Why such low power? 60v Lipo

I've been having problems w/ my controller, reasons which I wont bore you with but I recently received it back from Lyen. I hooked it up today with 60v nominal and was able to ride around, but it felt very very underpowered. On very flat ground I could start to pick up a little bit of speed VERY slowly, but as soon as I would hit any type of hill I would have to pedal to keep going forward, and it had a hard time even getting up my driveway without having momentum going into it. What could the problem be? One thing I noticed is that it's letting out a bit of a grunt when going really slow as it gets started. If I lift the rear tire (no load) and give a tiny bit of throttle, it will grunt/shutter as it starts spinning then pick up speed.
I would think that with 60v and a 20" wheel I would have plenty of torque, but it's seriously lacking. Any ideas? Lyen sent me a video of himself using my controller on a 48v setup and seemed to be cruising around just fine. Below is a list of what I have:

KMX Trike
HS3540 in 20" rear wheel
Lyen 18FET controller
60v nominal Lipo
CA


I should note that I had this exact setup going about 5 weeks ago with 100v and it had really nice torque. I was able to take on ANY hill.. then I believe I overheated the controller by pushing it too hard. Now I'm not even sure what to check!
Thanks,
Ryan

Bad contact anywhere?

Torque is generated by current, speed is generated by voltage, so if you have a connector that is too small, or overheating quickly and creating resistance, you'd get what you described.

Other than that though... Bad controller? No idea.

Since it's going forward, I can assume the phase wires are hooked up in the right order, right? I noticed that they were not hooked up correctly according to the colors when I got the controller back, so I tested each variation with a very slight twist of the throttle. The combination that I have right now worked best (forward moving, fast) with no load.. but one other variation did provide forward movement but not nearly as fast.. approximately 50% of the speed as I'm getting with the current phase wire setup. Does that all make sense?

Also, could this just be a VERY low setting on the controller? Maybe I upload a high amp setting? this is odd to me.

The windings in the motor could be a bit burnt- have you inspected them?

I haven't inspected the windings in the motor. I wouldn't think they'd be burnt from such a short (literally 10 min) ride I took the first time. Motor was performing great when the controller died.

Do you know what settings your controller has been set to? LVC?
Do you have a 3 speed switch?

cbr shadow said:

Since it's going forward, I can assume the phase wires are hooked up in the right order, right? I noticed that they were not hooked up correctly according to the colors when I got the controller back, so I tested each variation with a very slight twist of the throttle. The combination that I have right now worked best (forward moving, fast) with no load.. but one other variation did provide forward movement but not nearly as fast.. approximately 50% of the speed as I'm getting with the current phase wire setup. Does that all make sense?

Also, could this just be a VERY low setting on the controller? Maybe I upload a high amp setting? this is odd to me.

Click to expand...

How many amps was it pulling no load when you got what you think is the right combo?

Reading your first post I thought of hall/phase combos being wrong or bad connection.

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on this stuff but you could have a false positive and it still runs forward but with poor power and excessive amp draw.
I'd say check phases again and select the forward one that has the lowest no load amp draw.

Im not sure if i put a precharge on it but i hope you arent pulling power throught the precharge or powering the controller or ignition wire through it.

Have you tried reprogramming the controller to make sure the battery amps are set where you want/had them? Have you checked your CA (eg things like whether the RS shunt is calibrated properly, and that the low voltage limit is low enough such that it isn't causing the controller to cut out under load etc.?)

I haven't checked rshut value or total amps. I'll check both of those this evening when I get home. Also I'll upload a new program for the controller to make sure it's getting enough amps.

What are the current readings out of the CA?

icecube57

Click to expand...

Im not sure if i put a precharge on it but i hope you arent pulling power throught the precharge or powering the controller or ignition wire through it

Click to expand...

I would think you did as he was going 24s in the begining.
I don't think a precharge resistor would carry the currant, but don't rule it out.

Dan

The shuttering makes me think bad hall/phase combo.

I've seen controllers set at 5amps that turned the wheels as smooth as silk still with no shuttering.

Here are some of the settings from the CA
Max Throttle: 4.98V
Set RShunt: 1.333 mOhm
Amin: -0.49
Amax: 10.70
Vmin: 21.9

Everything here check out?

cbr shadow said:

Vmin: 21.9

Click to expand...

uh, that's not good. dead cells?

Is there any other reason voltage would be that low temporarily? I dont think there are any dead cells, and I keep an eye on the voltage to see if it sags while riding but it's staying at 65v

yeah, if the controllers on when you plug in precharge resistor. in that case, the Vmin 21 is no prob.

pics of your batts etc might help.

i always suspect wiring, and frayed line anywhere on the power leads could reduce current..

The precharge resistor is almost certainly why the min voltage is so low, then. Good thinking.
I'll get some pictures up of the wiring. I dont think anything is frayed, since everything is brand new.

What happens if hall sensor wires are crossed? What are the symptoms? I tried all (6) combinations with the phase wires (blue green yellow on controller, blue green yellow on motor).

cbr shadow said:

Here are some of the settings from the CA
Max Throttle: 4.98V
Set RShunt: 1.333 mOhm
Amin: -0.49
Amax: 10.70
Vmin: 21.9

Everything here check out?

Click to expand...

18 fet and only pulling 10.7amps? That doesn't seem right. What was it programmed too? Did Lyen confirm that is the right shunt value for that controller?

Gary

Lyen did confirm that the rshunt value should be where I have it. I think the amps are so low because I put this setting in a while ago to be very weak as to not burn anything up on my first ride. 10amps should still get me up my driveway though, i would think I'm going to bring it up to 40amps tonight and see how it goes.

cbr shadow said:

Lyen did confirm that the rshunt value should be where I have it. I think the amps are so low because I put this setting in a while ago to be very weak as to not burn anything up on my first ride. 10amps should still get me up my driveway though, i would think I'm going to bring it up to 40amps tonight and see how it goes.

Click to expand...

10amps is pitiful. If its not a bad hall/phase combo, I'd defo suspect that.