XM-3000 Dead
I had the scooter out for errands this evening, and had parked in one of those parking spaces that is up against a building, so you have to back out to leave. I believe that I may have opened the throttle while still rolling slowly backwards, possibly while in High power mode. The scooter jerked forward slightly, then died. I lowered and raised the sidestand several times, to no avail. The power meter still works. The motor seems completely dead - no humming, jerking, etc. The scooter is now harder to roll than usual, even with power off, and especially backwards. Did this simple, minor mistake fry the hub motor? Any other ideas?
Hi Leftie,
I don't have a XM-3000 scooter but I once fried a motor on an ebike in a similar fasion. In my infinite wisdom, programmed my 4000w controller to allow 1500w into my 500w hub motor. It worked great for about 200 meters. I rode it out to the road and stopped at the traffic lights (steep hill), when I could cross the road it gave about 1/2 a second of power then dead. I rode the bicycle back home manually and it felt like I had a hand brake on?! But when I pulled the battery connector out it was still the same.
Turned out I blew a capacitor and ALL 12 FET's in the speed controller and fried the motor windings closest to where the wires exit the hub motor and they puffed up and were pushing agaisnt the hub motor casing causing the friction. I learnt, don't pump 1500w into a 500w motor.
But as for your big scooter, you shouldn't be able to kill a motor like that? Because a 3000w motor CAN take 3000w! Most likley a wire has come loose inside that hub motor. Can you measure voltage going into the motor? Are the hall sensors still working (switching between 0-5v)?
This happens irregularly to me as well, rolling slightly backwards on gradients before I can apply enough power to get the bike moving forward. Not sweat whatsoever. However, if your motor or controller had already suffered thermally at some point, and/or a jerky BLDC-Type controller had already torn loose a few windings in the motor, then a rather small issue can suffice to short out one phase to the other, or blow some MOSFET's in the controller causing such a short. It would be interesting to see if the motor still has the high resistance when the three phases are disconnected from the controller. If yes, and if you can feel a ripple in the friction, then most likely a motor phase or two are shorted out, most likely somewhere in the area of the axle. If the friction feels rather smooth, you may have melted some wire insulation which then clogged a bearing.
However, if the motor turns freely when disconnected from the controller, then the controller is most probably at fault.
Good luck for your trouble shooting!
If motor phases are shorted or even some MOSFETS in the controller busted, thus also potentially creating such a short, then indeed the induced voltage by pushing the bike, even with key off, would create heaps of resistance to turning the wheel. But you are right in that you would feel a "ripple" in the resistance, as the magnets alternately pass a pole and then a gap.
As your bike appears to be "dead" propulsionwise I strongly assume a fried controller. As I said, see what happens when you disconnect the three motor phases from the controller and then turn the motor, naturally making sure the three phase ends do not meet... If it turns freely again the motor is probably o.k.
Double Post.. THE EDIT BUTTON IS BACK :-) At least this time....
The circuit breaker should sit between battery plus and the controller, and thus has nothing to do with the DC/DC-converter and the accessories it drives. That has its own fuse coming from the key switch (in my ride it is in the red box vissible in the lower right corner of the following pic).
In my ride that big cicrcuit breaker looks like this (this time the size of the wires going in and out of it are irrelevant :-):
The reason for the arcing and tripping when you turned it on is most likely not a short in the controller, but the big current surge while the giant capacitors in the controller input recharge. Next time before you turn on the circuit breaker after having it off for a while it is advisable to precharge those capactitors with a 110/220V light bulb that you temporarily connect to in- and output of the circuit breaker. This will fill the caps more gently thanks to the resistance on the light bulb, and you will know when the precharge is done thanks to the light blulb that will no longer glow. The Vectrix Forum here mentions this procedure many times, and it directly applies to our simpler rides too :-) After that the circuit braker can be easily switched on without any arcing or tripping.
But all in all that curciut breaker seems to have served it's purpose and kept a few things from melting and burning, as further down the line some havoc must have occurred nevertheless.
As I do not know what kind of controller is in your bike I don't know the type of connections it has. You should be able to check this on your spare controller though, if it is the same type?
Your response is underwhelming. Let me try being specific. Does anyone know the location of the main drive fuse on the 2008 XM3000? Would the battery gauge still work if that fuse had blown? All the accessories, plus the battery gauge, still work. It's "only" the motor that appears dead.