Weird Motor/Brake Sensor Issue on BBSHD

[Jaded]

I got my motor & battery kit from EM3EV & just sent a message to their customer support email, which I'm gonna copy over here to see if any of y'all have any ideas as well. I'm staying with family right now in a pretty rural area & have been out here a few weeks. I biked 600+ miles to get here plus another 120+ while I've been here & was supposed to start biking back to my city around the end of this week but then this weird issue just started happening. I could really use all the help I can get... :/

Hi my name is Jade H, I purchased my motor, battery & full kit from you [Order #] and thus far have been very pleased with your products & customer service.

I'm reaching out to you because I just started having a very strange issue with my motor that I'm not sure how to resolve. It only started within the past few days but has gotten progressively worse to the point that today it was a serious problem. For some reason I'm getting an E03 or brake activation error appearing on my EggRider v2 display & power is cut to the motor/neither PAS or throttle will engage when the brakes are in a neutral position. I checked the cables & connectors & could find no obvious issue. The wires for the sensors & the sensors themselves do not seem to have any obvious issues either. It was happening with such frequency today that I essentially could not get any assistance from the motor for the majority of my ride... which was a big problem in this very hilly area, plus I'm visiting family & was planning to start riding back to my home in just a few days but am kind of stuck here for the time being until I can get this resolved. If I wasn't in good shape I doubt I would have even been able to finish the ride back to the house today.

I tried disconnecting the sensors thinking that would surely resolve the problem at least temporarily but STILL kept getting the E03 error. It kept flashing on & off at seemingly random moments & intervals. Sometimes it would go away for as much as 10 minutes but then other times it would flash on & off every few seconds, so I was getting almost no assistance or throttle activation at all because the motor was behaving as if a brake sensor was engaged even when the sensors weren't connected. I have not yet tested unplugging the gear sensor & think I'll try that tomorrow when there's light again. I don't know if that could cause an E03 error-- the manual wasn't entirely clear on that.

The weirdest thing was when I did get back to my family's house I tested the throttle & PAS while the bike was propped up on the double-leg kickstand I have installed. There was no issue when I wasn't on the bike, but when I tried to ride it again the E03 error kept coming back. I'm a pretty small person (~100lb) but something about adding a rider on top of the bike seems to be causing the error to appear. My best guess would be an issue with a wire somewhere that's getting additional flex/stress when attempting to ride vs when the bike is just sitting on the kickstand... but I don't see any obvious place where this could be happening.

Do you have any thoughts on what the issue could be & how I might resolve it?

Thanks from a loyal customer,
Jade

 

[pwd]

Perhaps there is moisture in the main connector that may be causing the issue. Even re-connecting everything may help. You can try replicating the problem by having the bike on the stand (wheel off the ground) and moving the wire harness with the motor engaged and see if it cuts out.

 

[MoneyPit]

If disconnecting the levers didn't help that leaves the main harness and the motor controller as culprits. If additional examination/diagnosis like what pwd is suggesting doesn't help, the next easiest diagnosis step would be replacing that harness cable. I see two of them available for (sort of) fast delivery via Amazon Prime. :-(

 

[E-HP]

Wow, that was quite an email

 

[Jaded]

I had to undo a lot of wrap & check all of my cables but I did ultimately find what looks to be the source of the issue.





This is the main wiring harness/cable bus I believe. The damage appears minimal & the error only appears when the cables directly around the exposed area are pinched. The obvious solution is to totally replace this part but I'm hoping I can find a more immediate temporary solution given my presently somewhat desolate location.

 

[Jaded]

More pictures. It would appear the white wire jacket is damaged at this point & the error comes on specifically when I twist or apply pressure to this point.

 

[TNC]

Good diagnosis. That was one of my concerns on my BBSHD install on my mountain bike. It's good to concentrate on minimal hard bends and/or where the cables make contact with frame and components. I used wire loop wrap and similar products quite a bit.

 

[MoneyPit]

Not only eliminate hard bends, but check cable travel from full left to full right and make sure you have allowed enough slack for - ideally - there to be no tugging on any cable, anywhere in the handlebar's range of motion.

 

[Jaded]

I'm now 99% certain the issue is either in the motor or the controller unfortunately. I replaced the main cable bus but only the display will turn on whether I use the old one or the new one. I can't get the throttle to work (tested with two throttles) or the brake sensors to work. The gear sensor & speed sensors work totally normally. Walk assist also won't activate even though the display turns on & seems to work normally. Pedal assist also doesn't activate when the pedals are turned. The battery seems to work normally but only the display will turn on when the motor is plugged in. Not the throttle or any of the sensors that connect to the cable bus.

I'm wondering if a short happened related to the damaged cable bus that is now causing the connector on the motor end to not send or receive a signal through most of the pins? That wouldn't really explain the PAS issue though unless a signal is being sent to the display but not received.

What do you guys think?

Pics attached of the plug that connects to what I think is damaged.

 

[MoneyPit]

I would get into a systematic replacement of individual components ending with the motor controller. Unfortunately that means display and throttle. I'm not saying that because I see any signs its Component X or Y, but I know individual problems with these bits can lead to weird issues and the cheapest way to rule them out is to methodically replace/swap them out. This includes the motor controller but thats a lot of money and effort if you start there and its possible it still won't catch the problem.

Hopefully someone else has a better idea.

 

[MoneyPit]

Yikes nobody - myself included - mentioned the gear sensor plug. Its basically a brake lever cutout coming out of the bottom of the motor. If your motor has one its the short cable coming out of the housing with the yellow HIGO plug. If its connected, disconnect it. If its not connected to anything, make sure it is clean and seal it up with silicone tape or somesuch.

Maybe this has nothing to do with the main harness. Gear sensors are infamous for getting wonky if they have crap inside them. Its just a little mechanical wheel and if its not sealed up it can ingest all manner of crud and cause trouble.

 

[Jaded]

I'm pretty certain it's not the gear sensor. I already tested that & it worked normally. Same with the speed sensor. Only the sensors & throttle attached to the main wiring harness would not work. The display would turn on but wouldn't activate walk assist when I held down the "+" button. Turning the pedals would not activate PAS either... swapping out the throttle or main wiring harness made no difference. I don't have a spare display to test that. Eggrider v2 is what I'm using. It costs about as much as a controller.

The E03 error is no longer showing up either just to be clear so I'm pretty sure something was wrong with the signal that reads the sensors & not the sensors themselves. The sensors no longer get any power from the main wiring harness (which again I've tested two). This is why I think it could be the controller

 

[Jaded]

Well I corresponded with EM3EV & they asked for video of the issue. They said they also think a controller issue is likely. Fortunately I'm still under warranty so they should be sending a replacement out soon. Fingers crossed but so far very satisfied with their customer service at least :thumb: