BG: Tale of Typical (Danger WOT)
Late last year, I bought a folding ebike from Engwe... Typical Stuff, seemed to have good reviews. First ebike and had not had any bike for years since my last bike was stolen. Anyway... the thing worked fine for me... No really issues.. Other then it being pretty fast and finding PAS crazy if you have never used it. One day I went to check it over because some family wanted check it out and ride it on a holiday. Well... it would not start... I put in a ticket about it soon after think I was going to have to time set aside to trouble shoot blah .. blah. I got the time to mess with it.. I was stuck with 3 issues I could not isolate, the controller, display, the hub motor. I told them I need a controller and display because it is really hard to know with the display being a single point of failure what was the root cause and if any of the parts where not need I would ship them back. So.. to make it short after about a week of sending pictures to them of voltages I had already check, They agreed it was they display and the controller.
After two days of nothing... I asked them when to expect tracking. Well no USA distrubtor has the parts so... they are going to come for China. Which is 2-3 weeks if you have the parts and a good day.
So I am stuck ... Well.. I want to ride this thing. I need a controller... and a backup display which I wanted to have before I learned that you could bypass by shorting pin1 and pin2 but you need an extension higo to use as a jumper. I am not sure that would always work as the bike defaulted to pas 0 if I recall.
Anyway,.. I think you know what I discovered about the total shit fest the "market" really is.. Yeah.. the bike might not be worth putting money into...but, I am not bothered by that... The really issue is. I have no specs on most of the bike electric systems but what helpful owners have discovered and shared with others. Battery pack is good but I have zero info about the BMS and Motor is assumed functional as well but no specs on it.
So.. I was thinking, I could get a vesc and just hook up the motor my thumb throttle and my brake cut offs and just use an old cell with BT to run the tools app on. And that would get me by until the parts come in... if they every really do.
Then I see thing are not so simple, the need for breakout boards.. odd voltages and resistors to kill noise on the signal wire so the throttle will not not go all suicide mode on you. The PAS drama... the drama of open source and the issue of bad actors bending the specs on their products, the likes of which I have not seen since dealing with VARs and Software vendors.
So the goal is simple... get this bike up and running, not hack up the BS wiring too bad so OEM restore if the parts ever come might be an options.
Any advice any Ideas... Good Plan Bad plan... drop but 20 and punt?
Late last year, I bought a folding ebike from Engwe... Typical Stuff, seemed to have good reviews. First ebike and had not had any bike for years since my last bike was stolen. Anyway... the thing worked fine for me... No really issues.. Other then it being pretty fast and finding PAS crazy if you have never used it. One day I went to check it over because some family wanted check it out and ride it on a holiday. Well... it would not start... I put in a ticket about it soon after think I was going to have to time set aside to trouble shoot blah .. blah. I got the time to mess with it.. I was stuck with 3 issues I could not isolate, the controller, display, the hub motor. I told them I need a controller and display because it is really hard to know with the display being a single point of failure what was the root cause and if any of the parts where not need I would ship them back. So.. to make it short after about a week of sending pictures to them of voltages I had already check, They agreed it was they display and the controller.
After two days of nothing... I asked them when to expect tracking. Well no USA distrubtor has the parts so... they are going to come for China. Which is 2-3 weeks if you have the parts and a good day.
So I am stuck ... Well.. I want to ride this thing. I need a controller... and a backup display which I wanted to have before I learned that you could bypass by shorting pin1 and pin2 but you need an extension higo to use as a jumper. I am not sure that would always work as the bike defaulted to pas 0 if I recall.
Anyway,.. I think you know what I discovered about the total shit fest the "market" really is.. Yeah.. the bike might not be worth putting money into...but, I am not bothered by that... The really issue is. I have no specs on most of the bike electric systems but what helpful owners have discovered and shared with others. Battery pack is good but I have zero info about the BMS and Motor is assumed functional as well but no specs on it.
So.. I was thinking, I could get a vesc and just hook up the motor my thumb throttle and my brake cut offs and just use an old cell with BT to run the tools app on. And that would get me by until the parts come in... if they every really do.
Then I see thing are not so simple, the need for breakout boards.. odd voltages and resistors to kill noise on the signal wire so the throttle will not not go all suicide mode on you. The PAS drama... the drama of open source and the issue of bad actors bending the specs on their products, the likes of which I have not seen since dealing with VARs and Software vendors.
So the goal is simple... get this bike up and running, not hack up the BS wiring too bad so OEM restore if the parts ever come might be an options.
Any advice any Ideas... Good Plan Bad plan... drop but 20 and punt?