Toast controller on Motorino XPH?

[webbie]

Hello everyone,

The other day my partner reported that our Motorino xph suddenly, as well as a burnt smell.

After opening it, I noticed:

- One of the three input wires that go to the controller had a loose connector, and burnt through the plastic thing that holds the three input wire connectors.

- The three main wires that go from the controller to the motor were in bad shape, one of them being mostly stripped, and the 3 being kinda all melted together.


After cleaning up the wires a bit and reconnecting them, I managed to get the motor to spin at a very slow rate.


Does this all point to a faulty controller? Or should I check if the motor is toast? How would I do that?


Also, I was wondering if it was worth looking into getting a non-stock controller. Any recommendations? This is the 2nd controller we burn in 2 years, so one that could handle a bit more would be nice. Another factor is that I am replacing my spent SLA batteries with Ping LAH (48V, 20Ah) soon.

Many thanks for the help and advice!

 

[amberwolf]

Assuming it's a hubmotor, first check your motor axle to be sure it hasn't spun in the dropouts. If it did it would have twisted up the wires together, and caused the failure. You'd need to re-secure the motor to prevent that before continuing.


IF the wires to the motor are actually melted together, then you'd need to replace those. Depending on how far towards the motor tehy are melted, you may have to open the motor to replace them all the way up to the end of the melted or damaged section(s).

There's lots of motor repair threads that can help with that, depending on what kind they used on yours.


The controller might be repairable; if you want to try, look up the many controller repair threads for how you might start testing it.

Otherwise, just replacing it with a similar type with the same current limit and voltage capability, and replacing all the damaged wiring, will probably fix the bike.

 

[webbie]

Thank you.

The phase wires to the motor were only melted near the controller, but their insulation is peeling off so I will have to change them.

I switched the controller and nothing happened. Starting to think that it wasn't a controller issue. Tested continuity between the controller's input wires and the phase wires and it looked ok on both controllers.

With the old controller, the wheel spun a little, very slowly when using the throttle.

With the new controller, nothing happened, but I got the motor to run a little by shorting the throttle's input with its signal.

I thought the phase wires were shorted due to their insulation flaking off. But then I shorted them on purpose and I could tell that the motor was cogging for each pair of phase wire, while it wasn't when I'm not shorting them. That's a good sign I think?

I haven't tested switching phase wires but I doubt this is the issue. Otherwise the old controller would have still been working. And the new one is a stock motorino one.

I haven't tested the hall sensor wires voltage , but I'm thinking that if they were the issue, the motor would run when shorting the throttle connections?

Haven't opened the motor because seems like opening a can of worms, and I'd rather exhaust my other options.


Still waiting for new phase wires/connectors in the mail.


Any insights?

 

[webbie]

Also, little/no resistance between each pair of phase wire. And no short between phase wires and the motor casing.

I would test the hall signals but it would involve cutting them and replacing the connector; so I'm waiting for new connectors in the mail.

Also the controller does output 5V to the halls and the throttle

 

[webbie]

Doesn't look like the sensors are doing their work (no voltage on any of the signal wires). Gonna open the motor and see what's up.