Magic Pie 5 very slow

[Amitrini25]

Hello,
My name is Irene and I recently bought the Magic Pie 5. I'm facing some problems that I don't understand how to fix.
     First problem I have is that I'm supplying the motor with 50 V and 35 amp-hours. Despite this, the motor is not working properly with the previously mention power. The motor is only spinning at 3 kilometers/hour (1.86 miles/hour) and the motor is supposed to spin at above 15 kilometers/hour.
     The second problem that I'm facing is that there is one cable (picture below) that is coming out of the motor and has 4 wires inside of it (blue, black, yellow, and red) and there is another cable similar to the previous mentioned cable but it is coming out of a different area, (orange, black, yellow, and red). I looked over other post that had diagrams of the wiring and I still don't understand how they are supposed to be connected or to see if they had similar problems. And I couldn't find a solution on how to connect them. Are these wires necessary in order for the motor to function properly or are they negligible?
I'm very grateful to receive any help I can get on this subject!

[Bikemad]

Hi Irene andto the forum.

You seem to have a very unusual problem which I cannot understand as my Magic Pie 5 will not run at such a low speed. It begins to pulse at very slow speed and then cuts out below ~3mph when the wheel is not under load.

We are going to require some more information to diagnose the cause of this specific problem so I am going to ask you some questions:

• Is the wheel free to rotate by hand or is it very stiff to move?
• Are you using the standard throttle supplied with the kit?
• Have you tried reprogramming the controller, or is it still set to the default factory settings?
• If you have tried reprogramming the controller using a computer instead of Bluetooth, which version of the software did you use?
• Is the wheel rotating smoothly at a uniform slow speed, or does it pulse regularly?
• Does it still run slowly if you unplug both of the brake switch connectors?
• If you have the Bluetooth dongle and Android App, what current (Amps) is shown while the motor is running?
• How much throttle movement is required to make the motor spin? (e.g ~25%,50%, 75% or 100%)
• Does the throttle affect the motor speed, or is it behaving more like an ON/OFF switch at one position only?

Posting a short video on Youtube would enable us to see exactly what is happening.

If you could also post details of all of the controller settings (or attach screenshots) it could also be very useful.

Regarding your second problem, the following diagram clearly shows the two sets of four wires you are asking about which should be the same as the ones on your Magic Pie 5 harness:



But your MP5 harness will have slightly different connectors:



And here are the details of the MP5 connectors:



The four core cable on the motor harness is for pedelec (PAS) and reverse functions (if used), whereas the four core cable on the control harness supplies battery voltage to a suitable LED headlamp and horn via the light switch on the throttle unit and the horn button on the cruise/horn switch unit respectively.

If you are not using the pedelec, reverse, lights or horn function, you should safely insulate the unused wires to ensure they cannot touch against each other as this can cause problems.

Alan
 

[Amitrini25]

Hello Alan!

Thank you very much for your response! I understand that you would need more information to be able to solve my problem so I will get straight to answering your questions.

1. The wheel is free to move, but only when the motor is turned off.  When resistance (holding back the motor by hand) is applied to the wheel then does it becomes stiff to move. Once we let go of the wheel, then it will rotate really quickly (for about three seconds ) or reach the speed its intended to. Our max speed was 44Km/H (27.3 mph) at one point but that was after we had let go of the wheel and this only lasted for about five second. Is resistance required for the motor to operate properly? Or should the wheel be able to spin by itself with no resistance at all?
2. Yes, I am using the standard (twist) throttle that came with the kit.
3. I have not tried reprogramming the controller. I don’t have the software and is still set on its factory settings. 
4. I have not tried to program the motor with a computer because I don’t have the programming cable nor the software. I do have the bluetooth dongle and I downloaded the app, but the dongle was defective. When I used the cable it would work for a few seconds and then shut down afterwards. I notified the company and instead of getting a new Bluetooth connection I received an LCD screen.
5. The wheel rotates at a uniform slow speed (3 Km/H) when powered and the twist throttle is not being touched. When the hand throttle is twisted to a certain point then does the wheel pulse regularly (about 75% of full twist) otherwise is does not.
6. Yes, the motor still runs slowly when I unplug both of the brake switch connectors.
7. The Bluetooth does not work so I don’t know what the Amps are for when the motor is running.
8. The hand throttle does not make the motor spin instead it makes the motor slow down (at 75% twist), pulse (at ~75% twist), or stop completely (at 100% twist). Our hand throttle is doing the opposite of what I want it to do. When I twist the throttle and is causing the motor to slow down or stop.
9. The hand throttle does affect the motor speed, but not in the way I expected it to. When I’m not touching the hand throttle, the motor is spinning at 3 kph. When I twist the hand throttle, the motor begins to slow down. When I completely twist the hand throttle, the motor will completely stop.

Side Note: There was a point when I was testing the motor that the LCD screen displayed “Error 7”, meaning that there was too much current supplied to the motor. Although, I've been told that motors only pull the necessary amps for it to work. While testing the motor this was the only error code that occurred and didn’t have any more after that one.

This is also the link to the youtube video demonstrating what happened. https://youtu.be/cDhIYpRwY2g

[Bikemad]

Irene,  have just been watching your excellent video which clearly demonstrates the very unusual problem with your motor, but I have never seen another Magic Pie behave in quite the same way that your does.

I don't think that the throttle is responsible for your motor's problem, but it would be interesting to find out if the wheel still tries to spin on its own with the throttle unit unplugged completely.

I think it is most likely to be a faulty controller that will need to be replaced, but I suggest that you contact your supplier and ask them to watch the video before removing the controller.

Check out Gary's Magic Pie III Controller Swap and Installing a Magic Pie Vector Controller videos to see how to remove the controller.
And here is a diagram showing how to remove the cable retaining clip from the axle:





With your supplier's permission, I would suggest that you first remove the controller to check that all of the wires are connected properly and that none of them have been left loose during assembly at the factory.

If you can't see anything obviously wrong with either the three spade connectors on the three thick phase wires or the connections on the five thin Hall sensor wires, then I think a replacement controller will be required.

I am also wondering whether the suspect controller may have been responsible for the problem you had with the original Bluetooth dongle. 

Unfortunately, without the USB programming cable you are unable to try re-flashing the controller to see if it makes any difference. 

Without Bluetooth or USB access to the controller settings, you will be unable to adjust the motor settings to fine tune the acceleration, power, regen and maximum speed etc. to suit your particular application, so it might be advisable to ask for a usb cable to be sent at the same time as the replacement controller if the controller does need to be replaced.

Please keep us informed of your progress with this problem.

Alan