Dillenger kit problems - (m) symbol and not working

D

Dazza22345

10 mW
Joined
Jan 17, 2016
Messages
32
As some of you may have read I purchased a kit from Dillenger around 4 months ago.
While on a ride yesterday my bike developed what started as an intermittent fault but turned into full failure before I got home. The bike has stopped working and shows a (m) error on the display. After unplugging and plugging in all the connections it will spin the wheel intermittently, but when it comes to moving the bike it fails and shows the error and wont move the bike.
While trying to diagnose the problem I have found that the 3 pin connector from the controller to the motor seems to have melted the plastic at the top of where 2 of the prongs go into the holes. It also confirms it has been getting warm because the plastic cover on the frame seems to have been affected by heat and the plug with the prongs seems slightly mis-shapen on the exterior.

I sent an email off to their support department yesterday, who have suggested it may be a case of sending replacement cables to sort, although considering they're wired into the motor and controller I'm not quite sure how that's going to work. Currently stuck for transport so if anyone has any suggestions as to what would be at fault or what replacement bits I could purchase in the meantime to keep me going I would be very grateful.

Will keep you updated as to how it goes as I know some of you were curious as to their customer service and how they deal with problems.

Also to note while I was trying to get home I phoned customer support for advice on the error, and there was no information for this display, unfortunately she wasn't able to find it on there system. Which was a bit disheartening. Anybody know anything about which display its using and what the fault code could mean? To me (m) in a circle suggests motor, although I expected the hub motor to be the most reliable part.

Thanks for any advice you can give
IMG_1633JPG.jpgIMG_1628JPG.jpgIMG_1630JPG.jpg
 
It's telling you a problem with the motor. Most likely it overheated and fried a hall sensor inside.
 
Ok thank you.
Is that from the symbol shown you're saying that?
Is the motor overheating likely to be caused by something further up?
And would motor overheating cause the issue with the connection getting too hot?

Does anyone know what motors it is sold in their kits? as they don't sell the motors on their own :/
 
Ok ignore the last, they have just replied :)

reply - It is possible that the hall sensor could have burnt out causing a short, but from our experience the motor is the most reliable part of the system.
The first step though in our experience is to replace the controller.

Fingers crossed this will solve the problem and wont take too long. Am hating being without my bike already. Will definitely be buying spares for the future!

Will keep updating as I'm sure they are a possible source for many of the people who come across this. Even though none of you seem interested :p
 
Also to note, they also said:

Note: Responding to this query before we have replied may affect your position in the support queue. Our goal is to respond to all inquiries as quickly and accurately as possible. Thank you for your patience.

So it may be the case they took a while to respond due to me sending a couple of messages, I guess it might have moved me to the back of the queue. Something to bear in mind
 
Hello Dillenger (Sam), yeah things are good and progressing well now thankyou, am based in the uk so not sure how close you are to the uk side of things? I hope you are happy with me updating the forum on how things are progressing?
Before purchasing from yourselves I had trouble finding out information on your customer service, as most of the info on here is regarding the issue with the rear rack from years back and before it got upgraded. So figured an update would help any potential customers to know what things are like now, and not just take a punt like I did. You are one of only a few sellers available in the uk who sell the overpowered kits, so I'm sure there is a lot of curious uk buyers. Yeah the kit I've got is the 1500w rear hub kit. Like it very much when its working, and am very impressed with how it handles the hills.

Another update - they have confirmed they are sending me another controller to try under warranty which should be here the next working day. They have also agreed to sell me a spare controller and motor (although motor is not always an available part) so that I have spares for any future problems. Fingers crossed this will sort the problem and I can be back on the bike asap :)

Dillenger - regarding purchasing the extra parts, can you confirm if the 1500w kit has been upgraded to work with the switcharoo yet?
And if so would the upgraded motor work with my existing kit or would I need to start again to have that option?
Also what are the chances of getting an extra motor wheel tagged on to the uk's next delivery, to save me on paying the shipping from Australia? :p

Considering the only information beforehand I could find out about their customer service was regarding the rear rack, I have to say have been pleasantly surprised, and would recommend them to anyone thinking of purchasing anything from them. Seems a lot better idea than trying to chase up claims with Chinese sellers.

Will update when it arrives and if it fixes the problem.
 
Hi Dazza, that's all good. If the controller doesn't fix the problem we have a spare complete wheel in the UK warehouse available.

We've done a lot of work on the conversion kits we manufacture since that episode and all new kits moving forward are not using rear racks.

Having said that, the website which was registered by someone else (in breach of our trademark) to display what a horrendous potential class action the rear rack battery was, has grown by the modest amount of nothing since last year...

The current series isn't compatible with the switheroonie. This isn't far away though. When it comes out, maybe we could look at offering you a discount for the upgrade?

Let me know about the controller fix - the spare wheel (same size as you've ordered) is sitting in the warehouse in Heathrow ready to go if needed.

Cheers

Sam
 
Cheers Sam, that's great news as I cant wait to get it up and going again :)

Ah ok, Jacob didn't reckon that the wheel was in stock in the uk, as was informed would be an extra £45 to get it shipped from you guys in Australia. Regarding not using the rear racks, what option replaces this now? The uk site still shows the kit with the rear rack like I've got? Although I will happily confirm this newer rack seems to be holding up fine. Does it still come with a 20ah battery? I couldn't make my commute with anything smaller :/

Do you have an idea of timescale for the new kit? Would it be worth risking waiting for the new kit as a spare and hope nothing else goes wrong in the meantime? If you could message me a rough idea of price that would help my decision if to purchase the extra bits now or to wait. Would ideally like to keep the battery I have and just upgrade the rest though. Have realised I cant really afford any downtime without my bike, hence the reason for needing spares incase any problems occur. What other upgrades will there be with this new kit?

Thankyou for your quick response, and I'm happy you're getting some positive coverage for those interested.
 
And yeah I did find the website quite amusing, it obviously wasn't enough to put me off buying from you though so I can see what you mean. Unfortunately was about the only info I came across while researching your customer service though so hopefully this will show you in a better light. I did think you handled it fairly well on here though, it does help that your taking an interest in the forum.
 
The kits with rear racks are being replaced but are still for sale as the only known 4 reported failures consisted of 1 failure in the UK and one person in the US who broke 3. So with those being the only known failures we haven't removed them for sale, but we did experiment with a custom made rack. The results were good, but the cost was going to bump the kit price up by at least $200 USD and we preferred the riding quality of a lower-set pack. We've also been developing a rigid downtube mount case system to house 48V 20Ah/72V 12.5Ah.

So the new 1,500W kit will be with a custom engineered battery pack. Here is a photo of the prototype being tested on some trails: https://www.facebook.com/Dillengerelectricbikes/photos/a.527502553948325.119980.509575365741044/1177184568980117/?type=3&theater

We're looking at about 3-4 months from now for this. It will also be switcheroonie compatible (that's the idea, anyway!)

Jacob just asked me to double check, the spare wheel is not there for sale, but it's there on standby if one is crashed, lost or faulty!

The new kit will be using a lot of different parts, so I'd prefer to help you get this one working perfectly and then if you'd like to upgrade down the track we can offer you a 'beta' price on the newby. Online pricing will be circa 1,100 GBP delivered with everything, including the new hard case system.

Cheers

Sam
 
Just checking out your Australia site, your definitely a step ahead. I'm guessing you are the main guys out there? You even offer finance!! If only the uk offered that it would have made things so much easier. I spent months searching for a uk company that offered off road kits/bikes with finance and there is literally nowhere, so there is definitely market potential there for the uk guys if they can offer it. Something to consider
 
Ok gotcha, so it was the racks like mine they managed to break? They come rated at 50kg so not sure how they managed that with a 5kg battery :eek: Mine and I'm guessing countless others seem to be perfectly adequate :)

Would definitely be interested in the downtube rack mount, as I'm sure would it improve the handling by a long way. Although I know for a fact the battery I've got now just wouldn't fit in the triangle of my bike, else I would have made up my own. And looking at that one there I think i might have the same problem unfortunately. Does look very nice though. I have a 2010 giant anthem advanced sl1. Is a very nice bike but the suspension takes up quite a bit of the triangle. Shame really as I have 12kg of kit on the back of a 10kg bike!
Yeah that makes sense regarding the wheel, and good to see your covering all bases tbh, good thinking on your part there.

I think £1100 is more than i'd want to spend for now to just upgrade/ keep as spares. So unless you fancy doing me a major deal ;) in exchange for a full review and publicity and testing then i'll just stick with buying the spares for my current kit.

Thankyou again for taking the time to respond
 
Thanks Dazza - and yes, we'll see what we can do.

There will be a 1:1 scale drawing you can print and put together to see if it will fit within the frame or not, sort of like this method:

http://dillengerelectricbikes.com.au/nt-battery-fitting-and-sizes/

It is still a big pack though, so it will be a tight (sometimes too tight) fit for dual suspension frames. The frame it's on in the facebook photo is a very large hardtail frame.

We've tried to get a similar finance setup in the UK, but as the company is still based in au it's difficult, but we're still working on it!

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!
 
Ok thankyou for that, yeah I can confirm that new battery wouldn't be suitable for the bike i've got now, so would be a new bike aswell if I was to go that route :/

Well don't give up on the idea, as I know for a fact I wouldn't have been the only person looking for that option.
 
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-GB/bikes/model/anthem.x.advanced.sl.1/4884/39047/#geometry
As you can see the rear suspension does take up a lot of the space, so not sure you'd want to give up the rack idea completely, as some people are probably still going to want the option. Plus it makes it easier to cover up the motor if required.

So realistically how much would the "beta testing" kit be likely to cost me? As would need to factor in a new bike to my decision, and I rather love the look of all the carbon goodness on this one (yes I know its pointless but I'm addicted to how it looks)
Or would it be possible to buy the kit without the battery to work with my existing one?
Finally if not for the above how possible Is it to get another wheel tagged onto the next delivery to the uk to save on the shipping?

Final question, sorry for all of them btw. Speaking to the sales lady on the phone suggested that the displays have changed since I got mine, is there any advantages to the new one, how much would it cost me and is it plug and play with my existing setup?

Many thanks
 
Received the same excellent customer service with my Dillenger kit when Sam, the owner, was involved. 36V, 10 ah kit going on two years of service.
 
Final update -

So after the first parcel seemingly went missing thanks to the delivery company being useless, I am happy to report that the controller has arrived and fixed the problem :)

Problem fixed and great communication from Dillenger throughout. Many thanks
 
Looks like I spoke too soon. Took it out for a proper ride today rather than just a test and the exact same thing has happened again. Had a loss of power going up an incline, juddered and then died. Has the same symbol on the display and when it happened noticed smoke and a burning smell coming from that connection.

Does this mean it's fried another controller? Or is something else wrong?
:(:(
 
Would like to say communication from sam has been brilliant, had a pm before I'd even made it home.
Seems that the motor is indeed the issue and has been frying my controllers.
Looks like I now need a new controller and motor, which Sam is going to get sent to me.
They surely must be losing money out of this sale by now so really can't fault the amazing customer service I'm getting.

Any problems and Sam is the guy to sort you out!
Will update once new bits arrive, but with a new controller and motor it's surely a guaranteed fix!

Gutted that it isn't fixed yet, but thank you Sam for the quick response and great service, can tell you care about your company and your customers.

And to anyone else reading, you can trust Dillenger to look after you
 
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