Help taming a Cyclone mid drive - CA?

kgb

1 µW
Joined
Feb 22, 2017
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2
Location
Sydney, Australia
Hi all, first post so bear with me.

BACKGROUND:
I'm a reasonably fit racing cyclist with experience working in bike shops so mechanic work is no problem and I have all the bike specific tools on hand. I'm a high school science teacher with some knowledge of electronics although, TBH, it's probably my weakest area.
I've built my first ebike with two purposes in mind:
1. Commuting - 52km round trip, mostly flat roads and shared paths. Alternatives are motorcycle or normal bicycle, which I have been alternating between for the last 3 years.
2. Motor-paced cycle training - as in, I lead on the ebike and run paced sessions for other riders with sprint drills (eg them sprinting to overtake me etc).

THE BIKE:
The bike I've built is based on a steel framed, single speed, flat bar road bike. Based on that donor, I have since built a new rear wheel with a Nexus 3 speed hub and added a basic Cyclone mid-drive kit from Luna Cycle. No PAS etc. 52V battery with 14Ah which gives me enough juice to make the commute with some pedalling input. I tried it with virtually no pedalling effort last week and it drained the battery about 2km short of home. With the 3 speed hub, the bike will top out at ~58km/h on the flat.

THE PROBLEM:
The bike I wanted (and have ended up with) for motor pacing is good. The bike I have built is not so good for commuting - as expected it's just way too fast, 60km/h is just stupid on shared paths and is asking for trouble from the cops if I go that fast on the street. This is definitely a "problem" I was expecting and I can ride it safely as it is - but I know I can make it better/easier/nicer to commute on. The throttle is a half grip, twist throttle and is super twitchy with this much power. When cruising along and trying to hold partial throttle, small bumps are enough to make it jerk around. I've been riding various motorbikes for many years now so it's not an issue of persisting and "getting used to it"; the high power/torque and low weight of the ebike combine with this throttle to just make it annoying to use.
While I'm aware of people's opinions about ebikes with throttle only being equivalent to a moped, I'd like to have the option of being able to commute to work with absolute minimal pedalling, in my work clothes, without arriving sweating buckets. If I can do this, it's another day I can leave the motorbike at home.

SOLUTIONS:
1. A throttle with a longer turn/wrap action would allow better control but I'm not aware of any and have spent some time searching already. Unless I start buying throttles to test and see, I don't think this option will work.
2. Throttle Tamer, as formerly produced by a forum member - appear to be no longer available.
3. Cycle Analyst. This is what I'm leaning towards as the easiest and quickest solution. Ideally I'd set the CA (or whatever other option) so that I could run the bike with full throttle giving me around 35-40km/h on the flat. I think this is a good cruising speed for the open stretches.

QUESTIONS:
1. What method of limiting/restriction. My understanding is that I can either set a limit by wheel speed or by current. Speed limiting would allow me more juice to maintain speed up hills - but honestly there aren't too many. Would speed limiting have a sharp cut off once I hit the limit? I'd like it to be as smooth to ride as possible. I'm thinking current limiting might be better. It would extend the range by a more consistent amount, I think and would help to smooth out the throttle action a bit (ie full range of throttle could go from 0V-3V instead of 0V-5V)
2. Which CA do I need? V2 or V3? I don't care about logging any data, monitoring anything during the ride. I purely want to modify/limit the response to tame the beast. I'd also like to switch it back to full power easily. Ideally I'd have a low power for a legal setting and maybe tooling around to the shops, mid power for the 50km commute and full power for motor paced training. Actually, altering the throttle ramp up to make smoother launches would be nice as well - optional extra.
3. What am I forgetting? Am I misunderstanding anything?

TL;DR
Need to tame a 52V Cyclone mid drive, thinking of using a CA to control power settings via current. Will this work, which CA do I need?


TIA for taking the time to read my post and offer any advice!
 
Why not a simple 3 speed switch ?

I set the 1st to legal ebike speed, the 2nd to 60% of my bike top speed. Very useful, since my commuter is very fast and the third speed is not needed most of the time. The 2nd speed that I use mostly to commute, does make the throttle much less aggressive and battery lasting much longer. Then, I am happy to have the 3rd available when I can speed.
 
That sounds like it would do what I'm after - but I have no idea how to set it up. Could you give me some more details or even pics of yours (here or via PM), if you have a chance?
Is it as simple as some kind of variable resistor inline with the throttle?
 
Most controllers do have a 3 spd switch connector, and a standard 3 spd switch is very cheap.

If your controller doesn't have a 3 spd connector, you have choice to add one or to buy another controller.
 
Or add a switch that changes your throttle's signal output from directly into the controller so that instead it goes thru a voltage divider, which will scale the throttle's signal by whatever ratio you use for the resistors.

The voltage divider is simply two resistors, one connected at it's "top" end to the signal output of the throttle, and its' bottom end to the throttle signal input of the controller. The second's top end is connected to that same point, and it's bottom end to ground.

Let's say you use a 10kohm for the top and a 10kohm for the bottom, it will basically cut the throttle output in half. When you set the throttle to 25%, the controller only sees 12.5%, or only about 50% of the total throttle range. So 60km/h becomes 30km/h max speed.

If you use a 20k on top and 10k on bottom, then it divides it by 2/3, so the controller would only see about 8% of the 25% throttle output, or only about 33% of the total throttle range. So 60km/h becomes 20km/h max speed.

It might not work out quite as simplistic as that for the math, but you can easily test the theory and see if it will do what you want; it shouldn't hurt anything.

There is a possible catch--many controllers require some minimum voltage before they respond to throttle input...if yours does, then the throttle's "dead zone" where nothing happens as you first begin to rotate it will increase a bit. Not usualy a big deal, but it's annoying.
 
Before you go out and buy anything, try this...

The controller that came with your kit should have several white connectors with smaller wire.
Find the connector with 3 wires in it. Colors should be Black, Blue, and Pink.
You are currently using MODE #2 , which is 80% power.

Get you a small piece of wire (solid strand wire is better cause it will bend and stay), and jump the Black and Blue connection pins together.
That will put you in MODE #1 , which is 60% power.
I am not fully certain it is Black to Blue that is MODE #1. That may be MODE #3 (100%). If it seems more powerful, just move your jumper to Black - Pink.

See if that tames it enough for you.
Another option is to use a higher gear so that you reach the RPM limit of the motor, thus lower top speed. Use a higher tooth count gear on the rear wheel so it will spin slower.
However, there will be more torque and throttle response will be more touchy.
Also, the motor will be more efficient at higher RPMs. That could possibly help you with the range.
You know the drill. More test data = more conclusive results. Try it out on diff gear combos to see what gets you the best range.

Just try the MODE #1 first and see how that feels. Should give you an idea of how much you want to dampen the power output.
 
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