newbie controller questions

[centrinoblue]

Hello all, I am new to the whole ebike thing and have learned a lot from reading this forum since jumping in with my own conversion a week ago or so.

Life was great for a couple of days but I was out for a ride when suddenly the throttle stopped responding. The Cycle Analyst still had a read out and the controller LED lite was lit but even after checking that all the connections were solid still nothing. It is an eZee conversion kit from ebikes.ca and they were gracious enough to replace the throttle assembly but still nothing.Very similar to the issue on this thread.

Now I'm stuck as I'm no electronics wizard (but a quick study) and I can't find any troubleshooting guides for the eZee controller. I opened it up to see if I could use some other troubleshooting guides to help but it is a bit of a birds nest inside:

My guess is that something 'broke' in the controller (I don't see any burnt wires or smell any indications that something blew).

Here are my questions:
a) does this sound like a controller issue?
b) what controller would you recommend to replace this one? I would like to find something robust that lends itself to servicing/maintenance, and is suitable for my motor/battery setup.

The current controller specs:
- eZee controller
- Max Volt: 60V
- Min Volt: 20V
- Current Limit: 20A

Motor specs:
- eZee gear drive rear hub
- Power at 36V: 400W
- Power at 48V: 550W

Battery:
- 48V 8Ah Samsung

ebikes carries a line of Infineon controllers:
- 20A brushless controller with 6xAOT460
- 25A brushless controller with 6xIRLB4030 mosfets
- 35A brushless controller with 12xAOT460 mosfet
- 40A brushless controller with 12xIRFB4110 mosfet

Could I use any of the above or are there some that are more/less suitable for my motor/battery setup?

Are there other controllers available out there I should consider? preferably compatible with the Cycle Analyst

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards,
Sean

 

[mwkeefer]

How many wires coming out of the Ez hub motor? It's 3 heavy guage + 5 very thin right?
-Mike

 

[centrinoblue]

yup

 

[mwkeefer]

Standard 3Phase, any of the Infineon, eCrazyman, etc controllers would work... in theory...

Let me ask, if you twist the throttle with the bike on... what does the CA show, anything?

If nothing shows on the CA then for whatever reason the controller isn't even trying, I would venture a guess and say it's a loose, moved or otherwise damaged hall sensor inside the motor...

If I'm not mistaken the cover on that (the side where the wires enter) is removable with hex bolts, remove the cover and test the phase and hall sensor lines for continunity - most likely the sensored controller isn't getting feedback from the motor... this is assuming the motor spins freelyish when disconnected from the controller entirely.

-Mike

 

[centrinoblue]

thanks mwkeefer,

grasshopper has much to learn.

Let me ask, if you twist the throttle with the bike on... what does the CA show, anything?

If nothing shows on the CA then for whatever reason the controller isn't even trying, I would venture a guess and say it's a loose, moved or otherwise damaged hall sensor inside the motor...

the CA has a display but it doesn't change when I open the throttle. It shows 50V for the battery and then cycles through the amp hours, kms, etc up to kaput but that's it.

forgive my ignorance but I am having trouble reconciling "the controller isn't even trying" with "damaged hall sensor in the motor". They sound like 2 different issues. is there a dependency on the hall sensor for the controller to function properly? It seems they would be independent of each other.

opening up the motor sounds serious. thanks for the pointer; I will look into it (not sure I'm ready to disassemble the motor yet).

 

[dogman dan]

Have the guys at Ebikes help you through a halls test. It can be done without taking apart the motor. You put a few volts into one of the wires, rotate the hub, and look for volts back out on the other wires. I'm just not sure which color to put the volts in on.

 

[centrinoblue]

thanks for the pointers, I will look into it.

 

[itselectric]

Sean:

Let’s work with process of elimination:
If you have a partial damaged hall sensor in the motor, your motor should be able to start, but very jerky. In this case, the
problem cannot be the motor problem.

Assuming you have bad throttle, it can cause the motor no able to start, but you just received a new throttle from your vendor, assuming new throttle was tested. In this case, the problem cannot be the throttle problem.

Assuming that you have bad battery, however, since you have CycleAnlyast that display the voltage in real time. In this case, the problem cannot be the battery.

That leaves you only possible thing that can be failing is the controller. However, if you disconnect the motor wire (phase and hall), you will have a similar symptom, so I would double and triple check the connection between controller and motor that are well connected.

Since you are a newbie, I would not get any other controllers from elsewhere. When you get controller from other place, they don’t have the same connector, it will create more problem and more issue that you need to resolve. My recommendation is to get the same eZee controller from ebikes.ca or upgrade the controller but have them to setup a adapter connector for you. Ezee controller use bullet connector for the phase wire, but others controller use andreson connector.

I hope this help.

Ken