Matt and rest of "non-hub" guys help!

[waxman123]

Ok here is where I am at on my build with my R/C build.

I took off my Cyclone (I am the one with the 29 inch Intense mountain bike with the cyclone attached at the bottom tube see picture)

That set up was working really well. Top speed was around 28-32 mph pedaling! Great on the steep climbs etc. Draw backs are heavy, bulky on the bike and weird sound.

So I wanted to replace the cyclone with an R/C set up. I have a 3220 4 turn, with at first a 25-1 reduction unit (more on this later) throttleizer, and castle 160 ICE controller, lipo 12S 15AH Hyperion batteries!

First go round I go to hook up the throttlizer to castle all ready to program everything and the throttlizer gasses out and fried. Ok Andrew (big help he is and EV logix great so far) and I talk about it and I order two more (just to be safe) and the second go around better and I get everything hooked up and it works! But I can not get my computer to talk to the throttlizer so I program it through the flashing light technique! Plus I program the Castle with the computer and this goes really easy. I programed the Castle per Matt,s instructions too!

Ok time for first ride! Start to roll down the driveway and slowly turn throttle I flip over in a wheelie. I am ok and stoked on the power this little motor in producing! Well after my first lap it is apparent the 25-1 is way to much reduction with my Rolohoff hub.

Now I go back and switch some things around and a little arm chair machining and I put the 9-1 reducer from the cyclone onto the Astro motor! Results are that is 8th gear (out of 14) I was doing 40MPH ON MY FLAT STREET!!! I can not believe how powerful and fast these little motors are. The reduction in the gear has made the power a little more manageable! I think a 5-1 would be great with 14 gears!

Questions and help or opinions:
1. Has anyone run a astro 3220 straight with no reduction to a Rolohoff type hub? Or just a 5-1 reduction or less?
2. Why can I not get the throttlizer to talk to my computer and the castle does it no problem. Is there any alternatives to the throttlizer? Matt don't you have something cooking on controllers?
3. I have seemed to fried my castle tonight after trying to make some changes to throttlizer. Any alternatives to the Castle 160? Or is this the best set up for now?
4. how can I turn the power of the 3220 down? I tried through the thottleiser and not much luck. It is an eticket ride right now!!! Fun but need to be able to control the power for testing etc!
5. I have now cracked the welding on the welded connection to the frame. I am going to have to thicken the plate and welding. it is flexing so much the chain came off!

I am stoked on the power these little motors have and Matt put me on the list for you first batch of motors!!!! Just need to iron out some things and this thing will be bullet proof and I can start my down hill bike build!

Thanks
Erik

 

[Thud]

Waxman,
What kind of throtle are you using.
Regarding the throttlizer, ther are a couple files that need to be copied & pasted in your operating system to get it working.
Andrew has a good tutorial on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6MoKSM3fWk&feature=player_embedded
I am having other problems with my throttleizer.(mine will not function with my cheap Hall or my expensive magura)

If you in fact fried a conroller then the throtlizer is not doing its Job.(programing error?) If you set for a fast throttle responce it is possible to over shoot the current limits you have selected.
Also from my reading of the manual the throtlizer can be wired backwards & still function but will not limit the current (putting extream pressure on your controllers)

I will let Matt Adress the asto motor questions, as he is the resident expert.
IDK much about the rolloff hubs. Miles is the resident bike parts expert. But wow thats a lot of gears.
good Luck.

 

[waxman123]

Thud
Thanks for the response ! Andrew went thru set up over the phone step by step after I fried one. We concluded that I had hooked it up wrong to the battery. Red to black etc! This whole e bike has steep learning curve sometimes!part of the fun though!

I am using a magura throttle! Problems I am having is in the programming end of things! Once I am done it works but the motor is always to much power. Would like to reign in some of the power and then introduce it later after I get mechanical things going! Want like 75 to 60% power then once I am comfortable with set up then open up the power with programing!!

 

[Kepler]

Isnt the Magura a 5K resistive throttle? The Throttleizer uses 0-5V input.

In relation to getting the software to work, I presume you have matched the comms ports.

 

[waxman123]

Kepler
Andrew said the magura would , and it does, work fine! My problem is programming.

I have tried all my USB port on my computer and nothing. How do I check the comm port. On the software it asks for comm port 3.

Thanks

 

[drewjet]

Waxman, looks like a great build. We would love to see more, detailed, up close pictures. Especially the Rolohoff.

I am running a 6 turn 3220 with about 24:1 overall reduction in my mountain bike and completely agree with you on the awesome power these things make. When I first started riding it, I experienced the same thing as you, way too much acceleration to be controllable. You will get used to it eventually.

I run a Delta Y switch. In Delta top speed is 30 MPH in Y it is 18. What that does for me is make it much more controllable at lower speeds. I can ride on technical trails in Y with no fear of over controlling the throttle. Switch to Delta for fast street driving

I don't know if you have the 6 wire version or not, but if you do I would recommend that.

What also helped me was going from a twist throttle to a finger throttle.

 

[www.evlogix.com]

Kepler
Andrew said the magura would , and it does, work fine! My problem is programming.

I have tried all my USB port on my computer and nothing. How do I check the comm port. On the software it asks for comm port 3.

Thanks

Hello, I apologize for the problems you're experiencing. I'll try to help you to get through this.

So, what suggests that the programming doesn't work?

Does a black screen suddenly flash and disappear?

Does it attempt to program and then report back with a bunch of zeros for the values?

Is there a specific error message? If so, what is it?

 

[waxman123]

Andrew

When I am trying to program I got thru getting the library in place (that was my problem and after watching the tutorial it was easy). With out any throttlizer hooked up it will just time itself out (just like the tutorial). When I hook up it up to the throttleizer, change out all the desired changes in the program it will go to the black screen and get to the point where it is looking for the comm. It is the same as your screen in the toutorial at the end. then this is where it stops. Nothing happens after this. My computer never seems to idenify the throttlizer when I hook up the usb. On the castle it sees it right away. It never confirms anything was downloaded. I left it connected for 20 minutes and nothing. I have tryed it unplugged from battery, plug in battery, unplug during, after. With , without battery all differnet ports on my computer. Even had my computer tech neighbor come over and check it out. He said it should be idenifing it as soon as I plug in the USB like the castle does. Even when I programmed it using the "Light Flashing" technique it never seemed to slow the motor down at all. I even set it at 50 AMP and was still running crazy. The throttle seemed to be the only thing I could change. The sensitivity of it!

I know we are close Andrew! Learning curve can be steep on the electrical side for me, the mechanical side it where I am most comfortable. I am getting my bearings electrically fast though so thatnks for being patient and helping me out!

 

[www.evlogix.com]

I'm confident that if we take this one step at a time, we'll get to the root of the problem. There's a lot of possibilities though on what you're seeing, so I need to get what you're seeing exactly. So this may take a little time.

So, you did get to the part where it says "Settings applied. Now reading the applied settings. Please wait."?

Did you also get the message, "Communication timed out. Please make sure you selected the proper serial port. It might be another device."? Or did it forever hang and not get to this part? Or did it show something else?

 

[waxman123]

Andrew

Yes I do get the "settings applied. Now reading the applied settings. Please wait" after that shows up nothing.

It would forever hang not get to that part "communication timed out, please make sure you selected the proper serial port." never gets to this point!

 

[www.evlogix.com]

This problem has not been encountered before, so I don't know the solution right off hand. So, I'm going to try to make sure that the correct port is selected. You should restart your computer, because a port might be hanging open and preventing a connection.

If you close the program, and disconnect the USB programming cable, and start up the program, are there any ports available in the box?

If you then close the program, reconnect the USB programming cable, and start up the program, do any new ports show up? If so, the new port that shows up should be the usb programming cable. Note, the program doesn't automatically know which port belongs to the USB programming cable so it must be selected correctly.

If no new ports show up, then it's possible that the USB programming cable port number is larger than 10 and it won't show up. I'll go into more detail for this if this might be the problem.

Let me know what you see.

 

[waxman123]

ok will do! It could very well be the computer too. I will be investigating this tonight also!

 

[Kepler]

Andrew

Yes I do get the "settings applied. Now reading the applied settings. Please wait" after that shows up nothing.

It would forever hang not get to that part "communication timed out, please make sure you selected the proper serial port." never gets to this point!

I have seen that issue with the latest program that reports back the settings. I then tried the the previous version of software that doesnt report the settings and all worked fine. Since then I have reloaded my laptop operating system and the latest program now works fine.

My suggestion is to use the older program and see if that works.