Drunkskunk
100 GW
I've got me one of these 4012/408 Crystalyte motors with the 20 amp controller, and at first, thought it was the greatest invention Since sliced bread. (I'm curious what the greatest invention before sliced bread was) Now that I have a Watts Up meter, and can start to quantify some of the preformance, I'm starting to change my oppinion.
My first test was amp draw, The 4012 setting doesn't go as a fast as the 408 setting, as would be expected. However, the 4012 pulls the same amps at full speed, 16mph, as the 408 does at the same speed. the 408 then goes on to more than double the Amp draw rate by it's top speed.
So I figured, almost naturaly, that this just ment the 4012 was making more torque at lower speeds, like being in low gear. They advertise the higher winding motors to be so. Texas is flat. I have almost no hills to test this kind of thing on, so I had to just assume this was right. I made it a practice to use the low setting for intersections and to take off with, and the high for crusing at speed.
But yesterday, I decided to actualy test this. After riding around for a while in just the 408 setting, I couldn't tell that the 4012 accelerated any better from a dead stop, or gave me any more efficent acceleration.
So I found a steep part of a walking trail that comes up from a green belt to a parking lot. Its roughly 100 feet of switchback to get up a 15 foor embankment. I marked a starting point at the base, and with no pedal help, rode up the path from a dead stop. both the motor settings did it, in roughly the same amount of time, and neither seemed to have an advantag untill I was almost at the top, and above 12 mph, were the 408 setting seemed to be able to keep pulling up in speed, were the 4012 seemed to be peaked.
So, does this mean the 4012 is useless? Is this a problem others are finding? is everything I know about windings VS torque on brushelss motors wrong?
My first test was amp draw, The 4012 setting doesn't go as a fast as the 408 setting, as would be expected. However, the 4012 pulls the same amps at full speed, 16mph, as the 408 does at the same speed. the 408 then goes on to more than double the Amp draw rate by it's top speed.
So I figured, almost naturaly, that this just ment the 4012 was making more torque at lower speeds, like being in low gear. They advertise the higher winding motors to be so. Texas is flat. I have almost no hills to test this kind of thing on, so I had to just assume this was right. I made it a practice to use the low setting for intersections and to take off with, and the high for crusing at speed.
But yesterday, I decided to actualy test this. After riding around for a while in just the 408 setting, I couldn't tell that the 4012 accelerated any better from a dead stop, or gave me any more efficent acceleration.
So I found a steep part of a walking trail that comes up from a green belt to a parking lot. Its roughly 100 feet of switchback to get up a 15 foor embankment. I marked a starting point at the base, and with no pedal help, rode up the path from a dead stop. both the motor settings did it, in roughly the same amount of time, and neither seemed to have an advantag untill I was almost at the top, and above 12 mph, were the 408 setting seemed to be able to keep pulling up in speed, were the 4012 seemed to be peaked.
So, does this mean the 4012 is useless? Is this a problem others are finding? is everything I know about windings VS torque on brushelss motors wrong?