mountain climber

[Supchrgamx]

finally a couple weeks ago I took the two bikes to the Canadian rockies
one bike had the first generation mpIII and I assume the second bike had updated electronics in a mpIII
both bikes went up there strapped to the back of a Tahoe
on the way up they both went through a fair amount of rain and when we reached our destination the older mpIII tried to kill me when I connected the battery, instantly full power to the back wheel. must be the water issue that every one talks about with the earlier motors
I see that they offer a controller for replacement and I assume that it address though issues
but why stay with that technology when they offer the vector. had it in my hands 3 weeks before leaving ,but did not get it fitted in time
so I could only see what the mpIII would do. the newer mpIII worked quite well , it had more mid range torque then the older one and the controller never kicked out on overload like the old one did. good thing the wife had the better motor, thats all im going to say.
anyways back to my story, bike trys to kill me, drag both bicycle into the the hotel room we have rented and fire up the fire place to dry us and the bikes out. I felt like a 50s movie with some Harley parked in a hotel room. next day sun was shining and both bikes worked. first test Sunwapta falls, down to the lower falls , about 1/2 km long and a drop of 200m on a all I can say is a goat trail. both bikes handled that quite well so lets try something harder , next stop edith cavell  10km long elevation rise of 600m on pavement . when we ride we pedal for the exercise, so we cruised up at 11 km /hr but im sure we could have gone up on the battery alone at 40km/hr. this is really starting to impress me. the final test was up a fire break to the top of the mountain. not so good. the hills were to long and steep that  the older motor kept kicking out on overload and we had to stop about a third of the way up , wish I had the vector then . we will be going back to try this again with the vector, just hope the newer mpIII  can keep up

[Bikemad]

When I connected the battery, instantly full power to the back wheel. must be the water issue that everyone talks about with the earlier motors

It might be worth strapping a couple polythene bags over the ends of the handlebars to keep the controls dry during transit, as I suspect it could be rainwater inside the throttle unit itself causing the problem.

It is also worth checking the plug in connectors to make sure they are nice and dry inside and then apply some petroleum jelly around the plug before pushing the connectors back together again to try and stop the water from getting in.

Alan
 

[Supchrgamx]

did one better, upgraded to a vector
but if you say its in the controls that wont help
the newer mpIII that went through the rain had no issues twice
does the water screw up the magnetic field to the hall
or is something simple like shorting the pins out on the hall eff trans
 Canadian tires would have that covered with liquid insulation

[Bikemad]

The water could allow electricity to be conducted between the battery supply to the LED gauge and the throttle signal wires or the connector pins on the harness connectors.
If you read my Water activated throttle post you will see that the water did not conduct enough electricity between the +5V and the throttle signal to make the motor run.

On the main harness connector, the throttle signal pin is located next to the Battery + pin , so a tiny drop of water could easily conduct electricity between the pins and cause the motor to run.

The other possibility is water getting into the rubber junction unit on the motor harness. Although they appear to be nicely sealed, I did find that the wires are not actually bonded to the rubber housing and it could be possible for water to be drawn into the junction unit by capillary reaction (also described as wicking) combined with pressure variation.
If you make sure that the junction unit is completely dry you can run some very thin cyanoacrylate glue around each of the cables entering the block and this should seal it up completely.
I use ZAP CA Thin, but you need to be very careful as it wicks really well and will go everywhere if you apply too much:



I know from past experience that rainwater can penetrate easier than tap water can. I once spent a lot of time with a hosepipe trying to recreate a water leak in a sunroof on one of my cars, but I could not get any water to leak inside the car.
Two days later it rained and the water soon found its way into the car and started dripping off the sunroof while the car was still parked in the same position that it was in when I ran the hosepipe all over it. I think the rainwater must have less surface tension than tap water does.

Alan
 

 

[Gregor]

Try self amalgamating tape on any plugs that you are not going to unplug for a while. Super sticky and waterproof.
I have built to ride to work. No tampering, no need to change anything. Seal the F out of it.

[MP3test]

While I am working on my MP3, I did the same by accidentally shortening the two wires for the lights connector. I was trying to measure the voltage but it was connected to the plug for amper metering and I am happy the multimeter and MP3 didn't blew.

The wheel started to rotate and the wires became too hot in just parts of a second.