Howdy EV people, I've been reading around here for years but only just now made an account.
Sitting on my desk is a slightly water damaged SME AC-X1 controller from a Zero bike. It would work sometimes for a short while but it was not happy about isolation. It was only between some of the IGBT's at the bottom, with a bit of cleaning maybe that could be adressed. The question is, could the zero version of the ac-x1 have its firmware re-written with the standard one like in the standalone ev conversion kits that are out there? It didn't have the serial port marked k3 used to interface with the software for motor config or what not. I took care of that port and soldered one on. It won't talk with the software I got from netgain website. I got a can bus module and tried hooking it up to an Arduino to see if it does anything, I either did something wrong or it didn't show signs of life. I powered it with an 84v battery, that should turn it on at least. I hooked up the ignition wire from the pinout in the manual, nothing. As far as I understand the zero controller runs in something like a slave mode where everything is done thru the rest of the bike. What would be ADC input/throttle pins on the controller didn't seem to be connected, just can bus, ignition signal, encoder, not much wiring. I think the hall throttle goes to other modules then gets sent to the controller by can bus. The AC-X1 looks like it can be used on its own directly like any other controller from what its manual says. I did see promising looking jumpers on the board, but it can't possibly be as simple as hooking up my eeprom flasher and sending the .bin firmware file from the hyper9 kit thru there right? Does anyone have any experience with messing with these controllers? Or have one around for some probing? It would be interesting to try to make it talk. I can take some pics of the PCB if it helps at all. The IGBT's look like they're not getting replaced if anything were to happen, they're in a really weird package. If I made any mistakes or posted on the wrong place for my first post I'm sorry. Thanks
Sitting on my desk is a slightly water damaged SME AC-X1 controller from a Zero bike. It would work sometimes for a short while but it was not happy about isolation. It was only between some of the IGBT's at the bottom, with a bit of cleaning maybe that could be adressed. The question is, could the zero version of the ac-x1 have its firmware re-written with the standard one like in the standalone ev conversion kits that are out there? It didn't have the serial port marked k3 used to interface with the software for motor config or what not. I took care of that port and soldered one on. It won't talk with the software I got from netgain website. I got a can bus module and tried hooking it up to an Arduino to see if it does anything, I either did something wrong or it didn't show signs of life. I powered it with an 84v battery, that should turn it on at least. I hooked up the ignition wire from the pinout in the manual, nothing. As far as I understand the zero controller runs in something like a slave mode where everything is done thru the rest of the bike. What would be ADC input/throttle pins on the controller didn't seem to be connected, just can bus, ignition signal, encoder, not much wiring. I think the hall throttle goes to other modules then gets sent to the controller by can bus. The AC-X1 looks like it can be used on its own directly like any other controller from what its manual says. I did see promising looking jumpers on the board, but it can't possibly be as simple as hooking up my eeprom flasher and sending the .bin firmware file from the hyper9 kit thru there right? Does anyone have any experience with messing with these controllers? Or have one around for some probing? It would be interesting to try to make it talk. I can take some pics of the PCB if it helps at all. The IGBT's look like they're not getting replaced if anything were to happen, they're in a really weird package. If I made any mistakes or posted on the wrong place for my first post I'm sorry. Thanks
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. It would be a shame not to put the controller to use somehow. The dsrx, the tall adventure one. My parts are off an srf. A big difference is how they moved the controller under the seat instead of under the battery. I recommend smearing some dielectric grease along the seam between the heatsink and the plastic cover. From seeing how this one faired to the weather, extra caution wouldn't hurt. Only thing between the internals and the outside is an o-ring along the edge of the casing. You could keep the zero mbu (the little ECU looking thing, on the srf it was where the "tank" fairing was) that's the brain box that makes everything work, if this is the newer battery that's split down the middle with tiny computer fans, then the BMS is different, you should definitely try to keep that going. It has these little boxes on top of the battery, that talk to another ECU looking thing in the front. With those 2 modules and the contactor it should be fine to just splice in another hall throttle on the 3 wires going there and your go kart could be on its way. I think rich rebuilds did the same thing to the older zero bikes, kept the whole harness and use the motor however you wish. I only have the controller so keeping everything as it was is not an option. Idk if you have the key or what's crashed, I don't imagine you're turning a good condition bike into a kart. But maybe you could go that route and just run the electronics like they were in the bike. A word of advice from me is make sure the batteries get charged from time to time. They claim they need to get plugged in every few months or it's not good. I've seen fully dead bikes. I think the modules wake up on their own and can drain the main pack. You don't even need the original charger or the bike to turn on, which it may refuse to do so, bike not happy, no charging either. If you're feeling brave you can slowly charge them at the main terminals with a power supply. I did that, but be careful what you touch. Only 100v 
