melted phase wires ?

[mikebikerad]

riding the 72 volt yesterday 15 or so miles in 90 weather I didn't encounter any problems. Today It would not switch on after a night of charging. inspection of the components reviled that the phase wires melted the electrical tape insulation at the bullet connectors causing them all to bunch up in a goopy melted/shorted phase wire mess. apparently it was getting pretty warm. controller showed no obvious signs of damage and green status light was on steady and not flashing. Inspection of the 9c motor revieled similar results. everything looked fine on the inside, wheel spun freely. Im stuck

What should I investigate next?

-mike

 

[Karolis]

Check all connections, especially halls. Sometimes brake lever sensor mess about, thinks that you are braking and shuts the motor. Try to disconnect them and try without them.

 

[monster]

put fresh connectors on and see if it works. if not measure the winding resistance with a multimeter. they should all be 0.05ohms or something like that. if any are open circuit then you will know. its probably something else though. probably a bad connection caused by the meltdown.

check all the obvious things like fuses, and then continuity test all the wires and plugs.

 

[Drunkskunk]

cut off those bullet connectors and put on something better. Bullet connectors are known for not always being the best conductors and over heating. it might just be a realy bad connection and the controller won't power up because of it.

 

[dnmun]

you have a bad connjection. you can try squeezing the ring to get it to make better contact, but if it is a permanent installation on you bike, you should solder it together, and cut the phase wires so they are long enuff to fit and not much more and even increase the phase wires, to the axle or inside if you can. just a bad connection should not kill the controller, do you have any pictures?

 

[mikebikerad]

I have checked and double checked all of my connections and everything seems good. the controller still shows a green on light when power is supplied. I replaced the motor with a known to work spare and still nothing. I suspect the controller, when the phase connections melted they all made contact with each other possible causing shorts somewhere. I have anderson connectors on order already but for now I soldered the phase wires together and still nothing. :x I also have another 72v controller in the mail for another project but I can test this system when it arrives in a few days. what next? should I measure winding resistance when another good motor didn't make any difference?

thanks for all the help guys!

 

[mikebikerad]

found it, melted the solder off of one of the connections in the controller. things must have gotten a little to warm

 

[patrickza]

Good to hear, which controller was it, and how many amps do you put through it? And we're all still waiting for your build threads of course!