A little background first:
I've been struggling with my bike for a while now. First the original controller decided to die a silent death. No magic smoke was produced. Just working and then not. Not even pfft. That was 2012. Aw crap, so I ordered a YK85S 36V/48V 250W/350W off of eBay. MISTAKE. It was really confusing to get right, but once it got into its "self configuration" mode, it was "OK" except that it has a horrible "low voltage protection" circuit, that for the 36V configuration kicks in at 31.5 Volts. If I recall correctly, it cuts out at 42V on a 48V config. It really cut the autonomy down to a couple of kilometers from much more than that. Add on top of that, the batteries went a month or so afterwards. Then, I had money problems and couldn't buy new batteries until just recently. I got those installed into the carrier and hey presto, I was riding again, but the demon "low voltage protection" took over.
I still had a little money left over and ordered a CON61 from GBK. They sent me a CON611 which is a little bit different with lots more connectors (PAS, cruise, 3 speed throttle, double brake, brake sensor), but most importantly has a 28V low voltage cutoff. Amy the rep sent me a wiring diagram which answered a lot of questions I had. I took out the YK85S and put in the CON611. I hooked up the power, turned the key, twisted the throttle and groan groan groan, the phase was wrong. I consulted ES and honed up on phase alteration (which I learned about back in 2013 when I first got my YK85S) *thanks to SpinningMagnets for informative posts here on ES* … in any case, I swapped around the motor phases until I got a smooth reaction: but it was in reverse. That would be G-G, B-Y, Y-B. So I figured I'd have to swap around the Hall leads. Fortunately (or rather, coincidentally) a moron had decided he'd have to CUT the motor lead when he changed my wheel after I damaged the rim on some steel in the road. I had replaced his soldering job with some barrier strips, so I unwrapped them to expose the Hall leads. I swapped them a few times when the controller just up and failed. Wierdness, considering I would unplug the power pack and turn the key off for each test. I wrote back to Amy at GBK to let her know, but they're on a national holiday (Mid Autumn day), so I won't hear from her until probably Monday.
So I re-installed my YS85S and of course, it worked "perfectly" as it had before with the crappy low voltage cutout - working just "fine" on a test run. Nothing out of the ordinary: performed just the same as it has always.
This morning I was going to finish up the wire wrapping and crapola when I realized that I needed to get cat food and some human food. I hopped on the bike, got the cat food, went over to the butcher for a pork chop, hit a small bump I've gone over hundreds of times (the kind that is made from concrete where a driveway meets the road, about an inch or less- 15-25mm) and the hub started making a horrible groaning sound. I stopped after 10 seconds of this, got my pork chop, turned the bike around and limped back to the house. It was stiff going.
I inverted the bike (which is something I very rarely do) and examined the yet unwrapped connectors: everything looked good, no loose wires down near the motor. Everything looked fine, except the hub makes a horrible groan as it runs, getting worse as it gains speed. It has always been silent, sometimes just enough to know that it's still there.
Here's some readings:
Batteries show 38.7VDC (1212 sla)
Ω to black (GND)
Hall: 4.7K all
Phase: Y 2.87K B 2.89K G 2.87K
start twist throttle (low) Voltages to GND Motor phases
G 36-40
B 36-40
Y 42-60!! Yes, I checked that several times
Full twist throttle (high) Voltages Motor phases (and I had no idea of this figure until I measured it)
G 16
B 16
Y 16
I've seen some videos (like this |one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBrJ_aXWRCk ) where operating a hub motor in this condition results in magic smoke. I'm not made of money so, I'd prefer to DIM (err DIY?).
So, what's YOUR opinion. Should I tell the YK85S to reconfigure itself by running the config mode? Minor hassle in that it's inside an aluminum case now, and would require some unscrewing of nuts, bolts and screws. I think that it may be worth the small hassle.
Or should I go with major hassle and disassemble the hub motor (remove the rear wheel, set it up on a bench and attempt the feat of opening the motor) in order to inspect to see if there is some foreign body grinding inside?
EDIT:
Here's some additional troubleshooting: through hand cranking, I can definitely detect some kind of vibration happening on the hub, where normally it would crank the wheel smoothly and spin away, it's definitely doing something that I can feel through the transmission from the hub to the cassette, through the chain and crank into my hand and hear quite low and increasing while it spins down. I think this means I'm going to open the hub motor.
EDIT 2.0:
Between tossing and turning, this hub motor business has me going in a tizzy: cooler heads prevailed this morning. I uncovered the nuts on the rear axle and gave 'em a drop of oil to make sure there'd be no trouble turning when it came to removing the wheel. As I stood in uffish thought, I slowly rotated the wheel and noticed a detent every 7 degrees or so. So, I counted the detents, got 48 in a full turn (that'd make 7.5° between each). So I guess that's the physical resistance as the magnets pass the coils while rotating - or 16 for each phase. If you, Dear Reader, have a better idea, by all means, tell me about it.
I've been struggling with my bike for a while now. First the original controller decided to die a silent death. No magic smoke was produced. Just working and then not. Not even pfft. That was 2012. Aw crap, so I ordered a YK85S 36V/48V 250W/350W off of eBay. MISTAKE. It was really confusing to get right, but once it got into its "self configuration" mode, it was "OK" except that it has a horrible "low voltage protection" circuit, that for the 36V configuration kicks in at 31.5 Volts. If I recall correctly, it cuts out at 42V on a 48V config. It really cut the autonomy down to a couple of kilometers from much more than that. Add on top of that, the batteries went a month or so afterwards. Then, I had money problems and couldn't buy new batteries until just recently. I got those installed into the carrier and hey presto, I was riding again, but the demon "low voltage protection" took over.
I still had a little money left over and ordered a CON61 from GBK. They sent me a CON611 which is a little bit different with lots more connectors (PAS, cruise, 3 speed throttle, double brake, brake sensor), but most importantly has a 28V low voltage cutoff. Amy the rep sent me a wiring diagram which answered a lot of questions I had. I took out the YK85S and put in the CON611. I hooked up the power, turned the key, twisted the throttle and groan groan groan, the phase was wrong. I consulted ES and honed up on phase alteration (which I learned about back in 2013 when I first got my YK85S) *thanks to SpinningMagnets for informative posts here on ES* … in any case, I swapped around the motor phases until I got a smooth reaction: but it was in reverse. That would be G-G, B-Y, Y-B. So I figured I'd have to swap around the Hall leads. Fortunately (or rather, coincidentally) a moron had decided he'd have to CUT the motor lead when he changed my wheel after I damaged the rim on some steel in the road. I had replaced his soldering job with some barrier strips, so I unwrapped them to expose the Hall leads. I swapped them a few times when the controller just up and failed. Wierdness, considering I would unplug the power pack and turn the key off for each test. I wrote back to Amy at GBK to let her know, but they're on a national holiday (Mid Autumn day), so I won't hear from her until probably Monday.
So I re-installed my YS85S and of course, it worked "perfectly" as it had before with the crappy low voltage cutout - working just "fine" on a test run. Nothing out of the ordinary: performed just the same as it has always.
This morning I was going to finish up the wire wrapping and crapola when I realized that I needed to get cat food and some human food. I hopped on the bike, got the cat food, went over to the butcher for a pork chop, hit a small bump I've gone over hundreds of times (the kind that is made from concrete where a driveway meets the road, about an inch or less- 15-25mm) and the hub started making a horrible groaning sound. I stopped after 10 seconds of this, got my pork chop, turned the bike around and limped back to the house. It was stiff going.
I inverted the bike (which is something I very rarely do) and examined the yet unwrapped connectors: everything looked good, no loose wires down near the motor. Everything looked fine, except the hub makes a horrible groan as it runs, getting worse as it gains speed. It has always been silent, sometimes just enough to know that it's still there.
Here's some readings:
Batteries show 38.7VDC (1212 sla)
Ω to black (GND)
Hall: 4.7K all
Phase: Y 2.87K B 2.89K G 2.87K
start twist throttle (low) Voltages to GND Motor phases
G 36-40
B 36-40
Y 42-60!! Yes, I checked that several times
Full twist throttle (high) Voltages Motor phases (and I had no idea of this figure until I measured it)
G 16
B 16
Y 16
I've seen some videos (like this |one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBrJ_aXWRCk ) where operating a hub motor in this condition results in magic smoke. I'm not made of money so, I'd prefer to DIM (err DIY?).
So, what's YOUR opinion. Should I tell the YK85S to reconfigure itself by running the config mode? Minor hassle in that it's inside an aluminum case now, and would require some unscrewing of nuts, bolts and screws. I think that it may be worth the small hassle.
Or should I go with major hassle and disassemble the hub motor (remove the rear wheel, set it up on a bench and attempt the feat of opening the motor) in order to inspect to see if there is some foreign body grinding inside?
EDIT:
Here's some additional troubleshooting: through hand cranking, I can definitely detect some kind of vibration happening on the hub, where normally it would crank the wheel smoothly and spin away, it's definitely doing something that I can feel through the transmission from the hub to the cassette, through the chain and crank into my hand and hear quite low and increasing while it spins down. I think this means I'm going to open the hub motor.
EDIT 2.0:
Between tossing and turning, this hub motor business has me going in a tizzy: cooler heads prevailed this morning. I uncovered the nuts on the rear axle and gave 'em a drop of oil to make sure there'd be no trouble turning when it came to removing the wheel. As I stood in uffish thought, I slowly rotated the wheel and noticed a detent every 7 degrees or so. So, I counted the detents, got 48 in a full turn (that'd make 7.5° between each). So I guess that's the physical resistance as the magnets pass the coils while rotating - or 16 for each phase. If you, Dear Reader, have a better idea, by all means, tell me about it.