Chinese e-scooter - identifying mystery parts

[CoCat]

Hello to the forum and thank you all for the valuable information located and maintained in its databases, helped a lot to understand certain aspects I misunderstood at first about electrical motors.

I recently got myself one of those rebranded Chinese EScooters classified as a bicycle in Austria mainly to use the bike lanes getting better through the city during commuter traffic but started to get bitten by the tinker bug. Its limited to 25kph (15 mph) but technically more scooter than bicycle, so I hope this isn't off-topic for this section of the forum.

The one brand dominating here (lot of cheap spare parts on the local market) are coming from Hungary and are going under the brand "Lofty", with the closest to my model I could find from what might be the original manufacturer (or just internal Chinese OEM rebrand) being the zxmco H1/XN1



Unfortunately due to the usual issue with OEM rebrands from China sold through an unknown amount of resellers to different jurisdictions with different adjustments there isn't much information on the different parts. So after hitting my own research limitation, the shop not having been of any help so far
and "AI" just spitting out nonsense with the provided prompts, I was hoping to find some help here to fill in the blanks and get some directions on how to proceed getting the most out of the set up and what's possible.

The goal is 200km min range, the more the better with one battery load at 25kph top speed.
The pipe dream is something I can transform from a legal bicycle to a "legal" small street motorcycle with a 45kph (28mph) limit at the flip of a switch mid drive

The current Specs:

Together with the driver and load the entire thing weights about 150kg
Mostly plastic meets poorly welded and screwed mystery metal all carried by tiny 2 10 inch wheels with a rear hub motor

Battery:
20kg
S14 48V 78Ah
rated at 50A - 100A Discharge
unknown BMS able to handle 100A according to the seller with a "Set" button the seller urged me to never touch
Fully loaded 58.8V
unknown brand of 3.6V li-ion, so no idea about C rating (not gonna open the metal box yet, warranty sticker)

Motor:


BLDC 120° Hub Motor
Unknown brand/model "XZS 48/60-30-23"

in the document its rated as 30 min - 0.4kw at 305rpm, I assume that is the continuous save output at nominal temperature
the 48/60 are certainly the save voltage
not sure what the 30 stands for, is it for Watt or rpm times 10 or 100, the rated current in Ampere
the 23 is also a mystery, same as above.
As expected no information about kt, kv or ke
really would appreciate the help on how to get more info on the motor.

Controller:

Unknown brand "DBN-DC 48/60-12G"
VDC 48-60V
Current limiter 30A
Not sure what the 12G stands for, the MOSFETS maybe, obviously no idea what kind, Ampere...
its has 3 Speed settings (I assume different percentage of max voltage send to the motor) and a display with very basic information that shows speeds deviating by between 5kph - 10kph from measured with a gps/5g speedometer (gps speedometer shows 20kph, feels like 20ish kph and display shows 34kph)

As far as I can tell no way to program it but it has jumpers to plug and unplug with "functionality"

one changing battery draw from 48v to 60v, tested it once with fully loaded battery at 58V, but no difference on felt torque, acceleration or top speed over a short distance uphill
second jumper that has a sticker indicating if it is plugged a speed setting of 10/15/25kph and unplugged 20/35/45kph, though testing it with a gps speed tester, plugged-in the speed was in reality 5/10/15 showing 10/15/20 on the display and unplugged 10/15/20 on the gps showing 15/20/30 on the display - not quite sure though what it actually regulates, Amps, voltage?

So overall the typical China package, you get what you pay for and I would really appreciate the help of the experience of the crowd to fill in the blanks on the motor.

Going forward, I assume, after playing around with the Canadian ebikes.ca motor simulator, assuming mine is keen to a TDCM IGH 305rpm due to the 305rpm in the official papers, the most straight forward upgrade would likely be a ~60V ~60Ah Li-Ion battery to reach lower range at higher top speed with worse Wh/km with average crowded bike lane speeds.
Second the controller is obviously either manipulated or/and hot garbage; I don't really mind the wrong speedometer but it might lead to unnecessary discussions with bike traffic cops, so swapping it seems to be necessary sooner than later, wondering if it makes any sense going straight for a high end controller able to withstand way higher voltage and current, that can be programmed for my legal needs and the batteries safety while being re-usable for later projects if the tinkering bug bites more or just getting another cheap one for 50€ from the second market.

Something I'm currently consider is, as there is theoretically enough space for the S14 and an additional S17, to jury-rig something to be able to switch between which battery pack the controller draws from together with the aforementioned 40v/60v jumpers - that would raise the overall load to bit over 170kg, but extend the range to maybe 450km as the 48V set up has, if I understand it correctly a better wh/km at lower average speeds and the 60V set up a better one at "higher" average speeds making it in my mind possible to reach the optimal wh/km at different speeds and have plenty of Wh to go without having to load on board, being able to doing multi day "bicycle" trips into the mountains.

I couldn't find similar projects in the forum and would be also curious if something like this would even be technically possible while driving.

Thanks for any feedback and thank you again to all for this well of information.

 

[Dui ni shuo de dui]

So basically If I understand correctly you want a very high range at relatively low speeds.
Sorry to ask this question, but may I ask what is the point? I mean, doing 200+ km is ok, but at 25kph it will take you about 8-10 hours of ride, which sounds very unreasonnable. I mean, who would want to sit on a small scooter for that long?
Or is there something I didn't understand?

Anyway, your build your rules, but I'm a bit puzzled.

Given your requirements, I suggest keeping it relatively low voltage (60V is plenty enough) and higher capacity. I feel like 100-120Ah should be plenty enough to reach at least 200km comfortably, probably even more. If you plan on riding at low speeds and low accelerations then C rating and discharge rate won't matter. with a 120Ah battery you should be able to expect about 300A of peak discharge since most no name cells can accomodate for 3C peaks. In which case you will need a BMS capable of delivering that kind of power.
But since your goal doesn't seem to be performance, I guess you should be more than fine with a much cheaper 100A unit. Depends on what you plan at long term.

You could go higher in voltage, but then you'd be very tempted to increase the top speed, which would obviously be a blast but then you'd end up with autonomy plummetting.

Going with an advanced controller unit is always a good call, they are more expensive of course but then you can keep them for a much longer time and even use them on different projects later. I'd go with a better controller without any hesitation if I had the budget for it.

I would also go for a better motor. The reason is that this kind of cheap motor usually have poor efficiency, so they will consume more battery current for heating themselves instead of helping you move. Get the best motor you can afford, it is always a good investment. A good value for money in my opinion is the QS 205 2000W v3 50H motor. But anything more powerful is even better.

If you have to cheap out on a component then I would cheap out on the controller, since it's the easiest part to replace later. The battery is obviously in need of a replacement, and changing the motor would probably be the best thing to do to upgrade performance while increasing range. A good controller with a shit motor would increase performance even more, but it would also increase power consumption.

Also, I suggest you read this thread from a friend who built a very nice scooter with similar goals in mind: 300km/190mi Electric Moped on the Cheap