voltage meter, I checked the voltage of the 6 packs. Four report 19.3v. The two packs other had one low cell each - .9v in one and 1.1v in the other. Does this indicate a bad battery pack and they should be exchanged or does a balancing of those cells correct the issue?

Trying to select and order the charger. I'm assuming the target full charged voltage for 15s is 60V, right? I searched Mouser for 60V chargers and the choice is limited and very expensive. Is that why you went two HLG 185-30 outputs run in series providing the 60V?

I read you have tried other cheap chargers with not so great results. Can you recommend other options or is the dual Mean Wells the most reliable and hassle free setup?
 
If you've got cells in packs that are under 2V then they need to be replaced. You have no business bulk charging if you don't know this. Rc lipo should never be taken below 3v per cell. And 3.5V lvc imo.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=47294
 
Thanks for the confirmation, Wes. Without any manual cell balancing what is the acceptable variance in cell voltage? Mcintyre did a great job of demonstrating easily understood way to make small adjustments. I'm not planning on initially doing any cell balancing; that is why I checked and asked. First step is getting the right battery connections to the controller and a solid charger in place. thanks
 
When I actually balance my packs, which isn't very often, I balance them to about .005V difference with a balance charger. When I bulk charge them, if they get more than .1V out I balance the packs. I have no idea why we are discussing this under this thread. It has nothing to do with the thread title and really belongs in the battery section.
 
Wes,
I had similar thoughts how my posts were going OT. I'll keep posts to comments related to the kit.

The kit is fully installed and working on a 15s 5a battery pack for testing. Couple install issues.

1) Rear gear changer levers were hitting the twist throttle. Took a Dremel to trim down the throttle for the required clearance.

2) The brake levers uses cable and the bike has hydraulics. The rear brake caliper rubbed against the motor so the supplied rear brake unit was installed but the cable is not provided.

3) Rear wheel needs to be trued up. Not that bad but when on the stand the wobble starts up around 25mph.

Other than that the kit was complete, installed easily, and documentation was pretty good.
 
mcintyretj said:
He also offered to rebuild the wheel when he noticed I had spokes that were not connected.
View attachment 2

He had a special ingredient/compound that he used to secure the spokes that was made by Boeing. He just squirted on when he got the spoke to the right tension.

I missed this when it was fresh.

This is a classic example of what happens when the spokes are too thick. When they're the right gauge, you don't have to glue the nipples on.
 
No, that's a classic example of someone that doesn't know how to tension spokes. Properly tensioned, the nipples won't come lose.
 
wesnewell said:
No, that's a classic example of someone that doesn't know how to tension spokes. Properly tensioned, the nipples won't come lose.

That's right, but with a caveat: Proper tension for 12ga spokes is about double the maximum rating for bicycle rims. So, proper for the spokes is highly improper for the rims.
 
12g spokes are 2.6mm. 13g spokes are 2.3mm. 14g spokes are 2.0mm. The tension required between them isn't that much difference.
 
12ga = .105" = 2.67mm

To get the same elastic stretch as a 2.0mm spoke at 100kgf tension, a 12ga spoke needs 178kgf.

A 15ga spoke needs 81kgf.

A 17ga spoke needs 56kgf.

Rims usually have a specified maximum tension of 100kgf. This tension is demonstrated to be reliable with normal length spokes and typical riding loads. To be reliable with heavier riding loads or shorter spokes, the gauge needs to be lighter, not heavier, to have the same elastic stretch.

It also helps to use a rim that's stiffer in the radial direction. In that case, less stretch is needed.
 
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