Phaserunner PAS values bouncing all over the place

[chuyskywalker]

I'm rebuilding a bike and picked up a PRv6, super harness, and oled display. I also have a 24pole PAS sensor which I have wired up through a 6pin higo extension I chopped up to make the wire connections (bought the pas back in the CA jst hookup days):


(PR Wires coming in the top, PAS wires at the bottom -- white is "torque" sensor return, which I don't have, and while Blue is said to be NC, it actually gives 5v when measured against ground...interesting...)

I can confirm there is 12v across black and red, as you'd expect. As I turn the pedals, the voltage on the green/yellow wires goes 0->5v in an on/off quadrature behavior I'd expect. However, when I am hooked up to the PR and seeing the values of the "pedal speed", I get this mess:


(Here I pedaled the motor forwards, you can see the motor rpm go up as I did this, and at the 24'ish mark, I stopped pedaling, let the motor spin down, and then back pedaled quickly.)

The blue line is pedal rpm and it's just all over the place in negatives, positives, and flopping about. So that's Problem A. Which is likely the cause of Problem B in which the motor is not engaging. As far as I can tell, I have the PR configured to obey PAS and I had the OLED set to PAS5 enabled, but no juice.

I'm pretty sure Problem A is causing Problem B, so getting the wonky PAS sensoring fixed first is likely what I'm really stumped by.

(I've attached the PR configuration XML for completeness.)

 

[chuyskywalker]

I also tried reloading the "V6 Phaserunner w/ Superharness" defaults and then reconfiguring the PAS to the defualt parameters for "Basic 24 pas" preset. Same behavior as before.

I also peeked that, in the manual, it talks about how the PAS2 pin can be used as a "ground to enable reverse" mode (for, like, trikes, and such). I pulled it up and it was not set, so it's not like the PR is expecting 2 signals and has one of them co-opted for a reverse value or something, at least.

 

[chuyskywalker]

I can also confirm the PAS buttons are working as the PR dashboard interface shows the "Assist Level" go up and down as I change it with the display buttons:


(Example from the manual)

 

[slaphappygamer]

Hey dude, I had a similar issue. My PAS was cutting in and out randomly. I started to monitor my pedal cadence and noticed that it too was bouncing around. I ultimately found that when I installed the same 24 pole PAS sensor you have, I either didn't line up the notches right or I pushed the sensor on too hard.

When I found the sensor not staying engaged, I noticed that the sensor was pushed inward beyond the flats of the BB spindle. The sensor was sitting around the inner most part of the spindle where it is completely round. This gave the effect of intermittent PAS. I hate to admit, but my fix was to put electrical tape only on the flats of the spindle, then gently slide the sensor. What made matters worse was when I installed the cranks, the PAS sensor was pushed in more. It took a few tries, but it works great now. Just don't look at it. lol

 

[chuyskywalker]

Doesn’t look like there’s any kind of slippage.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Ahh, ok. Thanks for the video. PAS engagement looks pretty solid. You ruled out my suspicion.
I haven't setup my PAS sensor to my baserunner, I have it connected to a cycle analyst via JST. Yes, I'm living in the dark ages. lol
I'm not familiar with SuperHarness kits, so I don't have anything else to offer here.

 

[offGridDownUnder]

This is just a "throw it at the wall" question - I had problems when the outer bracket, rather than the spindle-sensor contact, wasn't quite secured. Is there any chance your mounting to the bottom bracket is loose?

 

[chuyskywalker]

This is just a "throw it at the wall" question - I had problems when the outer bracket, rather than the spindle-sensor contact, wasn't quite secured. Is there any chance your mounting to the bottom bracket is loose?

I don't believe so; the video above shows the mounting of the PAS -- it's pretty secure. Even a little bit of back-and-forth wiggle, though, I don't think would cause what I'm seeing -- it would only be "wonky" till the pas device got rotated into the direction the pedals were spinning on change, not over and over and over..

 

[offGridDownUnder]

I don't believe so; the video above shows the mounting of the PAS -- it's pretty secure. Even a little bit of back-and-forth wiggle, though, I don't think would cause what I'm seeing -- it would only be "wonky" till the pas device got rotated into the direction the pedals were spinning on change, not over and over and over..

I accept your estimation of the security of your mounting.

For the sake of others who might find this thread, in my case the insecure mounting did not "settle" when I pedaled in one direction - it vibrated in very small movements between the movement of the bicycle parts and the "spring" of the cable coming from the PAS sensor. It was not easy to see.

I taped the flange down and then it stopped.

 

[chuyskywalker]

Conclusion: bad PAS sensor. Either I installed it wrong and damaged it, or it was bad previously, or damaged over time in storage (it's a few years old extra I had). Regardless, a replacement sensor worked exactly as expected immediately upon switch out.