Controller / hall sensor

[Lex Lugthart]

I picked up an old bike. It has a brushless motor (front wheel) with 9 pins connection. The cable on the other end has the three plugs (Yellow, green and blue) which are also in the controller. In the controller is one plug which says 'wheel sensor', but it has only 3 strings (red, blue, yellow). Are these the hall connections, and I thought it had to be 6 strings?. Because on the wheel it has 9 pins? On the cable from the motor they cut of the sensor strings for the controller.

 

[Lex Lugthart]

This is the controller plug

 

[amberwolf]

First, does the bike work correctly? If not, there are a number of things we'll have to know to help fix it, starting with exactly what does or does not happen, and exactly what specific parts it has (motor, controller, battery, display, etc).

Regarding the plug question:

Wheel sensor is usually just a speed sensor, like you would use for a bicycle computer / speedometer, that is mounted on your fork or frame, with a magnet on the wheel spokes. Which wire is used for which thing you'd have to test, but it is likely that red is 5v, blue is ground, and yellow is signal. (but any wire could be used for any of those, as wire colors are not standardized in these things even nowadays).

If you don't have an actual separate wheel sensor on the bike, then you'd just ignore that connector.


The 9 pin connector usually has 3 thick phase wires in it, that actually drive the motor, and 5 wires for the three motor position / rotation sensor hall signals plus their power and ground. Sometimes a final wire is used for a temperature or wheelspeed sensor, sometimes it's not used at all.

There are two basic kinds of controllers: Sensored, that require the hall sensors noted just above, and sensorless, that only use the three thick phase wires. There are some that can do either one, either automaticaly or via a setting in their display or computer-based or phone-based setup program/app (that comes from the controller manufacturer).

 

[Lex Lugthart]

Thanks for the respons.
The bike doesn’t work.
I tested the motor, the display and the battery on the bike of my daughter and it all works well.
Strange that the controller has no hall sensor plug, but only the three motor plugs. But maybe that’s no problem? I can’t put in the parameters for the right tuning between controller and motor then?
The display gives empty battery although it is full.
I cleaned the PAS sensor.
I think I buy a new controller. Anyone knows a cheap controller with 9 pin for motor, white 5 pin for display, and the plugs for PAS, brake, and so on?

 

[lnanek]

Not every controller with 5 pins for the display is compatible with every display with five pins, unfortunately. If you aren't buying a duplicate controller matching what was originally connected to the display, then you often have to buy both a controller and a display, and replace both at once.

Also worth pointing out you can't just match the colors of the phase wires between the motor and the controller, if there are any. The controller needs a learning function and procedure, or you have to try all the combinations.

 

[docw009]

The nine wires in a motor controller go like this,
-Thicker green, yellow, blue are the phase wires.
-Thin red/black are +5V power/ground.
-Thin yellow/green/blue are three position sensors>
-Thin white is usually a speed sensor,
A sensorless controller only needs the three thick phase wires with non of the thin ones. A sensored controller (more common) needs the position sensors, plus power.ground. Either can use a speed sensor.

Running the motor on your daughter's bike tells me the motor is a sensored motpr and that it works. The fact that the display lights up on your daughter's bike means that the display works, but it doesn't have the same data structure as her controller. Most dis[lays use the same connectors, and also the same scheme to power up the controller, but unless they share the same command protocol, they can't show speed, wattage, or change PAS levels. And many controllers have a default PAS/throttle function if they can be powered up, which is why mismatched controller/display seem to work.

I think that `the first bike owner tried to run the motor on a sensorless controller. This should work, but maybe the controller has a problem. It is also possible that he is mistakenly using a sensored controller with the sensor wires cut off.

If you show the label on the controller, it might be one of the more popular ones, and easily identified as either sensored/semsorless. Also a pic of the display. If you replace the controller, the old display must be compatible, else you buy both a display/controller,

 

[Lex Lugthart]

Thanks for the answers!
I will send pictures from the controller and the display.
Display is the same as my daughters, the controller looks almost the same but has no 9 pins plug.
I know about the parameters. I put them in my daughters. Are they saved in the display or in the controller?

 

[Lex Lugthart]

 

[Lex Lugthart]

 

[DaLanMan]

The controller looks a lot like the ones in the jetsons, I will take a peek in the am and let ya know, if nothing else it gives you a bit more info on the unit.