Has anyone tried these two different meters on xb-600? The CA has the ability to limit voltage and current of the bike. The Watts Up is just a meter for Voltage,Current,Watts, Whr. The Watts Up is about half as much money as the CA but you can't really control anything with it. I think I will add one of these meters soon and wanted some user input.
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Support V is for Voltage
im a big fan of the CA for EV applications.
having an external shunt means you dont have to route the traction cables up to the handle bars.
Also, the speedo function of the CA is handy if the original speedo every breaks.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
I've got the DrainBrain, the ancestor to the Cycle Analyst, and the feature I am most fond of is the odometer. (It also tracks regen energy, whhich the XB600 DOES generate when speeding over 20 MPH) I used to have a WattsUp, but I killed it. I'm glad I bought the BrainDrain instead of another WattsUp, though the accuracy of the WattsUp was wonderful.
mf70, Did your drainbrain allow for current and voltage limiting? Also at what voltage did you use your watts up? I ask because I guess it is only good to 60v but I am now at 72v. If I wire the new cycle analyst (aka DrainBrain) into my new controller it would allow me to limit the volts and current.
I just don't know if I really want to pull the new controller out to do all that work.
No, that was implemented in the later model. I'm running "48" volts (up to 54V). If you don't want to use the power limiting features, I don't believe you need to wire them up. You can look at the manual on-line to be sure.
If you do buy a Cycle Analyst, make sure you know how long you want the lead from the shunt to the instrument head to be. They will produce custom lengths and calibrate them at the factory. The stock length I got was too short, and I spliced another piece of stranded telco wire into the lead. This required home recalibrating, which I'm not fully confident in. (I also added a telephone modular plug to simplify maintenance.)
For my 2001 Currie Mtn eBike (400W finned motor), I was using WattsUp and a separate cyclometer. I am now mounting a Colorado Advanced Battery Nilar pack replacing the SLA pack and more interested in performance details than before. The integrated CA display is a big step up from WattsUp meter for eBike applications. However, I really like having the WattsUP meter available when charging a battery off the bike to measure actual power input to the battery.
So I guess for me, having both is VERY useful!
Best, Mark
PS - annoying on the WattsUP unless you wire in an external 3V battery pack: WattsUP loses all retained information on any power recycle or interruption.
Mark Smith, LEVA Tech Instructor
2001 Currie eFolder, 2005 Giant LaFree, 2007 Currie eZip,
2007 Optibike 600,
2013 OT ELF, 2014 OT Naked ELF2, 2014 Optibike Helia, 2019 Segway Mecha, 2019 Trikke Pon-e 2WD, 2020 Lectric XP
If you don't need all the features of the CA and jsut want to monitor things then a meter similar to the WattsUp is the Turnigy It's rated at 65A continuous and can take peaks of 130A. About $24 USD from hobbyking.com
E-BIKES: [1]Ezee Sprint [2]Aprilia Enjoy Racing [3]eLation V2 e-bike kit on Trek 4100 [4]Bafang BBS01 kit on Fluid Momentum [5] FreeGo Hawk
E-SCOOTER: 2012 ZEV 7100 LR, 84V 60Ah nominal battery with 28 series GBS LFP cells
E-MOTORCYCLE: 2011 Zero S,
Seems there are several labels being applied to what look like WattsUp clones. I ordered two of this WattsUp clone at $32 apiece + $6 s/h. These are to mount on eBikes: the GT High Precision Wattmeter and Power Analyzer,
http://www.hobbyhot.com/gt-power-high-precision-watt-meter-and-power-analyzer-pr-1847.html
It would be interesting to post our experiences with what look to be physically identical meters!
Best, Mark
Mark Smith, LEVA Tech Instructor
2001 Currie eFolder, 2005 Giant LaFree, 2007 Currie eZip,
2007 Optibike 600,
2013 OT ELF, 2014 OT Naked ELF2, 2014 Optibike Helia, 2019 Segway Mecha, 2019 Trikke Pon-e 2WD, 2020 Lectric XP
That GT looks like a re-badged Turnigy http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10080
E-BIKES: [1]Ezee Sprint [2]Aprilia Enjoy Racing [3]eLation V2 e-bike kit on Trek 4100 [4]Bafang BBS01 kit on Fluid Momentum [5] FreeGo Hawk
E-SCOOTER: 2012 ZEV 7100 LR, 84V 60Ah nominal battery with 28 series GBS LFP cells
E-MOTORCYCLE: 2011 Zero S,
A R/C hobbyist compared the Turnigy/GT to WattsUp in this YouTube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RkldBzc-Vs
and HobbyKing.com showed a more detailed evaluation of this Turnigy Wattmeter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfs4Bs3H7gw&feature=related
The WattsUp is smaller and lighter, we'll see about durability of the Turnigy/GT clones.
The post is certainly correct, the CA is designed to control and integrate other information from a bike as well as measure. It is useful to have the less expensive meter only options where that is all one needs!
Mark Smith, LEVA Tech Instructor
2001 Currie eFolder, 2005 Giant LaFree, 2007 Currie eZip,
2007 Optibike 600,
2013 OT ELF, 2014 OT Naked ELF2, 2014 Optibike Helia, 2019 Segway Mecha, 2019 Trikke Pon-e 2WD, 2020 Lectric XP
I bought a wattsup first (because it was much cheaper). It's a great meter for what it does. BUt now I've bought a CA too, even though in the UK it's 3 times the price. For EV monitoring it's a much better piece of kit - you can do part-journeys (and switch off/take keys out) and get a total at the end (watts up will just reset). It does regen, it does speedo, it can do control and limiting. It counts total use (if you reset it between cycles). The most significant thing is that it comes with a separate shunt so it's easy to mount it on the dash rather than under the seat, so you can watch it whilst you travel. You can do this with a watts-up but you need to break the box open and hack it about. All in all the CA is a lot more versatile, but costs a lot more too. Depends if you just want to measure volts, amp, watts (and read the numbers at the end of the trip), or monitor as you travel in all sorts of ways.
Wookey
Sakura s50 (Efun A)