My son wore through his big wheel's big wheel, and I decided the 100w motor was way too small for my electric ride on cooler, so I decided to mount it on his old big wheel, but I accidentally mixed up the + and - battery terminals on the controller as I was doing the final wireing. How can I test if the controller is fried or if the throttle is fried?
I'm using one of these throttles
http://www.electricscooterparts.com/throttles.html
(the top one THR-35)
and one of these controllers
http://www.electricscooterparts.com/speedcontrollers.html
(the top one SPD-24180)
Attached is the "Frankenwheel" as the wife calls it.
Thanks
-hendu
The throttle itself is probably still good.
Did you try reconnecting the controller the correct way to see what happens?
Make sure the wheel is off the ground or the belt is off when attempting this, since the motor may go full speed with no thottle.
Reverse polarity is usually pretty bad on controllers. Any number of things could fry.
If you connect it properly and the motor doesn't go, next test would be to measure the voltages on the throttle wires. With the negative probe on the battery -, measure each of the throttle wires when the power is on. You should see 5v on one wire, 0v on one wire, and the signal would go from around 1v to 4v as the throttle is advanced.
If you don't get any 5v, then you need to look inside the controller.
It would be a good idea to look inside anyway, as there may be obvious visible damage to the capacitors, IC chips, and transistors.
On the bright side, a new controller is pretty cheap.
Thanks for the info, I did try connecting it the correct way and no go. I did open up the controller and could not see any visible signs of burn out, I'll check out the throttle, thanks again.
Hey, You probably thought of this but please be careful with the belt area and small kids. You might want to fashion a cover/guard? I know a 7 year-old kid that lost a thumb to a go kart chain. Just a thought.
Jeff