Dim Lights.

[kizzer]

Hi Guys

So I have had my ebike for a few months now. It is a Mate bike, I know, not the best bike in the world but fine for my short commute. It has a 250w hub motor and a 36v 17ah battery. It didn't come with lights, but did come with a spare julet socket to fit your own and power off the bikes internal battery.

I bought a cheap 36v front light and hooked it up and it worked great, so I bought a 36v rear light and soldered that in to the same connection and it worked great too.........until the other day. Upon leaving work the other night I noticed that both lights were quite dim. I thought this was because the battery was low on power, but I found it weird that the motor was still working fine. When I got home I gave the battery a full charge, but when I fired up the lights they were still dim.

Measuring voltages I am seeing 4v at the light connection with both lights connected or just one. With both lights disconnected I am seeing the full 36v of power.

Am I right in thinking this is a controller issue? And would there be a fix for this other than replacement of the controller?

I have attached a picture of the controller below, its an unbranded chinese controller hooked up to a KT-LCD1.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Kizzer

 

[indianajo]

Looks like a bad connection issue. The bad connection could be a bad solder joint inside the controller. It could also be a bad crimp or solder joint at some later point in the wire harness. If the wiring is inside the frame, good luck repairing it. My home conversion has all the wiring outside the frame. Yeah, it is not sleek. But it is repairable.
Meanwhile modernbike.com sent me an email, they are selling 500 lumen front lights this week at a discount. The rear is more important, though. Buy 2 products, maybe you won't have to pay $9 freight.
I'm using a brightz red, which you can screw on with 6-32 screws instead of a rubber band. But new brightz products flash all colors, not just red or pink.
I had a brightz light stolen from outside work by some street person who cut 2 tie-wraps with a knife.Thieves are too lazy to use a screwdriver & wrench.

 

[slayer1962]

I have lights that came on my e bike they work fine most of the time. For off road riding i bought a separate rechargeable handle bar light that helps a lot. I did not want to put too much strain on bike battery and since its a separate power source i should always have one light working good.

 

[harryS]

I've read a few tales of woe like yours. In my opinion, those KT controllers really are not designed to run high current lights. It probably cooked the circuit. Still probably good enough to run a relay.