Adaptto Mini-E/Max-E Owner's Thread

[Offroader]

I guess the USB port can't handle too many amps. I plugged my action cam into it and I noticed the bike was losing power while driving, probably because it is the same 5 volts that the halls uses.

I guess if you draw too many amps it pulls power from the other systems and causes problems.

 

[Cowardlyduck]

I guess the USB port can't handle too many amps. I plugged my action cam into it and I noticed the bike was losing power while driving, probably because it is the same 5 volts that the halls uses.

I guess if you draw too many amps it pulls power from the other systems and causes problems.

That's interesting. I had thought about running my action cam, lights, phone + more off that USB output...guess that isn't happening. :?
At least it can charge my phone when riding, and I can charge my action cam when stopped for a break.

Cheers

 

[Allex]

For USB port, max draw is 800mAh, but in reality probably a bit less.

 

[madin88]

normally the usb device should check by its own how much current it can draw. i believe this works by watching voltage drop.
however that be, if the controller loose power, than there must be something wrong there.
what does Adaptto say?

 

[Offroader]

normally the usb device should check by its own how much current it can draw. i believe this works by watching voltage drop.
however that be, if the controller loose power, than there must be something wrong there.
what does Adaptto say?

As soon as I plug something into the USB the screen will actually dim a little bit from the power draw.

When I say lose power, what happened was as I was holding the throttle down the bike would accelerate then actually start slowing, then accelerate a little more than start slowing again. At first it felt like the controller was limiting power to the motor for something like a speed limit, but as soon as I unplugged my camera from the USB device everything was normal.

My suggestion would be to use caution when plugging anything into the USB device before you wind up having to send it back for warranty after something burns out. The USB must draw power from the same source that powers the screen and throttle or else the screen wouldn't dim and the throttle wouldn't start cutting out. I know some newer cell phones draw a lot of amps to charge and this could overload it, but I believe the cell phone automatically will cut amps if it senses a weak input so you may be all right. You can forget about charging your phone at 2 amps.

 

[Cowardlyduck]

Ok, so I did some more playing around with my Mini-E settings yesterday, and have concluded there is definitely something wrong with my controller.

As mentioned previously, it does not display any amps/watts draw. This is the first sign something is wrong.
When trying to set the settings (mainly in the advanced menu), I found that it would often forget settings and not save them, randomly revert them, or change them to other settings altogether. If I set one setting at a time then saved, it would mostly keep them, but if I set multiple settings at once, it would forget some or all of them. :? This tells me something might be wrong with the firmware, it's flashing, or maybe (and I really hope not) the hardware.

I also checked the halls wiring and voltage. The halls voltage was a bit low at 4.5V, but I think this is still ok, and the wiring is ok by deduction...the halls sequence is reading ok, the temp sensor works, and I spliced into the neg/pos wires after the plug to get the reading above.

I think the first thing for me to try is to flash a new firmware. Is this what others would also suggest given my symptoms above?

Cheers

 

[Cowardlyduck]

Well I just tried upgrading the Firmware to RC9e.
The first SD card was a very old 64MB which failed completely to even read on the Mini-E.
The second was a 2GB "Ultra-X" brand...this one could be read by the Mini-E, but came back with Firmware CRC failed when trying to flash.

So I'm a bit hesitant to try another card now...I know some cards are better than others, but I would like to know if the issue with my Mini-E could be causing it not to be able to upgrade the firmware before I go and brick any more SD cards. Any insights anyone?

Cheers

 

[Hyena]

I'm late to the adaptto party but someone asked me recently to upgrade their stealth bomber with one so I thought it was about time I had a play with one.
These are not at all plug and play friendly little buggers are they!
I've only skimmed through this thread a bit but it seems that the motor auto detection isn't so refined ?
It passed the test but I'm guessing some manual fiddling with the Angle corr and ind timing is in order.
I'm surprised it passed the test at all considering how stupidly hot the motor got. A 3 minute lap around the block and the V3 cro had hot winding smell and the side covers almost too hot to touch. Whr/km was 88 and half the time I was coasting!

That aside the top speed was almost half what it should have been. Is this a symptom of the above tuning issues too or are there other parameters I need to look into ?

 

[Seven]

Hi Jay, here is my settings for the QS V3 have a go with them, let me know,
Dave.

 

[9lives]

Hyena, far from expert but auto detect in my view simply allows for random phase wire connection. Biggest issue I have had is the angle correction which was way off post auto detect. Golden rule, motor should be near silent when running and all should be good. If any settings are off it will made a Infineon like noise which is easy to overlook if your used to this sound. I think Allex or Rodney had some tune tips somewhere.

Sevens setting are close to mine noting I am running a mxus.

Cowardly Duck, I have a mini e in box awaiting my next build so if you want to try another sd card pm me.

 

[Boestin]

So I'm a bit hesitant to try another card now...I know some cards are better than others, but I would like to know if the issue with my Mini-E could be causing it not to be able to upgrade the firmware before I go and brick any more SD cards. Any insights anyone?

Cheers

I couldn't find in the manual (on page 1 on this thread) if the sdcard should be formatted So I reckon you should try to format the card to fat32 and try the whole process again.

 

[Boestin]

I'm late to the adaptto party but someone asked me recently to upgrade their stealth bomber with one so I thought it was about time I had a play with one.
These are not at all plug and play friendly little buggers are they!
I've only skimmed through this thread a bit but it seems that the motor auto detection isn't so refined ?
It passed the test but I'm guessing some manual fiddling with the Angle corr and ind timing is in order.
I'm surprised it passed the test at all considering how stupidly hot the motor got. A 3 minute lap around the block and the V3 cro had hot winding smell and the side covers almost too hot to touch. Whr/km was 88 and half the time I was coasting!

That aside the top speed was almost half what it should have been. Is this a symptom of the above tuning issues too or are there other parameters I need to look into ?

Is the cro running quietly like the comments said above? If not you could run auto detect a couple of times in a row..
What is the FET temperature doing?
The speed tweak I think is in the Advanced menu.. Forgot the name, standard is on 0 and it goes to 7 I believe.

 

[Litium]

Hello everyone, I am writing this post to tell that I have become a happy owner of a wonderful controller Adaptto, controller that I find really cool, and it really shows the difference with the classic square wave that drives the motor so bad !! But above all to thanks Allex, for providing a service EXCELLENT, courtesy, speed in delivery and professionalism in responding to my many, perhaps too many e-mail requesting information
So thanks Allex, for the EXCELLENT service, definitely will buy more Adaptto from you !!!
Sorry for the not so good English

Bye from Rome

 

[Allex]

Litium, thank you for your kind words!
I will post my short guide on manual tuning here again:
Set OVS on 0
Do a throttle calibration(thr linear)

Then it is time for Angle, Ind and PWR

First Angles, lift up the wheel accelerate to 10-15km/h and holding this speed, adjust your angle so you have a smooth rotation. If the angle is wrong you will hear it and also the wheel will turn more slowly. So keep adjusting it until you have the most silent spin at this speed.
You can also test it on a very long stretch. Find a flat road and drive 15km/h with one setting, take note of the motor temperature and then change the value. If the temp. will get lower, then the new value is more correct, keep going until you get the lowest possible temp.

Same goes with Ind Timing. But this time you need to have a constant speed of ~35-50km/h. Take note of the motor temperature and then change the value. If the temp. will get lower, then the new value is more correct, keep going until you get the lowest possible temp.

Then you have PWR timing. Adjust this value so you have maximum torque when you go WOT from 50km/h(about 1/2 of your top speed).Works best at about +1,5-2,5 with Cro and my Crystalyte 5403

Note1: Dial OVS down to 0 when you do all of the above .
Note2: you will need to recalibrate above values when when voting up or down on your bike.
Note3: Both manual and auto tuning should be done at the charge state that you are riding in mostly. So don't do it on a fully charged battery nor on a discharged one.

 

[Hyena]

Hi Jay, here is my settings for the QS V3 have a go with them, let me know,
Dave.

Thanks Dave,
I tried the settings Obhse posted previously after I posted the above and found it had much much stronger mid range. I didn't get a chance to properly test it as murphys law struck and the moto tube went totally flat. I'll try your settings tomorrow once I change the tube. It's interesting just how far out of whack they were from my autodetected settings. Angle corr was something like -100 and the ind timing significantly differently too.
The motor ran totally smoothly and quietly though (as quiet as I could detect with moto knobbies on the road anyway)

Thanks Alex and others for the other comments.

Re: adjusting the values, I notice both seven and obhse use ind timing of 366uS but on mine the numbers jumps in big blocks (from 334 to 394) and the same with the angle corr (jumps from 0.4 to 1.1 and then up 0.7 at a time) Is this normal ?

BTW, the fact that the screen takes ~3 seconds to come on when you turn the key is a little disconcerting when you first power it up. After spending all day working on the bike and splicing multiple wires to turn the key and see nothing happen is the worse! :lol:

 

[Cowardlyduck]

Well, tried to flash my firmware again with a third (256MB Panasonic) SD card and got the same Firmware CRC error.
What's also interesting is when I try and flash just the controller, it says incompatible firmware...I double checked and I did download the MINI-E firmware. If I try and flash just the screen it comes back with the same CRC error above.

I couldn't find in the manual (on page 1 on this thread) if the sdcard should be formatted So I reckon you should try to format the card to fat32 and try the whole process again.

Thanks Boestin. Unfortunately I don't think that's it...my first card was FAT, and the last 2 were FAT32, but still didn't work.

Re: adjusting the values, I notice both seven and obhse use ind timing of 366uS but on mine the numbers jumps in big blocks (from 334 to 394) and the same with the angle corr (jumps from 0.4 to 1.1 and then up 0.7 at a time) Is this normal ?

Good to see you've joined the Adaptto club Jay.
I think those values do jump like that normally as mine do the same. I also saw them change increments too. Previously I could only set my pwr timing to 51, etc...now it goes to 53, etc. I'm not sure what caused the increments to change though...sooooo many settings

BTW, the fact that the screen takes ~3 seconds to come on when you turn the key is a little disconcerting when you first power it up. After spending all day working on the bike and splicing multiple wires to turn the key and see nothing happen is the worse! :lol:

I hear you...there's been a few times where my hearts stopped after messing around with wiring etc and the screen feels like it takes an eternity to come alive.
Also, is the screen meant to show a firmware version when it turns on? Mine just flashes a line before going straight to the home screen...is that normal?

I also realised that because my Mini-E is not registering any kind of Watts/amps, it is also not limiting the power in any way. That is why my BMS keeps tripping, and that is why it has INSANE torque! Crazy thing is, it still doesn't get hot at all. I've only done minimal testing around the backyard so far, but it seems my heatsink + fans cooling solution works very well. With them running, and me going nuts (=hard accel - regen - hard accel, etc) around the backyard, I could not get the controller FETs to break 30C and the motor 50C.

Unless anyone has any insights on the above issues with my controller, I think I might have to email Adaptto.

Cheers

 

[Adaptto E-Drives Lab]

Dear Friends,

We are ready with the new beta-firmware version for our controllers and need your help with the testing (especially those having PAS installed with our controllers).
Please contact me via olegk@adaptto.ru and I'll send you the files needed. (please state FIRMWARE TESTING as an e-mail topic)

Here are some of the updates:

V1 – RC9g – June, 2015
1. Exit from charge mode corrected
2. Brakes have priority against PAS sensor (i.e. once twisting the brakes – PAS switches off)
3. Problems with damaging status register under some circumstances are solved
4. Minor bug fixes and improved stability

Kind regards,
Oleg

 

[Springerpanhead]

Hi I made the same mistake as you and reset the battery charge at a lower level. How did you fix it? Please emal me direct at Lemur1@me.com. I am new to the forum and having a little trouble finding the posts I'm looking for.
THANKS Springerpanhead

 

[madin88]

i would say you only need to fully charge your battery than you should have correct s.o.c. again

 

[mark5]

Hi I made the same mistake as you and reset the battery charge at a lower level. How did you fix it? Please emal me direct at Lemur1@me.com. I am new to the forum and having a little trouble finding the posts I'm looking for.
THANKS Springerpanhead

Springerpanhead's problem description is in this thread:
Help for the aged:

Hi Everyone
I'm am new to the forum, and new to e bikes. I am 70 years old, although I have no idea how I got that way. Having recently suffered a broken hip in a cycling accident, I went out and bought myself an Ebike. The bike is a Qulbix Raptor 140 with an Adaptto Max E controller. Things were going well until I reset the stats for the first time after a 15 mile ride in hilly country. At that time my battery showed 60% remaining. After resetting the trip stats, the battery showed 100% and although the controller goes into charging mode it will not draw from the charger because it thinks it is fully charged when I know damn well it isn't because I just drove it 15 miles. The manual is apparently translated from Russian, and that combined with my less than fluent computereese, leaves me unable to figure out how to reset my battery charge acceptance to the proper max volts of 84. If someone with a greater understanding of these things than I could look up the manual on this controller and email me a step by step on how to get to the various screens and settings I would greatly appreciate it. My email is Lemur1@me.com you might even have to walk me through it over the phone, my dime of course.
THANKS TO SOMEONE IN ADVANCE !!!
Springerpanhead

 

[ridethelightning]

i have noticed on 2 of my controllers, there is an occasional random memory loss re. amp hours setting.

both times it became obvious when the battery gage reads 0 when at ~half charge voltage.

i then look at the bms setup to find that the set 20AH has become 10AH :|

on resetting it correctly it behaves normally again but im tempted to think it will do it again.

 

[madin88]

both times it became obvious when the battery gage reads 0 when at ~half charge voltage.

i then look at the bms setup to find that the set 20AH has become 10AH :|

i have similar problem i think:
in boost mode or during hard acceleration battery s.o.c. suddenly jumps to 0% while display shows "LOW BAT" and controller cuts instant power after a few seconds i can apply throttle again and ride normal, but s.o.c. still shows 0% while it should be 40% or more (or above 73V on 20s battery)
I noticed this behaviour after i attached the BMS and changed battery from 22s to 20s. Did a reset and battery and BMS settings should be correct.

is this a known bug and already fixed in RC9g firmware?

 

[Allex]

The Ah values will reset when disconnecting the BMS.
Also, when you hit LVC during the ride although you still have Ah left, the controller will reset your battery value to this state.
So if you have a 24Ah battery and you hit LVC at 20Ah, your new battery value will be 20Ah and therefore the distance will read 0km.
It kind of a BUG/feature
Adaptto should fix it.

 

[madin88]

thanks for the explaining allex.
it was at 40-50% soc and about 73V. LVC was set to 60v and also BMS critical to 3,0V per cell (20s). my battery definitely does not sag 13 volt at only 110A. It shows about 30-50mOhm IR so maximum 5-6V sag.
also it should not cut out instant but smooth because of vsoft limit setting, or i am wrong?

A friend mentioned he has same problem even with very low LVC and bms volt settings so i believe thats not normal.
now i'm waiting for an answer from adaptto.

 

[Springerpanhead]

Hi Metallover
I recently bought a Qulbix Raptor 140 with a MaxE controller 10 kW bike. Was having a great time with it then I did the same thing you did and reset the stats with a 60% charged battery, and now, as you know it thinks it's fully charged at 60%. If you could e mail me at Lemur1@me.com with how you fixed it, I would greatly appreciate it. I am a certified old phart and not very computer savy so if you could give me a step by step it would be great. After reading the manual I can't even seem to find some of the screens it shows (old age, senility, or maybe something I ate in the 60s) might be responsible. Anyway if you can help I would gladly return the favor should you ever find yourself with a screwed up 1957 Harley, I'm really good at fixing those. THANKS. Springerpanhead