GNG, 1000W 48V BB-drive, $400

I broke my belt today and the motor bearings start to make some horrible noise :| Good thing I have a new belt on the way, I should have gotten some spares!
 
Bummer BZ, I can't believe as easy on stuff as you are that you are having any problems! ;)
 
I took the gng out on the trails today. I set the limit at 1500 watts on my lyen 12 fet sensorless and got a good two hours of trail usage on it with good effect. No gear or belt slippage. Motor was warm throughout the whole trip. I was able to get the motor hot on a 1000 foot climb from the base of a mountain to peak. It was a steep rocky climb and I mostly utilized the lowest gear on my cassette. 5700ft to 6700ft according to google earth.

I was pretty happy with the energy consumption vs the whorish amounts of electricity consumed during my hub motor efforts. I also liked how cool the motor stayed. No more sitting around throwing rocks, waiting on a hub motor to cool down, and a hub simply just couldn't have survived, nor have the torque to do the 1000 foot climb.

Mid-drive feels much more nimble, off-roading with a hub feels like you are carrying a bunch of cargo or something.

So far, so good.

upupup.jpg
 
Hi all, have been cruising ES for a while and decided to drop some cash and bought one of these GNG kits and a bunch of 6S Nano Lipo's (15Ah). The donor bike is a Norco Fluid dualy that I picked a few years ago. The kit arrived in amazing time as experienced by others and was well packed with plenty of styrofoam padding. Waiting on the battery's to arrive and also had to order a bottom bracket tool, still too come.
Love the way the kit looks, however first impressions are that a careful inspection is required before slapping the kit together. Several nuts were loose, belt guard was rubbing on the pulley, phase wires on the drive look very anaemic, and a number of the bearings feel a bit gritty. Time will tell.
However, while waiting for pieces to arrive, I have a few questions that I could do with some help with.
This is my first ebike and first use of Lipo's. Given that you want to protect the batteries from draining lower than 12x3.6=43.2V, Whats the easiest/cheapest way to do this? I assume that the standard controller is not programmable? So am I looking at upgrading to an aftermarket one? Any suggestions?
My plan is to use this for commuting during the week, then the occasional weekend play. So I hope to keep this at 48V for the moment (reliability), but somewhere down the tracking I'm sure to want to squeeze some more from it.
I found the page advertising the Lyen controllers, but wasn't sure if they were overkill for what I need.
Appreciate any help.
Cheers
Howard
 
The simplest way is have a voltmeter on your handlebars. As long as you don't go below nominal voltage (44v for 12S) you should be OK.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Waterproof-Digital-Voltmeter-DC-15V-To-120V-Red-Led-Voltage-Digital-Panel-Meter-/180888615101?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item2a1dcd38bd
Additionally you can get alarms for each pack, which ensures against forgetting to charge one pack, but normally you'd see on the voltmeter that you didn't have your normal starting voltage. You can mount these where you can see them withe extension leads.You won't hear the alarms when you're going fast.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-8S-2in1-Lipo-Battery-LED-Voltage-Meter-Tester-Buzzer-Alarm-/180896864205?pt=UK_ToysGames_RadioControlled_JN&hash=item2a1e4b17cd
 
Thanks d8veh, I have ordered a Turnigy watt meter which I was thinking of mounting somewhere visible, so if that doesn't work I have a look at those.
 
Great intel, d8veh. Those items are now on my watch list. Yesterday's (Sunday) 16 mile ride was fun though trails were full of joggers. Will re-attempt a video during the week. Temp this morning was 35 F., not today. Homemade chain guide works well.
 

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.. eager to give it a try.. a few problems:
-when the motor gets to around the 75% of top speed mark the motor does a weird skipping thing. Belt and chain aren't skipping it's the motor or controller doing something. (see video)
-when run at 1000 watts it lingers at the 75% zone and makes for a rough ride, but when upped to 1500 watts it pushes right past the rough part.

Regarding 'skipping' I had a GNG controller which was flaky & acted very similar; it would stutter & not start at all sometimes. The above scenario could be a electrnx, do you have another controller that you can swap out? with round trip ship costs, you could likely buy one as a spare for someone shipping you a loaner. Having two makes it easy to troubleshoot. Lyen stated to me that the sensorless controllers he has only work with specific hub motors (bafang), so likely need a hall sensor type '3 phase' box to swap. I was considering a try with a 'no hall' sensorless type, but did not given his comments in PM. good luck.
 
Mech dude -
Given that you want to protect the batteries from draining lower than 12x3.6=43.2V

I run a LFP LiFeP04 Hobby King (HK) pack without BMS, and use the following. Cheap, works great.
Certainly will work with Li-Ion, also, the low volt alarm is programmable to level. There are writeups and reviews for the products at the link.

Cheap cell meter with loud alarm, sits on the battery ~ $5
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=19945

Wattmeter works like a champ also. $18
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10080

I also use a volt & temp alarm with thermocouple, which is not shown here ($7).
Gang charge up to 6 packs with a parallel board & RC balance charger, trim pack cell only when needed. Overall, fairly cheap.
 
I was considering a try with a 'no hall' sensorless type, but did not given his comments in PM.
confirmed: Lyen 12 fet sensorless seems to work pretty good. I experienced a motor stutter problem around the 75% mark of top speed. Not sure if this is the controller or motor. (see video on previous page)

I didn't experience any of the problems you normally have by going sensorless on hub motors (stuttering, rough starts ect...)
 
parajared said:
I took the gng out on the trails today. I set the limit at 1500 watts on my lyen 12 fet sensorless and got a good two hours of trail usage on it with good effect. No gear or belt slippage. Motor was warm throughout the whole trip. I was able to get the motor hot on a 1000 foot climb from the base of a mountain to peak. It was a steep rocky climb and I mostly utilized the lowest gear on my cassette. 5700ft to 6700ft according to google earth.

I was pretty happy with the energy consumption vs the whorish amounts of electricity consumed during my hub motor efforts. I also liked how cool the motor stayed. No more sitting around throwing rocks, waiting on a hub motor to cool down, and a hub simply just couldn't have survived, nor have the torque to do the 1000 foot climb.

Mid-drive feels much more nimble, off-roading with a hub feels like you are carrying a bunch of cargo or something.

So far, so good.

upupup.jpg


Hey how did you record your trip with the elevation like that? Is it an app that links with google earth or something? Very cool!
 
Hey how did you record your trip with the elevation like that? Is it an app that links with google earth or something? Very cool!

Google earth is a neat program. The detail is so accurate I was able to pick out the trail I was riding on and highlight it with the path tool.

Some of the pilots I fly with carry a little box that records their gps position. This allows them to upload a virtual image of their flights to google earth and pick out where they were getting the most lift.

Also I highly recommend bvm-8s to monitor hobby lipo.
$8 from amazon.
You can display the total voltage from all six cells as well as individual, it has an alarm, the display is backlit so you can see it at night, you can actually read it in daylight unlike most other led displays, it has a little battery % bar, and you can set so it reaches 0% at any voltage you want; I set mine to 3.65 volts per cell.

I find this readout more meaningful than the cycle analyst because I can look at the readout and it makes more sense to me that 50% of the usable pack energy is left than the Ah I have consumed so far.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006TA2SBY/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_SC_3p_dp_i1
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Good to hear the sensorless controllers work well on these - I'm waiting on my kit to turn up, they are waiting on more stock apparently! We have all been buying them out :mrgreen:

I'm looking at 15/20AH zippy Lipo, need to get my stuff together and design a nice HVC/LVC board with charge control that I can open-source (including posting PCB design for those who would like it) Probably smd, through hole is easy but a PITA in an environment where stuff gets beaten up.
 
This E.S. thread has been really helpful for my build, perhaps the following notes & photos will help other’s by giving ideas & some metrics.. I was surprised to hear Lyen sensorless works OK, very cool, which model of his controller specifically was that?

I just finished bench test of a 3rd GNG, and a trail ride on another gathering some data.
The 3rd bench test, with operation temps, sound and runout example is here, tad noisy bearing possibly the gear drive clutch, temps were similar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTlIOTq7L5c:
Two short, 1 mile rides, varying terrain, where you can easily tell the wind noise and regular bike noise at speed is not much affected by the motor. Couple passing cars had no idea bike was powered, though likely they noticed the speed. Dogs don’t freak like a dirt bike. Ride 1, Ride 2, 2 minutes, sorry rough ride, cam on handlebar, won't do that again -
Ride 1, with dog intro : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHI4BUm8js
Ride 2, to Pacific ocean overlook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIU7mtzmW0c

Short, 1:30, bike walk around, LFP HK batteries and GNG install, & pannier rack & pack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWGte_1LWg

Battery performance, small inexpensive LFP HK Pack; and, also ‘morphed’ rear pannier rack and battery carrying bag (50 grm) separate thread:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=38074&p=657106#p657106

Battery Bags & rear rack : http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=38074&p=657111#p657111

Performance, 48v stock GNG w/ minimum 48v / 8400 mah LFP HK battery Pack –

The GNG, had No skipping, belt nor chain weirdness - just worked fine past several rides.

Just finished bench test of a 3rd GNG, and (couple short) trail ride on another, with, a bit of performance metrics. Overall build quality on GNG motor assembly is very similar, with very minor variation between two motors bench runs (temp, noise, runout, finish, etc). You gotta check all the torques, and add loctite.

Ran 5 miles on an 8400mah 48v LFP pack. Included a 750 vertical ascent with parts fairly steep paved road, no way I could manually pedal in ‘high’, but easy with assist 900 watt. Bike performed quite well, in view bike’s stuck in high gear. Certainly would be more efficient if down shift for climbs.

Bike is a four year old K2 Base, with a Alfine 8-spd internal hub, but the darn hub is stuck in 'high', so like a high geared tall 'fixie'. Not due to the GNG, hub jammed just before getting setup (go figure, works great for years, now hub is not so happy). Hopefully, fix the Alfine later this week. In spite of the 'tall' gearing, GNG still has impressive climbing. Couple places where the road grade is 13 degree (checked with a protractor sighting), a rather tough crank without power, w/GNG assist made the climb was easy. Lower gearing likely would climb under power alone?

Today’s ride ran through 192 watt, started at 52.7 volt, ended 51.47v. Peak amp 21.5 and 1014 watt. Low sag point dropped to 47.2 with short few second alarms on 3v cutoff. Cell variance .04v
Yesterday, short rides of cumulative 750 climb, parts at 13deg slope, shows 900-950 watt peak, about 19.1 amp peak. Pack started at 53.7v, with sag to 48.02 on steep pitches. Post ride, the cell variance was only .003-.04 volt.

Agreed, with earlier post, at wide open (WOT, flat ground), estimate 25mph, can barely keep feet on the pedals, cadence is pretty high. There's frankly nothing 'flat' around here, so 20-25mph is my guess WOT flatland.

Info on 'No - snap', precharge circuit, and automotive realay wire setup - see here – “rain psuedo-safe ?”
No zappy, no scary. A prior life, badly zapped with infinite DC 500 volt, near death experience, great fear of amps at this end.
Pre charge, and relay main bypass.
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=41770&p=657103#p657103


Great GNG thread, many thanks to all these posts, cool stuff.K2_Right_small.jpgk2Left_small.jpg
 
Fancy :)

Naah - I'm just looking to get something that gets rid of the rats nest - PCB mounted JST connectors to parallel the balance taps, PCB mounted APP connectors for the battery series/ paralleling, a LVC function, and a HVC function, all in a neat board that fits in a pelican case. Probably set it up for 12S4P. It needs to be thin (hence surface mount). It needs no sharp edges for anything to hit either.

I'll see if I can fit charge control on it as well, its pretty tight as is! Although if I used the same opto for HVC as LVC, I could get back some space - 50mm X 50mm is rather limiting. Might also stop you from charging a cell that has dropped below death voltage as well... Hmmm....
 
We sort of know about that one, since has been a member here for a while, and has the development and sale threads on those here on ES. ;)

But thanks for the link anyway--there probably are a fair number of people here that still havent' found those threads or the site, that need to. ;)

They work well, and will do quite a bit to keep you from blowing up an RC LiPo pack.
 
Howdy - been lurking for a while deciding whether to give this thing a go.

I ordered the 36V/350W version yesterday and received the set of pics of my order all packed up a few hours later :D

One question, I'm planning to run this with 12s worth of LiPos, but the voltage range doesn't quite line up with 36v - am I likely to have problems with the controller?
 
@wavezz2k and parajared: Thanks for the device information guys. This really helps me gear up for a new pack build, although still a ways off. That 20 pound brick in the rucksack gives plenty of range but it takes the fun out of technical trails. I'm liking this R/C battery technology approach for off-road oriented eBikes.

I'm running an 11-32T out back but I went down a tooth on the inside drive chain ring so my overall gearing is slightly lower (still managed to get over 30 mph with furious pedal assist down hill, HA!). I'm taking it easy on the chain, shifting while off-throttle and finding that sweet spot for pedal assist. I've only put on 66 miles in 3 outings but so far so good.

My new trigger shifter is not where I wanted it to be. Have some clearance issues with the throttle housing. Just have to plan shifts ahead.
 

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My new trigger shifter is not where I wanted it to be. Have some clearance issues with the throttle housing. Just have to plan shifts ahead.

Cyclebutt : Throttle - Yea, mine too - throttle cable 'out' was right at the click shifter. So, I rotated throttle upside down then fwd about 10 deg. Looks freaky odd, but feels fine; right now bigger tasks, when get a chance gonna swap to a plain circular grip throttle.

GNG Controller - I've got a crystalyte controller (50a 72v), but rather than swap controller (bigger & heavier), next test is a bit above 60v with stock controller (plus, fix my 8spd hub)- GNG stock controller is very light & compact, smooth response, inexpensive to swap if fails, it's fine for now. My suggestion to GNG riders, is focus on upgrade belt drive idler (especially if swapping controller to 70v+ & 2kw+ power), that's the weak link priority. GNG Stock kit is 'over all' impressive value, plus at the weight where you can still reasonably heft it up to a bike rack - belt setup needs work, so I carry a spare for interim.

(Off GNG thread, per Backpack , etc. ) - I gotta use a rear rack mount battery because as a partial commuter, messenger bag with computer is on my back. The lightweight rack & pack rides single track no problem (50 grm battery bag, on a rear rack, lashed down is solid, might want to pad it if really thrashing about).
Greatly would prefer to buy a rack like this, vs fab one, but couldn't find anything. Regular post racks at 20lb limit is deal breaker for large battery pack; just me, not gonna carry 20+ lb backpack. This rack & pack works well, looks stealth with 'normal' pannier- http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=94772&t=1

(also off GNG topic) Per the low voltage cutoff, at this point, I don't want a preset cutoff shutting the pack down - that would hinder tests. If you dither back on throttle & current draw, you can eek farther than first cell dip below 3v (LFP). Alarms buzzer work fine to let you know. If you forget to unplug pack, leave on vacation - well that's a dilbert & darwin moment. Any LVC monitor cutoff could be readily linked to mains relay to pull the plug (schematic & thread link, couple posts earlier). Buzzer beeps, flicks open the relay. No BMS makes config changes trivial, bigger /smaller Ah, higher /lower Volts, that's the goal presently.
(LoL) Planet bike fenders is largest annoyance - light & rigid fenders, so don't rattle like contractor pickups on washboard, gonna have to fab stiffener struts. Planet bike clip-on fender cheap ($10) & super light but they rattle crazy loud...
 
This kit is very interesting, I looked through the thread, but I didn't see if anyone managed to try it with 36V?
 
This kit is very interesting, I looked through the thread, but I didn't see if anyone managed to try it with 36V?

yeah, search the thread, I think it was Dv8 ran 36v to down tune the ride cadence.
Any sparky EE types care to comment on the 36v question .. stock controller is reported to LV cutout at 36v, so alternate controller was used (again search this thread).

My question is - the 72v at just over 20 amp is an impressive 1.4kw peak. Drop to 36v is better for high speeds cadence, but to get the same 'power' you will have to up the amp 40a or more. Motor efficiency is probably flat across mid band RPMs, so I don't believe you gain or lose net efficiency with slight changes to RPM. Are the higher amps tough on motor windings, or is it a wash with waste heat about the same for same power wattage, and also, could the stock GNG be tweaked to provide higher amps, or are the internals (cap/ FET) not up to 40a?

Mounting my bigger controller will have to go under the rack, not in the frame, it's considerably bigger. Planning to run 36v & over 48v on the stock, just to check myself.
 
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