DEAD E-TRIKE

[DYWLC]

Hi all. I've owned an etrike for some years, I bought it like that and don't know much about them. It wasn't working when I bought it but I managed to get it working on the thumb throttle alone. I rode it like that until I was taken ill early 2020. The trike sat in the shed for two years or a little more.
A couple of months ago I was well enough to tinker with it, it looked very sorry for itself so i decided to give it the works. I stripped it completely down to the frame and had the frame powder coated in a brilliant orange to be seen on the road.
I've rebuilt it with new bearings everywhere, wheels, bottom bracket (on the front perhaps I should call it the front bracket?) and the chain idler pulleys. I re-packed the steeting bearings, all three of them, and adjusted. Everything was ready to go so I charged the (48V) battery and fitted it back in place and all I could get was a very rumbly rear hub motor before it stopped with an Error03 on the display. Switch off and try again and every time I get this lumpy noise from the motor and Error03. I've checked all the connections to the motor, the controller, the throttle and the disply screen. All seems ok.
I thought the battery must be shot as it had stood so long without charging so I invested, great expense, in a new battery (X-GO off ebay) same size, 48V, 1500W and 30A max. When this arrived I charged it fully as instructions (came with a charger by the way) and fitted it to the rear rack where the old battery sat and ran it again. Switched on the display, worked the thumb throttle and "CLICK" like a fuse had blown and now I get Error01. Another thing I've noticed is the rear wheel motor now seems to be stiff to turn. The wheel used to spin freely but now it seems to be binding or being held back by the magnetic field. It's not rubbing on anything.
Switched all off and tried it again and same thing but no click just Eroor01. There battery voltage is good going into the controller at 52V. Any ideas anyone?
I'm happy, having already invested quite a lot of my monthly pension into the trike, if I have to, invest in new controller, display, throttle, and rear wheel/motor. It's no use sitting there looking like new if I can't have the electric assistance which I need to be able to ride it.
By the way, it doesn't have brake lever switches as the brake levers have to have the option to hold them on by pressing a button on the lever as the trike, if left on an incline, will just roll away.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[SlowCo]

The "locking" of the motor hub can be phase wire shorting. Could you post photo's of the wiring and motor, controller and battery?

 

[fechter]

Yes, it sounds like either the phase wires (the fat wires that go to the motor) shorted or the controller blew.

Unplug the controller from the motor and see if the motor spins freely. If so, the controller blew.

 

[amberwolf]

Does the hubmotor have a single connector for the three thick phase wires to the controller? Or are they three separate ones? If separate, then when it was all disconnected to strip down for painting, the connections before might be different than they are now.

If the connections were different before, then current to the motor trying to power it could be a lot higher than it should be, because the controller is sending it in the wrong pattern, and it could cause all sorts of noises and wrong behavior.

If throttle is applied heavily enough under these conditions, it can blow up the controller (shorted FETs in the phases), which then causes the motor to feel much harder to turn by hand than it is supposed to be. Disconnecting the phase wires from the controller to the motor will make the motor turn normally by hand, in this case. Replacing the controller is the simplest solution to this problem (if it has a display, then get a new controller that comes with it's own display because your existing one will probably not be compatible with the new controller). If it's just the FETs in the controller you can replace those, but often enough the gate drive or even the MCU itself, and/or the low-voltage power supply (LVPS), is taken out by the FETs failing in this kind of condition; any of those means more troubleshooting and repair than it is worth unless you just really really want that specific controller. (a failed MCU means no repair at all).


If it's not any easier to turn, then the motor itself or the wiring to it from that connection is damaged and shorting internally. If it's just wiring it can be replaced relatively easily, depending on your level of DIY skills and patience, but if it's windings it's much easier to just replace the whole motor/wheel (or at least the whole stator with windings and wiring).


In either case, when you get the new controller (or motor, or both), then you'll need to determine the correct phase/hall wiring combination for the system. If the controller has a self-learn / autolearn function, usually a pair of wires to connect momentarily, use that. If not, you'd need to manually switch phase wires until the motor spins without undue noise at the lowest possible no-load (offground) current. If that's in the wrong direction, use the reverse function of the controller if it has one. If not, you'll then need to swap the three hall signal wires (non-red/black) until the motor spins in the correct direction without undue noise at the lowest possible no-load (offground) current.

Hi all. I've owned an etrike for some years, I bought it like that and don't know much about them. It wasn't working when I bought it but I managed to get it working on the thumb throttle alone. I rode it like that until I was taken ill early 2020. The trike sat in the shed for two years or a little more.

A couple of months ago I was well enough to tinker with it, it looked very sorry for itself so i decided to give it the works. I stripped it completely down to the frame and had the frame powder coated in a brilliant orange to be seen on the road.
I've rebuilt it with new bearings everywhere, wheels, bottom bracket (on the front perhaps I should call it the front bracket?) and the chain idler pulleys. I re-packed the steeting bearings, all three of them, and adjusted. Everything was ready to go so I charged the (48V) battery and fitted it back in place and all I could get was a very rumbly rear hub motor before it stopped with an Error03 on the display. Switch off and try again and every time I get this lumpy noise from the motor and Error03. I've checked all the connections to the motor, the controller, the throttle and the disply screen. All seems ok.
I thought the battery must be shot as it had stood so long without charging so I invested, great expense, in a new battery (X-GO off ebay) same size, 48V, 1500W and 30A max. When this arrived I charged it fully as instructions (came with a charger by the way) and fitted it to the rear rack where the old battery sat and ran it again. Switched on the display, worked the thumb throttle and "CLICK" like a fuse had blown and now I get Error01. Another thing I've noticed is the rear wheel motor now seems to be stiff to turn. The wheel used to spin freely but now it seems to be binding or being held back by the magnetic field. It's not rubbing on anything.
Switched all off and tried it again and same thing but no click just Eroor01. There battery voltage is good going into the controller at 52V. Any ideas anyone?
I'm happy, having already invested quite a lot of my monthly pension into the trike, if I have to, invest in new controller, display, throttle, and rear wheel/motor. It's no use sitting there looking like new if I can't have the electric assistance which I need to be able to ride it.
By the way, it doesn't have brake lever switches as the brake levers have to have the option to hold them on by pressing a button on the lever as the trike, if left on an incline, will just roll away.

Thanks for any help you can give me.