regeneration with "cheap big" hubs -- just the controller?

There are a lot of the $150-$200 kits for a 36V-48V rear/front hub, the heavy ones that are like 15 pounds or so.

Many don't say if they support brake regeneration or not.

But I'm curious - for these, like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073JCZWKW/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2

is it usually just a question of the controller that's hooked up to it? It seems from reading that the hubs are usually just dumb, with the windings/hall sensors/and mechanical stuff inside, and the wires come out and the only electronics are really outside of the hubs.

So then if someone wanted to add regeneration to these, you would just add a new controller that supported it.

Is there a nice list of cheap controllers out there somewhere? Maybe these types of hub motors are going out of style because of how heavy they are? Because it seems like everyone is selling them for like $150 or so.

Thank you for help!!

Any direct drive motor (no gears inside) can support regen. It's the controller that has to have this function. Most of the cheap controllers don't have it.

There are a wide variety of controller options that do support regen. I have a 12FET version from PowerVelocity that works great up to 2kW. These are some of the least expensive ones that still have a decent regen function.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75888

fechter said:

Any direct drive motor (no gears inside) can support regen. It's the controller that has to have this function. Most of the cheap controllers don't have it.

Click to expand...

The dirty cheap BMSBattery S/Kunteng motor controllers starting at $20, do support regen. Also we now have our own OpenSource firmware for them and with regen working -- but still developing firmware for now.

fechter said:

Any direct drive motor (no gears inside) can support regen. It's the controller that has to have this function. Most of the cheap controllers don't have it.

Click to expand...

I would note that a lot of cheap ebikes have controllers that can support regen but it's not wired to the brakes (to save money on the levers.)