2008 Golden Motor

[keysdesease]

I sure hope someone here on this forum can shed some light on my problem?
I have an older Golden Motor front wheel hub kit running on 36V 10ah LiP0 batteries. I used this bike mainly for commuting to and from work for about the first 2 years of service. Then due to unforseen circumstances the bike sat for 2-3 years.
I was able to resurect the battery pack. My problem is that I have all LED lights lit for battery but no motor function now. A few weeks ago i would get full throttle intermit when messing with the throttle and cable connection at the handelbar. So i oredered a new one. Same 3 wire colors but no motor output.. What i was hoping was for someone have a flowchart style troubleshooting guide i could follow to diagnose? You know if i have proper voltage here then go here and check etc.?

Thx,
Jim

[dnmun]

do you use the hobby king lipo? you said 36V lipo.?

is this the golden motor lifepo4 pack?

what is the voltage on the output of the charger and what is the voltage on the output of the battery?

[keysdesease]

The battery pack was one of the first Ping batteries when he started selling on ebay.
Output voltage is 43.5vdc with the throttle twisted or not no difference.

[dnmun]

when the battery sat unused for 2-3 years, did you regularly charge it up or disconnect the sense wire cable?

since it shows voltage on the output, it must be still functional.

have you checked the voltages on the hall sensor power and the throttle power leads? the red wire in the 5 pin plug and the red wire in the throttle plug from the controller. the controller has to be turned on too when you measure these. use the black wire for the black probe of the voltmeter (to ground).

[keysdesease]

Since i am questioning the new throttle i installed. Is there a way to bypass it all together? Just for testing purposes making it full throttle all the time?
I want to start ruling out items. There really are not too many things it can be, it appears that all the terminal connections are okay.

[Jeremy Harris]

The chances are that the battery voltage may well be too low, and operating the controller low voltage cut out, due to some failed cells.

Let's check some basics first:

When you say you have "all LEDs lit for battery" do you mean that the LEDs on the throttle are all lit? If so, then that doesn't mean you've really got full battery voltage, unfortunately, as all the LEDs will come on on a 36 V throttle at way below the voltage of a fully charged "36 V" Ping pack.

If you have a voltmeter, then connect it to the battery terminals with the battery still connected to the bike, if you can. If you can let us have the voltage you get, both with the controller turned off, the controller turned on and the controller turned on with the throttle applied, then this may help (do the latter with the wheel off the ground, in case it does start up).

[keysdesease]

Yes i do have a VM. And the 43.5 v are at the output of the battery pack when the throttle is twisted to full. As far as the controller being on goes: there is no on/off switch for it. I put a switch on the output of the + battery pack years ago to be able to shut the system off without disconnecting the pack.

dnmun - i have not checked the red voltages to ground from the controller or throttle yet. These are the tests that i was asking for as i did not know for sure were to do so. I on my out to my garage now to find out tho.

[keysdesease]

dnmun: "have you checked the voltages on the hall sensor power and the throttle power leads? the red wire in the 5 pin plug and the red wire in the throttle plug from the controller. the controller has to be turned on too when you measure these. use the black wire for the black probe of the voltmeter (to ground)."

Have 4.3vdc at both red wires to ground with the throttle at rest and twisted full. Does this tell us something?

[Jeremy Harris]

Yes i do have a VM. And the 43.5 v are at the output of the battery pack when the throttle is twisted to full. As far as the controller being on goes: there is no on/off switch for it. I put a switch on the output of the + battery pack years ago to be able to shut the system off without disconnecting the pack.

dnmun - i have not checked the red voltages to ground from the controller or throttle yet. These are the tests that i was asking for as i did not know for sure were to do so. I on my out to my garage now to find out tho.

That sounds good.

The throttle voltage should be around 4.5 to 5V (between black and red). The throttle output voltage (usually a green wire) should vary as the throttle is moved from around 0.8 - 1 V with the throttle off to around 3.5V to 4.5 V with the throttle on full.

[keysdesease]

WOW you guys are great! Thx for such quick responses of help......
Jeremy, I have on the center (green) throttle wire to ground .83v to 3.63v with it twisted full throttle.

[Jeremy Harris]

WOW you guys are great! Thx for such quick responses of help......
Jeremy, I have on the center (green) throttle wire to ground .83v to 3.63v with it twisted full throttle.

OK, looks like your throttle is working fine, so the problem must be in the controller or the connections between the controller and the motor.

Best bet for the next check is to check all the connections between the motor and the controller, looking in particular at the five connections to the motor Hall sensors. Some of the connectors used on these kits are prone to corrosion and the pins moving back in the housing, so a careful physical check, and breaking and remaking the connections might find the fault.

If that doesn't then the next thing is to check some voltages on the motor Hall sensor lead, that's the lead with the five smaller wires, which should be red, black yellow green and blue. You should have about 5 V between the red and black and each of the green, yellow and blue wires should pulse on and off with five volts as you spin the wheel, with the -ve of the meter on the black wire.

[dogman]

Definitely back up to step one of any troubleshoot, and look really carefully at all the wire, and all the plugs. Look for cut wires, particularly at the axle entry, and look for contacts that backed out of the housing on the plugs.

There is a motor controller tester you can buy, for checking other things like the controllers output, and motor halls. Usually about $30 of really well spent money.

[keysdesease]

Okay i have some data:
All connections and terminals look A okay.
between red and black i have 4.3v
black and green/blue i get 4.3v, then i spin the wheel and i get 2.15
black and yellow i get 0, then i spin the wheel and i get 2.15. when it stops spinning i get 4.3v. I take my meter lead off the yellow and back to green or blue i get 4.3. Back to yellow i get 0! till i spin the wheel and read 2.15v. it stops and it reads 4.3v.

With the battery pack switched off i read 0v from black to all leads. Spin the wheel and it reads 2.15v on yellow, blue. green.
God i hope this helps because i am more confused now

[Jeremy Harris]

Okay i have some data:
All connections and terminals look A okay.
between red and black i have 4.3v
black and green/blue i get 4.3v, then i spin the wheel and i get 2.15
black and yellow i get 0, then i spin the wheel and i get 2.15. when it stops spinning i get 4.3v. I take my meter lead off the yellow and back to green or blue i get 4.3. Back to yellow i get 0! till i spin the wheel and read 2.15v. it stops and it reads 4.3v.

With the battery pack switched off i read 0v from black to all leads. Spin the wheel and it reads 2.15v on yellow, blue. green.
God i hope this helps because i am more confused now

No problem, that's good data. Spinning the wheel quickly makes the pulses from the sensors average, that's all, which is why you were getting that 2.15V reading. It looks like all your Hall sensors are pulsing OK, which is good news.

The problem now pretty much has to be with the controller somewhere. We know that the controller is getting power OK, and that it's working, at least in part, as you're getting the right voltages.

Does your kit have ebrakes? (brake levers with switches in to kill the power). If so, try disconnecting the ebrake wires and see if it will run, as it's just possible that one of the switches has stuck closed and is inhibiting the controller.

Failing that, I think it might be time to take some close up photos if you can, and then maybe take a look inside the controller so that we can see if there is any obvious cause for your problem.

It's supper time here now, so I'll be offline for maybe an hour!

[dogman]

Don't need the motor tester now then. Halls work. If the phase wires were shorted, as can happen with cut wires at the hub, you'd notice a lot of obvious resistance when you spin the motor. If you unplug the motor from the controller, then short two phase wires on the motor, you'll feel the resistance and confirm that it's not the same as when they aren't shorted.

Sorta odd for a controller to go out with no obvious smoke and stink. I've had halls go bad in motors while parked overnight, but not controllers.

[keysdesease]

Thank you again for everyones help so far. I have to padk and leave till this Monday. But i will return here then to give more info and photos of what i find out.
Till then,
Jim

[wesnewell]

Ebrake switch stuck or maybe you forgot that red throttle button pushed in cuts motor off in controller.

[keysdesease]

I have an update and a question:
I find that if i have the throttle twisted and then spin the tire the motor takes off spinning. No matter if it's 1/4 or full throttle.
I did replace the throttle due to the old one broke in my hand while twisting it a few weeks ago.
Is it possible that I have the 3 color wires "Blue,Black, Red" not correct in the connector?
Or does the symptoms point in a different direction?

Jim

[Punx0r]

What controller do you have? You should be able to find it's wiring configuration for the throttle. You should be able to suss out throttle itself with a multimeter and check everything is connected where it ought to be.