Using light power output from Cycle Analyst question.

stripedtuna

100 W
Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
111
Location
Canberra, Australia
Hi everyone,

I wired up my bike lights last night, as daylight saving finished and the commute is getting pretty dark after work. I used the Auxillary power output lead from the cycle analyst, then a step down dc - dc, then the 8.4V steady output to the bike light. The light only has power when the CA is on. Perfect. It works really well except that when the light is on, the CA shows how many watts it uses but as a negative figure. So for example with the bike stationary, with no light on, the CA shows 0 watts, but turn the light on, and it shows -20 watts. (minus 20). The problem is that it also then affects the Ah reading which tells me how much power battery I have used. In fact it winds backwards.

Is this normal? Anyone else use that CA aux power output? I would have expected it to show positive power usage, and then add to the amp hours used, thus giving me a more accurate measure of how much battery i have used since the last charge.

Cheers,

Ed.
 
I think if your CA's power tap is on the battery side of the shunt, that will happen (it also won't count CA power usage or that of anything running off the CA's power).

If it's on the controller side, it'll read positive (and will also count the CA's power usage, as well as anything rnning off of it, like your light).
 
Thanks heaps for the reply Amberwolf.

I just got a reply from Justin (ebikes.ca) with the exact info you mentioned. So you were spot on. I wasn't exactly sure what you meant when you said the 'CA power tap' but saw a good picture in Justin's email that cleared it all up.

Thanks again,

Cheers,

Ed.
 
Gday Scruff,

I havent sorted mine yet, as it is doing no harm. I will get to it next time i need to pull things apart. Just saw your build thread.. What a beast.. Awesome bike mate..

Anyway, Justin wrote:

" You need to make sure that both the black and the white leads are soldered to the mosfet side of the shunt resistor, while the blue lead is soldered to the cable side of the shunt resistor, and then the current draw from the light will show correctly on the CA.

The picture below is probably not the same controller PCB but shows the idea, white and black wires both at the top side of the shunt, and blue at the bottom: "

And here is the pic he sent me:

image.png

I hope that helps mate.. Let us know how you go..

Cheers,

Ed.
 
Before I installed my lights I wondered whether the CA would correctly show the power used by the lights so I emailed Justin and asked. Turned out that with the Ezee controllers the internal shunt is wired so that the CA will not show the power drawn from the aux output - I don't remember the details but what I did was added a Watt's Up meter right at the battery. So now the Watt's Up shows the total drain and the CA shows what the motor uses. I set up the WU with Anderson connectors so I can easily remove it. The lights are wired at the battery instead of at the CA - with both a headlight and taillight this minimizes the wire length needed anyway as my battery is carried in a bag below the top tube on my recumbent. So far it works well.
 
has anyone got pictures with Lyen controller??
 
I dont have a picture but i have this email form justin which is what everyone needs to do.

Hi Wayne, you need to open up your controller and make sure that of the 6 CA-DP connector cables:

a) Blue wire is connected to the battery side of the shunt
b) White wire is connected to the mosfet side of the shunt
c) Black wire connected to the mosfet side of the shut right beside the white wire.

-Justin

Wayne
 
Thanks for that Wayne, thats exactly what i was told and what the pic Justin sent me shows..

If you had to make those changes, wouldn't the shunt value change, thus needing to re measure the shunt value for the CA settings?

Does anyone have the instructions or a link to the best forum post explaining how to measure the shunt value?

Cheers,

Ed.
 
I'm a little confused. I've got a CA-DP and I've tapped into the the CA aux and also get the negative amp hour reading while stationary. So are you saying we need to tap into the power on the controller or we just need to change the blue white black wires at explained by Justin to get the correct CA reading?
 
I havent made the change yet but from what I have read from Justin, who knows the CA best, you have to make sure that the direct plug is wired correctly to the inside of the controller. Some controllers dont have the wires on the correct side of the shunt, thus causing the neg readings..

Doesnt seem like it would take much to fix though. I haven't bothered to fix mine as yet and done hundreds of km's on my bike, so no harm can come from not fixing it. Its more about getting an accurate reading for battery usage.

I dont wan't to do the fix though until I know how to re-measure the shunt..

Ed.
 
Shunt value won't change unless you actually change the shunt in some way.
 
There is a procedure for setting the amps up in the CA.

Not sure if its in the manual but its under the advanced section in the CA setup.

Like someone said it doesnt effecet anything if it is reading negative. The rreason why i did mine is that it was actually reading -200Watts which was enough for me to worry about LOL as on a 28km ride that makes a huge chunk into my watt hour usage tracking but if its only reading -10W it may not be worth worrying about it.

Scruff
 
From Justins site.

If there is a steady offset current that persists, it is possible to reset the zero offset by performing the "zero amps" operation in the advanced setup menu.

I think you go to it and hold the action button until it does it.

Scruff
 
Interesting, I just discovered I have the exact same problem, after plugging a light into the CA aux power for the first time. However, my CA is plugged into a sealed shunt with 2 anderson connectors on each side that connects between the battery and controller. The little widget is very clearly labeled with battery side, controller side, and "+" and "-", on all 4 terminals, and it's all correct.

Speaking of this little widget, I'm really tired of not having a CA data plug. All my controllers have one, but the CA I have does not, ironically. How hard is it to modify the CA to switch to a data plug? If it involves soldering to the CA PCB, I'm very leery of this. I'm great at soldering wires and connectors, but I heat the shit out of everything I solder, and I frequently fry components if I attempt to solder them.

I'm suppose I should email ebikes.ca about both these things.
 
Hi guys, I am new to ES and have loved reading theough so much amazing information - this site is amazing! Anyway, this is my first post, and I was wondering if you guys might have any suggestions for the following little project I'' thinking of undertaking

I was thinking about drilling a few holes in the front of my Cycle Analyst V3 (or making a cutout for a horizontal stirp) and mounting some white LEDs to work as a headlight.

Would it be possible to then solder them to the CA's screen backlight? Or would I need to use a mini dc-dc converter and solder onto the terminals of the Ca power output cable? I'm guessing the former would draw too much power, so if the answer is the latter, do you have any recommendations for a mini dc-dc converter that would fit inside the CA case?

Thanks!
Dan
 
hi everyone, Sorry if my question is silly, but I'm rather new to the CA field.
So I have two questions: I ordered an 18w head light (LEEPEE High Power 18W super bright Motorcycle Led light Fog White Headlight Working Light 12V/80V ) and a tail light.

Is it a bad idea to wire both lights to the CA output? Someone mentioned 0.5A is the threshold? Technically I'd still be around the 0.4/0.45A mark, if I combine both power.

Second question, is there a way to Activate or deactivate that output once the controller and hance the CA are turned on? Basically is there an ON/OFF switch?
Otherwise I think i'll wire it to the battery directly.
And finally, my battery has a separate charge/discharge plug. Can i use the CHARGE plug to power my lights safely?
Thanks everyone!!
Daniel
 
Dna2087 said:
And finally, my battery has a separate charge/discharge plug. Can i use the CHARGE plug to power my lights safely?
Thanks everyone!!
Daniel

It will probably work, but depending on the BMS, it may not protect the battery from over discharging if you accidentally left the lights on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Dna2087 said:
Second question, is there a way to Activate or deactivate that output once the controller and hance the CA are turned on? Basically is there an ON/OFF switch?
The CA has no control over that output. You can install your own switch in the wiring after the output jack when you make your cable to connect to it.

And finally, my battery has a separate charge/discharge plug. Can i use the CHARGE plug to power my lights safely?
I don't recommend it, because the charge plug can't turn off current flow outward to the light if you forget to turn them off, and they can drain the battery to zero and destroy it, because the only overdischarge protection is on the output plug.

The charge plug can only turn off the input current from teh charger, to prevent overcharging.

The lights will run from the charge plug, but the consequences of a problem or mistake could be expensive.
 
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