Testing Hall Sensors

I can help if you are still interested. I need the pinout of the connector for my own use, we should be able to help each other.

To test hall sensors, one needs to do a little wiring.
The hall sensors have what is called an "open-collector" or "open-drain" output. They are like a switch connected to ground on one end. They are open until they detect the required magnetic field, then they close, connecting their "output" pin to ground.
So what does this mean? It means that one cannot measure a voltage at the output pin; there is nothing to measure.
If all one wants to do is check that the sensors are functioning, then the "diode check" function on a multimeter will do. Connect the black lead from the multimeter to ground, connect the red lead to the output of the hall sensor. Rotate the motor. When the hall sensor is active, it should show anything from .700 volts all the way down to zero volts (for an open-drain.) When it is not active, the multimeter will show "open," usually a 1 followed by blanked digits. It will be the same reading as when the multimeter is not connected to anything.
If one needs a better signal, say to feed an oscilloscope, then a pullup resistor is needed. These may actually be installed in the motor, but I have never seen it. They are usually on the controller board. Connecting the motor to the controller board should not only give power, but the requisite pullups are also active. If not, one will have to temporarily install some. The resistor need only be 0.25 watt. 10K ohms is ideal, but anything from 2K up to 1M should do the trick. It needs to be connected between the positive supply (for the hall sensors) & the output to be tested. Then, the output will show the positive supply when not active, and ground (or close to ground) when active.
Each hall sensor should change states smoothly. An individual sensor should be active roughly one third of the time as the wheel is rotated, in evenly spaced increments. All three sensors should cascade their outputs in order. I know of two sequences. The only motor I have ever seen that does not use one or the other is a custom unit I built (Yes, I had my reasons! But I digress...)

30 Degree spacing:
U-V-W
0 0 0
0 0 1
0 1 1
1 1 1
1 1 0
1 0 0

60 Degree spacing:
U-V-W
1 0 1
1 0 0
1 1 0
0 1 0
0 1 1
0 0 1

The spacing is the number of degrees between the sensors. U, V, &W are the sensor outputs. An active sensor is indicated by a "0." An inactive sensor is indicated by a "1." Notice that only one sensor changes at a time. This eliminates ambiguity in position detection; the motor would still run well if one or more sensors were not exactly where they should be. Of the two, I prefer the 60 degree spacing, as it has no valid combination for "all sensors off." This means that if you forget to connect the hall sensors, the motor will not try to run. The 30 degree motor will assume it is in position four and try to start.

Question;
How many poles is this motor?

Thanks

Bingo Sun Noon

Krilson,

I don't know. One does not need to know to test the sensors, if that is your concern.

Thank you for the input. Now that some time has passed and I'm back on the road I'm not sure the motor fried the controller, it could be that the controller got wet (even though it was well sealed) and caused the problems all by itself. After I disassembled the motor though the wires from the hall sensors where they join in the center looked a little burnt but still showed continuity. Not knowing what to do I ordered a new motor and controller from Electric Rider and a new watts up meter from another vendor.

While waiting on the the new motor the old one was disassembled and in my air conditioned shop. I had posted this same problem on Endless Sphere and received several ideas and suggestions to testing the Hall Sensors so when the new stuff finally got here I installed the new controller and put the old motor back together and on the bike. I tested the sensores using a volt meter prior to hooking it up to the new controller and the tests were fine. With a little trepidition I hooked it up to the controller and punched the throttle and it ran fine and is still running. I was able to return the "extra" motor to Electric Rider with no penalty.

The Crystalyte Phoenix system is absolutly fantastic as long as it doesn't get wet and while it's often difficult enough not to go into the rain when you have to be somewhere it's impossible if you're five miles from nowhere and the rain decides it's time to come down. I've gotten away with light rains several times but when everything got fried it was a real downpour and sustained at that. I try to be more careful now.
Mike

Hi
Good advice all.
Be sure to keep in mind that the aforementioned truth table is electrical degrees.
You need to know the pole count to convert to mechanical degrees and to calibrate the system.
A 10 pole motor will repeat the pattern every 36 mechanical degrees or ten times per revolution of the wheel.
This is more than you need to know to simply test the halls. If you test them off the bike, (isolated) be sure to add a pull up resistor between Vcc and the output pin. 1k is good.
Also, it is possible that the timing can be adjusted to suit your riding, that is, advanced for flat high speed work and retarded for hills. You really need an oscilloscope to do much with this, though. Hard to kill a hall effect sensor.