Wilderness Energy Bike Electrified kit stopped working

[Eagle]

Hi,
After recently buying a used Wilderness Energy Bike Electrified kit, I set it up and got it working briefly, but now it's not working. I'm using new batteries (36V, 9AH, SLA). I've tested them with a multimeter and they are fine. (I've tested the wiring up to the controller, and it all checks out at around 38V. From the controller to the hub motor I don't see how exactly to check the voltage.) I've charged them up and tried running the motor off AC, still not working. The LEDs on the throttle light up, showing power and full battery. Yet when I push down on the throttle it doesn't rotate the motor.

For a little while I had the motor running, but when I adjusted the batteries to strap them together and onto the rack, after reconnecting I've had trouble getting the motor to run. I've tried substituting practically all the parts with the same parts from another kit of the same model, with similar results. I've tried disconnecting and reconnecting all the wires, and it's still not running.

Can you suggest what I should do next, or what could be the problem?

Would any additional info help?

Thank you!

 

[indianajo]

You can sharpen the points on the probes to your meter. Then you can pierce the wires carrying 38 VDC from battery to controller, after all the connectors to make sure the voltage is actually getting to the controller. After proved good, reinsulate the wires with duco cement or weatherstrip adhesive.
From controller to motor, you need an oscilloscope to prove AC is flowing properly. I suppose an analog voltmeter can be used on AC scale, but you need a working system to prove what voltage it should read when working. Fluke RMS digital meter should work at this low frequency, but they top out at 7000 hz and are useless for eliminating RF oscillations in amplifiers, so I own a Simpson 260-8SLPM analog meter. The 270 is still for sale I believe.

 

[Eagle]

Thank you. I'd already confirmed that the 38V are getting from battery to controller. I don't have an oscilloscope or working bike system, so I'm not sure if I can test that way. Maybe an electric bicycle shop could help, although they generally don't seem to deal in kits...

 

[harryS]

Could be a balky throttle. They are usually set up with a magenetic sensor that will have three wires, power (5v), signal (1-4v) and ground. Your system likely includes battery power (36V), a start wire, and possibly a sixth wire.

First see if you can find the 5V and 36V lines and ground with your meter. When the bike is turned on, your start wire is connected to 36V, so that won't be the signal. So it shouldn't be too hard to guess the rest. Then vary the throttle and look for for the signal changing voltage. Often, 5volts is red, ground is black, and signal is white or green.

What parts did you swap? Only the controller, motor, and throttle/start control are the major players.

The other thing to check is wheher the wheel rotates in either diirection freely with power on (be careful). If it is stiff and hard to turn, but will turn with power off, bad controller.

 

[Eagle]

Hi,

Thank you for the thoughts. I'll try testing more points. I've switched out the controller (tried THREE of these), the motor/hub, the throttle, and the batteries. By the way, one of my throttles has four wires, and one has three (with accompanying three or four on the different controllers).

I wouldn't be too surprised if you're right about it being the throttle, since one of them doesn't have working LEDs (even though it briefly ran the motor), and the other one has finnicky LEDs.

The wheel seems to rotate with power on. I've been riding the bike as a (heavy!) non-electric bike, and have tested the power while riding.

By the way, I noticed the last time I tried testing and charging that the controller was warm. Maybe that's normal, especially on a very hot day, but I wonder if that could signal an issue?

 

[Eagle]

I got this running, at least minimally, by mixing and matching parts from the different kits.