Ecotric

[The Bike Doc]

No throttle or pedal assist. Power is OK to the controller; however I dont measure 5V for the throttle input, cadence sensor, or LCD. I'm wondering does the LCD( Ecotric s900) display "M" button turn on the 5V? If not I guess the problem is the controller. Comments??

 

[harryS]

The dIsplays on my chinese ebike controllers follow the same design, I've seen about three or four. Ecotric S900 should be the same. They get battery power and have onboard converters to power the LCD and other circuits. There is no 5 volts from controller, There are 5 wires.
-48V or 36V battery power
-ground
-controller start
-transmit data Txd
-serial data Rxd.
.
Does your S900 light up? Normally, when you power it up, the LCD comes on, and the display sends back battery power to the controller on the start lead. Then it communicates with the controller via the two serial data leads. Some displays will have a 6th lead for lights,
.
You might probe the connector and see if the start lead goes from 0V to battery voltage when the display turns on. Will tell you if the display is working, Attached is a generic Ecotric manual (I used to have the 20" fat tire folder). They show a schematic for the electrics near the end. Too bad there are no colors on the LCD wires, but the latter is common. Red and Black are power, Blue is the start lead. Yellow/Green are data.. See if any wires goes to battery power when the display turns on.
.
Another test is to invoke Walk Mode. If there is no 5 vol power, this won't work either.






.

 

[The Bike Doc]

The dIsplays on my chinese ebike controllers follow the same design, I've seen about three or four. Ecotric S900 should be the same. They get battery power and have onboard converters to power the LCD and other circuits. There is no 5 volts from controller, There are 5 wires.
-48V or 36V battery power
-ground
-controller start
-transmit data Txd
-serial data Rxd.
.
Does your S900 light up? Normally, when you power it up, the LCD comes on, and the display sends back battery power to the controller on the start lead. Then it communicates with the controller via the two serial data leads. Some displays will have a 6th lead for lights,
.
You might probe the connector and see if the start lead goes from 0V to battery voltage when the display turns on. Will tell you if the display is working, Attached is a generic Ecotric manual (I used to have the 20" fat tire folder). They show a schematic for the electrics near the end. Too bad there are no colors on the LCD wires, but the latter is common. Red and Black are power, Blue is the start lead. Yellow/Green are data.. See if any wires goes to battery power when the display turns on.
.
Another test is to invoke Walk Mode. If there is no 5 vol power, this won't work either.






.

Thanks very much for the info, especially the wire meanings and operation.

 

[The Bike Doc]

Back with the same Ecotric. A new controller and display enabled the bike to move, but not as fast as before. Also we are seeing Error 10( hall sensor ) and the display does not show speed. I have carefully reseated the 3-phase and hall connector to the motor, but nothing has changed. Suggestions how to proceed are appreciated. Thx

 

[harryS]

These are Ecotric parts?

 

[The Bike Doc]

Yes via Amazon. Weird, it runs(poorly) with a bad Hall sensor, which I assure is how the controller knows the speed??

 

[harryS]

I see. Those parts are ridiculously high, $80 for a S900 and the same for a controller?
.
Sure you got an Ecotric s900? I have never used one, but believe there are several versions come with different firmware for certain makes. Ecotric's version doesn''t have the P-settings that other models use, such as magnet count in the motor, etc.
.
Hall sensor test. Power up the bike. Put a LED or a multimeter lead on a Hall lead. ROtate the wheel backwards so the gears engage and turn the motor. COunt the flashes on the LED or pulses on the meter. DO all three Hall leads to see if they are equal,.
.
This bike originally yours or did you pick it up to fix?

 

[Mike_V]

No throttle or pedal assist. Power is OK to the controller; however I dont measure 5V for the throttle input, cadence sensor, or LCD. I'm wondering does the LCD( Ecotric s900) display "M" button turn on the 5V? If not I guess the problem is the controller. Comments??

Perhaps you did not troubleshoot and fix this reported ( NO Volts ) problem
Consider , as I read it could mean someplace or two you could have a damaged wire with tiny copper strands broken, perhaps by unknown stretching.
Testing along all the individual delicate wires may yield some measured result.

 

[The Bike Doc]

I see. Those parts are ridiculously high, $80 for a S900 and the same for a controller?
.
Sure you got an Ecotric s900? I have never used one, but believe there are several versions come with different firmware for certain makes. Ecotric's version doesn''t have the P-settings that other models use, such as magnet count in the motor, etc.
.
Hall sensor test. Power up the bike. Put a LED or a multimeter lead on a Hall lead. ROtate the wheel backwards so the gears engage and turn the motor. COunt the flashes on the LED or pulses on the meter. DO all three Hall leads to see if they are equal,.
.
This bike originally yours or did you pick it up to fix?

Well, I got the controller from Ecotric, but the S900 was Amazon - I suppose the wrong 'P-settings' could be the MPH problem. The power loss is reported by the owner. I'll test the hall probes if I can find a place to stick a probe. thx

 

[harryS]

A Bike Doc should have one of these testers. They're set up for the older motor connectors, but you can make a 9 pin adapter. Like 12 bucks on ebay, More on amazon,
.
You can verify if Hall sensors are good in less than a minute, You can also use it to figure out the pinout on a PAS or speed sensor and see if they work.
.
Seems to check continuity on motor phases, but I've never had a bad motor.
,
Finally, if you set it up correctly on a controller output, there is a unique LED pattern display in the circular LED's. If you change the phases, the pattern changes. Could help recognize the right color scheme for the wires if you know the first pattern. In any case, tells you if the controller phases are cycling,

 

[The Bike Doc]

Thanks HarryS, I have one, and am collecting/making connectors. Currently I use a trusty volt meter, and even sprung for a PC based oscilloscope. I need to practice with the gismo on a working bike ;-)