Wonder if anybody else has seen this behavior?
My bicycle (Electra Townie 21) has an old WE BD 36 hub motor in the front. I've had the motor for a few years, it's on its second bicycle, etc. I had a successful ride with it just a couple days ago. However today any time I hook up the battery the motor immediately spins like nuts and the BMS immediately trips out the battery.
The throttle is at 0 and doesn't matter where it's set.
It's either the controller or motor and I have in the past seen controllers break such that they only run full-on.
FWIW The bicycle has been chained on the front porch and hence has seen a bit of rain. There was rain over the last couple days but nothing like the rain a few weeks ago, which didn't affect the bike. The porch is covered and there didn't seem to be much rain getting on the bike anyway.
It does sound like a controller or throttle short. Condensation mabye?
Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global
Maybe condensation but why would the teensy rain of a couple days ago be a problem when the downpours earlier weren't?
I know we have some discussion somewhere about testing a hall effect throttle. But I couldn't find it. Pointers?
The throttle has three wires and using an ohm-meter I can't get any sensical readings so that must mean it's a hall effect throttle.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Just tried a test - I have a big honkin rheostat (300 watts) and hooked that up in place of the motor. That let me adjust the resistance and play with the throttle at the same time. And I could view amps/volts/watts using the cycle analyst on the bike.
Immediately connecting the battery up & throttle at 0 the cycle analyst showed power flowing. About 60watts (the rheostat was set for a pretty high resistance). Twisting the throttle did change the power but not by very much. Twisting the rheostat also changed the power (of course) and at all settings the throttle did cause small change in the output power.
Normally the throttle causes a big range of output power from 0watts to 600watts or more. But now it's a much narrower range.
Seems I've ruled out the motor and that leaves the throttle or controller.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Try it with the throttle disconnected , I had the same problem with a controller I connected up wrong. full power to the motor without the throttle connected.
I have the same thing: Electra w/ BD36 and a CA-SA
Maybe there is a short on your CA wiring?
eh? short in the CA? How? It's just a shunt.
But, I've removed all components but the controller. Disconnected the throttle, took the CA out of the loop. The motor still goes full bore. I even found the key for the controller and it doesn't matter how the key is set.
Which makes this look like a controller problem.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Bingo! Good thing brushed controllers are cheap, but somehow I think you may be capable of just rebuilding it.
Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global
To tie off the circle on this one ...
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/5015-need-help-wiring-ecrazyman-brushed-controller#comment-35822
I bought an ecrazyman controller. Dogman, uh, gosh maybe I could muddle my way through rebuilding the old controller but my time is more valuable than that and the $30 or so for a replacement controller makes much more sense. BTW I opened up the old controller this afternoon and didn't see any obviously busted part. Nothing looked like it had let out its magic smoke.
The box the old controller was in still looks useful so I gutted it and am keeping the box. I'm a bit of a pakrat yasee.
Anyway...
The other comment has data about the wiring job I did.
The performance is about the same as before. The "800w" part on the controller had me hoping for a speed boost but really the old controller was 36v 35a (1260w) so...
It's nice to be back in the saddle again.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
This happened to me on my BD-36 on a foggy morning. 100% humidity. The key switch would not stop motor. I pulled the power cord out to stop it. It never happened again.