5V USB port on handlebars

[Dorkyman]

So the BAQI USB Handlebar port arrived the other day.

--I was concerned that I would snap off the handlebar mount so I heated up the plastic with a hair dryer and it slipped on with no issues. No need for spacers, it fit the handlebar diameter perfectly.

--The power cable is just long enough to attach to the existing wire bundle and run it down under the battery box and up into the controller cavity.

--Simple matter to carefully cut away some of the 48v cable insulation on the black and red supply wires, wrap the tiny device black and read leads around the supply wires, and then seal the connections with electrical tape. Not the most elegant job but the USB outlet would draw so little power from the 48v source it would probably be good enough. Amazed at the very small wires carrying up to 19 amps at full throttle. I would have thought they would be several gauge sizes larger. So don't accidentally cut any of those strands while cutting away the insulation.

--It would be nice to find a switched 48v supply line in the bundle of wires coming from the controller rather than just having the USB charger powered up continuously (as long as the battery key was on, anyway). The person at Lectric advised against tapping into any 48v wiring and suggested a portable USB battery pack instead. No, I want to be able to charge my phone while riding. GPS consumes power, and the lack of a standard USB port (that many other ebikes have) is one of very few drawbacks to the stock Lectric product.

We will see how this thing holds up. So far (just one day of experience) it looks like it will be useful. The rubber plug seals the USB port tightly, so this should be waterproof.

https://www.amazon.com/BAQI-Handleb..._rd_i=B09JBY27RS&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_rp_1_sbo

 

[harryS]

I bought a couple of these bare USB supplies. They run off 12-60V. Not really thinking about it, I attached one to a 8.4V 5AH power bank, and it ran it down over night. I checked the current draw and it's 200 ma at 8.4V.

I don't see why your model would be any different, except that at 48V, it probably only needs 1/6 the power or 30 ma. Thus in 24 hours, it would drain .72 AH. If you store the bike for 2 weeks, you could drain the battery if you left the battery on.

 

[Dorkyman]

UPDATE: It's now been three days with the key on. Voltage of the battery remains at 46.6 volts. A drop to 46.5 would represent a loss of 1 Watt-Hour (out of about 500WH when fully charged) so it appears that the USB port is drawing very little current while idle.

It's about 25 degrees F outside so no bike riding for the near future. I will track this for a while.

By the way, it appears eBay also has these USB ports.

 

[Dorkyman]

UPDATE 2:
It's now been just over two weeks and the voltage on the 48 volt battery has barely dropped .2 volts or about .1 volt per week. Since the lithium cells self- discharge to a certain extent anyway, this represents a very low idle current draw for both the controller and the USB port. If you want, you can leave the key on and the battery won't care, and you can wire the USB adapter directly into the 48 volt line in the controller.

 

[tomjasz]

Micah Toll did an interesting video, ebikeschool on YouTube.
he suggests and I agree 12v would be far more useful. I will do that on my last and next build. A proper horn!

 

[BeenLectric]

Found inexpensive 12v 4.5Ah lithium ion rechargeable packs online that'd work well for what you're trying to do. Picked up 4 of them and have been using for a short time on various projects. Very easy to swap from 1 bike/vehicle/ice shack to another too. They're pack's are about 2"x3" and less than an inch thick. I've yet to use the charger they come with but have charged them using small waterproof solar controllers and small portable panels. They'd last quite awhile if you're just using them for a horn. I use mine for charging phones, radios, lights and other smaller things and maintain them with small portable panels. They use a standard 2.5 barrel plug so you can buy a small pack of mating connectors and wire them to your relay, sw, or however you want.

Anxiously awaiting an XP Lite and X Premium to deliver and planning to try charging both exclusively on a dedicated 3000w pure-sign inverter and 100Ah lithium battery connected to a single 180w rigid or 60w folding panel to see how that goes. The battery, inverter and panel are less than 50lbs combined so if I wanted to haul them as cargo I probably could. For as expensive as my energy bill is each month I'm hoping these bikes will cut that down a bit, especially for what I spend now in gas each month.