My Cromotor E-Bike Build -> more like a moped

[ebike11]

OP, what type of speeds are you getting?

 

[madin88]

OP, what type of speeds are you getting?

speed is about 75kmh with full battery on flat street.
upward steep hills at my area (about 12% slope) i never seen less than 60kmh for so far, but it takes 5kW or more. no heat problem thanks to this small tires.

"OVS 3" set in my controller. I think this is flux weakening (0-7 tuning possible).

 

[madin88]

good news:

now my variable E-brake with brake light switch works how it should.
The issue i had was a broken GND wire from display to e-brake / throttle connector. The wire was already broken when i got the controller. The curious thing was my 0-5k thumb throttle worked WITHOUT gnd connected to the pot.
Of course, the throttle range only was 1,6-3V and not 0-4,5 but it worked.

Todey i will post some pics of that switch and the bike. Yeahh, its finished

 

[izeman]

can't wait to ride it

 

[madin88]

can't wait to ride it

Ich sage dir bescheid wenn ich das bike in Linz habe. Du kannst es gerne probieren

I'm a bit afraid to ride it in winter with all the salt on the street. This is not good for alu parts (drilled rim) etc.
Of course in the city in Linz its not that much. maybe they don't even had to salt because the temps are a bit higher than at my place.
Last time i ride i blew all the snow and dirt off with air compressor.

 

[madin88]

finished bike:

 

[100volts+]

Good job. I made aluminum panniers positioned where yours are on my cromotor build. Hopefully I will be able to add polishing touches to mine soon also.

PS What a learning experience. Don't you agree?

PPS I was shocked at the build weight of a cromotor bike. It's almost like a really light motorcycle.

 

[cwah]

What's the weight?

 

[ridethelightning]

great to hear the e-brake problem was not too hard to fix.

nice photos!

im so greatful for watching your thread as iv learned so much from it,

eg. re-position of battery packs etc, mistakes i wont have to make now

 

[madin88]

Good job. I made aluminum panniers positioned where yours are on my cromotor build. Hopefully I will be able to add polishing touches to mine soon also.

PS What a learning experience. Don't you agree?

PPS I was shocked at the build weight of a cromotor bike. It's almost like a really light motorcycle.

yeah, cromotor is also a beast when it comes to weight.
hubmotors are simple but alot heavier compared to mid-chaindrives with same power.
keep me posted about your build^^

 

[madin88]

What's the weight?

weight is about 45kg with battery full charged :lol:

 

[madin88]

great to hear the e-brake problem was not too hard to fix.

nice photos!

im so greatful for watching your thread as iv learned so much from it,

eg. re-position of battery packs etc, mistakes i wont have to make now

thanks

yes, battery belongs to the frame and not to the steerer.
Im glad i talked with this good skilled motocross driver who gave me this tip.
i also learned alot from the members in this forum. its really great.

 

[ridethelightning]

What's the weight?

weight is about 45kg with battery full charged :lol:

how much lighter is it at LVC ?: :wink:

thats still pretty light, no more than one of my lighter girlfriends.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[100volts+]

yeah, cromotor is also a beast when it comes to weight.
hubmotors are simple but alot heavier compared to mid-chaindrives with same power.
keep me posted about your build^^

My build still looks like a bicycle with a bomb wired to it. I haven't gotten to the refinement in looks part yet. Wanted to road test it to see if all the tech works first. It's over 100 lbs but the weight is well distributed. Braking not an issue because of regen braking. It's a 28s build but want to go to 32s for the 100 kph speed.

 

[madin88]

My build still looks like a bicycle with a bomb wired to it. I haven't gotten to the refinement in looks part yet. Wanted to road test it to see if all the tech works first. It's over 100 lbs but the weight is well distributed. Braking not an issue because of regen braking. It's a 28s build but want to go to 32s for the 100 kph speed.

battery and controller are well placed. the handling should be good
If you running this bike up to 100kmh you should install a better front dics rotor or better braking system, otherwise you wont be able to stop this bike fast enough in an emergency situaiton.
Keep an eye on all mounted components and build them stable.
You also should keep an eye on motor temperature - especially if you do lots of stop and go riding. Lowering phase amps also would help to prevent the motor from overheating.

 

[ridethelightning]

are the 470uf caps you put in wired in paralelle or series? are they on the main battery leads to controller?

am i right they basically work as a precharge resistor? im just getting round to testing my max e.... at 82v im gussing a precharge resistor of some sort is a must.

 

[Falco]

btw: don't use this AS150 antispark bullets for high voltage/capacitance. Mine only worked one time and than the resistor blow up.
anyway i think i will stay with them, because i have the keyswitch and precharge circuit. I only installed them just in case if the precharge circuit break down to be able to direct plug the controller to battery. now i cannot do this..

Can You show us how it blew up please? I use this connector as a Precharge on all my bikes. Running 20s 65c nanotechs ive not had a issues with them. The only time i did was when I allowed to much surface area of the connectors to touch and i got some spark as the circuit charged from the current inrush. It only happened once though. I got my connectors from hobbyking and they were cheaper then the ebay ones.

 

[madin88]

are the 470uf caps you put in wired in paralelle or series? are they on the main battery leads to controller?

am i right they basically work as a precharge resistor? im just getting round to testing my max e.... at 82v im gussing a precharge resistor of some sort is a must.

These caps have nothing to do with the antispark / precharge circuit. This is no must have, but they smoothen the voltage a bit from battery to controller and this should help a bit to prevent controller from big voltage spikes at very high currents. They are all parallel and placed on drain side of the masterswitch FET's.

At 82V you sure will need some good antispark bullets or other self build things.

Jeti bullets are very good and i never had problems with my infineon 18fet at 90V
maybe also this masterswitch pcb board from Alan B. is something for you: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=54225

take a look and inform you good before start to build something! high volts are dangerous and electronic can be melt in less than an blink of the eye.

Adaptto controller doesn't have and ignition wire like infineon so you have to disconnect battery every time or leave it on. Leave it on would be no problem as it draws very low current and there is also the antitheft feature (controller will lock the wheel until password is type in)

 

[madin88]

Can You show us how it blew up please? I use this connector as a Precharge on all my bikes. Running 20s 65c nanotechs ive not had a issues with them. The only time i did was when I allowed to much surface area of the connectors to touch and i got some spark as the circuit charged from the current inrush. It only happened once though. I got my connectors from hobbyking and they were cheaper then the ebay ones.

It does not only depend on voltage but also on how much capacitance the caps in the controller do have. Maybe you have luck and they work fine with your components.

here a pic of the blown resistor i put out of the bullet: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=54138#p834459

 

[ridethelightning]

iv powered up my max e, and gone through the first steps to getting it running. all straight foward, except that the magura throttle seems to be on full if connected. i had to disconnect it to stop the motor.
did you have anything like this going on?

perhaps the throttle pot needs adjusting?

apart from that, iv got to say i was very impressed to the smoothe sound of the cromotor

 

[madin88]

iv powered up my max e, and gone through the first steps to getting it running. all straight foward, except that the magura throttle seems to be on full if connected. i had to disconnect it to stop the motor.
did you have anything like this going on?

perhaps the throttle pot needs adjusting?

apart from that, iv got to say i was very impressed to the smoothe sound of the cromotor

i had the same problem. it was not full throttle but about 20%. keep in mind with torque mode the wheel will always spin to max rpm at any kind of throttle input.
For setup i put the bike on some wood pieces to keep the wheel spinning free off the ground (you anyway should do this when first setup the controller over "autodetect"; be careful because the pedals move if motor turns backward).
Go fast in controller calibration menu to "thr limits". In this menu the motor will stop. Set the lower and upper "bars" to workable values. than go in "thr linear" menu to calibrate throttle.

After this my throttle worked, but i noticed voltage-range only was between 1,6-3,5V or so, and not 0-4,5V like it should be with 5k pot throttle.
I was riding long time with this settings. When i set up my variable e-brake nothing more was working, because e-brake and throttle start to interfere.
I found out my GND wire was dead (the failure was at connector on display side). Check these wires first!. After the fix all worked well and now both e-brake and throttle range is like it should be

also important: if your throttle puts out more than 4,5V at full , controller will show a failure. If this happens, you have to solder a resistor in the +5V wire going to your throttle to lower voltage (i would say about 0,5k - 1k ohm should work).

yeah the silence is a real pleasure. you ride like a phantom (a bell is essential to warn pedestrians)

 

[ridethelightning]

mmm...just a hiss and a rumble like distant thunder....love it.

i tried testing with my crappy hall effect throttle, in both torque and speed throttle mode. it seemed to work just fine.

either my wiring was wrong(i went for colour to colour match with the same blue, brown and black magura throttle wires)its possible the wire colours dont correspond,or any broken wire is not affecting the hall throttle.

does the white ebrake wire short to the black ground wire to turn the brake on?

next ill try to switch the wires round to get it to work.

btw im only using half my pack at 40v for testing first.

thanks for the other info.i feel a little more prepared for any trouble now...

 

[madin88]

either my wiring was wrong(i went for colour to colour match with the same blue, brown and black magura throttle wires)its possible the wire colours dont correspond,or any broken wire is not affecting the hall throttle.

does the white ebrake wire short to the black ground wire to turn the brake on?

thats the problem. there is no colour to colour match with magura throttle:

Magura:

Blue Wire = Throttle High (+5V)
Brown Wire = Wiper
Black Wire = Throttle Low (GND)

Adaptto:

brown wire = +5V
black wire = GND
white wire = e-brake wiper/switch
blue wire = throttle wiper

I think it is normal the wheel spins with hall effect throttle, because hall sensor starts at about 1,6V and this will apply power.
you can avoid this by disconnect throttle when first power on and set in "thr limits" calibration menu the lower bar to about 2V or more.

No, if you use a normal e-brake switch the white wire must short to +5V (brown wire) and not to gnd :wink:

do you have the english manual?

 

[madin88]

variable e-brake with brake light switch:

the brake light switch coming out on top of the box is a Wuxing chinese cut off switch. I changed this switch later to a better one because it didn't work well.
the green brake pot on the back is from an AWI thumb throttle (could not found one with 45degree angle in my electronic store)

controller main screen:

power mode profiles:
three differnt settings can be programmed.

throttle curve now looks like it should with 0-5k pot:

 

[ridethelightning]

ah thanks again madinn, that may explain it. so the wire colours are all over the place.

i do have a copy of the manual, but it still leaves you guessing a bit....

thanks for the info on the ebrake wires.

so its back to the ebike cave for more tinkering, and take a look at the throttle limits calibration