Author Topic: Mp5 cables  (Read 7573 times)

Offline Chavivaus

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Mp5 cables
« on: August 19, 2017, 05:56:26 PM »
I destroyed the cable connector between harness and the cable that comes from the controller, is it safe to bypass the connector and just soldering the cables ? ( harness is cheap, but seems that the other part needs to be bought with the controller)

Offline Bikemad

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Re: MP5 cables
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2017, 11:31:30 PM »
It might be worth contacting your local GM dealer and asking if they have a faulty Smart Pie or MP4/5 controller with a good 10 pin connector, as it would be much better to just replace the damaged connector on the motor harness.

The biggest problem with cutting both connectors off is that the colours of the wires in the motor harness and the main harness are not always the same, so it might not be a simple case of joining all the same coloured wires together.

You would need to make sure that the colours and pin locations of both connectors are the same.
Check out this thread for further information.

If you make a mistake, you could end up having to replace the main harness, the throttle unit and the controller.  :-[

Alan
 

Offline Chavivaus

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Re: Mp5 cables
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2017, 10:04:46 PM »
Alan, I'm sorry I didn't answer before, but I was licking my wounds lol. To make it short , I did check the continuity and the colors matched whit the exception of the orange in the main harness is a light brown on the other side. Anyway I didn't know better and I didn't stager my soldering as mentioned in one of your post and did a poorly job insulating the cables ( I was going for a quick test ride around the block) when I did a sharp turn the cables stretch out and I believe it engaged reverse. Last thing I remember is the black top almost on my face. Last week finally I did fix it with the staggering method using shrink tubing on each individual cable, liquid tape and more shrink tubing . I wanted to tell my experience to everyone, so to be super careful if the control cables are compromised ( so far the bike is back to normal).

Offline Bikemad

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Re: Mp5 cables
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2017, 11:59:05 AM »
It's good to hear you are still in one piece after your incident,

It's a shame the newer vector controllers don't have the same options for reverse that the earlier (non-vector) controllers had, where you were able to select either "Immed" or "Unimm" mode.
I always had mine set to "Unimm" for safety reasons, as this meant that the wheel had to stop rotating in the forward direction before it could engage reverse, whereas "Immed" allowed reverse to engage immediately without waiting for the wheel to stop first, which could be extremely dangerous with a front mounted hubmotor.  :o

When it comes to splicing two cables together, unfortunately, not all of the soldered joints end up nice and smooth on the outside, and a little spike of solder can easily poke through a couple of layers of insulation tape when subjected to a bit of movement.  ;)
Staggering the soldered joints in the wires (as shown below) greatly reduces the chance of poorly soldered/insulated wires from touching each other, and it also produces a much stronger and neater join in the cables.



Unfortunately, you appear to have found this out the hard way how easily a short circuit between two soldered joints can occur.  :(

Having discovered the undesirable consequences of two tiny wires touching against each other at the wrong time, I don't think you will want to experience the same outcome again.  ;)

Alan
 

Offline Chavivaus

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Re: Mp5 cables
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2017, 01:34:21 AM »
Yes, I found it the hard way and this is the reason I wanted to share with the community, so everyone is aware of this possible scenario. Thank you Alan !!!!!!

Offline Hastings

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Re: Mp5 cables
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2017, 06:08:55 PM »

Offline Chavivaus

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Re: Mp5 cables
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2017, 04:04:51 PM »
Thanks for the suggestion but I have decided to get controller and keep the old one for spear, thanks anyway