New project, Electra Townie with a T0Seven DM02

[Eviltwin68]

This bike will replace my wifes Lectric 2.0 ebike. I am not a fan of their ebikes, this one in particular. Very heavy, not very bicycle like, much more a small electric motorcycle. But I digress..

She is a bit vertically challlenged so I needed to find a bike that she could sit on and get her feet to the ground. She's not much of a cyclist, so it has to be an easy to ride mount. The Townie fits the bill. This is the second Townie we have had, in hindsight I should have kept the first one, it had 24" wheels and was even lower to the ground, this one has 700C wheels but she can still get her feet planted.



She wants a motor on it. It just so happens I have one, a T0seven DM02 that I got for free. It's a 48v 500w version and I am going to use one of my batteries to power it and am waiting on a rack for the back to mount it. Today I took the crank and uneeded parts off and mounted the motor and display and other parts on the frame. It went well and I didnt even check the manual or power up the system before I got it all mounted. Lucky for me it did power up when I finally connected it to the battery.



It Lives...



I wanted to somehow put a battery inbetween the two downtubes but I cant figure out a way to do that, even with one of the smaller 10a batteries that dont have a case. I have enough toys to play with, a CNC, laser cutter and 3d printer but I just dont see a way to make something that doesnt look too hillbilly engineered. So it will get mounted on a rack on the back.

I managed to finall get into the settings menu by searching for the display name and password. It was 1234 and after that I was in. The manual is not very well written but I managed to get through all the settings and set the wheel size, and units of measurement.

But looking online it doesnt seem like I have all the access to other settings and probably have an old version of firmware. It uses the T24 display V2 and has three modes, eco, city and sport. Looking at some of the links on some other threads here, I found some display manuals and the page for downloading firmware from T0Seven. I doesnt look particularly user friendly. I dont have the programming cables and before I jump down the rabbit hole looking for those, I think I'll wait till I get it all finished and put a few miles on it.

So this is my 4th mid drive motor install. So far I have a Tsdz2b, a bafang BBS02, a Tsdz8 and now this one. Out of all of them I prefer the Bafang, it is the most straightforward motor to set up and use. My 2b has problems with vibrations now and the Tsdz8 runs well enough but never seems to hit max power when pedaling. The 2b is still on OEM firmware as is the 8. Both the Bafang and the 2b have over 1500 miles on them, the 8 has about 400. Once her ebike sells, I may pick up another motor to either replace the 2b or for another project, but just not sure which one to get.

 

[docw009]

If you read thru the Toseven Wiki pages, they tell you not to upgrade the firmware unless something is broke,

ToSeven Mid-drive Wiki

Probably good advice. Half of the releases apparently had bugs. I believe the intent was to to improve operation at high power. but it appears Toseven gave up and removed ability of users to tinker with current and other advanced motor parameters,

 

[docw009]

I bought my DM02 a year ago, but didn't install it til last summer. I've also installed two TSDZ2/2B and two BBS02B, The Bafangs will pull 26A and 20A out of the battery (I think Bafang restricted the later motors), while the Tongshengs are around 12A. Of course, the bafangs are quick.

Meanwhile, I thought the Tongsheng hardly qualified as an ebike. Needed too much pressure on pedals to get any assist. I had to go to turbo on the TSDZ2 to feel it work. Top speed on throttle on 27 x 1.25 tires was 18 mph. Ugh, i Installed OSF. That allows the motor to deliver more assist for lighter pedal pressures. Must be other improvements too, . Top speed went up to maybe 22 mph with no pedalling. A pleasant little motor, easy to pedal with enough power to climb hills around here I was impressed enough to buy a TSDZ2B for my wife, who is a weak cyclist..

Back to the DM02. So far with 250 miles, it's been great. Have it on an older steel 10 speed with 27" tires. Under 40 lbs. In level 1, easy pedalling gets me about 100W, and that will go up to 300W with more effort, enough to climb out hills. I have the current set at 14A, and max power is 700 watts. based on the display.

The tradeoff with the DM02 is that the throttle output is based on the assist level, and you can't get full power. If you can get access to the full menu, you can fiddle with that, but I believe you still can't get more than 300W out of the throttle, even in level 5.

 

[Eviltwin68]

Going through the Wiki. That document helps quite a lot. I'll have to go back and see what version of firmware I have, most likely its a later version and advanced settings are locked out. Since this bike will be used mostly by my bride, subdued performance is probably ok.

 

[Eviltwin68]

I played with the settings a bit more with the Wiki page open. Its a newer version, motor date is 2/25 so most of the advanced settings are locked down. Top speed even with the speed set to unlimited seems to be around 19 and thats only with the rear wheel spinning.

I also noticed there is no wire for lighting even though the menu supports it. Guess they cheaped out and left it off.

 

[docw009]

You should be able to get the firmware info from the info screen, You push the power button til "info" comes up on the bottom, Then press the down arrow.

This guy is going thru the advanced settings.

 

[Eviltwin68]

I got the bike together this morning and took it for a ride. It's not bad. Not a hot rod by any means. In 7th gear it gets around 15 with my normal cadence and level 5. With the throttle I can get it up to about 19. My wife took it for a short spin and pronounced it good.

I had to do some tweaking on a new planet bike rack for the back. With the rack in place, her seat would not go all the way down. I made some extensions for the support bars with some flattened out corner angles. I also had to put some support under the battery mount since it is not flat and can flex too much for the battery to sit securely otherwise.

I've got some fenders on order and a mirricycle mirror for it and then it's done.