Video!

[PaintingLoft.com]

here is my gm kit with a foxx power battery.  Anybody know what i'm doing wrong? .. and yes the battery is fully charged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC9E364OaS8

[PaintingLoft.com]

Power going to the wheel is 4.7 volts weather I have the throttle full or off.  There is also 4.7 going to the throttle

So does that mean my throttle is dead?

[rfjeldheim]

I had a similar problem. I cannot here your video as my audio is out. But I have a GM thumb throttlr and did not notice a small red button under it it was an on off switch for the throttle look for one I felt pretty dumb when I found mine two days after checking everything on the bike.

[shakkan]

look at the micro switchs in the brake levers as mine was stuck and stoped the motor from working.

[Lanchon]

> Power going to the wheel is 4.7 volts weather I have the throttle full or off.

I can't understand your writing. please be more precise and accurate about you problem or most people won't be able to help you. what do you mean by "power going to the wheel" and how and where do you measure it? (BTW I think you mean voltage, not power.)

for others: with my old 2006 controller setup, the break switch closes (makes contact) when you break. this means that if you unplug the break switch, the controller will run normally. (being a safety feature, this is dangerous and bad design: when breaking, the switch should open; this way, if the cable is damaged or the switch is disconnected, the motor would stop working instead of quietly loosing it's safety feature.)

anyway, are the current controllers still like mine? in that case, the OP should disconnect the break switches for now to remove one possible source of problems.

[PaintingLoft.com]

i checked the volts going to the motor by using a voltmeter.  I unplugged the motor, and checked it at the plug leaving the controller.   twisting the throttle didn't change the volts going to the motor.

I checked out the brakes and found no buttons to turn it on or off.  where is it?  pictures?

I did try it without having the brakes plugged in and had the same results.

[Lanchon]

> I checked the volts going to the motor by using a voltmeter.

ok, you didn't measure the "power" going to the motor, for that you'd need specialized testing equipment. the connector you measured doesn't feed the motor power at all, the 3-"thick"-wire one does. the 5 little wires on the secondary connector just sense the electric angular position (necessary for this type of motor: sensored brushless DC). the 4.7V you saw there is the power line feeding the hall sensors. the measured value is fine and shouldn't change with the throttle setting.

read a troubleshooting thread in this forum.

[JonMcClain]

I seem to be having a nearly identical problem with my new build of approximately 3 days.

The kit is a Rear 48v hub with 48v regenerative controller and pedelec (not installed).  After initial install of all components, the bike ran fine except for badly adjusted brake pad causing drag.  After less than half a mile around the neighborlhood at relatively low speed the unit cut out, then engaged for about 50 yards, then cut out again.  After another block or so it cut out again, and then nothing.  I returned quickly returned to the  garage.   
  1.  I checked all connections and found nothing.
  2.  Measured voltage from the battery pack (above 49v)
  3.  There was no measurable voltage going to the hubmotor with throttle ON or OFF.
  4.  Checked both brake switches (OK!).  Disconnected brake switches.  Tried again but reponse.

Based on my limited but not non-existent experience with this kind of stuff, I can only assume that somewhere along that first short trip the controller quit functioning.  Another helpful member of this forum suggested that the contoller would not go out this quickly, but in my humble experience, this is precisely the point at which you would experience a malfunction.  It is doubtful that any of these components where burned in.

I can only conclude that the controller is toast.   I have sent an email requesting another controller, but after 3 days, have heard nothing from GM.  Funny, that I received an answer to a pre-sale question in one day!

Jon McClain

 

[shakkan]

my first controller lasted about 10 seconds.an email to g/m got a replacement in a week. that one lasted about a week  as it allso blew the hall sensers.which I replaced.another email got another one in 10 days and that one is still working fine. I bought a new kawasaki 750 in the mid 1980's and left the shop and did 1 mile and the engine blew up(broken cam gear,dropped valves and smashed pistons).these thing do happen,although I do seem to get it more than most people on earth!!

[Nicobie]

Is there a trick to getting GM to respone to emails regarding part failures? I even tried email and phoning their distributor in Oakland but he is ignoring me too.

[shakkan]

knowing the chinese can be very formal and like respect, I was ultra nice and respectful in my emails to g/m, nearly to the point of saying sorry for there product failure.it worked

[PaintingLoft.com]

I was wondering if it could be the controller or the battery. 

the battery is from fox and is a 36v and my controller is a 48v.  do they work together or did I screw myself there?  I went back and tried to measure the volts from the three thicker wires going from the controller to the motor with the throttle pulled back and not pulled back.  There was no reading at all.  the controller is not giving the motor any juice at all. 

[Lanchon]

> the battery is from fox and is a 36v and my controller is a 48v.  do they work together or did I screw myself there?

they don't and you did, I'm sorry. the controller has a low-batt detection that will cut power to the motor when the batt voltage drops to spare the batt from deep discharge damage. so at 36V your controller should refuse to drive the motor.

in principle the controller could be physically modified to accept 36V. also I heard some controllers have an usb port and can be configured from a PC. look around in the forum.

[PaintingLoft.com]

Does everyone else agree with that?  I have the wrong battery?  I just want to get a second opinion before I decide to upgrade the battery or downgrade the controller.

48v controller does not work with a 36v battery?  true or false?


the battery is reading 40v fully charged.  I went back and looked up the prices:
FoxxPak 36v10
Example: 36v x 10a = 360 x .86 = $325
FoxxPak 48v20
Example: 48v x 20a = 960 x .86 = $825

so if I upgrade it will cost me $500more!  ouch!!!  how much more power will that get me?  I don't even know how fast I can expect to go if I downgrade the controller to a 36v.  I live in Worcester, MA. USA and it is a VERY hilly city.

thanks all
scott

[philf]

Oh dear...

That's absolutely the correct diagnosis.  Although the 48V controller is internally almost identical to the 36V one, the population of components is different in a couple of key places.  The one that is killing you definitely >IS< the low voltage cut-off.  There is a simple resistor-based voltage divider circuit that feeds in to one of the ADC channels on the microcontroller, and is used to shut things down when the voltage of the battery pack drops below expected levels.  Allowing the system to continue operating below this threshold protects both your batteries (from over-discharge) and your controller - if the thing becomes unstable at the wrong time, you can fry some of your FETs.