As every owener of a Schwinn Stealth 1000 (and probably some other Currie models) knows, if you get going too fast with the throttle closed, such as coasting down a hill, the scooter starts flashing the LEDs on the throttle that function as a kind of fuel guage and shuts the system down. You must come to a complete stop, switch the scooter off and then back on before it powers up and lets you go on about your business.
This seems to be more of a hazard than a safety feature. It's hard enough surviving on the edge of the road at 15mph with any traffic whizzing by, let alone having to come to a stop just to reset the scooter. It's not like this feature keeps you from going to fast. After all, it only kicks in if you have the throttle closed. If your flying down the hill too fast with the throttle fully open, which is when you'd think they'd want to cut your power, it doesn't kick in.
I've read that the two pin connector from the front brake to the controller is what temporarily interups the power when the brake is applied and this can be bypassed just by unplugging it, but I have no problem with this feature. If I'm on the front brake, I'm slowing down, and I don't care if it wants to cut the motor. After all, I've already rolled off the throttle and the motor kicks back in as soon as the front brake is released and the throttle is opened. No harm, no foul, and it probably keeps people from doing burnouts (at least until they figure out the connector). That said, the bogus scooter-power-down-until-stopped-and-reset feature needs to go. Does anyone know how to do it short of putting in a new controller?
I believe the trip out is from overvoltage by generator action from the motor. I have eliminated the problem on my scooter by installing a freewheel hub on the rear large sprocket.
-Tom
Unfortunately, I believe the Stealth directly meshes the gear on the motor shaft with the gear on the axle so I don't think it would be a nice easy plug-and-play experience to get some sort of freewheeling going on there. There may be limited freewheeling capacity built in somehow because it sure is easier to push forward than backward.
That said, if overvoltage causes the cut out, how can people run the 36V contoller on 48V as has been reported (or higher with limited lifespans)? Would the motor really produce more than that on a small hill? Or maybe the contoller has some kind of circuit that can tell when it's getting all that extra voltage from the motor side of things instead of from the battery side.
Good point about running on 48V. Maybe it's a reverse voltage trip? I am guessing it's some kind of generator action since that is what is happening going downhill. I have seen the newer gearbox set ups and doing a freewheel would be a challenge. I would sell the gearbox scooter and buy a chain type and do the freewheel on the rear sprocket.
-Tom
I assume that the cicuitry that makes this shuitting down of the system happen is part of the controller. Rather than try to replace the direct drive with a chain system, I'm guessing that a cheaper, easier way to disable the function is to replace the controller. Of course, you wouldn't get any of the other benefits that you might get with a conversion to a chain. I can't find it now, but I thought I had seen posts from at least one person who is running a 48V controller on one of these scooters, but I don't think he indicated what was involved in doing the conversion. I'm guessing the connectors have to go and there's some wire splicing. I also suppose that functions like the LED "fuel guage" don't work anymore.