Help needed troubleshooting a water damaged ebike.

M

madnomad

1 W
Joined
Oct 16, 2014
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63
Location
UK
Hi guys.

Storm Frank was too much for my bike and it died in the middle of a torrential storm. I've taken the cover plate off my hub motor and left it in a warm dry place to dry out for a few days but its still not working. The CA looks like its working fine, so I guess the battery must be fine as well, which leaves either the controller or the hub motor. When I disconnect the motor from the controller, it spins smoothly in both directions, however, when I connect the controller, it doesn't spin in reverse. It vibrates and feels stiff to move the wheel in reverse. It feels like the magnets are engaged or something. The same thing happened a few months back when I accidentally severed the cables where they come out of the axle. Because the positive and negative cables were connected, it made it so the wheel wouldn't easily spin in reverse.

So it seems to me, that because the motor is fine when its not connected to the controller, it is probably the controller that has suffered the water damage? Does anyone know what I'm talking about? :)

How do I find out where the problem is? Anyone have any ideas?
 
Sounds like you've gotta geared hub motor and yes, the controller is probably pooched. Open the controller and take a look inside.
 
Suspect mosfets, give this a whirl.

How's your waterproofing from the motor phase wires to the controller? Do you have gaskets/sealant on your controllers panels?

I've been through some pretty deep puddles in Norfolk (20 cm depth at speed in the dark...) and my HS3540 was fine for the rest of the 20 mile journey onwards. Was your hub damp inside?
 
Before you do anything else open up your controller and see if it is still wet inside. If it is dry at this point then you have probably fried one or more MOSFETS. If it is wet, then dry it out completely and test the MOSFETS per the instructions posted above.

There is a chance you have a wonky connection in your wiring harness as well so double check all of your connections! The vast majority of the time I have had issues it has been wiring related and not actual component failure. Please note that a wiring short could have caused your controller to fail or could cause the motor to not spin freely if you have a steel frame and it is shorted in the right (wrong?) spot.
 
Also remember that water wicks up the wires so they can be wet inside and corroding; if there is water present at the connectors (especially if they are "sealed" but not actually waterproof), there may be a connection between wires sufficient to cause the controller to be doing something it shouldn't, like activating the ebrake, or the antitheft, etc.

So just thoroughly dry everything first, wait a while, then dry it again (a hair dryer on low for long enough will do it, if it's too humid / cool to dry out naturally...just don't get things hotter than it is comfortable to keep your hands on, and you shouldn't damage anything).
 
Yep, not dead till it's dried and dead. But if you powered up a wet controller, it may have killed it. Or it died during the storm.

Even in my dry climate, I really try to avoid mounting a controller in a wet location. My favorite spot is kind of under my ass if I'm riding in the rain, with a fender between it and the wheel.
 
OT, but on the SB Cruiser, they're between the rear wheels, under the cargo bed, far enough toward the center away from the wheels to avoid the splashing so far. Not that it rains much here, but this whole week is rainy, so it's getting tested on every commute. :)

On CrazyBike2, I mounted the Grinfineon controller just below the front BB where the frame spreads out, and water ingress eventually killed it's water-resistant switch, though the rest of the controller is fine and dry inside, once I bypassed the switch on the end.
 
amberwolf said:
On CrazyBike2, I mounted the Grinfineon controller just below the front BB where the frame spreads out, and water ingress eventually killed it's water-resistant switch, though the rest of the controller is fine and dry inside, once I bypassed the switch on the end.
Click to expand...

I have a grinfineon that had the switch die as well. I Just joined the leads, put it back together, and haven't looked back...
 
Cheers for your help guys. I've tested the controller with a multimeter and yeah, it looks like the mosfets have blown. I guess I'm going to have to get a new one.
It's a BMC 50a controller. Does anyone here sell them in the UK?
 
You don't need to use a BMC controller. Anything that runs at the necessary voltage and amperage for sensored BLDC motors will work. Just make sure it has all the features you currently use/need. Also, I hope you were limiting it with your CA... 3000W+ is way too much to be feeding a geared hub motor for reliable operation.
 
ecycler said:
You don't need to use a BMC controller. Anything that runs at the necessary voltage and amperage for sensored BLDC motors will work. Just make sure it has all the features you currently use/need. Also, I hope you were limiting it with your CA... 3000W+ is way too much to be feeding a geared hub motor for reliable operation.
Click to expand...

Yeah it was limited but I cant remember what to and I cant check at the moment because its all in bits. I'll probably just stick with exactly what I had before because the controller was mounted on top of my battery and I don't want to have to tap in some more holes if the mounting points are different.... unless its all moved on in the last 18 months and theres something better I can get now. Is it worth me looking around? Are there controllers that would be better for my BMC v4c than the BMC controller?
 
Before getting a new controller it's worth just replacing the MOFET's. Replace each one on the unservicable phase, you can manually check each one, but for the couple of quid for a few fet's it's worth it. Plus, you wouldn't want to blow a shiney new controller if the problem isn't sorted :wink:.

When I replaced mine, it damn sight easier to just cut the legs off each U/S FET and heat/push the remaining leg out. Clean the area, flux, solder the new MOSFET's in, clean the flux residue and bosh a hopefully happy controller, that you've stripped, waterproofed and happy to fix the issue when it happens again :D.

With a phase down it could have damaged more than just the FET, but for the sake of a less than a fiver vs a whole controller... Just giving info there is no right or wrong 8). These guys responded quickly when I inquired about a motor. Also, depending on your avg speed as ecycler says any generic controller will do depending on your power requirements.

* Oh i see your sig 58v, scrap my links :wink:.
 
Have you opened it up yet? Will likely need MOSFET’s but it would be good to dry/clean it out ASAP in the event you want to repair it at a later time.

Repair is a viable option. Perhaps buy replacement and then work/learn repairing this one. Maybe wind up with a spare?
 
I guess its worth a try. Soldering really isnt my strong point though but i know someone who's pretty good at this kind of thing. Does anyone know what rating mosfets I need to buy to replace them?

I've just been checking to see if anything good has come out since I bought my kit 18 months ago. I've just found the Bosch Nyon Performance. Looks pretty snazzy! Am I right in thinking it does the job of the CA and controller? Has anyone got any experience with them and do you know if its easyt o make it work with my existing battery and motor?
 
Ykick said:
Have you opened it up yet? Will likely need MOSFET’s but it would be good to dry/clean it out ASAP in the event you want to repair it at a later time.

Repair is a viable option. Perhaps buy replacement and then work/learn repairing this one. Maybe wind up with a spare?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm thinking thats what I'm going to have to do. I really can't be without my bike for much longer...
 
The deal with soldering is that there’s much junk electronics in the trash which can serve as training props. Component soldering is really a matter of practice, practice and more practice. It’s not hard or even expensive (you don’t need the latest, greatest soldering station). You just need practice and a few pointers along the way - youtube.

But if someone relies on their eBike for serious commuting they owe it to themselves to keep spare motor, controller, throttle, maybe extra battery pack on hand.

But then what usually happens is that with those extra parts laying around you eventually stumble across a good candidate for conversion and realize you might as well assemble a complete 2nd bike. That’s the beginning of the end, LOL….

I can’t stress enough the benefit of having more than one operational eBike. Hell, even just a flat tire or sticky brake, etc., no problem swap the battery pack over and get out there.

And if you manage to work out more than one battery pack you can always offer someone to go riding with you. Win win!
 
Ykick said:
But then what usually happens is that with those extra parts laying around you eventually stumble across a good candidate for conversion and realize you might as well assemble a complete 2nd bike. That’s the beginning of the end, LOL….

I can’t stress enough the benefit of having more than one operational eBike. Hell, even just a flat tire or sticky brake, etc., no problem swap the battery pack over and get out there.

And if you manage to work out more than one battery pack you can always offer someone to go riding with you. Win win!
Click to expand...

Truer words have not been posted on here in a while, hahaha. I got bit by that bug.
 
ecycler said:
You don't need to use a BMC controller. Anything that runs at the necessary voltage and amperage for sensored BLDC motors will work.
Click to expand...
Since you have a geared hub and a BMC controller, I'll make the leap and guess you have a BMC motor as well.

BMC motors have been notoriously difficult to drive with generic controllers that are perfectly capable of driving other motors - one of the Great Mysteries here on ES that was a topic of discussion some years back. If your FET replacement efforts fail, a BMC controller is certainly a safe bet as a replacement. Other proven alternatives are the Infineons (actually Xie Chang) controllers from Lyen.com or EM3EV.com - the 12FET models are a good choice - (these are not quite the same as seemingly similar Infineons from other sources). The sensored Grinfineons from ebikes.ca should work as well since the EZEE motor is identical in many respects to the BMC motor. Beyond those choices, you are moving into uncharted territory...
 
Yikes. I have never had one of those and had seen references to this before, but totally forgotten or shrugged it off. Thanks for setting it straight!
 
teklektik said:
ecycler said:
You don't need to use a BMC controller. Anything that runs at the necessary voltage and amperage for sensored BLDC motors will work.
Click to expand...
Since you have a geared hub and a BMC controller, I'll make the leap and guess you have a BMC motor as well.

BMC motors have been notoriously difficult to drive with generic controllers that are perfectly capable of driving other motors - one of the Great Mysteries here on ES that was a topic of discussion some years back. If your FET replacement efforts fail, a BMC controller is certainly a safe bet as a replacement. Other proven alternatives are the Infineons (actually Xie Chang) controllers from Lyen.com or EM3EV.com - the 12FET models are a good choice - (these are not quite the same as seemingly similar Infineons from other sources). The sensored Grinfineons from ebikes.ca should work as well since the EZEE motor is identical in many respects to the BMC motor. Beyond those choices, you are moving into uncharted territory...
Click to expand...

Cheers Teklektik! Yeah think I'll just buy a new BMC controller. I'll try and fix my old one and I'm bound to frock it up, so better just to buy a new one now. It will be good practice and if I can make it work again I'll give it to my mate because he's going to buy one soon.

Thanks for your help everyone. I'll probably have more questions when I get around to trying to fix it.
 
Hello again everyone.
I've received my new BMC controller, but there seems to be something wrong. Its identical to my previous one- 38-60VDC, 50A, but for some reason my bike wont go any faster than about 17mph, and there's a delay in acceleration when I increase throttle. It used to do about 33mph (the motor is a BMC v4C). I've contacted the guy who sold it to me and he said I should play with the shunt and calibration settings. I've had a look at the guide but I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Currently my cal - rshunt setting is 1.220 mOhm and the Cal - V scale is 31.16 v/v, but I have no idea what that means. :( Can anyone help?
 
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