CYC PHOTON

[raylo32]

I had an issue today that turned out to be no big deal that I thought I should report. Doing a fast 30 on the pave, I hit one of those dimple potholes where the pavement is intact so it was hard to see until too late. It really wasn't that bad but going 25 or 30 mph the bike did bounce around a bit. Then I lost all drive from the Photon, torque or throttle. The super shark battery was still in place and the display was still on so all I could do was stop and have a look. Battery was fully seated and the motor was making a little clicking sound like some of you have reported. All I could do was power cycle the Photon, and luckily that corrected it 100%.

I believe the battery must have jiggled enough to momentarily break contact and perhaps... perhaps... the controller reacted to this by going into a safe or lockup condition? IDK. But restarting it was all it took for me. I really should lash the battery down to the cradle and downtube with a Velcro strap even on the road. I always do that going off road since these super sharks don't always stay on otherwise when you hit big bumps or heavy washboard.

 

[Atak_Snajpera]

Sometimes the same happens with my stealth gen1 with x6 controller. Luckly it is very rare. Maybe once a month. In my case IT happened on flat surface. I just lose assistance and I have to switch off/on system. For comparision I do not remember having the same issue on older Asi bac 855 controller...

 

[moped-dan]

FWIW I also tried 2 old bbshd throttles on the photon and both work fine. I went through the throttle setup on the app and didn't have any issues.

 

[steve s]

New photon build.
Surly bridge club. It need a little tweaking but rides really nice! Found out my front brake line was too short and I neglected to get a shim for my new shockstop stem.. parts are on the way. Weight is 37# without the battery.

 

[Atak_Snajpera]

50T or 42T?

 

[raylo32]

Looks good. Did you trim the wires or just stuff the excess in the battery bag? Weight is good, about the same as my Cannondale MTB conversion.

New photon build.
Surly bridge club. It need a little tweaking but rides really nice! Found out my front brake line was too short and I neglected to get a shim for my new shockstop stem.. parts are on the way. Weight is 37# without the battery.

 

[steve s]

50T or 42T?

50t with 11-40 8 speed

 

[steve s]

Looks good. Did you trim the wires or just stuff the excess in the battery bag? Weight is good, about the same as my Cannondale MTB conversion.

I just ran the wires up the seat tube and top tube and there isn't much left over.

 

[Atak_Snajpera]

What is diameter of 50T in mm? How much space do you still have between chainring and frame?

 

[raylo32]

The 50t ring is about 210mm in diameter.

I bought a 50t chainring from CYC to try on my bike but I have not gotten around to trying it yet because you need to pull the cranks and the spindle to swap rings. Not sure if it will fit, but one of these days I'll try it. Otherwise I may use it on my gravel bike conversion if and when I decide to do that. Although based on my observations with the current Photon on my 26" bike I don't believe that 50t will be very useful on a 700c bike because the power needed to run mid 30s MPH will likely not be sustainable thermally. IOW any extended continuous use over 750W will eventually make the motor throttle itself. Obviously the higher the power, the quicker that will happen.

The photo below shows the diameter to be between 8 1/4" and 8 5/16 " or about 210MM.

 

[Mongo]

If the chainring adaptor is 38-50T (and not the 34T), maybe you could leave the crank arms and spindle in place, remove the guard, and then slide the guard & chainring over the crank arm & pedal. Haven't tried it, so dunno.

 

[steve s]

The 50t ring is about 210mm in diameter.

I bought a 50t chainring from CYC to try on my bike but I have not gotten around to trying it yet because you need to pull the cranks and the spindle to swap rings. Not sure if it will fit, but one of these days I'll try it. Otherwise I may use it on my gravel bike conversion if and when I decide to do that. Although based on my observations with the current Photon on my 26" bike I don't believe that 50t will be very useful on a 700c bike because the power needed to run mid 30s MPH will likely not be sustainable thermally. IOW any extended continuous use over 750W will eventually make the motor throttle itself. Obviously the higher the power, the quicker that will happen.

The photo below shows the diameter to be between 8 1/4" and 8 5/16 " or about 210MM.


View attachment 338593

The main reason I went with the 50t was to be in a bigger rear cog more often and reduce chain wear. It's also nice on one of my regular rides where I have about 12 miles of mild downhill and I can put it on a small cog on low power and get a little exercise/conserve battery.

 

[steve s]

So far I haven't found the 50t to be a liability and have been able to easily climb anything on my regular rides and a couple steeper hills with no problem . I've never needed the 40t cog in the back yet. I'm going to try some steeper long hills when I get home.

 

[67RS427]

I don't see how a 50T could be useful at all... I'm running a 42T on my 11-50T 12 speed (27.5") and I'm popping wheelies in 1st-3rd gears and can literally climb anything I can imagine. Top speed is way higher than I need as well and don't even need to be in my 11th or 12th gear to reach it.

 

[steve s]

Vv

I don't see how a 50T could be useful at all... I'm running a 42T on my 11-50T 12 speed (27.5") and I'm popping wheelies in 1st-3rd gears and can literally climb anything I can imagine. Top speed is way higher than I need as well and don't even need to be in my 11th or 12th gear to reach it.

I don't see how a 50T could be useful at all... I'm running a 42T on my 11-50T 12 speed (27.5") and I'm popping wheelies in 1st-3rd gears and can literally climb anything I can imagine. Top speed is way higher than I need as well and don't even need to be in my 11th or 12th gear to reach it.

I'm curious if both of our gearing choices are both lower than we need ( pulling wheelies) and higher than we need( plenty of top speed) why a 50t is not useful? I find the 50t and the torque sensing play really nice together and I can stay in a larger cog in the back to help with wear and tear. from experience running around all the time on an 11 12 or 13 cog wears the drivetrain quite quickly. I put a lot of miles on my bikes so this does come into play for me.

 

[67RS427]

Vv



I'm curious if both of our gearing choices are both lower than we need ( pulling wheelies) and higher than we need( plenty of top speed) why a 50t is not useful? I find the 50t and the torque sensing play really nice together and I can stay in a larger cog in the back to help with wear and tear. from experience running around all the time on an 11 12 or 13 cog wears the drivetrain quite quickly. I put a lot of miles on my bikes so this does come into play for me.

For me it was about Chainline... My bike can only fit a 42T chainring according to Trek (Marlin 8) and that's with a 3x front which is about 10mm. I used 7mm of spacing to get a near perfect chainline. I think with a 50T, I would have to space it out even further, making the chainline worse with really no benefit. Cassettes are really cheap, and if I do find myself wearing it down, I'll go with an eBike rated setup and just replace my shifter as well.

 

[steve s]

For me it was about Chainline... My bike can only fit a 42T chainring according to Trek (Marlin 8) and that's with a 3x front which is about 10mm. I used 7mm of spacing to get a near perfect chainline. I think with a 50T, I would have to space it out even further, making the chainline worse with really no benefit. Cassettes are really cheap, and if I do find myself wearing it down, I'll go with an eBike rated setup and just replace my shifter as well.

That's a good reason chain line is key! Mine was as good as I could ask and only used a roughly 2mm spacer just to be safe. One of the reasons I went with the 8 speed was that the cassette and chains are dirt cheap and I can change them out without a thought

 

[latevance]

What was your complaint with the kit.

 

[latevance]

My faulty Photon motor was returned almost 2 months ago. I'm still waiting. I have requested a full refund if not received by the end of the next two weeks.
I hope for you that you will not have to return your Photon motor for replacement or repair.

What was the fault, and did you get the kit from a re-seller or direct from cyc?

 

[raylo32]

IIRC, his first one had a bad torque sensor. Mine has a firmware corruption issue that has yet to be resolved by the dealer. If I were you, I'd maybe buy directly from CYC so if you have a problem you don't need to work through an understaffed and incompetent dealer to try to get it fixed or replaced.

What was the fault, and did you get the kit from a re-seller or direct from cyc?

 

[latevance]

To make this story clear:



1- Towards the end of June, the motor started to work jerkily as if the torque sensor was missing.



2- I contacted the manufacturer CYC in Hong Kong. Their advice was incredibly amateurish. As my wife also has a Photon motor and it works correctly, I was asked to take the torque sensor from it and mount it in my motor which is in trouble in order to confirm that the torque sensor is the problem. I didn't risk doing this at the risk of losing the only functional motor that my wife uses. And this silly request was not accompanied by any technical instructions on disassembly. My diagnosis concerning the torque sensor was only a hypothesis on my part.



3- I was asked to make videos of jerky engine. What I have done. Then when they (CYC Hong KONG) saw the video they asked me to do another video. I replied that I had mounted my old TSDZ2 motor on my bike and that the Photon motor was in its original box and ready to ship for repair or exchange.



4- On the official website of CYC there is the list of their recommended sellers. This is a seller recommended by the CYC company. Not a random dealer.





5- Here is the list of email replies from Golden Motor recommended seller:



First message received from Golden Motor:2023-07-28

CYC has agreed to send replacement parts, they will arrive in about a week. You should get an email when your kit ships out.



Second message received from Golden Motor:2023-08-03

We weren't able to reproduce the issue (we didn't install it on a bike), but we are sending a new motor unit. I think it should be going out soon.



Last message received from Golden Motor:2023-08-23

I just spoke to our tech support guy who does all the testing and warranty replacements. I know I mentioned that the replacement is coming, but I didn't know there were other issues that came up, sorry about this.CYC sent us a new motor and controller, but after further investigation with the help of the CYC support lead it seems the issue is in the actual motor assembly, not just the motor and controller units. The new parts unfortunately will not solve the issue.It will take a couple of days to confirm the exact issue and confirm the replacement parts with CYC. Please bear with us, I'm very sorry for the long delay. I'll update you when the parts are confirmed.





As you can see, it's nonsense. What a pity.

So you bought the motor from Golden motor and your warranty is therefore with them. Cyc has sent them out a replacement motor and controller, but for some reason Golden motor are not honoring their warranty and sending it out to you as a replacement for the faulty one you returned under warranty. Are they saying that yours that you returned to them is not faulty as they cannot replicate the fault and are still assessing it?

As it was not purchased from Cyc I can understand they are reluctant to by-pass the warranty process with Golden motor and send out parts that may or may not be faulty, especially as they have not had the faulty kit returned direct to them to assess.

I will definetly be purchasing directly off the Cyc website so I will be dealing direct should I have any problems, or need to download firmware etc. Overall, what I can gather from here and other sites the Photon is reccomended, but as I was an early adopter of the Cyc Gen 1 and then the so called 'Stealth', I am waiting in case it follows the same development process and a Photon Gen 2 is shortly released that fixes all the bugs realised in the first release by the early buyers such as yourselves. Thanks for keeping everyone updated on your experiences with the Photon.

 

[Atak_Snajpera]

I am also waiting for Photon gen2 because I also got burnt with my STEALTH GEN1. First gen is nothing but BETA version.

 

[raylo32]

And their dealers are not ready for primetime, either. Selling is easy... but support, repairs and warranty stuff, not so much. Nor is that stuff fun or profitable for them. So, they don't really do a good job with it.

I hope you never have to return your CYC kit to Hong Kong...



Whether it's version 2, 3 or 4 is not the problem. The problem is that CYC does not have the capacity or skills to support a global rollout.

 

[raylo32]

I had an order for a second Photon that I canceled due to my yet unresolved issue with the first. I'll probably wait until Gen 2 to do that. Seems to be a crap shoot now to maybe get a good one and a worse crap shoot with support if you don't.

I am also waiting for Photon gen2 because I also got burnt with my STEALTH GEN1. First gen is nothing but BETA version.

 

[hindesite]

SW102 display viewability

There have been a few comments in this thread and elsewhere about the poor viewability of the SW102 display, especially in direct sunlight. This is puzzling to me (and a few others who have commented) as my experience is very different, I find the brightness of the display to be extraordinarily good.

However a couple of explanations come to mind

1. Polarized sunglasses can black out the display if the orientation is incorrect, this is easily checked, just rotate the glasses to see if there is any effect.
2. Check the brightness setting for the display - it can toggle between day and night mode. Long press the "up" button to toggle.

Please comment if this helps (or not).