Enabling regenerative braking on eBay hub kit

[Philaphlous]

Got a video of some more testing... Let me know what you guys think

https://youtu.be/o-aF6LHkgNc
[youtube]o-aF6LHkgNc[/youtube]

 

[Philaphlous]

I confirmed last night after work with some quick riding that regen works quite well! It was a nice evening so I took the bike out on the parking deck.... Seems regen is the strongest around 20-25mph and cuts off around 5mph but still has moderate braking around 10-15mph. It's pretty profound...I had to double take "Is that my brakes or regen?" while riding.... Seems my battery accepts it also so I think we're doing good on this mod!

 

[chamiscastillo]

Hi
I finally got myself to open my controller and try to get the regen enable, but my controller is slightly different, also got it from ebay (generic ebike kit for 140 dollars 48v 26a) can someone tell me which is my ebs thingy where i have to connect? i searched for a while on the board, but there doesnt seem to be any markings, at least not that I can distinguish, help

 

[stu-urns]

Hi all,

Should I be cautious using higher regen braking strengths? Will it damage the motor, or motor shaft? My controller manual warns:

"Be sure to note: the higher is the braking intensity level, and the braking strength will be greater, the greater damage to the motor shaft accordingly."

Do I really need to be concerned about damaging the bike's motor shaft? I've got a torque arm installed, and its a steel frame bike. Is high regen braking going to do any more damage to the system than fanging the throttle to 100%?

I'm keen to hear people's thoughts.

Other info:
Controller/display type: KTLCD3 V2.0
Hub motor: MXUS XF40 direct drive.

 

[Philaphlous]

Hi
I finally got myself to open my controller and try to get the regen enable, but my controller is slightly different, also got it from ebay (generic ebike kit for 140 dollars 48v 26a) can someone tell me which is my ebs thingy where i have to connect? i searched for a while on the board, but there doesnt seem to be any markings, at least not that I can distinguish, help

Keep looking. Pictures didn't really help since they were taken from more of the side than the top down.

 

[Philaphlous]

Hi all,

Should I be cautious using higher regen braking strengths? Will it damage the motor, or motor shaft? My controller manual warns:

"Be sure to note: the higher is the braking intensity level, and the braking strength will be greater, the greater damage to the motor shaft accordingly."

Do I really need to be concerned about damaging the bike's motor shaft? I've got a torque arm installed, and its a steel frame bike. Is high regen braking going to do any more damage to the system than fanging the throttle to 100%?

I'm keen to hear people's thoughts.

Other info:
Controller/display type: KTLCD3 V2.0
Hub motor: MXUS XF40 direct drive.

Ssshhhhhh.....don't tell anyone...but I'm riding on my steel frame or chro-moly frame without torque arms and I've got high regen with ~1550w usable.... Ive seen no ill effects from it yet and I'm on my 2nd week. The shift except for the area where the wires go through is pretty strong. I wouldn't imagine you'd have soo much torque that it's damaging anything. I think the safety notice is more of a concern for riding than actual hardware damage. Half the time I don't actually need to use the brakes but just regen down to nearly stopped...it works beautifully for my commute since I've got a stop sign or traffic light every 100ft or so...

 

[stu-urns]

Yikes, that's brave!

Keen to hear how you get on.

 

[jordanjozsef]

I have a different controller, which has an EBS label on the board, but it's a really cheap one, so I'd be wondered if it could work. Do I just need to hook the EBS to the ground or hook it through the brake lever? The brake lever has yellow and black cable, so I guess black goes to ground and yellow goes to EBS, right?

 

[Philaphlous]

Bike is working great! I'm still waiting on my 5 pin waterproof connector then I'll be swapping out all my cables for completely waterproof cables. Should be great for winter riding! Armed with liquid electrical tape I should be great for completely waterproofing the bike!

Regen has been great! I believe mine is connected to regen high?? I'm not really sure but it does help my brake life which is dismal at best. I can see my battery voltage jump sky high when regen kicks in on my commute so I know I'm putting that kenetic energy back into the battery. The only thing I wish would happen is that my power analyzer would work both ways and I'd be able to see actual aH usage with seeing the amount of regen power going back into the battery.

 

[jordanjozsef]

Could you please summarize what did you do to enable regenerative braking? I have only a 48V 7Ah battery pack, I really need to increase the range without spending lots of money on the battery yet.

 

[Philaphlous]

Could you please summarize what did you do to enable regenerative braking? I have only a 48V 7Ah battery pack, I really need to increase the range without spending lots of money on the battery yet.

I think it might be worth doing some definitive testing to see how much capacity is saved with regen vs no regen... Ive got a very heavy city commute with tons of lights, stop signs and braking... Plus I only commute 2ish miles 1 way so 4 per day... I'd probably need a solid two weeks of data per testing method between regen vs no regen to get some results. I've read it's in the neighborhood of 5-6% added capacity back into the batteries but obviously that'll change depending on your commute situation....
Right now my power analyzer doesn't account for reverse current so it only adds up what's being taking out. I can get aH from that and start/end voltages during my commutes... I can probably use these values to calculate my regen savings...

 

[jordanjozsef]

I soldered the EBS pads together, and then I used the low level brake, the regen works, I measured it, but the brake power is so weak and not constant, I tried at higher speed too, how about your braking power? I also have a soldering point next the the two EBS ones, it's called EBS1, I guess it's supposed to be the real E-ABS. I will test it with the brake lever, short it to the ground, I hope that I won't blow my 108V controller.

 

[Yungyakz]

Hi
I finally got myself to open my controller and try to get the regen enable, but my controller is slightly different, also got it from ebay (generic ebike kit for 140 dollars 48v 26a) can someone tell me which is my ebs thingy where i have to connect? i searched for a while on the board, but there doesnt seem to be any markings, at least not that I can distinguish, help

i have the same board as you and cannot loacte the regen braking

 

[Raketemensch]

What’re you using for a display with this controller? I have the same one, but it didn’t come with a display.

 

[jamesbs]

Hi,
I've read through this thread and many other sources. I havnt found anything that matches my controllers.
The two methods of enabling regen ive read are to; connect ABS pin to ground or to connect X + DS; but I cant see either of these on by two boards.

Any suggestions on this are highly appreciated.

Controller one: ebay 1000W hub motor unbranded; originally consumed 26amps

Controller two: ebay 1500W Voilamart kit; originally consumed 32amps; board is marked with vp_sin_15mos_v2.6

 

[KarlBaumann]

@Yungyakz @jamesbs @chamiscastillo and others who have a 15 mosfet controller from the Voilamart 1500W kit,

I have good news for you!

What you have to do is connect pad named ABS to GND and then regen braking will turn on when you use regular motor-disconnect braking wires.

 

[edgefx1]

Hey everyone the controller picture above is the same one i picked up, can anyone direct me on how to wire up the ignition?

 

[edgefx1]

Hi,
I've read through this thread and many other sources. I havnt found anything that matches my controllers.
The two methods of enabling regen ive read are to; connect ABS pin to ground or to connect X + DS; but I cant see either of these on by two boards.

Any suggestions on this are highly appreciated.

Controller one: ebay 1000W hub motor unbranded; originally consumed 26amps

Controller two: ebay 1500W Voilamart kit; originally consumed 32amps; board is marked with vp_sin_15mos_v2.6

I see your TS pin is connected, what is it connected to? Cuz my ts is the throttle line but neither red black or white connects to 4.3, but i see yours is connected, which pin handles your throttle?

 

[amberwolf]

I have this same controller (the first one in your set of pictures, as quoted below), presently running an ex-Stromer Ultramotor on the right rear of SB Cruiser.

So far I've tried grounding each of the pads that have pullups to 5v, in various combinations, and while several of them will disable the motor, only one provides any braking force, and I'm pretty sure it's not intended to--it's almost certainly the "anti theft" function:

A3, while grounded, will attempt to prevent the wheel from rotating when nearly stopped, down to zero MPH. If already stopped, it will let the wheel move just a bit and then will try locking up the wheel. If at a few MPH, it will provide a little bit of resistance, about as much as you'd get from poor regen. Once it drops to a low enough speed, it will then begin trying to lockup the wheel.

But during the process the motor and phase wires will get warm to hot to very hot, depending on conditions, and the controller itself does, too. I suspect it would damage things to use this for frequent braking. It also does not do any regen, it actively uses power to do this braking.

It's likely this controller doesn't have a regen function enabled in it's firmware.

If possible, in the next week or two I will document what I can of this controller in a new thread for it and link it here for you.


BTW, XX is the self learn--ground it and it spins the motor one way, release it and leave it disconnected if that's the way you want it to go. Otherwise repeat the process once.


FWIW, this controller is VERY quiet (might be sinewave, I haven't checked the waveforms), and adding one more shunt gives it a little oomph (makes it a 40A+ controller), however, it is still a soft-start controller, meaning it doesn't react to full throttle from a stop--it ramps up slowly to full power. If it had regen and weren't soft-start, it would be a fairly nice controller for the type.

The two methods of enabling regen ive read are to; connect ABS pin to ground or to connect X + DS; but I cant see either of these on by two boards.

Any suggestions on this are highly appreciated.

Controller one: ebay 1000W hub motor unbranded; originally consumed 26amps

 

[pogihlang]

@Yungyakz @jamesbs @chamiscastillo and others who have a 15 mosfet controller from the Voilamart 1500W kit,

I have good news for you!

What you have to do is connect pad named ABS to GND and then regen braking will turn on when you use regular motor-disconnect braking wires.

Hi. Below are the photos of my controller. You said that if I connect the ABS pad shown in the picture to the ground it will activate regen when I pull the brake lever that cuts the motor power?