Izip E3 Metro controller replacement

Joined
Jun 25, 2022
Messages
26
Bought this bike used for a pretty great deal. Love the way it rides and the rack system. Unfortunately all the controller parts and wiring harnesses were removed. I figured I could buy a new controller and get it going for pretty cheap, unfortunately so far that has not been the case. Izip has *most* of the parts, at $500 but no wiring harness, which is just too much to repair this thing. Originally the controller was located in the center tube and not the motor.

This is the controller I purchased, the 750w version as it has the same "3 pin" plug that is actually a 9 pin
https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0LrLse
C965 is the display
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mND1sUw

The battery is healthy and is showing 52.5v on a 48v battery. Charging system works fine but I cannot get the controller to power up at all, completely unresponsive.

I spoke with Izip, apparently this is a "smart" battery and there is a "data" wire coming off the battery and that's why I cannot get the new controller to power on, which doesn't make sense to me, so I'm here to learn. Apparently it is called a "wettsen" system and I cannot find any information about it.

That, or the controller/display I received is bad, which is possible I guess, when I upgraded the controller on my wife's bike I received 6 bad units from Amazon before ordering from Aliexpress

The battery is a 3 pin connector, standard red and black but with a yellow wire coming off the center pin of the battery connector. The battery is located in the center of the bike in the seat tube. Am I wrong to assume I should at least be able to get the system to power on or respond?
 

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Shaolin crane said:
The battery is healthy and is showing 52.5v on a 48v battery. Charging system works fine but I cannot get the controller to power up at all, completely unresponsive.

I spoke with Izip, apparently this is a "smart" battery and there is a "data" wire coming off the battery and that's why I cannot get the new controller to power on, which doesn't make sense to me, so I'm here to learn.

If you can see the correct voltage on the battery main +/- wires even when the controller is connected to it as a load, and it doesn't drop or "decay", then the battery is able to power the controller at least enough to turn it on. (have to see once it's working if it will keep powering the system under motor loading).

There are some OEM systems that use communication between battery and controller such that the system won't power on without the correct battery in working condition...but the battery may well work fine to power a different controller that doesn't require this comm. It might not even be a true communication, but only a sense wire with a specific voltage on it, or a specific resistance, or it may have a specific PWM pulsetrain on it, etc., that just the OEM controller requires to operate.


Regarding your new controller:

Did the display and controller come as a set? If not, the one may be incompatible with the other, by wiring or by communication protocol/dataset.

If it's wiring, damage to either or both controller and display can happen, depending on which wires are cross-connected, as there are battery voltages on two wires, and logic-level voltages on two others, plus a ground wire and a "keyswitch" wire that carries battery voltage back to the controller from the display after the display turns on.

If it's comms, it should turn on, but not be able to change any controller settings, and probalby not show the speed, and perhaps not battery voltage if this is not detected inside the display but instead is sent to the display as data.

Does the display itself come on, after holding it's power button long enough? If not, there could be a connection fault between the controller and display (or the wiring problem).

This can be bypassed just to turn it on and use the controller in basic (headless) mode without the display, by connecting (on the controller side of the display connector) the battery positive wire to the keyswitch wire. There are at least a couple of connector pinouts, so you'll need to measure things to find out which one you have, before you jumper between the pins to turn the controller on manually. A couple of examples:
EggRiderV2_display_pinout_3-500x500[1].png
 
amberwolf said:
Shaolin crane said:
The battery is healthy and is showing 52.5v on a 48v battery. Charging system works fine but I cannot get the controller to power up at all, completely unresponsive.

I spoke with Izip, apparently this is a "smart" battery and there is a "data" wire coming off the battery and that's why I cannot get the new controller to power on, which doesn't make sense to me, so I'm here to learn.

If you can see the correct voltage on the battery main +/- wires even when the controller is connected to it as a load, and it doesn't drop or "decay", then the battery is able to power the controller at least enough to turn it on. (have to see once it's working if it will keep powering the system under motor loading).
No drop or decay, holds strong, but absolutely nothing happens, seller responded that it's the wrong motor but obviously whether the motor is plugged in or not, it should power on somehow
There are some OEM systems that use communication between battery and controller such that the system won't power on without the correct battery in working condition...but the battery may well work fine to power a different controller that doesn't require this comm. It might not even be a true communication, but only a sense wire with a specific voltage on it, or a specific resistance, or it may have a specific PWM pulsetrain on it, etc., that just the OEM controller requires to operate.


Regarding your new controller:

Did the display and controller come as a set? If not, the one may be incompatible with the other, by wiring or by communication protocol/dataset.It came as a paired option. I could select a number of different working displays the supposedly would *only* function with the controller and confirmed my choice paired properly before ordering

If it's wiring, damage to either or both controller and display can happen, depending on which wires are cross-connected, as there are battery voltages on two wires, and logic-level voltages on two others, plus a ground wire and a "keyswitch" wire that carries battery voltage back to the controller from the display after the display turns on.

If it's comms, it should turn on, but not be able to change any controller settings, and probalby not show the speed, and perhaps not battery voltage if this is not detected inside the display but instead is sent to the display as data.

Does the display itself come on, after holding it's power button long enough? If not, there could be a connection fault between the controller and display (or the wiring problem).
Everything is completely dead, I ordered everything from the same vendor, all matching parts in the listing, but they shipped it all in a non padded envelope/bag, so completely possible something got damaged internally
This can be bypassed just to turn it on and use the controller in basic (headless) mode without the display, by connecting (on the controller side of the display connector) the battery positive wire to the keyswitch wire. There are at least a couple of connector pinouts, so you'll need to measure things to find out which one you have, before you jumper between the pins to turn the controller on manually. A couple of examples:
EggRiderV2_display_pinout_3-500x500[1].png

How would I be able to tell if the controller actually powers on though? There's no LED or anything, so even if I successfully jumped it, I'm not sure I would be able to tell. Unfortunately the new throttle hasn't arrived yet, I was planning on testing everything using the PAS sensor but probably can't do that yet
 
Shaolin crane said:
How would I be able to tell if the controller actually powers on though? There's no LED or anything, so even if I successfully jumped it, I'm not sure I would be able to tell. Unfortunately the new throttle hasn't arrived yet, I was planning on testing everything using the PAS sensor but probably can't do that yet

If the controller is on, you should read 5V between the red and black wires on the throttle connector.
 
Shaolin crane said:
How would I be able to tell if the controller actually powers on though? There's no LED or anything, so even if I successfully jumped it, I'm not sure I would be able to tell. Unfortunately the new throttle hasn't arrived yet, I was planning on testing everything using the PAS sensor but probably can't do that yet

If you measure 5v at either throttle, PAS, or motor hall sensor connections (whether those devices are connected or not), then the controller is "on". It won't produce 5v until the battery positive is connected to the keyswitch return input; that's what physically provides power to the controller's internal power supply to run it's brain and external devices.

The LCD has it's own internal power supply that runs off the battery positive all the time (even when it's not "on") so that it can respond to button presses. If that power supply isn't working or isnt' getting battery positive and ground to it because of a cable/connection problem, then it won't respond to the power button and won't turn the controller on either.
 
amberwolf said:
Shaolin crane said:
How would I be able to tell if the controller actually powers on though? There's no LED or anything, so even if I successfully jumped it, I'm not sure I would be able to tell. Unfortunately the new throttle hasn't arrived yet, I was planning on testing everything using the PAS sensor but probably can't do that yet

If you measure 5v at either throttle, PAS, or motor hall sensor connections (whether those devices are connected or not), then the controller is "on". It won't produce 5v until the battery positive is connected to the keyswitch return input; that's what physically provides power to the controller's internal power supply to run it's brain and external devices.

The LCD has it's own internal power supply that runs off the battery positive all the time (even when it's not "on") so that it can respond to button presses. If that power supply isn't working or isnt' getting battery positive and ground to it because of a cable/connection problem, then it won't respond to the power button and won't turn the controller on either.

So I started testing the plugs and I get 52.5v at the throttle. I tried checking the leads for the display and didn't register anything.

Either there are multiple versions of the 1t4 harness or something got banged around inside the controller during shipping since they were so kind to ship it in a bag without packaging.

I asked the seller for a pinout or diagram and they got super aggressive, said I purchased the wrong unit and that I was a scammer 🙄
 

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Shaolin crane said:
So I started testing the plugs and I get 52.5v at the throttle. I tried checking the leads for the display and didn't register anything.

If you are reading battery voltage at the controller's throttle connector's 5v line, and it is not just badly miswired inside the controller, the controller's LVPS is destroyed and so is anything else (MCU, motor halls, etc) that was connected to the 5v line.


I asked the seller for a pinout or diagram and they got super aggressive, said I purchased the wrong unit and that I was a scammer 🙄
Which seller, so that everyone can avoid them?

This one? https://easyriding.aliexpress.com/store/1101367706
 
amberwolf said:
Shaolin crane said:
So I started testing the plugs and I get 52.5v at the throttle. I tried checking the leads for the display and didn't register anything.

If you are reading battery voltage at the controller's throttle connector's 5v line, and it is not just badly miswired inside the controller, the controller's LVPS is destroyed and so is anything else (MCU, motor halls, etc) that was connected to the 5v line.


I asked the seller for a pinout or diagram and they got super aggressive, said I purchased the wrong unit and that I was a scammer 🙄
Which seller, so that everyone can avoid them?

This one? https://easyriding.aliexpress.com/store/1101367706

Unfortunately it looks like you're right. The motor is now dead. I hooked it to my working Ezip Zuma which is basically the same bike and it's completely dead.

That's the seller. Avoud them like a plague
 
The good news is you can replace the halls in the motor to still use it, or just use it with a sensorless controller, as it won't have damaged the actual motor itself.
 
Shaolin crane said:
So I started testing the plugs and I get 52.5v at the throttle. I tried checking the leads for the display and didn't register anything.

Either there are multiple versions of the 1t4 harness or something got banged around inside the controller during shipping since they were so kind to ship it in a bag without packaging.

Looks like you are measuring on the controller side, so that would be the the battery voltage pin. You're likely looking at the pinout for the harness side, so the controller side would be mirrored. You should be testing voltage on pin 6 (?), 5V. The throttle signal wire will have 0V, since it receives the throttle voltage output. The battery positive pin will always be hot, since it needs to supply the battery level voltage to the controller to turn it on.
 
amberwolf said:
The good news is you can replace the halls in the motor to still use it, or just use it with a sensorless controller, as it won't have damaged the actual motor itself.

I found a kit with a complete wheel/motor on Amazon for $185, I'll probably just go that route
 
E-HP said:
Shaolin crane said:
So I started testing the plugs and I get 52.5v at the throttle. I tried checking the leads for the display and didn't register anything.

Either there are multiple versions of the 1t4 harness or something got banged around inside the controller during shipping since they were so kind to ship it in a bag without packaging.

Looks like you are measuring on the controller side, so that would be the the battery voltage pin. You're likely looking at the pinout for the harness side, so the controller side would be mirrored. You should be testing voltage on pin 6 (?), 5V. The throttle signal wire will have 0V, since it receives the throttle voltage output. The battery positive pin will always be hot, since it needs to supply the battery level voltage to the controller to turn it on.

It was easier to take a photo with the 1t4 harness removed since the throttle pins were so small. I traced back the throttle wire to that pin in that plug. Directly at where the throttle connects is reading 52.5v

I tested the motor with my other Izip bike when I purchased it and it worked fine, unfortunately it doesn't now.
 
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