Motorino XPn Chinese ebike (scooter)

No strike or lockout yet, I am still using the original controller. I spent some cash buying MOSFETs to try to repair my Lyen controller. It just won't work anymore and I'm not happy about it. I wasted my time and the little money I had trying to fix it when I should've bought some Lexan instead to finish these batteries.

Whenever it's possible, I will upgrade to a Kelly or anything that is meant for a motorcycle that runs outside in all kinds of weather, not some bicycle controller that is meant to play with on the weekends only when it's sunny outside.
 
I'm using the stock controller at 60v, upgraded to 100v caps, and it's been great so far. I think I'm going to take the solder off my shunts, because I'm actually getting *too much* torque.

I recall one of the first posts in this thread was telling you you should "upgrade" your controller, but as far as I'm concerned the stock one is fine. It's certainly sealed well.

Right now it's been raining in Calgary for the past week, and I haven't been able to put my floorboards back on, so my electronics are getting directly rained on, and everything is still working fine even though it's soaking wet.

Motorinos are designed for BC, which is mostly rainforest. I think the stock controller is just fine with the rain.
 
Inedible what are the values of the caps, I too would like to upgrade the controller if you could post a pic of the old caps and their values would be great
Laser
 
Those are good but what about the other values, as i would like to change most of the large 63 v caps to all. 100v if possible
 
Those are the only 63v caps in the controller, and as far as I can tell, the only ones that see the full voltage of the battery.

The other large-ish caps are (I believe) 470uf, 50V. This guy on the visforvoltage forums seems to think those caps are there for an internal reference voltage for the regen function. I'm not really sure.

Oh yeah, it's worth mentioning you do lose regen running the stock controller at a higher voltage.
 
To a point I think, as I live at the mid point of a hill, and when I come back I always try to be on the high side of the hill going down to wards my place which is about 1 k from the top and I coast in with the brakes lightly engaged and I go up about 2 v when I get into my driveway
 
Nah, regen is totally gone. It used to be very obvious when the "engine brake" kicked in, I could watch my voltage go up ~4v as soon as I engaged it, and drop back down as soon as I released it.

Now, any time my voltage is above 62 or so, I can actually do brake stands. The brakes no longer cut the power to the motor, so it's clear they're not feeding voltage back into the battery.

Below 62v, it does cut power to the battery, but it doesn't affect my speed or voltage at all.

I haven't drained my battery low enough, but I suspect once it gets below 50V the regen will work again. I do think that guy on the visforvoltage forums was onto something with those 50V caps.

Anyway, meh. I probably only extended my range 1% by using regen, and the brakes on motorinos are really good, so other than the fact I'll need to replace my brake pads sooner, it's no big loss to me.
 
Well a buddy of mine had some caps, and I got them the only thing is they are 200v instead of 100v would you think there might be any issues?
Cross posted just so if any one may have a idea if the higher voltage caps will cause issues
 
The only problem I see could be that they are too big to fit even lying on their side. But if they fit then they will work. I think I should take the 100V caps from the broken Lyen controller and put them in my stock controller.

EDIT: Today July 7, I did take the 100V caps from the broken Lyen and installed them in the stock controller.
 
Will know soon, as I hope to be test fitting on a spare controller that a buddy has
 
Four 4S20P modules wired ready to be installed in some kind of boxes.

new_konion4_zpsc4c467f1.jpg


The material of choice here for boxes seems to be Lexan polycarbonate. I don't have the $100 to put in this right now so is there a way of making four boxes for these modules for around $30? Any suggestions?
Yes that is how poor I am at the moment, the money is for the mortgage and food and such, there's not any left for jokularities like battery boxes.

Since the battery compartment of the scooter is made of steel, I thought I could line the whole inside with 1 inch thick styrofoam and just put heat shrink over the modules. They would be very well cushioned and secured by the styrofoam and also well insulated for the cold weather. I could also incorporate a couple battery warmers I rigged up with an aquarium thermostat so I could plug in during the cold months to keep the modules at a constant 25 degrees.

EDIT: From the start, the idea was to make Lexan boxes for these modules but the more I think of it, the more I ask myself why make boxes to put them in a box? The steel box of the scooter is sturdy so that's the box right there. $30 worth of PVC heat shrink from ebay to cover the modules and free scrap pieces of pink or blue insulating styrofoam from a construction site to line the inside of the battery box.

EDIT II: replaced the cardboard on either side of the modules with 1/8'' hardboard. Once heat shrinked and stuffed in one inch thick high density styrofoam inside the scooter's metal box, they will be very secure. Each module weighs 9 pounds.
 
1/8 hard board from Home Depot 2x3 for3.50
I thnk
 
I took the time today to set up the battery warmer and thermostat, it's wired all pretty with a bracket for the thermostat, ready to install under the seat of the scooter when I install the battery. In the process of getting discharge curves of the four modules with my CBA II. I'm crossing my fingers that they are all similar.

thermostat1_zps2114fa26.jpg


EDIT: I finished testing the discharge of the four modules. My old CBA could only do a 6 amp discharge but it's ok, I simply wanted to find out if the four modules would have similar discharge curves and they did. From a charge of 4.1V per cell down to 3.5V per cell, the weakest module gave me a total of 23.01 Ah and the strongest gave 23.48 Ah. It should be a good battery.

new_konion_discharge_test1_zpsb3c562e4.jpg
 
The PVC heat shrink wrap came in today, the modules have been sitting for some time so before I shrinked them, I checked the voltage and they were still well balanced and the voltage stayed up where it should. I only need some insulating Styrofoam to finish the job.

new_konion5_zps35c0b8ab.jpg
 
Crash, sorry to hear that you are on strike, hope it's short and quick, not like what happened here in Ottawa where they were off for 58 days
 
We're not on strike, the city locked us out. Thanks for your concern, I hope this is resolved quickly also, for everyone's sake. Us the drivers and my customers I take to work, school, anywhere everyday.

EDIT: I went out to scavenge some insulating material in a construction site and was lucky enough to find what I needed in a garbage container in front of a couple houses under construction. It's 3/4 inch high density styrofoam with aluminum foil on each surface, I used it to line the bottom and sides of the battery box and I fitted the battery warmer I made and the four modules. It's all tucked in snuggly.

Thanks for reading.
 
What was the old battery I made was giving me a short range of less than 24 km. The CA showed that the battery only had just over 10Ah when it was supposed to have close to 30Ah. Now that the battery is out, I was curious to find out why it was so weak.
I already knew of a few reasons why it would be. First this battery had cells soldered together, with the cells glued to each other with silicon Goop. About half of them were de-soldered and re-soldered at one point. This battery was used in freezing weather many times, it was recharged when it was close to frozen many times, and it was boiled to 75 degrees Celsius once in a battery warmer experiment gone bad. It was also shaken and stirred in a scooter for thousands of kilometers.

First thing I noticed taking it apart was there were a couple dozen cells on which the solder joints failed. The cells would just fall off the bus bar.

I took ten random cells in the battery, cleaned them up and tested them on the CBA to see what I could see. Each cell was charge to 4.2V and discharged at 1.5A down to 2.5V. Here's the result.

old_konion_zpsf0f28274.jpg~original


There are large differences in the cell's capacity but I was expecting the cells to be much worst when I thought of the abuse they went through in the last couple years. I still will not bother doing any kind of project with these 300+ cells since I have no idea of how many cycles they have left in them. I'm guessing very little.
 
So crash, I guess the free time allowed you to get all your testing done and building completed :) I hope the lockout is not stressing you out to much .

Jim
 
Crash, how did you remove the analog volt mere from its case, I got a digital meter like yours and want to install it into
The existing case. When I opened mine up the front chrome that holds the glass
Is bent over all around the perimeter. What did you do?

Thanks
Jim
 
Thanks will do that and work on installing my v-a meter
 
Saw on the news your work may be going back yay for you
 
We went back to work this morning. This new battery is doing well, good torque, top speed of 43/44 km/h. I don't know the range, my butt gets numb way before I'm out of juice. The heating system really works well with the heating mat all around the perimeter of the battery. The heat radiates to the center faster than I thought it would so this should be good for this winter to keep all the cells at a constant temperature.
 
Good to hear have fun at work and be safe. I had my feelers out for some leaf batteries and my buddy called but I was not able to hear the phone and missed out on a full set of leaf batteries for 300$. He took them out sold them to a leaf dealer and the motor as well here's the wacked out bit he is re building it with a ICE from a Mazda wrx :shock: I will do my best to get some pics of the rebuild
 
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