Problem with Magic Pie 5

[Tgice]

Hi, I'm a new user, so am posting here since I'm not yet confirmed.

I bought a new Magic Pie 5 rear wheel kit in October 2015, and have only put about 100 miles on it so far, adding it to an old MTB I had from the 90s.

I've had a few problems here and there, but mostly minor issue, until I was riding back from work a couple of weeks ago and noticed kind of a pulsing in power (kind of as if I was jerking the throttle around, but I wasn't).

After it finally completely quit (with a good 3-4 miles left on the return trip!), I got it home and experimented some more.  My battery was fine, as best I can tell, still putting off around 52v (it's a nominal 52V pack of 18650s), so I tried a few more troubleshooting steps to no avail.  I get all three LEDs on the throttle lit up, but the controller no longer makes that quiet 'click' that it used to every time I'd turned on the battery before.

I assume my controller is shot, and will be working with my vendor to see if I can get it corrected, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for further diagnostics I could perform before I go through all of that pain.

I've already got the wheel off and went about removing the controller cover and the controller itself.  As I was painstakingly wiggling the controller off of the shaft, it appeared to me when the spade connectors (ones looking something like those on the bottom of this picture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_connector#/media/File:Kabelschuh_verschiedene_commons.jpg

) first came into view that one of them may have been disconnected within the installation, which of course would explain a lot.  However, once I re-connected it and reattached the battery, still no click on the controller and while the throttle LEDs came up, still no apparent power to the controller & motor (when the throttle was tried).  So I suspect maybe that connector just came undone as I was wiggling the controller up the shaft.  Thought I'd mention it anyway.

Upon visual inspection, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong w/ what's visible on the inside of the controller, so I'm wondering how likely it is that some component just totally blew up on me (maybe the front end of the Bathtub Curve? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve).

Anyway, I'd appreciate any suggestions or help as I try to get my bike back on the road.

Thanks.

[Bikemad]

Hi andto the forum.

Are you still able to access the controller via Bluetooth?

Did you notice whether the regenerative braking was still working during the last 3-4 miles of your return trip?

Try unplugging both brake switch connectors to see if it makes a difference.

If your motor doesn't have a factory fitted pedelec connector on the motor harness, make sure the ends of the red and black wires are not exposed and touching against each other.
If it does have the factory fitted pedelec connector, check the voltage between the pins connected to the Red and Black wires (It should read just under 5V with the battery connected and switched on).

Alan
 

[Tgice]

Thanks for the reply Alan.  I didn't notice this until just today and I've already packaged up the controller for return, so we'll see how things go.  I do think that regen braking was working normally right up to the point where it completely failed (though I'm not positive).  I doubt it's related to the brake handles ... the main thing I'm going on is that there's no light click anymore on power up (which I assume is normal).

Also, the bluetooth has been out ever since the major failure on the ride back ... no blue light on it and no access in the app on my phone.

[Sam.Vanratt]

Hi Tgice
same happened with a replacement MP3 Controller: first Regen Braking was very weak (compared to before), after two weeks Regen did barely work (at 116% setting) + PAS failed completely and again a week later Regen stopped working completely.
Cheers
Sam