Regen braking wiring

rg12

100 kW
Joined
Jul 26, 2014
Messages
1,596
Hey Dudes,

I have this controller on my ebike for over a year and decided to connect it's regen braking option to a momentary on/off button on my handlebar.

Attached a photo of my controller with pointers about which wire is which.

Until now the two orange single wires were disconnected so I though that if I connect them then the regen is on and then the rear wheel is supposed to be really hard to spin by hand.
So I connected it with the bike powered on and also off and it does nothing, the wheel spins freely without any change.

Am I missing something? does it engage only when the brake lever cut off is used? because I don't have it connected, I have hydraulic discs and I hate that brake lever power cut off thing (can't do burnouts 8) )
 
Yes you need to activate it by shorting the 2 low level brake plug wires.
And depending on the battery voltage, you may want to do some additional mods on the PCB.
It's been some time since I worked on this controller, but I recall that I had to mod it slightly to make it work.
 
Now you've joined the enable-regen connector you should just need to connect the low-level brake wires to you momentary push button.
 
btw, what's the difference between low level and high level brake? isn't it supposed to be the same just for having two connectors for each brake lever to disconnect the motor while each of the levels are pressed?

Why do I need to read threads and do mods to the controller in order to make it work if it's just shorting the low level wires?

and I didn't think about it but what about using regen when the battery is fully charged? isn't it supposed to be built into the controller to protect the battery? not that I live on a mountain or something that will make me go right into a long decline using regen...but still...

How do you guys know it's a greentime controller? I know this seller from Aliexpress but I myself not even sure...I thought it was just another unbranded Chinese controller (including greentime which seem to me like all the rest).

EDIT:
Connected the regen wires, connected the low level brake wires and the regen torque is applied only when I turn the wheel backwards.
How do I fix that?
 
On my 72V controller, brake low was true regen braking. Brake hi was eabs braking. Regen puts power back into battery pack. Eabs used battery power to bring motor to complete stop, Regen cuts out at ~5mph.
For either to work, battery voltage couldn't be more than ~16V above the LVC. Once I raised LVC from 62V to 86V, both worked fine at 100.8V.
Enabling regen should not affect the motor at all until it's activated by the ebrakes or whatever you have to activate it.
Note that this only applies to this controller. Others could be different.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29469
 
wesnewell said:
On my 72V controller, brake low was true regen braking. Brake hi was eabs braking. Regen puts power back into battery pack. Eabs used battery power to bring motor to complete stop, Regen cuts out at ~5mph.
For either to work, battery voltage couldn't be more than ~16V above the LVC. Once I raised LVC from 62V to 86V, both worked fine at 100.8V.
Enabling regen should not affect the motor at all until it's activated by the ebrakes or whatever you have to activate it.
Note that this only applies to this controller. Others could be different.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29469

Damn it, my controller isn't programmable, does that mean that it will enable regen only when getting to about half battery? also, does that mean that when the battery is topped that the regen wouldn't recharge the battery and only slow the bike OR will it not even slow the bike?

What about the fact that for some strange reason my regen works only when I spin the wheel backwards and not forward? how can I flip this?
 
I have no idea what controller, battery, or even motor you have. I'd need to know the specs on the battery and controller to answer your questions. I'll assume you have a DD motor. The size doesn't matter. Perhaps if you put the specs on your system on your sig line, then everyone would know.
 
rg12 said:
Connected the regen wires, connected the low level brake wires and the regen torque is applied only when I turn the wheel backwards.
How do I fix that?
Geared hubmotor, right? If so, then to make regen work you replace it with a DD hubmotor.

Or open it up and weld the clutch together, so it can't freewheel anymore when not under power.
 
21s lipo charges to 88.2V. and that's too high for controllers with a 62V LVC. Regen won't work until the battery charge gets below ~78-80V. ~62V is the standard LVC for 72V controllers. To run regen on these controllers with 21s lipo, you need to adjust the LVC to at least 69V at which point regen will work to ~88V. Personally for 21s rc lipo I'd set the LVC to 74V. For 21s 18650 packs, well I wouldn't use them, but maybe 68V and hope it works up to 88V. By setting LVC, I mean the controllers LVC, not the CA's LVC or some other external device which will do nothing for the controllers regen LVC. BTW, add the controller voltage to your sig.
 
Is there a way to program my Greentime controller somehow?
Sig updated.
 
Probably not without special cables, programs, etc. I found it easy to change the LVC for my controller via a simple resistor mod. Greentime will change many default values if you tell them what you want when you order. Maybe they can tell you how to change LVC for yours.
 
wesnewell said:
Probably not without special cables, programs, etc. I found it easy to change the LVC for my controller via a simple resistor mod. Greentime will change many default values if you tell them what you want when you order. Maybe they can tell you how to change LVC for yours.

Thanks, I will contact them
 
Hi
I just bought that same controller and I want to use the H-Brake option since I want to power the brake light when braking. I've been doing some research and I know that H-Brake works when you apply voltage to it (generally 12v) that will work perfectly for me because the light is also 12V. Can anyone help me with some wiring diagram on how that should be connected. I have some basic electrical knowledge but since the H brake is just one yellow wire I don't know how should I close the circuit in between the brake lever, controller and brake light. Thanks
 
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