BBS01 programming - that doesn't fry the controller

[Nealh]

Phew! So all is in fact well after all. Good

Yep all good guys thanks for your help, really appreciated i'm happy again.
Just this minute reprogrammed it back to settings I wanted to try out.

 

[Fordulike]

Yay, it breathes fire again !!!. What a Knob (notice cap K).
Bloody brake magnet has dislodged, how often do we say to peeps about cut off brake or pas sensor being an issue yet when we have an issue we overlook our own advice.
Off out with cable again now to play with settings again.

That exact same thing happened to me about a year ago. Never crossed my mind to suggest it

 

[Nealh]

First ride out today (54 miles) on the BBS since reprogramming, the ride is much better with good power. With my gearing i'm spinning out at 22/23 mph on the road so quite happy with that, noticeaby the climbing ability was much improved. Fuel wise the battery consumption was negligible even with keep current and other changes.
From the stock factory settings I made a few changes and may make more adjstments in time.
In basic the settings were the same as em3ev suugests, I changed these to Keplers settings on ES with exception of limit spd%. I didn't go the full hog of 100% on every assist but ramped it up from 75% - 100% in stages.
In PAS start current was an aggressive 100% this I reset to 20% to ease the strain on the controller.
Start up degree ( sig no)was 20 reduced this to 8 so pas kicks in sooner may yet go a bit lower to 6.
Keep current was 20% no wonder I was knackered when I rode the bike after fiting the new controller, a pedal mtb woud have been easier. I have set this to 65%, other % levels will be tried out later.
I changed the throttle from speed mode to current mode and reduced the start current to 10 to achieve a smoother throttle. In the past I was using the throttle a lot during climbing today I use it twice to see how it felt and twice more as walk assist, I came acroos two climbs that I found almost impossible to walk up let a lone be classed as BW's to ride up.

 

[Dewey]

This thread has been very helpful as I haven't found BBS01 controller settings anywhere else, thank you to all who have contributed. I have converted a 1995 Dawes hybrid with a BBS01 250W 36V kit (C965 LCD with 5-level PAS) and found my 2013-made controller came with the same default settings as Nealh showed in post #35 on this thread, on the PAS page with Start Current 100% and Keep Current 20%. I changed four settings, on the basic page raised the Amps to 18, set the wheel size to 700C, and on the PAS page I lowered start current to 10% and raised the Keep Current setting to 65%, however on my first test ride climbing a hill I smelled hot oil and paint and felt the motor case was warm, when I got home I dialled back Amps to 15, raised Keep Current to 75%, and applied the EM3ev PAS settings.

I found the stock Bafang 46t chain ring and bike's 11-28t 7-speed cassette was a poor combination for hill climbing so I put on a 42t lekkie chain ring and 12-32t 7-speed cassette and can now maintain a comfortable 70rpm pedal cadence in bottom gear going up hill.

With this gearing and on the revised controller settings on my 2nd test ride there was no burning smell, the motor case stayed cool, and it pulled 285lb weight of me, bike, motor, battery, and commuting gear, up a hill climb of 160ft in half a mile (6% grade) at speeds of 9mph in bottom gear (42t front, 32t rear) on PAS 5, and 14mph in gear 4 (42t front, 18t rear) on PAS 5.

 

[malkie0831]

I have recently installed a BBS01B on my Hybrid Bike:
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/hello.25606/

The Settings as it arrived from e-bike sales are:







I changed the Throttle mode to 'Current' as shown on the throttle page above, that is the only change I have made so far.

The Max Current available is stated as 20A and the Current Limit is set to 18A as this is a 350W kit.

The Display is a C965 but does not have the power readout feature and I can't see any way to enable it in the settings. On the back it says "V5" so I guess there are lots of versions of these LCD's.

So far I have only done a few miles on it but it certainly makes the hills a lot easier.

 

[Nealh]

They look quite reasonable, some of the settings are similar I adjusted my bbs to. Of note keep current in 'Pedal assist' tab is one you can play with try it by adjusting gradually up to 75% to see what you think. In ' Basic ' tab the speed limit % can also be played with, from 1 -9 I have change the % levels to 70 -100. If any changes you make aren't to your liking then it's easy to change back.

 

[malkie0831]

I have found the program easy to use and I'm getting the hang of what the various parameters do. Having read the enormous thread on endless sphere, it seemed to me that my kit was programmed pretty sensibly. 'Keep Current' is the next parameter I want to play with, I'm trying to get the feel for what it is doing vs what I expected at the moment.

I think the speed limit % values will have to go up a bit as I find it backs off when I least expect it to unless I'm in the assist levels above 6, and I don't always want to pedal that fast at the moment.

 

[Nealh]

The programming can vary a bit but expect yours may have been adjusted before it was sent out by your vendor. My original settings supplied from BMSB were very frugal for battery use and also set for high stress on the controller.

 

[Buderim]

Hi , I have a BBS01 250w with a 36v battery and 42 T front cog and a 7 speed shimano cassette, on a fairly light Mtb with solid front forks total weight with batteries just under 20kg , I am 65kg.

As I live on top of a hill I am trying to set up the controller to climb hills but I cant get the bike to perform as well as a 250w rear hub BH E-motion neo cross that my wife has , the E-motion climbs the hill twice as fast with a lot less effort than my BBS01 .

I have attached screenshots of my settings can anyone see if I have got something wrong ?

As I thought the BBS01 would be a better hill climber than a rear hub motor .

 

[malkie0831]

Up the Current limit to 18a on the Basic page and you have a 350w version, all the other settings look similar to mine.

What speed limit is your LCD set to? My BBS01 feels a lot livelier once I upped the speed limit above the 27kph mark, though it doesn't move my bulk a lot faster!

What sort of speed/gradient are we talking about?

 

[Fordulike]

Buderim

Current Limit [A] on Basic page to 20A and Keep Current [%] on Pedal Assist page to 100%.

Always climb hills in a much lower gear than you think. The BBSxx's like to spin and not be laboured.

Also, the only PAS level that will give the all the available current out on the road, will be your level 9, 5 or 3, depending on how many levels you have your display set to. If you are trying to climb hills in any level than the highest one, then the motor will struggle.

 

[tommie]

the thing i notice about the BBS02 is that it always wants to go to a certain cadence irrespective of what PAS it`s in, i mean its difficult to have a leisurely ride just turning the pedals slowly. Can`t see much in the programming to change that??

 

[anotherkiwi]

Hill climbing is different between mid drive and hub

- The right gearing is important, I changed from a 46 to a 42 chainring because my hills are long and often steep
- I don't think my mid-drive is faster than the rear hub but it seems easier climbing (with a much heavier bike and 28" wheels instead of 26")
- I often leave the derailleur in the same gear as on the flat and use the assistance levels to climb.
- Cadence is always 60-80, if the hill gets steeper I change down to stay in that cadence range

 

[Fordulike]

the thing i notice about the BBS02 is that it always wants to go to a certain cadence irrespective of what PAS it`s in, i mean its difficult to have a leisurely ride just turning the pedals slowly. Can`t see much in the programming to change that??

I reprogrammed mine so that each PAS level provides 100% current, but different speed limits for each level. Pretty much opposite to how Buderim has his programmed in post #69.

If I want a leisurely ride, then my PAS 1 allows this, but because the controller is still giving me all available current, then hills are no problem.

Still got to be careful not to labour the motor, but I've done over 3000 miles so far, and if it went bang tomorrow, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. I just luv the BBSxx's.

" Hello, I am Fordulike and I am a BBSxx addict "

 

[Buderim]

Wow, this is a great forum thanks for all the replys.

We tend to use the bikes without power most of the time , we use full power coming up the hills and lower levels if there if there is a headwind or we are a bit knackered , as we are not real cyclists..

I have attached a google map picture of the hardest bit of the hill as you see it isn't that long.

I have changed current limit to 18amp ( I was a bit worried to push it to 20 as I don't want to blow anything up !!! ) and and Keep Current [%] on Pedal Assist page to 100%.

I have changed the wheel size to 29 ( I am not sure if thats right ) as I had it set wrong at 26 , I have 650b rims and 2.25 scwalbe super motox , the outside diameter of the tyre is 700mm.

I have also worked out that with my gear ratio 42 x 28 I need to be at 15kmh to have a cadence of 78 . I have realised I wasn't pedaling fast enough so after the making changes and pedaling a bit faster the bike is loads better up the hills.

My current 7 speed cogs are 14-28 shimano freewheel . I have been looking at maybe getting a 12-30 as it would give me a bit more top speed and a easier hill climb , but freewheel 7 speeds dont seem very popular as most cogs seem to be cassettes with 9 or 10 speeds.

Thanks again for all the great help...

 

[anotherkiwi]

This one will climb anything:

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/freewheels/sunrace-megarange-7-speed-freewheel-1334t/

You would probably be better changing for a cassette hub you can find 7 speed 11-34 cassettes.

 

[tommie]

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/mega7/

had one of these before i changed out to a IGH rear wheel, 11-34t screw on, hard to find but the best there is.

 

[Fordulike]

the thing i notice about the BBS02 is that it always wants to go to a certain cadence irrespective of what PAS it`s in, i mean its difficult to have a leisurely ride just turning the pedals slowly. Can`t see much in the programming to change that??

Believe me, you have to program these controllers to suit each particular bike set-up. You have to account for gear combos, wheel size, journey terrain etc.

The PAS sensor is only an on/off switch to run the motor at the speed and current it is programmed at in the display setting. I often see owner's programming set at 100% speed limit in every display PAS mode. The motor will want to run at full speed regardless of PAS mode in this instance.

The PAS will never be as good as using the throttle on BBSxx's, as the throttle is infinitely variable, but the PAS has a maximum of 9 equivalent throttle positions.

 

[Dewey]

My current 7 speed cogs are 14-28 shimano freewheel . I have been looking at maybe getting a 12-30

I had a 7-speed ?-28 and like you I use a 42 tooth front chain ring and a BBS01 250W motor. I had the rear cassette replaced with a Shimano CS-HG20 12-32 as that is what my local bike shop had on the shelf. I thought about the 34 tooth megarange but that would likely have meant having to also replace the rear derailleur with a wide-range derailleur. If I want to narrow the range further I might consider trying a chain ring adapter and race-face front chain ring as they come in a wide range of tooth-counts.

 

[Nealh]

Recently I have had a few bugs with the Szbaf software using W10 and have found changes not being implemented and written to the controller consistently.
The issue has now been resolved by down loading the re-programmed/debugged software from Penoff in Norway.
Software download can be found at penoff.wordpress.com.
One upgrade he has made is the programme now automatically detects the com port being used.