Wiring for a wan Lian hub

[chrisjones]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and also new to electric bikes though I've been riding non-electric bikes for years. I'm starting a new job and I'll have a 15 miles commutes each way so I'm giving to give electric a go. I bought a second hand set of parts from ebay which I am hopping to get running but I'm having trouble connecting up the wiring. I realise its a fairly old system but for now I'm short on funds and hoping to get it up and running on a budget. E.S. looks like a great resource and I've spent some time searching through the posts but can't find details of the parts I have and how they should be wired together. In removing them from the bike the previous owner cut the cables and labeled some of them, but not all. I have fitted the rear hub to the frame and 90% of the wiring seems to make sense but there are a few spare wires and connectors which I'm struggling with!

To this end I was wondering if anyone recognises which brand / model of controller I have (picture should be attached)? I guess if I can find a wiring diagram for this it is the best place to start to understanding the wiring. It looks like the wiring has been altered a fair bit over the years and possibly isn't original.

If it is helpful the other parts are:

Wan Lian rear motor hub which has 5 wires coming out of the axle.

Battery pack with three chilwee 6-DMZ-7 lead acid cells which I guess are wired up in series to make 36V.

Wuxing throttle LT -14x

wuxing brake levers with sensors (I guess for cutting the motor power when braking?)


Any suggestions on how to work out the wiring would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Chris (Guildford, UK)

[dogman]

Wow, that's quite an artifact there bro. As in, how deep was it buried?

Well, heres the deal. two wires to the motor is definitely a brushed motor. Three wires to the motor is a sensorless brushless motor. Three wires plus 5 really skinny wires is a sensored brushless motor.

What the heck is 5 wires? You seem to have two red and two black, that would make some sense for a brushed motor with two sets of brushes, but ones I've seen have the y connection inside, and just two wires go in. What the 5th wire does beats me. Maybe an even more old timer ebiker will recognize this but I don't.

My suggestion is to remove the cover on the motor if possible. Then we'd at least be able to go, Oh! brushes. or no brushes. Only thing making sense to me is a sensorless brushless motor with wierd wire colors, and a temperature sensing cut off switch. So one of the red and black wires is the switch.

I can't read the writing on the controller. Any of it in english?

[chrisjones]

Thanks for the advice, I guess it's a little older than I thought! I had a try at unscrewing the cover on the hub but they seem pretty tight, possibly corroded. I'll have another go on Monday and post a picture if I can get inside.

Chris.

[TylerDurden]

My suggestion is to remove the cover on the motor if possible. Then we'd at least be able to go, Oh! brushes. or no brushes. Only thing making sense to me is a sensorless brushless motor with wierd wire colors, and a temperature sensing cut off switch.

Agree. Need to see da guts.

Also, might be helpful to edit the subject-line of the first post, so folks know what this topic is about... maybe something like: "Wiring for a Wan Lian rear hubmotor?"...

[d8veh]

I've seen something similar before. The controller was inside the motor so two of the wires (orange and black?) were for 36v supply and the other three wires for a throttle (red and black supply 5v from controller and blue signal to controller?). If it is like that, all your other stuff apart from the battery is redundant.

If you take the cover off the motor, you'll see if there's a controller in there that's probably blown - hence the additional kit, in which case wire your new controller directly to the two motor wires inside the cover and you'll then be able to use the external controller and other stuff.

[dogman]

That's a possibility.

NO WAY that guy sold you stuff that never did and never will work together. Even looking at the controller and seeing it's brushed or brushless in no way indicates it will run that motor.

Only one thing, unless somebody recognizes the motor, and that is to open it up and figure out what you have. I'm still guessing it's brushed, but it could have a fried internal controller. Right number of wires for power in and a throttle. If that is the case, converting it to an external controller should be cheap and easy.

[John in CR]

Don't need to open the motor. Guys around here are typically way too quick to open motors, and on an old motor like that you're just liable to strip the bolt heads, and in any event you break the factory seal. Put it on the bike and turn it upside down. Spin the wheel and use a multimeter to measure what comes out of the wires. I have a brushed trolling motor with 4 wires for 3 different speeds. Odds are your motor is brushed, and my guess would be 2 blacks for negative and 2 reds going to positive. Maybe the blue is for a lower speed but ???. Spin the wheel and measure across the different wires. Does the blue wire or any of the others by any chance have 5 small separately insulated wires inside?

Another quick way if you have the motor bolted on well and no chain on, is to use just one battery and very briefly connect positive to red and neg to black (whichever ones). By briefly I mean connect one and just brush the other briefly to the battery pole. If it spins, then it's a brushed motor, and you know the motor works, though that blue one is a question mark....heat sensor maybe. If it is a brushless motor the split second connection won't hurt it and it won't spin.

I really need a closer pic of the controller wires to make a determination, since I can't tell the wire count on that white plastic connector you don't have going anywhere. Are you sure the controller is original to the controller? It looks like maybe someone connected a brushless controller to a brushed motor and burnt the controller. If so, no worries, brushed controllers can still be had cheap.

[chrisjones]

Thanks for all the info guys. I wired up the system and I'm pleased to say the wheel turns. I'll try charging the batteries tonight to see how it runs.

Cheers, chris