XLD brainpower motor controller repair

ransome

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XLD brainpower motor controller repair

my local bicycle shop plugged into the rear wheel hub wrong and apparently shorted out the controller (see pictures)
is there a place that can repair this for me
thanks Gregg
20220428_223848.jpg20220429_130552.jpg
 
The bike shop should be paying for this repair, or the replacement of the parts they damaged. Which bike shop is it, so others will know to avoid them?

What does the inside of the controller look like? If it is as bad as the connector itself, it may be unrepairable.

If it only blew the FETs, and melted wires/connectors, it might be fixable. If it blew the gate drivers, it's harder. If it blew the MCU itself, it's toast.

It is unlikely to be worth paying to repair a controller like that, as it almost certainly costs far less (less than a tenth of the cost of a repair, best case repair costs) to buy a new one. Repairing yourself doesn't cost nearly as much since you're not paying yourself for labor ;) but it may still not be worth it because of the time spent.


FWIW, there should be no way to plug that into the motor in a way that could possibly do that kind of damage. What exactly did they do?
 
The bike shop will help with the costs , but they have no clue how to fix this. Electric bikes of Arizona looked at it and told me to replace the controller , but finding the same one is impossible.
that leaves buying one on ebay and wiring it myself (which I can not do).
That is why i'm looking for a repair place
 
Brainpower is a brand commonly sold on Amazon.
They may be the only ones using an XLD connector for a hub motor (more commonly found on scooters)
You could message the vendor to see if they can provide something similar.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016O0B0MQ

old, long thread here .... may be of some help
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=96736
 
The other side of that connector comes from the motor. Is that also cooked like the one in the picture? Then you have to replace that too. That's what some call a Z916 motor connector, used with the biggest 750W hubmotors. Smaller motors use the Z91 or Z910.

One approach is to buy a Z916 extension cable, cut it in half and splice the appropriate ends to both the motor and controller. The wires inside are color coded and usually standardized (never seen one that wasn't) so the only issue is being able to splice the thicker wires so they are compact and won't break. Then you have to hope that the controller still works. If it still works, then it was a relatively easy fix.

Z91.jpg

If the controller is smoked, then there are plenty of XLD 30A Brainpower controllers for sale. Assuming the motor plug was not damaged, you could look for an XLD controller that comes with a Z916, but that might be hard to find. Still a relatively easy fix if you find the same controller. Why not ask the bike's importer?

If you have to get your own parts offf the internet, you might do some advance leg work and follow the burnt connector back to the controller to see if it goes directly inside the box, or if they use a second set of connectors just before the controller. Here's an example with the Z910. Rectangular 3x2 white connector and three bullets. Some ebikes do it this way. If you can find a comparable Z916 cable with the same pins, no splicing. Otherwise, you'll still have to do some splicing. but you won't have to disturb the wires on the new controller.

z910.jpg

If you need a new controller, you do want another XLD (Brainpower) model because they only work with the display on your bike.

Did you go in to get a flat tire fixed, and the shop burnt up your bike? Bummer.
 
Thanks for the informative reply , the male fitting from the motor looks much better, doesn't look as good when enlarged(see pic)20220430_144021.jpg
I found a place to purchase a z916 cable , I will open the controller and see if there is any evidence of internal damage.
thanks Gregg
 
here are pictures of the controller board , looks fine , no burn spots.
I guess i will splice a new female end of the z916 and hope for the best
thanks Gregg20220501_172943.jpg20220501_172927.jpg
 
If you need to test the FETs (which can fail "silently" with no apparent external damage), there is a document at http://ebikes.ca under the Learn - Troubleshooting section.


FWIW, I still can't imagine a scenario in which they could cause that damage just by connecting the motor to the controller, even if they somehow forced it together in the wrong way (which shouldn't be possible due to the octagonal shape of connector and offset triangle of pins, without fracturing the outer shell in an obvious way, unless I am not seeing the two shapes correctly).

Any of the three possible ways they could connect the phase wires together could not cause that damage, because it would just rotate the wheel wrong. It might cause the hall sensors to not operate, so the controller might not do anything, but it couldn't short out anything that could cause the damage seen there.

If you can find out what they *actually did*, it may help you fix the problem, assuming it is not just connector damage.


Out of curiosity, what does the battery connector look like? And the charger connector? (Suspecting that they might have connected the controller to one of those, as I don't see the same kind of damage to the motor end of the connector as on the controller, and I can't figure out a way to do that damage if it were connected to the motor).
 
the battery connector only has 2 prongs and looks pristine , the charger connector has 3 prongs but is much larger and shows no sign of damage. The bike shop told me that when they unplugged the motor that there was plastic bits that came out and it appeared to be fused together by heat,, who knows
thanks Gregg
 
Maybe they didn't plug it in for real, not knowing how hard it can be to plug waterproof connections like these together, and only just barely got the contacts touching each other. If that's the case, it could've arced between the tips of each phase wire from the controller to the motor, instead of making proper contact, and that might've heated the plastic so much it burned as the pics appear to show.

If this is the case, then unless RF from arcing damaged FETs, it's likely that the controlelr and motor / etc are fine, and it's just toasted connectors.

If you could scrape the melted plastic parts off enough to fully plug the two together, including cleainng the little pads for the halls/etc around the inside perimeter, it might even work just as it is now.
 
I'll give it a good scrapping /cleaning and see if I get lucky. If that doesn't fix it my next step is splicing a new female cable z916
does that look the right one?
thanks Gregg
 

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  • Screenshot 2022-05-02 at 12-32-28 Motor cable for Bafang 750W RM G06 fatbike_snow bike hub mot...png
    Screenshot 2022-05-02 at 12-32-28 Motor cable for Bafang 750W RM G06 fatbike_snow bike hub mot...png
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I just got the part and after carefully splicing the new 3 pin female plug ...No soap , same issue .Now I can't be sure if it is only my controller , maybe my hub is bad as well.
 
Turned out both motor connectors were bad , after splicing them together and eliminating the connectors all together everything works as it should.
Gregg
 
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