E Trike Pas not working

[jayel]

I have a new trike with no miles on it. Bought from a retailer in California and I live in Canada. Worked with retailer but they know less than I do. They replaced the trike once with one that acted the same. Left the trike with me due to exorbitant freight costs to return it and refunded my money. That was great but I have a brand-new trike sitting in my garage that is taking up space and wondered if anyone on this forum might have suggestions how to fix it.
Here's my problem: The PAS doesn't work at all. When you touch the throttle or the pedals in any PAS level, the trike takes off and will go to 32kms/hr on the speedometer, which is the cutout. The actual speed is about 15 to 20 Kms measured by my other trike. The only speed control is the throttle or the brake. The controller is a SCIWIL SW900. The motor is a 750W front wheel drive. The retailer provided me with all of the codes, and I have checked them and even played around with changing them. I removed the controller and checked all of the connections, and everything is tight, as are all the other connections. I don't think my problem is in the connections unless there is a bad wire or connection somewhere. The retailer thought it might be the motor and sent me a new front wheel. That wasn't the problem. I'm wondering if the builder in China got a bad batch of controllers. I'd appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.

 

[neptronix]

I'd consider redoing the electronics. Get a nice programmable controller that is known to be reliable, with matching accessories, and run them to the battery and motor.

No name controllers are a dead end.. most questions about them go unanswered because no-names never get produced in enough quality to get the documentation they lacked.

 

[jayel]

I'd consider redoing the electronics. Get a nice programmable controller that is known to be reliable, with matching accessories, and run them to the battery and motor.

No name controllers are a dead end.. most questions about them go unanswered because no-names never get produced in enough quality to get the documentation they lacked.

Thanks for your reply. What names would you consider for the controller? Thanks

 

[Chalo]

Thanks for your reply. What names would you consider for the controller? Thanks

Kun Teng (KT) is the cheap, widely available, lots of variety, easy to configure controller that I use when I want a display interface. You'll have to get a display as well, because those don't interchange between brands.

You didn't say what system voltage you have or what kind of battery. In your case I recommend getting a KT controller with a maximum current rating as high as your battery will support, because you can turn it down from there with system parameters.

 

[jayel]

Thanks, I'll take a look.

 

[amberwolf]

FWIW, if the PAS and throttle have the same connector, they might have been swapped when the system was installed. This can cause the behavior you see.

(PAS usually uses pulses of ground to full 5v output (or the opposite) which if connected to the throttle can cause full speed operation; controller's throttle input is often not limited by the assist level but instead provides an override to whatever max assist the system can provide. Throttle usually provides variable voltage from around 1v to around 4v, and if the transition is fast enough and the controller is designed poorly, it could react to moving the throttle by sending it to full output of that assist level).

Sometimes a female connector is used on one and male on the ohter to prevent this, but then the parts (or the controller) gets those installed swapped, so it causes the problem isntead of preventing it. :/


When you do get it working, with any typical PAS system, keep in mind that pedalling *at all* will cause the motor to provide full assist (power or speed depending on controller design) of whatever level you have set on the display. The only way with most of these to get variable output is to not pedal at all and only use the throttle, except for those systems whose throttle overrides the PAS, so youc an still pedal and just control speed with throttle. But for those, if you let go of the throttle, the PAS takes over, so if you were using a tiny amount of throttle but have it set to a higher assist level than that, then if you're still pedalling *at all* it will suddenly jump to that assist level's full output.


FWIW, if you want the PAS to variably control the speed (or power) of the trike, just like actually pedalling would do, I recommend talking to Grin at ebikes.ca to get either a Cycle Analyst or one of their smart cables so you can use that to read your PAS cadence sensor to create a throttle signal to send to your existing controller (or a new "dumb" controller if you have to replace yours). This is how I control my SB Cruiser trike, so I can just pedal the speed I want to go and it goes that fast, without having to deal with the throttle. "just like riding a bike", basically.


(depending on how complex you want to get, and your budget, you can get more complicated with it and have it actually respond to pedal pressure (torque) instead of just speed of pedalling, but it works well enough just by pedalling faster to go faster, slower to go slower, etc. )

If this is your trike

New Forte Trike

Trike throttle goes from zero to governed speed of 32K's no matter what level PAS is set at. Distributor replaced the trike but replacement does the same thing. Any suggestions? thanks.

endless-sphere.com

I recommend letting us merge the two threads to keep all your info in one place, so that those helping you have it all right there (and keeping future posts about it in the same thread for that reason as well).