I think this is a very important statement:
Lectric Cycles said:
The comment I made about insurance is also true. If independent bike shops or online sellers in America order kits from EM3EV, Alibaba, Bafang or anywhere else in China and are not insured as a manufacturer they could find themselves in trouble. Even if our kits were exactly the same as what is sold on sites coming from China (which it is not) our 50+ dealer network and U.S. based warranty is enough to differentiate.
That would then also apply to not just the Bafang Kits, but a huge amount of different products (or maybe there is something special about the BBS02 or Ebike Kits in particular?). I'm sure the various companies that buy their product from overseas and retail them within the USA, would also be affected. Where can this information be independently verified and on what legal basis is this statement based? I'm not doubting it is true, but it's an important point, it's not enough to just make an important statement, without having some way to corroborate it.
Thanks for clarifying the situation on the new mosfets. At the end of the day, not much gets by Bafang and Mr. Wang, Sunny or the rest of them. It is their best interest to supply a reliable product to everybody, if anybody tells them how to fix an issue, and they see it works, they will take that idea and apply to all. I'm now not too sure about the numbering system I mentioned, it seems that Bafang use different numbering systems, depending on the buyer, so I'm not too sure if my statement about the numbers is true for all or most, or what, but it is definitely true for the kits we supply. However, I am quite sure that for at least the 48V 750W BBS02 (not sure about other models), Bafang will change to IRFB3077 fets from around now and onwards, so you just need to look at the controllers build date.
Lectric Cycles said:
I would like to share one last thing in response. This is an email from a customer I received a few days ago. It highlights the difference in firmware (not software on our kits compared to others. I can assure all readers of this thread that our kit is different than others and that even if available to all not all sellers take advantage of
"I've run into something unusual that perhaps you can shed some light on. My neighbor really liked the bike I got from you and had a SF Bay Area Bafang dealer/installer replicate my bike except his bike uses the C961 display and the factory Nexus IGH rather than the Nuvinci IGH you provided for me. There's one odd thing. My bike has throttle control in every level of pedal assist including assist 0. His bike has no throttle control in assist 0. It requires assist level one or higher before the throttle functions. I brought my bike to the installer and he copied my program into the my neighbor's bike but there is still no throttle control in assist level 0. He changed my C965 display to a C961 display (to enable programming 9 levels of pedal assist) but still, loading my bike's computer program into his bike will not enable any throttle control in assist 0. Do you have any idea why? I've found being able to use throttle with the display on but without any pedal assist to be both convenient and also cuts down battery use when its not needed."
Bafang changed something in their firmware a few months ago. Previous to this you could enter a speed of greater than >0% (value not important) and a current level of 0%, in the 0 PAS assist setting, then so long as you also selected throttle to be assist level 9 at all times, you would have 100% throttle in all settings, including 0 assist. After the change, this no longer worked. Now, you have to enter 1% speed and 1% current (both need to greater than 0%) and the throttle will work in 0 assist. It is quite a simple change to retain throttle in all assist levels, including 0.
Bafang made me a special version of the firmware a little while back, to get the throttle working in PAS 0, after they made the change (they seem blissfully unaware people do this and want throttle in 0 assist). The throttle did indeed work in 0 assist, but unfortunately they managed to mess up something else, as the controllers with that special firmware seemed to be failing far more often than normal. We went back to the standard Bafang Firmware as we could get around the issue by just changing the software settings as i described above.
A few months back i tried to source the GearSensor, but unfortunately the maker has now decided we don't match their business model. After sending me numerous emails just a few months earlier, when he was reaching out to lots of suppliers. I might see if someone can buy them on our behalf, or maybe just talk with King Meter and see if they are interested in doing something similar. Closing a contact for a certain amount of time when the the gear cable moves, never struck me as a very difficult thing to do. I frankly thought the GearSensor was too expensive for what it does, even at the prices we would have offered them. If people are happy to pay this sort of price, for such a device, well we'd be happy to supply them too.
Anyway, best of luck with everything, no hard feelings.
Paul