My 48 v 1000 watt ebike kit isnt working!

I'm going to post an email thread below that explains my situatuon. Basically the motor isn't responding at all to the throttle. The lights are green on the throttle but the motor just makes a small tick sound. The wheel is difficult to turn and is cogging. Someone said its a shorted phase wire. I wonder if there's something wrong with the controller.

I don't have a very good multimeter to test anything. I can borrow one from a friend.

How do I locate the problem???? Do I need a multimeter?

I lifted the bike off the ground and the motor ran fine but when I placed it back on the ground it sputtered and stopped. It felt like it accrelerating too much too quicky and something broke. I feel like it was the load on the bike which caused it.

? Hi

Y?? ????

No need to PM me. Start here - http://www.ebikes.ca/learn/troubleshooting.html

And if you want more in depth help read the noob threads stickied around here and follow the often repeated basic advice.

Why did you PM me?

OK people quick update
I unplugged everything between the controller and motor.
I spin the wheel and the cogging stopped! !!
So does this is mean the controller is at fault?
I spun the wheel before disconnecting everything and it did cog but now it's not
More updates coming

I think I found the problem
Everything is unolugged right now.
I have three phase wires.(blue green and yellow)
When the yellow one is plugged in the cogging starts when it's UNPLUGGED it stops.
The blue and green wires have no effect on the cogging.
The yellow phase wire is the problem and it could be inside the controller.
The next step is to find out if its in the controller or motor .

https://youtu.be/st6QzIk7smQ

I sympathise with the situation you are in, Ron. We all started somewhere, and it is very frustrating when there is no clear cause for an issue.

I don't know if a $15 Digital Multi-Meter (DMM) will help with this particular problem, but you will need one someday, and getting one now is a good start.

Second, throttles are pretty cheap, and I recommend that you purchase one from the same exact vendor so that the two throttles are the same, and the connectors are identical. It's not often that the throttle is the problem, but...it is the easiest component to swap-out and test. You unplug the mounted throttle, plug in the second throttle, lift the rear wheel off the ground, and then spin the second throttle in your hand. If both throttles had tested previously to work fine, then this test "should" show if the issue is the throttle or not. A one-minute test.

I have a small 6-FET sensorless controller from Lyen, and a larger 12-FET sensorless controller from em3ev. With either one, when I plug it in, I only need to plug in the three thick phase wires that power the motor. Almost all common ebike motors and controllers use hall sensors. This means that five very thin wires will also be coming out of the motor (three thick wires, and five thin wires).

There might be a problem with the hall sensors, and swapping-in a sensorless controller is a good way to test that. If a motor doesn't work with the stock hall-sensored controller, but it works fine with a sensorless controller? Then it is not the motor itself. It could be the hall sensors inside the motor (there are three). it could be the wires between the hall sensors and the controller (pinched wires that are shorting is a common problem), and...it could be a problem with the hall-sensor portion inside the controller.

If you get a sensorless controller for testing purposes, the throttle connector and the three phase wires will likely NOT have the same connectors on their wires, so...you may need to get a soldering iron and swap the connectors out for something that's easy to get, cheap, and works well. After soldering-on new connectors, you will need heat-shrink insulation over the new connectors.

I know you may be on a tight budget, but...right now this is the best I can do. You'll have to save up your money to buy parts to make each step needed...one at a time.

https://www.electricbike.com/connectors-halls-throttle-motor/

https://www.electricbike.com/matching-connectors-from-battery-to-controller/

https://www.electricbike.com/water-proofing-trouble-shooting/

Ykick said:

No need to PM me. Start here - http://www.ebikes.ca/learn/troubleshooting.html And if you want more in depth help read the noob threads stickied around here and follow the often repeated basic advice.

Click to expand...

I think he may have PMed a number of random people. He is from somewhere around New Britain Township, PA.

MTB, Front hub, 48 Volt (4 SLA Batteries),

Seems to had it running on 29 December the same day he created this GoFundMe project
https://www.gofundme.com/electric-bike-project
"I want to build an electric bike. I don't really need that much money. I need 1200 but I'm only asking for 800. Here's a parts list of the things I will be purchasing. Gmail me if you want an electric bike a single I can help you make it happen. I will use this to commute to work. Maybe I can help some homeless people build some ebikes. All I ask is you chip in 1 dollar and your good!"

I may be getting old and cynical but I am getting suspicious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkLXI-sVi7E

I am from Southampton Pennsylvania.
I am using 4 sla in the meantime.

Behaves like shorted MOSFET (yellow phase) so what did the troubleshooting guide reveal? http://www.ebikes.ca/documents/BlownMosfets.pdf

Just by the looks of my controller I think its not the controller.
I think I did the trouble shoot guide incorreclty. Its probably my cheap multimeter.
The fact that it doesnt coffee when everything is disconnected means its cooking from the controller???

No need to look at any of my other videos.
They don't relate to the problem and why are you suspicious?

ronbrown629 said:

Just by the looks of my controller I think its not the controller.
I think I did the trouble shoot guide incorreclty. Its probably my cheap multimeter.
The fact that it doesnt coffee when everything is disconnected means its cooking from the controller???

Click to expand...

Slow down, calm down, take a deep breath and pay attention to details. Otherwise this isn't gonna work.

"no cogging" when everything's disconnected from controller tends to point towards the controller.

ronbrown629 said:

No need to look at any of my other videos.
They don't relate to the problem and why are you suspicious?

Click to expand...

Unsolicited mass PM's tend to raise suspicion. That was uncool and improper, IMO.

Here's a video of my controller.

https://youtu.be/HKKYjgTLOww

Here's a couple I made demonstrating expected Ohm meter behaviors with good controller MOSFETs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFrJ9Uh2GM0
[youtube]SFrJ9Uh2GM0[/youtube]

Follow up using a different scale on the meter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezTYcY-hZOU
[youtube]ezTYcY-hZOU[/youtube]

Hey buddy
As I'm writing this I haven't checked out your video yet but appreciate and will watch it.
I'll also post a video of my test
For the continuity test I noticed an audible beep from my multimeter when the yellow phase was connected to ground.

Its confirmed its a mosfet!!!!
I had my multimeter on the wrong setting.

ronbrown629 said:

Here's a video of my controller.
[youtube]HKKYjgTLOww[/youtube]

Click to expand...

[youtube]st6QzIk7smQ[/youtube]

https://youtu.be/HKKYjgTLOww

Here's link to my mosfet test. I don't know how to attach videos directly.
I didn't do the reverse direction in the video because the test came good.
Now how do I find out which mosfet it is?
There seems to be 15 fets total and theyre grouped in a strange way.
There's a standard screw above each one.
Once its identified, how do I replace it?? ?

Whose eBike kit did you buy? And have you connected with the manufacturer? Is there a warranty? Can they service, or provide assistance? Might they provide a troubleshooting guide? Do they have replacement parts available, like a new controller?

Good work Ron.

Successfully replacing MOSFETs is NOT beginner stuff. Have you performed component rework before? If not, chances of success are slim to none.

And even if you do successfully replace shorted MOSFETs do you know why they died? If not, the same failure could happen again?

Is the wiring from the motor damaged and/or nicked up in any way? A momentary phase wire short is all it needs to blow MOSFETs. Perhaps a Hall Sensor signal failed which led to operating the motor “out of sync” which is another way for phase power MOSFETs to be damaged.

I think warranty service/replacement from the vendor is probably your best course of action. Assuming there hasn’t been some sort of physical damage to the motor wiring?

There’s cheap controllers around and with some careful study and learning, it’s possible to rewire a generic controller to work with your motor. But, that’s going to require some patience and understanding about how to determine phase power and hall sensor combinations.

Or, buy a sensor less controller as the man in green font already mentioned.

What was going on before this happened? Were you riding? Did the motor start feeling funning, making noise, low power? Did it fall over?

No hard feelings from me about the PM but some folks might not feel as charitable? Could be a good idea in this thread to acknowledge that you learned your lesson and it won’t happen again?

Good luck.

P.S. to attach videos you only need the identifier code from youtube address to the video - like this for example: HKKYjgTLOww

Paste that in between the [youtube][/youtube] brackets found in the edit toolbar above.

[youtube]HKKYjgTLOww[/youtube]

If you bought this new,, they owe you a controller. It blew a fet right away.