Who knows about this TDCM motor?

[Chalo]

Hi friends,

My community bike shop was recently donated a chonky hub motor that I'd like to put back into service for somebody. It's a heavy, direct drive rear motor that's spaced for a relatively narrow, like 5 or maybe 6 speed freewheel. It looks like the two halves of the hub shell are threaded to each other, because there isn't a removable side cover on either side.



I'm flummoxed by the motor plugs. It has three; none is familiar to me. Phase wires I can recognize. I reckon the five pin plug must be Halls, 5V, and GND. But there's another three pin plug with small pins that clearly aren't for carrying power, only signal. And there's a sealed blister with I don't know what, a thermistor? Bluetooth dongle? Cyanide capsule?





I want to attach this motor to an appropriate controller, which I believe will require me to swap out these plugs for Anderson Powerpoles for motor phases and a JST-SM plug for the Hall sensors. But if this motor needs me to do anything with the other plug or the blister thingie, I need to know what that is.

If anybody knows anything at all about this motor, it would be pretty great to learn about it before I start hacking on it, because there's approximately nothing that would compel me to unlace the wheel, invent a tool to open the hub, and try to separate the motor halves.

Also, if anybody knows what controller was originally intended for this motor, that would also be useful. I don't have much hope of finding a plug and play solution, but I'd take one if it were available.

 

[amberwolf]

The Ultramotor on the A2B / Stromer is, AFAIK, virtually the same motor (both the versions that use an internal controller and those that don't). The one you have there actually looks like the Stromer internal-controller motor I got here:

Stromer Mountain 33 Motor & LCD -- Repair / Hacking

This comes from here: https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=86412 The plan, once I figure out how to wire it up, and fix whatever might be wrong with it (or use an external controller if it's unfixable), go on my friend Bill's bike to help him get around a bit easier (or get back...

endless-sphere.com

The connectors you have are the same as mine, so I'd say that unfortunately those aren't phase wires, or hall wires, it's got an internal controller puck and those are the power and data and control wires. You can test by resistance if your three pin is a phase wire plug (should read effectively a short between all three), but I'd bet that it is not.

I don't know what the heatshrunk "blister" is on yours, but I would guess a factory-sealed "data plug" or a thermal sensor (why external, I don't know, unless it is for monitoring external temperatures to compare with internal ones). Mine had a two-pin JST rather than a heatshrink blister; it probably plugged into the torque sensor at the dropout on the Stromer it came from.



The controller on mine was already "known" to be dead so I didn't try to work with it, I just removed it and installed my own hall and phase wires (and am still using that motor today on the SB Cruiser trike's right wheel). I had planned on attempting to make the display and controller puck work for something else (or as an external controller) but never ended up doing that. The thread has some pics of the guts and stuff, though not much use to you if you aren't going to open it up and run your own phase/ hall wires.

FWIW, it's a really nice motor, very well made, MUCH better axle than any other hubmotor I've ever worked with, etc. Well worth converting to use, even if unlacing it is required to open it up...because you probably won't have to open it up a second time in the future after that's done.

I've been trying to collect the ones people don't want, because they can handle the load the trike puts on them (which is really only high during acceleration); I have so far gotten the first one off the stromer and a couple more whole ones, plus one with broken flange (from the original owner opening it up) and damaged windings (from shipping). So if you decide it's going to be tossed instead of reworked, then depending on cost / shipping I'd be interested in it.

If you do want to open it up and run your own phase and hall wires (or just phase and use sensorless, which works too (that's how mine is presently running, though I have halls the controller being used doesn't use them), theres info in that thread on how to do it.

The two halves are interference-fit on the magnet backiron; I reoommend marking them before disassembly to realign them properly for the spoke flanges' positioning. Some of these motors are easier to get apart than others, mine was relatively easy.