I have done a little playing around with the settings in my MP3. I see many people have asked what the setting should be for getting it within street legal limits. Funny thing is many ask but no one seems to share the settings. I can only attribute this to how easy it was to get things set correctly for my bike. Maybe its so simple people don't bother to come back to post there results.
So armed with my laptop, an MP III USB Cable I set up to see what I could figure out. I did real world street tests on my way home from work and used my Cycle Analyst to read the results of each setting.
The first thing I noticed is the default settings when the screen comes up.
The program opens displaying an error MSG. Is seems the default setting on a controller is 70 amps peak. When you try to save it the highest setting is 50 peak. Could this be why in the past some have felt a loss of power when altering the settings?
The first thing I set was the speed scale. After about 5 start/stops and cruising around it seems in my situation 72 percent is the magic number. I roll along at 32 kph. Most times a little slower going up a slight grade and a little faster going down a grade.
Next is the watts. Now I believe the law is 500w output and the Cycle Analyst measures input. With say a 80 percent efficiency that would mean 600 watts input continuous. Am I thinking correctly? After playing with the numbers it seems 17 continuous and 45 peak gives it 800watts peak and 400 to 600 watts continuous.
The last setting I did was the RPM. I believe it is how fast the bike will accelerate to peak watts. at 100 percent you take off full power at lower setting you can make it take up to 2 seconds to reach full peak power. I cut mine to 90 percent and it eliminated a vibration I get when taking off. Here are my final settings.
I hope this becomes useful to others. Please note this is a rear 26 inch MP III with a 26 x 2.35 tire. The bike is loaded down with a heavy rider, 3 48v10ah batteries a rear MP III (removed the front MP III for these tests) a trailer and a lot of goodies for work in it. Total rolling weight is 450 to 500 lbs.
Anyone else performing the same tests please include your settings and results here as well.
Gary