We'll I bit the bullet and got a Wilderness Energy BL36 front hub kit today. I got it all together and noticed that I got a small spark when I connected the battery pack to the controller. I thought only the BD36's sparked when connected to the controller. Then I noticed that whether the controller switch was 'on' the 'off' position the lights on the throttle and the controller remained the same (on). It also sparked when being connected regardless of the switch (Off or On) setting. The throttle works fine and the bike runs like a champ, but obviously to turn it off I have to disconnect the battery. I checked the picture of the controller on the manual pamphlet and it appears that I have the right (Brushless) model for my kit. Any ideas on what the problem might be? I will contact the seller tomorrow but I thought it might be a case of 'operator error' and I would check this forum for help tonight. Thanks, Tony
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On my motorcycle there's a BIG spark when connecting up the controller to the battery. So BIG it scares me each time no matter how well I prepare. As I understand it there's a capacitor inside the controller that charges up. What I notice (again with the motorcycle) is if I connect the controller, disconnect it, then connect it again right away, there is not a spark but if it stays disconnected for awhile there is a spark.
But it's probably not that simple. I just checked with my WE BD 36 and disconnecting & reconnecting quickly afterward there was still a spark each time.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Yeah, it's really that simple. The caps used generally don't retain their charge very well because they don't have to. Smaller ones also seem to lose their charge pretty quickly. So, even if you're fast, there will still be a bit of a spark when connecting them back up. It's not really good for the connectors, though. It starts to eat at them after a while, especially if you have a high-amp controller with big caps. This is the reason a precharge resistor is often recommended on the very large (hundreds of amps) controllers.
Problem is, it's kinda hard to tell the difference between a normal spark and an abnormal one, especially if you haven't worked with them much or it's a new controller you're trying out. Since nothing is wrong, I'd say yours is normal, though.
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Thanks for the responses, it looks like the sparking is normal. How about the other concern, the fact that the controller's lights and the thumb throttle's lights are ON no matter which position the controller's "on/Off" switch is in? I had assumed that no power would be going to the throttle when the controller was in the "off" position. My controller seems to power the throttle's lights at all times, requiring me to disconnect the battery pack when I want to shut the system down at night. Thanks again.
Problem solved, according to WE I had a bad controller. Got an exchange and the new one not only does not spark when the battery is connected (if the controller switch is in the off position), but it only shows lights at the controller and the thumb throttle when the controller switch is "ON". Thanks for the replies, great forum.
I just received my new BL36 kit, but ordered it without the battery pack to save some $$$, and because I already have some 12v 18ah batteries(much better than the 12ah included with the "extended range" battery pack).
Unfortunately though, without the battery pack and therefore no plug or wiring, I was left to figure out the wiring to the controller from the battery on my own. The documentation that comes with the WE BL-36 kit is useless and the print is so small it is difficult to read anyway.
Thanks to this post I double and triple checked the wiring before I connected any power to my controller. Even then I only used a small 12v 7ah battery. Guess what? When I connected the leads I got a spark!
I even pealed back the shrink wrap on the plug and saw the red and black leads on the controller plug. Red is not positive and Black is not negative! Since I did not get the battery pack with the kit, I don't know if the plug on the battery wiring harness also comes wired backward, but I am sure that I would have fried the controller if I had not double checked the polarity first before connecting my 36v battery pack.
After figuring out the correct polarity, I tested with the 36 volt pack and it works fine. However, I noticed the green light on the controller blinking. I could not immediately recognize a pattern. Is there a post on here deciphering the controller light flashes?
FYI: The one and only thing the documentation was useful for was the direction to mount the hub on the forks, and that information was stapled to the manual(paper leaflet) and highlighted in pink on a tiny scrap of paper as an afterthought. On my WE BL-36 brushless hub the wiring comes out to the RIGHT side of the forks/bike.
Whome
This is something the builder of the controller should have told you about. Add a 20 ohm resistor and a momentary pushbutton in parallel with the contactor for starting things up.
Bingo Sun Noon
Both of my WE controllers (BL and BD versions) have the colors of the wires reversed. The red and black are correct on the connector coming from the battery pack, but WE uses the same two pole SAE connector coming from the controller and to make the two mate up, it is necessary for the male plug (black wire on the controller) to mate with the female plug (red wire on the battery) and the colors are then reversed. I noticed this when I went to wire in my Watts Up meter and had to check myself twice to be sure I was getting it right. If you're using the WE kit, this isn't a problem because you can't connect the SAE plug backwards, but if your using a different battery pack, the backwards red and black colors on the controller wire could really ruin your day.