Noob question: How do I turn my ebike on?

[1dave1]

I purchased a 48v 1000w rear hub motor kit off ebay and a 48v 20 amp hour lifepo4. Now prepare yourself for the ultimate noon question....

I'm charging the battery now, but how do I turn the damn thing on once its done?

Here is the battery

The battery does not have an on/off switch, neither does the controller. The thumb throttle does, but I want to use the twist throttle that does not have that button. If so, how would I turn the whole thing on? Also, how will I know when its charged? Will the LED on the charger go from yellow to green? Its chinese so I don't know how to read it.

Thanks.

Also, do you have any advice on how to keep my battery in good condition for as long as possible? A link will do. I searched but no find.

 

[Rassy]

Well Dave, I don't usually answer noob questions when they haven't even spent enough time on the forum to know that they are expected to indicate at least which county they are from. However, I'll make an exception here because you really do need help.

Your best bet would have been to buy a ready made e-bike from a local dealer that could show you where the key/switch was located, but, too late for that now.

The big red and blue wires on your battery are already turned on. In other words, they are hot. The red wire is positive and the blue wire is negative. You must never let these two wires touch or in any way be shorted together. These wires have to be connected to the controller, positive to positive and negative to negative. Do you have a digital volt meter to check these wires?

You will probably get answere from others before I finish typing this, but there are many ways to hook these battery wires to your controller. If your controller already has a connector on it you should match it with a mating connector on your battery. A picture of your controller wires would help.

I'll wait until we hear more from you to talk about a fuse, main switch, secondary controller switch, and pre-chargers to avoid the spark when hooking up the battery.

Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your e-bike build.

 

[catchinem]

You just plug in the battery to the controller and twist the throttle. Make sure you are ready to go before you twist the throttle. You can add a kill switch to your handlebars if you wish.

 

[1dave1]

Hi,

Thanks for information and input. I live in San Diego, California, which is in the United States Sorry for not posting that first.

Here is a picture of the manual that came w/ my kit

I purchased that digital multimeter of amazon and it should arrive within a few days.

I just went to ace hardware and bought a male and female one of these... (inside black circles)

I've wired the male connector (3 prong outlet thing standard in nearly home in america) to the wire harness, making sure not to have them touch each other. I'm in the process of wiring the female one to the battery. I figured these would be better then anderson connectors because I could use my battery for many other things. I also like the large plastic so when it sparks, it won't really matter because I will be touching the plastic casing.

If anyone forsees any issues or has any comments, I would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[melodious]

AGH! Don't use that household 3prong for anything! Worst case scenario is someone that doesn't know what it's connected to will actually hook the battery to a household outlet via an extension cord!

I know you're extremely excited to have a new gadget and would love to see it running ASAP, but take your time and do it right! Once you learn it right, then and only then can you break the rules!

 

[geeeyejo1]

Read, read, read - there is a wealth of information on this forum and several good posts about wiring this type of kit - looks like a Yescom/Xcerries or similar.
I have the same kit and actually used the same type of plug for my battery/controller connection. NOTE: You mentioned that with this plug "you could use your battery for other things" - your 48V DC battery is not compatible with household appliances using 115V - regardless of the plug it is two different types of current and could result in ruining your battery and/or the appliance that you plug in.
Your battery will not be fully charged the first time that the light on charger turns green - you should allow it to charge over night - briefly discharge by going around the block, charge again fully, another brief discharge, then charge again. Try to avoid fully discharging the battery ever - if you can keep it above 20-30% discharged and charge regularly you will prolong the life of your battery.
Wire in a better 40A fuse block into your positive battery terminal as the fuse that comes with the kit is crap. I also wired in a small digital voltmeter (about $6 on ebay) that displays my pack voltage when charging and if you do not have a Wattmeter will allow you to monitor voltage during a ride as well - a very worthwhile investment.
Everything above I learned from a lot of reading/research on this forum - folks here are great and willing to help but do your homework first - it will save you a lot of aggravation and possibly $$ caused by mistakes.

 

[geeeyejo1]

AGH! Don't use that household 3prong for anything! Worst case scenario is someone that doesn't know what it's connected to will actually hook the battery to a household outlet via an extension cord!

I know you're extremely excited to have a new gadget and would love to see it running ASAP, but take your time and do it right! Once you learn it right, then and only then can you break the rules!

I love my "Home Depot" connectors - big and easy to grip to connect/disconnect even with gloves on. Agreed though that you need to know what you are doing, connect the leads properly and make sure no morons try to connect an appliance to your battery.
FYI - regardless of the type of connector you should put in a pre-charge resistor circuit (do a search - loads of information) - the voltage surge to your controller is really the issue - not so much the spark at the connectors - although they can be damaged over time by this as well.

 

[Rassy]

Dave, those wiring instructions do leave a lot to be desired. Normally, you do not need to connect the brake interrupt wires to anything, unless you have the appropriate brake levers with a built in switch. Nor do you need to hook up the gauge wire, which would just indicate voltage via some LEDs, which was okay when using SLA batteries but doesn't help when using LiFePO4.

What I didn't see in the instructions was anything about a controller on/off wire. There should be a small red wire from the controller that has to also be connected to the large red battery wire to turn the controller on. Normally, we will place a toggle or key switch on this wire, best if you can reach it when sitting on the bike so that you have an emergency shutdown switch. Also normal procedure is to first hook up (or turn on) the main connection to the battery and then turn on the key or toggle that activates the controller. Sometimes a throttle will short out and put your bike in WOT (Wide Open Throttle) and this switch will turn it off, so it makes for a good safety feature.

 

[Rodney64]

Dave I still consider myself a noob but a couple of thing that I've learnt. Tape either the positive or negitive. If they touch it could destroy the battery and cause injury.

I use one of these isolation switches.


Hope this helps

Rod
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=47288&p=693508#p693508

 

[1dave1]

Thanks for the info guys and girls...ok, just guys

I will not plug anything into the battery. My phone charger worked but I will not try it again. Thanks for the info on that one. However, is there a way to see what things can be charged safely on that battery? I imagine that anything over 48 volts will not work. I would really only like to maybe charge my phone and perhaps my laptop in case of an emergency. If there is any doubt, I won't do it though. Just curious.

Update: I wired everything up, put the battery in a back pack and went for a spin around the neighborhood. It worked perfectly. Its great. I'm going to charge overnight and then do a minor discharge per instructions tomorrow.

Then, because I don't think I will be needing the smaller gears, I'm going to lock the front derailer on the largest sprocket and remove the corresponding trigger shifter. For the other trigger shifter, I will switch over to a 6 speed twist shifter and place it on the left side. I know the numbers will be upside down but I think it will be very intuitive and simple. Overall, my left handlebar will have rear view mirror, an upside 6 speed twist shifter and cateye speedometer. The right handle bar will have my dual brake lever which is awesome because it pulls both front and rear V-brake with one pull, (10 bucks on ebay) and the thumb throttle. I like it because instead of 2 shifters, i will have one, and instead of two brake levers, I will have one. Sounds pretty simple.

I'm also going to buy that better fuse and the watt meter.

Thanks again!

 

[MattyCiii]

Hmmm when I saw "How do I turn my ebike on" I thought immediately of this: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=46999&start=15#p691938

 

[e-beach]

T
Update: I wired everything up, put the battery in a back pack and went for a spin around the neighborhood. It worked perfectly. Its great. I'm going to charge overnight and then do a minor discharge per instructions tomorrow.

Sounds like you are up and running. A couple of notes.

Are you using a charger that came with your battery, or the one that came with your wheel kit. Some chargers are not suitable for lithium batteries and you need to know the difference or you could ruin your batteries and maybe start a fire.

Sometimes it is advantageous to have a rear break only. At some point in you e-bike riding a car will cut you off. It happens to all of us. If both breaks are applied you will stop in a straight line. But if you apply a well tuned rear break only, you can, with practice, control the direction of your skid and avoid hitting the car straight on.

Glad you got it up and running. Welcome to ES!

 

[Ykick]

Linked brakes are dangerous IMO. Often times (sand, leaves, mud, ice, etc) you DO NOT want the front brake engaged. Particularly, during even the slightest turn. I call this a bad idea!

Locking in top gear is what I do.

I'm in the Linda Vista area of town every couple weeks for a few days if you should ever need hands on help.

 

[geeeyejo1]

I will not plug anything into the battery. My phone charger worked but I will not try it again. Thanks for the info on that one. However, is there a way to see what things can be charged safely on that battery? I imagine that anything over 48 volts will not work. I would really only like to maybe charge my phone and perhaps my laptop in case of an emergency. If there is any doubt, I won't do it though. Just curious.
Thanks again!

I wouldn't plug anything into it - the battery puts out DC current, chargers are wired for AC current - I could be wrong as you said it worked to charge your phone but didn't think the charger could work off a battery.
Glad to hear the bike is running - good job! Great feeling when you first plug it in and everything works! Consider a Wattmeter or a Cycle Analyst - great to know how many AH you have drawn on a longer ride - kind of like a gas gauge on a car - good luck!

 

[Lebowski]

I sometimes use the 3-prong AC plugs for things like the OP is doing.

What I do to prevent mistakes is that I connect the two pins which normally carry the AC together, this is one pole.
The other pole then goes to what normally is the ground prong.

If you plug this accidently into the AC wall outlet it will immedately blow the fuse as the AC pins are shorted.

 

[e-beach]

Thanks for the info guys and girls...ok, just guys ...... The right handle bar will have my dual brake lever which is awesome because it pulls both front and rear V-brake with one pull, (10 bucks on ebay) and the thumb throttle. ........
Thanks again!

Also, the stock break levers that came with your kit should have switches in them that kill the motor when pulled. It's a safety feature you will appreciate if ever your throttle sticks.

Does your duel pull break lever have a cutoff switch in it?

 

[Chalo]

Agreed though that you need to know what you are doing, connect the leads properly and make sure no morons try to connect an appliance to your battery.

Or plug your controller into the wall to "charge" your bike.

If you want to use commodity household plugs, at least get the Euro round pin kind so they won't connect to North American household power.

 

[Caliban]

I wouldn't be tempted to use the supplied battery connection - the short portion with the inline fuse - this is significantly underrated for even the average current draw and will just melt - probably at the most inconvenient moment/place!

 

[wesnewell]

Thanks for information and input. I live in San Diego, California, which is in the United States Sorry for not posting that first.

So it will be part of your profile, Please go to the User Control Panel, select Profile, and then enter your city, state/province, and country into the Location field (country minimum). This will help people help you. Example: Wylie, TX, USA. Without knowing what country you are in it's hard to make any recommendations. Thank you.

Looks like you got the yescomusa kit. You shouldn't need any extra connectors other than to the battery pack. The supplied battery cable will work fine, although the part to connect to the battery uses smaller wire and a really cheap fuse. I'd replace the wire and fuse to the connector with a 40A blade fuse and 12awg minimum. I'd also put a precharge resistor in the circuit like this.
I ran mine for a few months with the original wiring before replacing it with heavier wire. Make sure you unplug the battery when not in use, and don't let the battery pack sit for more than a week before charging or checking the charge.