Mystery 36v/48v 500w controller - what are the wires for?

[jonathan75]

I hope this is the appropriate place to post and manner of doing it - any feedback please let me know. I've ordered this 36v controller from Aliexpress which arrived with a 790 LED display (rather than the 810 in the advert), http://www.aliexpress.com/item/36V-...or-Controller-with-LED-meter/32276941173.html, and I can't recognise most of the connections (despite quite a while spent moderately successfully fiddling with other controllers and parts from elifebike and bmsbattery). Would someone be able to please let me know what they think are the wires I'm not sure of? Picture here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ym9WvyF_P7TnBlYzc5a3dFcVk/view?usp=sharing Edit - here is the sticker on the side of the controller also:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ym9WvyF_P7ckhtTjZXZE5LZDA/view?usp=sharing

What I know and don't, from left to right:

1) Hall wire plug
2) 3x motor wires
3) ? Unknown orange grey white wires and red connector
4) Throttle
5) ? Unknown blue and black wires and white connector
6) ? Unknown red and black wires and red connector - (edit:seen photo on google images saying it might be a headlight (battery meter? Anti theft?))
7) ? Unknown red and blue wires and black connector - (edit: seen photo on google images saying it might be a pas (2 pins, hm. Maybe headlight))
8 ) 2x green wires and 1x green + black wire going into 790 LED display via 3x black connectors (edit - these seem to be the standard display wires, thanks to D8veh for advising that I check, they were).
9) ? Unknown white and black wire with white connector - (edit: seen photo on google images saying it might be a brake)
10) Battery wires.

Edit - only one with three pins is number (3). Never seen a PAS with those colours and that connector.

A hundred thank yous!

 

[d8veh]

Time to get the meter out. Before you apply any power, you need to have another look at all those green wires going to the display. It doesn't look right to me. The display gets its power from a pair of wires with battery voltage and ground. When switched on, it sends the battery oltage back to the controller to power it. The PAS level is sent to the controller via a fourth wire. The colours are normally red (battery voltage), blue (battery switched), black (ground) and green (PAS signal). Once you have them figured out, you can per up and test the other wires to see which ones are 5v, battery voltage and ground. Your panel has the light switch as well, so there will be a 5th wire that gets battery voltage when the light switch is on. If you peal back the heatshrink on the panel connectors, they may have the conventional colours which will help identify which is which.

It's easy to identify the battery wires to and from the panel if you open the controller. The one to the panel will be soldered next to the main battery wire. The one from the panel will be soldered next to the big resistor.

I don't see a PAS connector on the controller, which is a bit wierd, as you have a panel that can select the levels. It's possible that one of the green wires is the PAS signal to the controller.

 

[dogman dan]

One or more of the two wire plugs likely to be ebrakes. look for 5v on a wire to identify those.

The other unknowns could be anything, regen, on off switch, speed limiting, battery meter, running lights etc. My bet is the red plugs are full pack voltage, for running lights, or battery meter.

Id fire it up, and see what voltage you get. on various plugs. If it won't turn on, then find the 48v on off switch plug.

 

[jonathan75]

Thanks D8veh and Dogman Dan - very much appreciated. My voltage testing kit is at my dear mother's house so I'll edit this post to replace it with my results, after Friday when I've had the chance to test the different pins.

 

[d8veh]

Unfortunately you need to switch on the panel to activate the controller, so you won't get any 5v until you identify the vital two wires that take the power to the panel and back to the controller. Open up the controller to identify them. Do not connect the panel until you are sure which ones they are, otherwise you will wpe out the panel and posibly your controller.

 

[dogman dan]

Looked to me like he had the display connected, but yeah, duh, the on off is there.

 

[jonathan75]

So the seller writes back to me that "The smallest connector is for the PAS sensor. "

A two-wire PAS sensor, that is novel to me! Is that even possible?

 

[d8veh]

Hall sensor PAS requires three wires.

 

[Voltron]

Just a guess, but the red and black with red connector is prob full voltage out for connecting to a DC/DC voltage converter. The orange connector could be a three level power switch input?
I know how it is...my generic ebay controller had even more wires...with little paper labels, of which 5 sets were labeled Hall wires...Lol.

 

[Voltron]

P.s. once you do hook it up, watch out for things like the motor running backwards and sucking up a rug into the wheel and burning a hole thru it as the bike gets pulled off the workstand. That's the voice of experience right there

 

[jonathan75]

Just a guess, but the red and black with red connector is prob full voltage out for connecting to a DC/DC voltage converter. The orange connector could be a three level power switch input?
I know how it is...my generic ebay controller had even more wires...with little paper labels, of which 5 sets were labeled Hall wires...Lol.

Oh no! You think "oh it's a bargain, I can't lose..." right? Been there with the bike shooting off suddenly - it's on two filing cabinets so it will (and did) literally fly through the air, so I'm not allowing the motor wheel to touch anything while doing this... Yup, been there with the motor starting without any sensor input straightaway on switching on the battery. My condolences for your rug!

 

[Voltron]

It still was a bargain the learning experience alone of things like trying Hall and phase wire swapping to stop the running backwards and the violent back and forth juddering (bad combo!), putting a switch on what you thought was the ignition but turned it to be the full 72 volt output for the DC (BIG spark), that sort of thing, was worth it. And to then have it still run at 72v on a 60v controller for thousands of trouble free miles thru a variety of other meltdowns seemed like a bonus.

 

[pff7]

6) ? Unknown red and black wires and red connector - (edit:seen photo on google images saying it might be a headlight (battery meter? Anti theft?))

I bought a new controller (ended up it wasn't controller) with wires with this anti-theft labeling on it....would anybody venture a guess what those wires go to?