yescomusa.com (GM) 48V 1000W rear motor kit

[wesnewell]

These kits can be purchased either from the yescomusa.com website or on ebay. Search for '48v 1000w'. Price is $289 from yescomusa. As low as 275.90 shipped if you use ebay. The actual motor is manufactured by Golden Motor. Their motors are used in many kits. Like most kits it includes the the motor in a 26" wheel, which seems to be of good quality. It comes with a decent 26x1.75 tire and tube installed, which I promptly replaced with a 26x2.125 65psi tire and tube. It also comes with a 5spd freewheel with 14 cog high gear. On my first kit I replaced this with the original 7 spd freewheel off the bike, but realizing I rarely use anything but the highest gear, I didn't bother doing it this time. Makes install much easier and you wont miss the lower gears. It also comes with a rear rack that is solid as a rock. I installed it on my first kit, but didn't this time around as I wasn't going to use sla batteries. Installed the rack easily held my 125lb wife bouncing up and down on it so it is very strong. The bag and long bungee strap is capable of securing about the biggest sla batteries you'd want to use, although sla batteries suck for many reasons. I use lipo now. the rest of the kit is pretty much standard stuff, a pair ebakes to replace your regular hand brakes. A thumb throttle, which I prefer over the twist throttles and a pair of new grips if you need them. A 48V controller and a 48V 2.5A battery charger. And lastly an installation manual with lots of pictures. Basically everything you need except for the bike, tie wraps and a battery pack. Where you mount the controller and battery pack will be your main decisions and this will depend on the bike style you have. I've moved mine around a couple of times. So much for that. Now to the performance. I'm a big guy at 270lbs, so you will likely get better numbers than me.

Bike: Kent Sierra Madre 26" 21 spd (now 15) with full suspension.
Battery pack: 14s lipo (51.8V nominal)
Max speed on level ground 35.0 mph

Undocumented controller features.
The controller is an EB215-A-5 with 15 80NF70 mosfets. All caps in the controller are 63V. The controller supports many features that are not enabled by default. These include cruise control, regenerative braking, anti-theft wheel locking, forward/reverse operation, and 3 speed switching. I can verify that cruise and regen braking work great. I can only assume the others will work too, but I didn't try them.
To sum things up, I think this is one of the best deals available. I don't think you'll find another kit that will give you these features and performance for the price.

 

[Kent]

Being on my second Golden Motor e-bay kit I tend to agree with you. It certainly got me started on e-bikes and got me the e-bike grin. However when i was installing my most recent one while trueing up the wheel in the frame-and moving it forward and backward while aligning it in the dropouts- the wheel suddenly froze and took tremendous effort to move it at all. Then I remember reading on a forum here somewhere not to spin the wheel in reverse until its hooked up and running. I am reluctant to power up now fearing it may damage the controller. Do you have any experience with this? Thanks, Kent

 

[wesnewell]

Turning the motor forward or backwards shouldn't do a thing to it that I'm aware of. I spun many a motor backwards during the years without damage. Why it froze is another matter. Are you sure it didn't catch on the brake pads while moving it? I routinely spin mine backwards without having the controller hooked up when I'm moving the bike around. As long as it's free now, and there's no noticeable odd noise when you rotate it, I'd guess there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[SamTexas]

Thank wesnewell for the review.

A few questions:
- Is it a direct drive or a geared hub?
- How efficient is it? wh/mi at certain speed? If you don't have that number can you tell me how many miles before your battery is depleted?

 

[wesnewell]

It's a DD hub. I don't think anyone can give you a true motor efficiency report on any motor. There's just too many variables. All those reports are meaningless unless they were taken on the same track, with the same rider weight, at the exact same speed, under the exact same wind conditions, with same bike, tires, and tire pressure. That said, I can tell you that it seems to use about the same amount of wh as does my 500W dd motor kit when run at the same speed. The one thing I did do was set cruise control to 15mph for about a mile on somewhat level ground and watt usage varied from about 120 to 170w iirc. But that's kind of meaningless too unless you weigh the same 270lbs I do, have the same setup, etc.,etc., etc. It seems to pedal just as easy as without the motor at speeds up to about 10mph, After that, I think it gets a little harder.

 

[hillzofvalp]

This sounds like a nice beginner motor... What gauge wires does it have and how far have u pushed it? How was the build quAlity and shipping time?

 

[wesnewell]

On the pedaling part, I discovered today that brakes were dragging a bit. After adjusting them, I noticed an immediate improvement in ease of pedaling. May affect top speed too but didn't check for that. As for wire gauges, the battery cable was 16 awg, which was bigger than the 18 awg what came with the 500W kit. Power and phase wires out of controller were considerably larger, probably 10 or 12. I used my own 10awg battery cable, not that it made a bit of difference. IIRC, shipping time was 4 days from CA. to TX. I got it the same week I ordered it. I'd hardly call a 48V 1000W motor a beginner motor unless you plan on racing it.

 

[hillzofvalp]

entry racing level is the way to begin! Could you post some more pictures or a video? I kinda wonder what it sounds like spooling up.

I wonder what the key difference is between the 500W and 1000W version. Just windings?

 

[wesnewell]

The difference in the 500W and 1000W is one is rated for 380rpm 500W continuous use and the other is rated for 470rpm 1000W continuous use. For that to be, most things in the 1000W motor would need to be bigger, including magnets and wiring. That's why the 1000W motor weighs more than the 500W. If you want specifics contact Golden Motor. Using the same 14s battery, the 1000w motor gives 10mph more in speed. And that's all I care about. Don't have any videos and only have a hand held HD video camera. Using the 72V controller on the 500W motor runs quieter than the original controller. And the original controller on the 1000W motor runs quieter than the original 500W. Once you get over about 15-20mph, all you can hear is wind noise anyway.

 

[jonathanm]

The difference in the 500W and 1000W is one is rated for 380rpm 500W continuous use and the other is rated for 470rpm 1000W continuous use. For that to be, most things in the 1000W motor would need to be bigger, including magnets and wiring. That's why the 1000W motor weighs more than the 500W. If you want specifics contact Golden Motor. Using the same 14s battery, the 1000w motor gives 10mph more in speed. And that's all I care about. Don't have any videos and only have a hand held HD video camera. Using the 72V controller on the 500W motor runs quieter than the original controller. And the original controller on the 1000W motor runs quieter than the original 500W. Once you get over about 15-20mph, all you can hear is wind noise anyway.

Wes, please make a post or share some details about the new controller, I'm really interested to hear about that.

If you can also give us an idea of the amps / watts used between the 500w stock, the 500w with the soldered shunt, the 1000w stock and the new controller.....that would be spiffy. Are you still running 5ah only? how is your run time/range affected?

Also, I think our motor is similar to a GM, but not from GM....you seem to think otherwise - what makes you think this?

Thanks,

J

 

[wesnewell]

Wes, please make a post or share some details about the new controller, I'm really interested to hear about that.

If you can also give us an idea of the amps / watts used between the 500w stock, the 500w with the soldered shunt, the 1000w stock and the new controller.....that would be spiffy. Are you still running 5ah only? how is your run time/range affected?

Also, I think our motor is similar to a GM, but not from GM....you seem to think otherwise - what makes you think this?

Thanks,

J

I posted a couple threads about the 72V controller. This one is where I got it working at 96V (23s) on the 500W motor.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29469
Amps on the stock 48V controllers are both around 30A. The one I shunt modded (original 500W controller) now does about 42A. Didn't mod the 1000W controller as it has plenty of power already. I also didn't shunt mod the new 72V controller. It comes at 40A already. And that's plenty. I can't measure the amp/watt usage on the new 72V controller because my HK-010 is limited to 60V and I'm running it at 96V.
The reason I think the motors are Golden Motor motors is because they look just like them, spec just like them, and they have GM part numbers on them. And I now know they are phased just like them. So if they aren't GM motors, who makes them? Does it really matter? I think the controllers are the old GM controllers too, but that's just a guess.
In case you're wondering about the 72V controller, this is it;
http://www.dhgate.com/72v-1500w-brushless-speed-controller-for/p-ff808081283845f5012848d41bf455fb.html

 

[jonathanm]

Does it really matter?

Well, if you're recommending contacting golden motor for more detailed specs, I'd be pretty sure it would matter, yes. to them especially. Besides, I'm still interested in the whole enigma of the relationship between GM, Conhismotor, etc.

Thanks for the links to your controller thread, missed that one....watching with interest, as always.....

 

[iovaykind]

Wow I can't believe I just read this thread.. there's cruise control and regenerative braking ability of these controllers? How did you enable them? I'm going to have to do these mods.. I really want to try regen, and cruise control would be a blast to have.

 

[wesnewell]

Here's what i did.

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30137&start=15#p438105

 

[iovaykind]

Maybe I'm in over my head in setting up CC and Regen. Is there some sort of guide that explains how to enable it? Because I read through the thread and there was nothing that was specific enough for me to understand.

 

[wesnewell]

On the board you will find pads labeled CR (cruise), BK (brake), and lots of others for other features. These are enabled by connecting them to ground. You can find lots of ground pads on the board. In fact, there should be 2 in between CR and BK. To enable either feature, take a wire from it to a ground pad.

 

[iovaykind]

Its that simple? Do I use a momentary switch to set the cruise? What about regen, how will I know if its putting back the right amount of volts into my lifepo4 battery?

Edit:
Do I use an on off switch for the regen (I wouldn't be able to use it without ebrakes right?). Is it possible to just ground it and always have regen enabled or is that a caveat against that?

And also a momentary switch to activate cruise?

 

[wesnewell]

Yes, it's that simple. Cruise is set by holding the throttle in one position for about 6 seconds. It's released by pulling an ebrake, tapping throttle again, turning controller off, or pulling the battery cable. Take your pick. As with any of the many features available, you can wire them any way you want. To a toggle switch, rotary switch or stick 2 bare wires together. Totally up to you. Ground to feature pad sets them.
The ebrake levers that came with the kit will turn on ebrake (regen) when you pull either of them. Assuming you hooked them up. I'm guessing the default regen voltage is 60V, but don't know for sure. I can see the battery voltage rise by about .5V when I use them. This is all adjustable too. Check some of the infinion threads about programming cables and the EBS pads. I don't think this is the place to go into that.

 

[iovaykind]

Opened up the controller tonight and found my controller doesn't have any of these mentioned features What controllers have these features that work with 36v?

 

[wesnewell]

Opened up the controller tonight and found my controller doesn't have any of these mentioned features What controllers have these features that work with 36v?

Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd say any infinion based controller.
As the one that comes with the kit that was reviewed, a yescomusa 48V 1000W kit. Not the 48V 500W kit, and I take it, not any of the 36V kits either. They may have some of these features, but I don't know anything about them.

 

[adobian]

I got the 48V 1000W rear kit version and the motor doesn't seem to be disc brake compatible. Shouldn't it be?

 

[wesnewell]

I got the 48V 1000W rear kit version and the motor doesn't seem to be disc brake compatible. Shouldn't it be?

http://www.goldenmotor.com/e-Bike-DIY/GoldenMotor%20Pro-Kit%20User%20Guide.pdf

I have no idea where to get the disc brake adapters. I assume from GM or a GM dealer. Or maybe you can use the ones on your current wheel. Wouldn't know as I don't have disc brakes.
Might want to enable regen braking instead.

 

[adobian]

Could you post a picture of your controller?

 

[wesnewell]

Could you post a picture of your controller?

It's the one that came with the kit. An EB215-A-5 Infinion controller. It will look just like the one you got. If yours isn't an EB215-A-5, a picture of mine won't do you any good.

http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/eb215-1.JPG

 

[adobian]

I got a flat on thrid ride out.

What brand of tire and tube did you replace it with?