More Power?

Hello,

I just put together a bike using mix and match parts and the power is not what I was expecting. I am using an Ebikekit 500W motor Model JZ36V500W090319056, with an Infineon 17AMP controller. It has an LVC of 31.5 V.

I currently am using a 36 Volt SLA pack I put together. 3 12V at 10AH.

My question is, what can I do to up the power? Will moving to 48 volts help? Or is the 17 AMP controller too weak to manage that?

I have used 36 volts in the past, even SLA and always felt like it was enough.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

What wheelsize are you running? How much gross weight does the vehicle have?

Would be nice to know how much your SLA batteries sag. Do you have a CA?

You could try the ebikes.ca simulator and check which changes would bring you more acceleration. (If you haven´t done this yet).
Normally more amps would equal more acceleration. But maybe a change to a 48V battery with high C-rate solves all your problems.

sigimem said:

What wheelsize are you running? How much gross weight does the vehicle have?

Would be nice to know how much your SLA batteries sag. Do you have a CA?

You could try the ebikes.ca simulator and check which changes would bring you more acceleration. (If you haven´t done this yet).
Normally more amps would equal more acceleration. But maybe a change to a 48V battery with high C-rate solves all your problems.

Click to expand...

26 inch wheels, Gross weight is about 250 lbs, rider, bike plus batteries. My batteries have only 5 cycles on them so can't be sagging that much.

I'll check out the simulator. thanks

stiffi said:

Hello,

I just put together a bike using mix and match parts and the power is not what I was expecting. I am using an Ebikekit 500W motor Model JZ36V500W090319056, with an Infineon 17AMP controller. It has an LVC of 31.5 V.

I currently am using a 36 Volt SLA pack I put together. 3 12V at 10AH.

My question is, what can I do to up the power? Will moving to 48 volts help? Or is the 17 AMP controller too weak to manage that?

I have used 36 volts in the past, even SLA and always felt like it was enough.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Was your past experience using 36V SLA's with the 17A controller with a geared motor?

Anyway with that combination yes the E-BikeKit DD motor will feel weak since you only have 17Ax36V=612Wpeak available. If the top speed is ok for you (S/B close to 21mph) and you just want more low-speed grunt then get a new controller with 25A or more peak output. If your controller is a 9-FET you could also do the quick and dirty way to increase power by adding some solder to the shunt. If you don't have an ammeter or better yet an in-line wattmeter I would not try this because you could go too far.

If you want more speed and more power then add another SLA battery for 48V. If your controller's biggest capacitor is 63V then you should be ok. You'll get more peak power (17Ax48V=816Wp) and more low speed torque. If you still want more power change the controller to one with a higher current limit.

Even new SLA's sag quite a bit, cuz well that's what they do. LiPo hobby batteries of the same voltage will sag very little so they offer more power and speed.

-R

VA=W, so with a 17A controller and a 36V sla pack, the most you can put out to the motor is 17x36=612W x .8 efficiency = about 500W. You can only get so much power from a 500W motor before burning it up, but you can get a lot more than 500W. A 50% shunt mod on your current controller would increase power by 50% and should increase acceleration by 50%. It will also increase top speed under heavy loads. Moving to 48V will also increase power, along with top speed. See below for how to modify the shunt.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31643

So I was looking at my controller and it says Infineon Intelligent Controller. Does that mean it's programmable? If so, how do I program more amps allowed?

stiffi said:

So I was looking at my controller and it says Infineon Intelligent Controller. Does that mean it's programmable? If so, how do I program more amps allowed?

Click to expand...

A picture is worth a thousand words...

-R

stiffi said:

So I was looking at my controller and it says Infineon Intelligent Controller. Does that mean it's programmable? If so, how do I program more amps allowed?

Click to expand...

I have an Infineon Intelligent Controller (48V/22A). To program it, you need to solder some wires to the board, connect them to an appropriate USB adapter, connect the adapter to a computer and run some software. I cannot help you with this method as I have no experience with that.

I plan to change the battery current limit in a different way, by modifying the hardware, which will allow me to switch the current limit while on the road. I won't increase the limit though, but decrease it. Also, I haven't done it yet. See this post. I don't know whether this is useful to you.

If you plan to use higher than nominal voltage, you will have to check whether your MOSFETs and capacitors are able to stand the voltage of your fully charged batteries.

Are you using proper electric vehicle SLAs or the cheaper storage ones. What's the designation on them? We've had it a few times on here, where people use storage SLAs on their Ebike, and then wonder why there's no power. They look the same from the outside.

Most 36v controllers can handle 48v fine. That will get you 25% more power and 5 mph more speed right now.

Take off will remain a bit slow until you get a more amps controller, or adjust your existing one if possible.

You are on the slippery slope towards spending more $$, so you might just bite the bullet and get a much stronger controller, that can use a direct plug in cycleanalyst. This will allow you to run your current batteries for a while with less amps, and then when you get some strong lithium battery, crank it up easily.

Pricy, but damn well worth it in the long run, to have a controller setup that handles 36-72v, and any amps you like up to 30-40.