Yaegoo/Chinese controller wiring?

[bancars]

I have a Yaegoo 36-48V 350W controller (wiring photo attached), that I want to solder to a 9-pin HiGo Z910 cable, which will plug into to my Bafang 350W front hub motor.



* The controller has three power wires: fat black, fat red, and thin red. What should I do with the thin red wire?

* The controller has five thin wires that terminate in a block that is labeled (with a glued-on paper label, in Chinese): "motor hall", red 5V, black ground, yellow/green/blue hall. The wiring photo shows this as "Hall Throthe" (in English)-- I think the English wiring photo is wrong, and the Chinese label is correct, and I should wire it according to the Chinese label. Do you agree? Can I use a multimeter to verify which wires connect to hall sensors?

* The controller has three thin wires that terminate in a block that is labeled: "three-wire switch", red 5V, black ground, green "signal line", although the wiring photo shows this as "Motor Hallt". I think this is for the twist-grip throttle connection-- do you agree?

* There's another block labeled as: "three gears variable speed", "blue: high speed signal", black: ground wire", "color code: low speed signal". What's it for?

* What are the two "cruise" wires for? Does this controller have cruise control? It would be great if it does, because rather than a throttle, I'd prefer a fixed speed 25km/h or fixed power of 150W.

* Can I ignore the two "anti-theft" wires, or do I need to wire them together (as if the ebike had a key that would connect these wires when it's turned "on")?

* Can I ignore the controller's other wires (dashboard, alarm power, low level brake, high level brake)? Are any of these good for 12V lights? (The ebike's battery is 36V.)

* The HiGo cable has a white "thermistor or motor speed sensor" wire. Ignore it?

 

[amberwolf]

* The controller has three power wires: fat black, fat red, and thin red. What should I do with the thin red wire?

That's the KSI keyswitch ignition wire, so if you want controller to always power on when connected to battery, connect it to the fat red wire. If you want a switch to turn on controller, put the switch between those.

* The controller has five thin wires that terminate in a block that is labeled (with a glued-on paper label, in Chinese): "motor hall", red 5V, black ground, yellow/green/blue hall. The wiring photo shows this as "Hall Throthe" (in English)-- I think the English wiring photo is wrong, and the Chinese label is correct, and I should wire it according to the Chinese label. Do you agree? Can I use a multimeter to verify which wires connect to hall sensors?

That has to be the motor halls; throttle would have only one signal wire.

* The controller has three thin wires that terminate in a block that is labeled: "three-wire switch", red 5V, black ground, green "signal line", although the wiring photo shows this as "Motor Hallt". I think this is for the twist-grip throttle connection-- do you agree?

Could be; you can easily test it and it shouldn't hurt anything.

* There's another block labeled as: "three gears variable speed", "blue: high speed signal", black: ground wire", "color code: low speed signal". What's it for?

That's probably for the three speed switch.
unconnected you get middle speed, default. Otherwise you ground whcihever other one you want. Some controllers are not setup internally (and cant' be changed) for any difference between them, and some are setup for like 50/75/100%, or some other ratio.

* What are the two "cruise" wires for? Does this controller have cruise control? It would be great if it does, because rather than a throttle, I'd prefer a fixed speed 25km/h or fixed power of 150W.

You'd have to test it. Usually you put a switch between the wires, and turn it on to hold the bike at the present throttle amount--it doesn't usually hold a specific speed, but that depends on how they wrote the firmware. Sometimes you turn it on and *then* set the throttle amount. ebrake usually cancels cruise, *sometimes* changing throttle amount does (and sometimes it has no effect after cruise engages!).

If you need to hold a specific speed or power level, you can use the Cycle Analyst v2 or 3 "SA" models to take in your speedometer, battery current, and throttle signals, process thru the settings you choose, and create a new throttle output signal to go to the controller to do this. It also has a cruise control that you can setup in various ways (v3, at least, v2 might).

* Can I ignore the two "anti-theft" wires, or do I need to wire them together (as if the ebike had a key that would connect these wires when it's turned "on")?

Usually this disables the throttle/PAS and then uses battery power to actually hold the wheel in position, making it realy hard to turn, whenever you connect those wires. It doesn't use much power when not actually preventing wheel motion (when someone tries to ride off with bike), but it can use a lot of power while they're doing it, and can qucikly heat up the motor and controller and wires if they keep forcing it (but they're unlikely to be able to ride very far!).

* Can I ignore the controller's other wires (dashboard, alarm power, low level brake, high level brake)? Are any of these good for 12V lights? (The ebike's battery is 36V.)

There's nothing in the controller that can safely handle the power you need to run lights. Use a DC-DC from your battery for those.

Sort-of-exception is the highlevel brake--it takes 12v input from your light system (with separate 12v power, and having common ground between the two voltage systems!) via the brake light switch that runs your brake light (if the brake light is activated by applying 12v to it; not all are), and turns on the ebrake with that 12v.

If you use the cruise control, you may *have* to use an ebrake lever or button to cancel it--that you can easily test by changing throttle positions after you've let go of it while cruise is active--if it doesnt' cancle cruise, you have to use the ebrake to do it.

And depending on where you live, and if you care about local laws, you may have to have an ebrake lever that shuts off the motor when pulled to meet legal requirements.

* The HiGo cable has a white "thermistor or motor speed sensor" wire. Ignore it?

If you want a spedometer from the motor to the controller system (or a separate speedo), then you use the speed sensor wire out of the motor for that.

 

[marka-ee]

I got this controller also, for a spare to carry with me in case of controller burn out. It has 80V 80Amp Fets in there. The insides were kind of dirty with odd flux powder around the pc board. I will wash it off before I test it. Still, not bad for a $16 controller ! How is such a price even possible even ? Amazing. I found a video that explains all the wires, look for it on youtube under the title " How to install a Brushless DC Controller on Ebike: The missing manual ".

 

[bancars]

Thank you amberwolf for answering my questions. It was very helpful.

I found a video that explains all the wires, look for it on youtube under the title " How to install a Brushless DC Controller on Ebike: The missing manual ".

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuwnFMHHtaE
I watched it, and like you say, it's a great explanation and demo of all the wiring. His controller seems to be slightly different from mine, but the wiring seems to be mostly the same, and the testing procedures he shows are great to know.

I also found another video by the same guy-- it appears that my controller really does have cruise control, and the video below shows how it works:
"Built-in Cruise Control on a Brushless DC speed controller"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u-QCLtx0s4&t=130s

 

[bancars]

Ok, I finally tested it out with my bike turned upside down (stationary). At max throttle with a 12s4p LiFePO4 battery, it only used 39.6V*2.43A=96W. The ad said it's "36V/48V 350W". Perhaps the ad means to say that the max current is 350W/48V=7.3A. But even if that's the case, 2.43A is way less than 7.3A. At max throttle, I measured the throttle's red wire as 6V (compared to the battery's negative terminal), and the throttle's signal wire as 4.8V, so that seems fine. Does anyone understand this?

BTW, I tested the cruise control, and that works fine-- turn and hold the throttle, briefly touch the cruise wires together, and let go of the throttle-- the wheel keeps spinning as if the throttle was still being held. Turning the throttle again cancels the cruise control.

 

[amberwolf]

Ok, I finally tested it out with my bike turned upside down (stationary). At max throttle with a 12s4p LiFePO4 battery, it only used 39.6V*2.43A=96W. The ad said it's "36V/48V 350W". Perhaps the ad means to say that the max current is 350W/48V=7.3A. But even if that's the case, 2.43A is way less than 7.3A.

You will only see max power under max load. With no load (wheel off ground) you only see "no load" power.

Power (and current) will also vary some with voltage; as the battery starts out fully charged it'll usually be able to have a bit more than "advertised max power" and as it drains to empty it'll be less.

At max throttle, I measured the throttle's red wire as 6V (compared to the battery's negative terminal), and the throttle's signal wire as 4.8V, so that seems fine.

You may want to replace the battery in your voltmeter; it's probably low. Those are both about the same amount higher (1v) than they should be that it indicates a measurement issue that is almost always caused by a low meter supply (usually a 9V battery).

 

[bancars]

I rode it around the neighborhood. No pedaling (except on the hills) and it works great!

You may want to replace the battery in your voltmeter; it's probably low. Those are both about the same amount higher (1v) than they should be that it indicates a measurement issue that is almost always caused by a low meter supply (usually a 9V battery).

Wow, good call! I always thought that only the ohmmeter setting of an analog multimeter needed a working battery. The ohmmeter function doesn't work (not even a wiggle), so I thought the battery must be dead. But when I took it apart, I found an AA battery, and when I used the voltmeter setting to test the battery, it said 1.5V. I don't have a fresh battery, but I did try a fully-charged NiMH battery, and the ohmmeter still didn't work.

 

[amberwolf]

Wow, good call! I always thought that only the ohmmeter setting of an analog multimeter needed a working battery. The ohmmeter function doesn't work (not even a wiggle), so I thought the battery must be dead. But when I took it apart, I found an AA battery, and when I used the voltmeter setting to test the battery, it said 1.5V. I don't have a fresh battery, but I did try a fully-charged NiMH battery, and the ohmmeter still didn't work.

The ohmmeter may have a blown fuse (this often happens if someone accidentally leaves the leads or switch on the ohms plugs/settings when measuring current, for instance. No, I've never done this. Ever. ). Or it may simply have a burned out component, broken solder joint, or bad contact in the multicontact rotary switch many analog meters use. (that switch and all of it's connections is the most common point of most failures in such meters)

For the voltmeter...some analog meters just directly use resistors and such to limit voltage (current really) for different ranges of the meter scale (I think my almost-3/4-century-old bakelite-cased Simpson does this, but even it has two different battery sets, 6v for high ohms and 1.5v for low ohms, but not used for voltage reference).
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49550&p=1245554&hilit=simpson#p1245554

But some use a voltage reference (battery thru a zener diode, TIL431, etc) and active circuitry (like digital ones do) to compare the incoming voltage and drive the meter with. For those, they'll typically read a higher voltage than normal when the reference voltage drops lower than it should be. The lower the ref, the higher the wrong voltage shows.

 

[Clockwork]

Hi i hope someone her could help me out, at a loss all together, battery works, same controller, but i cant get my switch to turn on, the above explinations are great, but i cant get power to stay on, just a flash on the dispay, also the loose wires with connectors, were attached before¿ but to where? My life's a mess too, its ok.

 

[Clockwork]

I found a post aeiler about the particular controller that was great but i cant get the power to turn on at all.
i hope someone her could help me out, at a loss all together, battery works, yaegoo controller, but i cant get my switch to turn on, but i cant get power to stay on, just a flash on the dispay, also the loose wires with connectors, were attached before¿ but to...witch ones, all i want is the throttle attached and the on switch to work, just a fading/ed light now? Thank you folk.