Damaged controller

[Kurt]

I havn't posted on ES for a long time. I have just been out there using my bike and having fun with it for the last couple of years. Anyhow just this week my city, Brisbane in Australia had some quite bad flooding across the CBD. access in and around the CBD by car was imposable. I wanted to go check thing out so took my ebike. It's about a 20km return trip from my house.I soon found out that a lot of the bike paths were cut off or flooded so I had cut through parks, shallow water and lots of mud and so on to get there. When i got back the bike was caked in mud to the point were you couldn't even see the controller.The ride was good fun but very messy.

I cleaned the bike off with a hose when I got home. Being careful were I sprayed the water around the motor and controller but perhaps not careful enough. I went to ride the bike the next day and got about 100m down the road and the bike started pulsing and then nothing. Lots of cogging resistance from the motor. I unplugged the phase wires so I could peddle home easyer. I then began checking plugs and so on for water. I dyed everything out with a hot air gun though I couldn't see any water in them. I took the side cover off the motor to check for water but it was clean and very dry in there. I then took the controller end covers off and there was a very slight amount of moisture in there. just a drop or two that looked like it had got in past the on/off switch. So I dried it all off and had another go. I would get a small shudder from the motor when I turned the controller on and that's it. The red led power light on the controller would come on but nothing when twisting the throttle.

I then tested the halls and they were all switching 0 - around 5v so looked fine.I then tested the throttle for voltage and it was fine. I then took the controller completely apart and it was then that I could see the little red led fault code flashing 3 times on then off then repeating that again. I found the fault code to be BAD MOSFET . So from that I take it I have fried some or all of the 12 fets in the controller. There was no bad smell/smoke or any damage at all and nothing visual I could see to them .

I don't mind having a go at fixing this controller as I think it cost about $300 just two years ago and shame to throw it out . Its a 48A digital crystallite controller 36-72v. I wouldn't mind just getting another controller as a back up and to get the bike going again fast.I was looking at the Nine Continent 48v 45A controller as they are 1/2 the price and size of the crystallite. Are they any good and will they work ok with my 5304?

pic of road I usually take to the city on my ebike. I biked down that road just the day befor now think I would need my electric kayak for that one LOL

Kurt.

 

[amberwolf]

Does the error signal flash only with the motor connnected, or does it do that even without a motor hooked up?

You can test the resistance of the FETs from pin to pin; half of the ones on each phase will be paralleled so they'll read the same when still soldered in. Since it's a 12FET then there are 4 for each phase, two upper and two lower.

After disconnecting the battery and motor from the controller, use the meter set to ohms, and see if you get >10Kohms between each of the three pins on each set of FETs. If it's less than that it could be one or more FETs shorted internally.

It seems odd to me that just a little bit of moisture would actually damage the FETs, or anything else in there, but I guess it's possible. Seems more likely to have gotten into the connectors and/or wiring sheaths, and is causing a low-resistance or high-capacitance problem there, instead. Usually I'd say throttle but you've already tested that ok.

 

[Kurt]

The controller fault led flashes if the motor is plugged in or not. I had a go at measuring the resistance of the 3 phase wires back to ground and then back to +. With the multimeter probe on the earth I got 10k ohms on two of the phase wires and nothing on one of them . I then tested from the + on the battery to all 3 and got nothing on all 3 phase wires. not sure if I am doing it correctly. Another thing I am not sure of is reading the fault codes on the controller

This is the list of fult codes and how to read them

The internal LED in the centre of the circuit board flashes as per the following error
codes:
Indicator light on steady: Normal working
Indicator light on: EABS braking status
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 1 time - off for 1 second: Standby status
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 2 times – off for 1 second: Brake signal
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 3 times – off for 1 second: MOS damage
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 4 times – off for 1 second: Immediate start at high speed protection
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 5 times – off for 1 second: Electric current failure
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 6 times – off for 1 second: Power supply’s low voltage protection
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 7 times – off for 1 second: Hall effect signal failure
Indicator light on for 0.5 second - flash 8 times – off for 1 second: No throttle signal

Is( MOS damage) led on then 3 flashes making a total of 4 flashes as I am seeing the led come on and off 3 times then a 1 second break then on and off 3 times again so is that brake signal?

Kurt

 

[texaspyro]

Is one of the flashes (the first one) a different length than the others? I suspect it is and you are seeing .5 sec flash, 2 more flashes, pause... that says your brake signal is on. Try checking the voltage on the brake line and operating the brake. The brake signal voltage should be changing.

 

[Kurt]

I think I worked the fault code out when you first plug in the controller there is a flash then 3 flashes after that the 3 flashes repeat. so i guess that initial flash it only when you first turn the controller on. So at this stage its looking like blown fets.

Thanks guys for you comments I will try having a better go at testing the fets.

Kurt.

 

[heathyoung]

Easiest way to test them is to test across the pins. They are (from left to right, facing you) Gate Drain Source. Measure across the Drain and Source. When you replace them, replace all that are in parallel, even if one measures OK out of circuit.