Help me Endless Sphere forum - you're my only hope

Have a kit that a local shop that hasn't done e-bikes before installed for me, but it's not working. I couldn't even get the LCD to turn on even if it and the battery were the only things connected to the controller. I presume that I am correct that if the LCD won't even turn on it's safe to say either the controller or the LCD are messed up, and I'm probably SOL anyway.

Album of images of the important pieces at:
http://imgur.com/gallery/UqRKW

Starts with a picture of my old controller after removing to do this upgrade (which obviously was needed based on this picture), and then pics of the LCD panel (front and back with part/serial number), controller (couple pics with model info) and then some battery and battery cable pics.

Shop did not put the chain and pedals back on because the new hub is a bit wider and the old gears wouldn't fit. They are supposed to order some on Monday, but at the moment I have an e-bike that doesn't e or bike. I am back down to only the one car (which my wife has to drive since she is an amputee) and so can't take the bike anywhere. Only places I know of that actually work on such things are in Austin - while I live in SA.

Looking at the pictures, any idea of what I might be able to do? If not, anyone based in Austin or SA who would be willing to come pick it up, get it all sorted out, and return it for a couple hundred plus parts? If not, any where you think I can sell everything for even a fraction of what I paid for it all so that I might be able to get a bike again in a few months?

Regardless I guess I will be walking to work on Monday. While it's only 10.5 miles, the local bus routes make it a 2.5 hour journey, and Goggle claims I can walk it in about the same time.

Hope someone can help, and I guess this just proves some people shouldn't try to roll their own

Looks to me like something has gotten pretty hot.

First, get the drive wheel off the ground and see if it will spin easily. If not, disconnect that big white connector in the first photo. Then, see if the wheel will spin. If it takes some effort to spin=turn it, one or more phase wires are shorted. If it spins easily, looks like the Battery ? connection has arced pretty good. That's the one that shows one end with 2 contacts in it.

Did you maybe plug it in backwards and get a mighty surprise ??

Is the battery really charged ? These things might get you started in locating the problem.

Someone smarter than me should drop in at any time to go further.

Man, Condolences.
Looks like they fried things. No way to tell what is destroyed with those photos.
You will need to get a multimeter at the very least before anyone can help you diagnose.

You can get one cheap at Harbor Freight, Radio Shack etc.

If your local shop did that though, they should be liable, whether or not they had experience, unless you signed a 'hold harmless' agreement before you talked them into working on it.

For those that have replied already, AFAICT from his post text the first pic of the melted ocnnector/wires is NOT of his new controller, but of the old one. However, it is still possible that it is related to what's wrong, indirectly.

EwanG said:

Have a kit that a local shop that hasn't done e-bikes before installed for me, but it's not working. I couldn't even get the LCD to turn on even if it and the battery were the only things connected to the controller. I presume that I am correct that if the LCD won't even turn on it's safe to say either the controller or the LCD are messed up, and I'm probably SOL anyway.

Click to expand...

I guess not all the pics are loading for me; I usually have troulbe with external picture sites. If you could upload images directly to the forum I almost always can see those. But the pics that do load don't show me anything useful in troubleshooting so far, just pics of hte items themselves.

I'd recommend getting a voltmeter out and checking for power at first the controller, and then at the LCD (you'll have to check all the wires unless you have a diagram that shows which are which; put your meter black wire on your battery black wire to give it a ground reference to everything).

My first bet is that your battery is not actually putting out voltage either at all, or else not when the controller is attached and "on", with it's load on there. If that's the case you may have to open the battery up to find out why, if the controller is new and known to be good. (if the old controller shorted out, it oculd've blown a fuse in the battery, or damaged the BMS, or left the BMS in a "protect" state that prevents it from outputting anything until it is reset by disconnecting it from the cells, letting it sit for a bit, then reconnecting it).

Second guess would be the controller is not yet turned on. For instance, on my Fusin kit that has an LCD, I have to press and hold a button or button combo (I forget which) on it's little separate button pad in order to turn on the system. Yours appears to have a Power button (circle with line) that might have to be held down a certain amount of time, or in combination with another button. It's also posible that to even get that to work it might also require a "keyswitch" wire to be hooked up to power--this is usually a thin red or orange wire from the controller that has no other matching connection, but not all controllers have this. I don't remember if my Fusin did or not.


Beyond that, if the new controller never evne turned on at all, ever, then it could jsut be defective from the factory. Most commonly it's wires broken off at PCBs inside things, or else broken inside the insulation somewhere along hte cables, or contacts backed out at connectors, or wires not crimped into the contacts.


But you'll probably need to use a voltmeter to test to find the problem, regardless.

Yeah, Amber, I can see all the photos, but there is nothing useful in them, other than being able to tell that there was some zapping at the big Andersons and the connector between the motor and the controller has melted.

EwanG said:

Looking at the pictures, any idea of what I might be able to do? If not, anyone based in Austin or SA who would be willing to come pick it up, get it all sorted out, and return it for a couple hundred plus parts?

Click to expand...

Chalo is your guy, in Austin, just PM him and he can probably help, or turn you on to someone who can.

First picture was of the OLD controller as has been mentioned. Sorry that wasn't clear.

Pics are on Imgur as I wasn't aware of any way to put directly in a post? But the pics were designed to show the model information in case anyone was familiar with this LCD/controller/battery and might know of any particular tricks or issues to look out for.

One remaining question is - am I correct that I should be able to turn on the LCD if it is connected to the Controller and the Battery is connected to the controller, and assuming all three are working? I am reasonably sure the battery is fully charged, and so presume that one or the other of the other two was shipped DOA. But don't want to presume that if you "have" to have something else hooked up first.

Short of that, sounds like I am SOL for at least the next few days. Oh well...

Chalo has the bike shop you can get that thing to. Hard to say why the lcd won't light up. But Chalo will know a heck of a lot more than those other guys.

I suspect though, that your kit has always been a poorly matched set of stuff. Doomed by too big a motor, too small a battery, etc. Or maybe you just weigh a lot, and Austin has some hills.

Chalo will best be able to sort if it's sortable, and set you on the right path if you have bought mismatched stuff doomed to fail.

Do I understand the kit was missing a battery-controller power cable and somebody (possibly incompetent bike shop?) cobbled one together? Now, the system doesn't power ON at all? Geez, (sarcastically) I wonder what could've happened???

Kit building isn't for everybody and you need competent help - Chalo is the guy in your area.

First get volt meter,radio shack has some nice ones that sets the type of voltage ac or dc when you stick the probes to the power being tested. ask the guy how to use it if you don't know how and he will help. also this type of enclosed battery has a fuse and it should be on opposite side from the key switch.check it.

Some of the new controllers have that red(usually) ignition wire that you have to connect to the battery positive, else it won't turn on even though you have the positive and negative respectively connected to the controller... maybe that's your kind of controller?

I've fit a few of these for people. If you're in UK pm me your number and ill call you.

I have a small business doing ebike repair in Austin (as well as work for a big ebike shop here). I could help you if you came to Austin.

What kit is this? Where did you buy it? Those white connectors are not good for phase wires due to the higher phase amps (compared to battery amps). Is there also a hall sensor plug (5 small wire) on the motor?

Have a look here. Even if it's not the same controller, it should give you enough info toi figure it out. I'm sure there's people in SA that can help. Probably some ES members too. Add in San Antonio TX to the title of your first post to attract them.
http://www.conhismotor.com/ProductShow.asp?id=384

I can definitely help set the bike in order mechanically, and there is a certain amount of electrical troubleshooting I can do too (though veloman is probably better help for that). Contact me by PM if you like. I'm in central Austin. I'm also car-free, so I can't help you get to me.

Am I the only one who got the Star Wars reference?

http://www.yellowpages.com/san-antonio-tx/electric-bicycle

wesnewell said:

http://www.yellowpages.com/san-antonio-tx/electric-bicycle

Click to expand...

Most of whom won't even touch an ebike with a 10 foot pole. Unfortunately YP treats "bicycle" and "electirc bicycle" as the same.

Greyhound --- San Antonio to Austin, 12 round trips daily Only $12 round trip if you by it on line.
Take only the kit and put it in a suit case--Sit back and enjoy the ride.
Austin has great public transport to get you where you need to go once you get their.
Love Austin!! lived their for 5yrs

For the Rest of the Story...

Figured y'all might want to hear how it all ended up, and it also gives me an excuse to make a public thanks.

As suggested I contacted Veloman via PM, and got up there around 3pm last Saturday. By 5pm he had it all working. Turns out there were two main issues:

1) On this particular model the key on the battery has to be turned until it is aligned with the Red circle. I am not sure I ever tested it with the key turned to that, nowhere in the instructions does it tell you to do this, and on every other electric item I own a red circle means Off. So odds are that I was at least partly my own worst enemy.

2) Something was wrong with the throttle. Once it got power it kept going to a -1 error condition. Veloman had a thumb throttle available, and it worked like a charm.

Veloman also made sure to add on some torque arms to make everything work a little better.

Left for vacation the next day and only got home last night. But did spend some time getting the front disc break setup and working, and the bike got up to 30mph without straining too much. Of course this was in our neighborhood because I would never go that fast on a public street (cough, cough).

Anyway, I want to thank y'all again for your suggestions and support, and want to recommend Veloman if you are in Austin and need a fix!