Advice regarding 'do-it all' ebike

[d8veh]

The Higos are small and well done. For testing best to buy some extra components that already have Higos on them. Then you can swap components to test. Soldering wires will likely reduce the reliability of your wiring unless it is professional quality work. These wires are fairly small and multiconductor. There are lots of tricks for hiding extra cable, and there isn't all that much extra to hide.

That's not a good way to test. When the main cable is shorted because someone pulled the zip-ties too tight, every time you connect a replacement LCD, you'll have to buy a new one.

 

[docw009]

The Higos are small and well done. For testing best to buy some extra components that already have Higos on them. Then you can swap components to test. Soldering wires will likely reduce the reliability of your wiring unless it is professional quality work. These wires are fairly small and multiconductor. There are lots of tricks for hiding extra cable, and there isn't all that much extra to hide.

That's not a good way to test. When the main cable is shorted because someone pulled the zip-ties too tight, every time you connect a replacement LCD, you'll have to buy a new one.

You sure do see a lot more, d8veh, in your role in bike repair, than the rest of us do. I can respect your irritation with customers that break things, but Higos bring a lot of good things to kit built bikes. Don't all the commercial ebikes use them?

We have one store bought ebike, and it uses them. That reminds me. When we were looking at it, the LCD was blank and the bike didn't run. The tech called into the rep and was told to re-insert the LCD connector. I was wondering that it wouldn't fail again, but it's been good for two years.

 

[d8veh]

You sure do see a lot more, d8veh, in your role in bike repair, than the rest of us do. I can respect your irritation with customers that break things, but Higos bring a lot of good things to kit built bikes. Don't all the commercial ebikes use them?

We have one store bought ebike, and it uses them. That reminds me. When we were looking at it, the LCD was blank and the bike didn't run. The tech called into the rep and was told to re-insert the LCD connector. I was wondering that it wouldn't fail again, but it's been good for two years.

The Higo-type connectors are necessary for external connectors that are exposed to the elements. They're fast, neat and convenient to connect when assembling the bike. The alternative is to run cables all the way from the component (throttle, display, PAS, brake, etc) to the controller compartment or to some other shielded place and use JST or similar connectors.

For testing and repairing, the JSTs are much better. The Higos look nicer.

I've seen corrosion equally in both types, though corrosion on the JST only happens when the compartment is poorly designed or someone tries to seal it. The Higos themselves are not too bad, but the multipin LCD connector that comes with them is the one that gets corroded. That causes a malfunction of the LCD, but when you disconnect the LCD to test it, a pin breaks off, then you need a new cable and LCD because one side has a pin missing and the other has a hole jammed by a pin.

Let's say that you lose the speed on your display. the first thing I'd want to check is the signal from the motor's speed sensor. With the JST, you just stick your probes up the back of the connector and turn the wheel. To test with Higos is impossible unless you disassemble the controller and the PCB is not potted, so you'd have to try first a new LCD, then a new controller, then a new motor before you could determine that the problem was the sensor in the motor. That's a lot of work for the repairer that a bike shop would pass on as cost to the bike's owner.

I do a lot of repairs to different bikes so I have made adaptors for many of the standard connectors to my e-bike tester, but even then, there doesn't seem to be a standard for connection sequence, so I can sometimes prove that something is OK, but when it shows faulty, it could be because the connection sequence in the connector is different.