Bosch powerpack replacement

[Scotchgitt]

I previously fitted a cyclotricity 1000w to my bike and made a battery using hobby king quadcopter batteries. All very successful.

I have now purchased a bike with no battery or charger and wonder if I could build a 36v replacement using hobby kings again.

The original battery was Bosch powerpack 400 and a replacement with charger is around £600

Hobby kings would be under £200

My question is , does anyone know what the 5 pins on the bike do ?

 

[Scotchgitt]

To answer part of my own question I have identified the 37v +Vé and -Vé contacts and the computer powers up. It says the battery is empty so won’t power the motor.

I now need to find out which of the other 3 contacts send a signal to the brain and what that signal is.

 

[Danidl]

To answer part of my own question I have identified the 37v +Vé and -Vé contacts and the computer powers up. It says the battery is empty so won’t power the motor.

I now need to find out which of the other 3 contacts send a signal to the brain and what that signal is.

I suspect that you are on a hiding to nothing. The additional wiring and contacts are , as far as I can make out a communications system, possibly canbus and are used by the brains , which I believe are located in the motor assembly, to control the entire system. I believe that the activa control panel... That which you call the computer, but is just a communications console, and sends commands back to the computer, located in the motor, and receives data back up from the computer.
Unless you crack the communications protocols used , you cannot use a third party battery. What is potentially possible would be to open the Bosch battery, ensure that the electronic communications kit etc built in is continuously energised and replace the cells . In this way it might function in a similar fashion to the engine immobilizer and car radio in modern cars, whereby changing the battery needs to be done in a similar fashion.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Will Bosch ever be taken to court like Epson was for preventing its printers from working with third party cartridges? It is a blatantly obvious case of locking people in then milking them when they have to replace a battery.

Another good reason for building your own bike. Do it while you can, there will be laws stopping you from doing so once they are finished with the anti-dumping case they will then turn on kit providers...

 

[Danidl]

Will Bosch ever be taken to court like Epson was for preventing its printers from working with third party cartridges? It is a blatantly obvious case of locking people in then milking them when they have to replace a battery.

Another good reason for building your own bike. Do it while you can, there will be laws stopping you from doing so once they are finished with the anti-dumping case they will then turn on kit providers...

There is no law stopping any competitor bringing Bosch to court. Bosch can with justifiable reason claim health and safety as a reason. Whether it would succeed is another matter.
Bosch have presumably patents, intellectual property and copyrights to the shapes , connectors and other paraphernalia around their kit.
At its simplist, all they would need the motor computer to do would be to request the battery identify itself and accept only the text Bosch reg trademarks as a legitimate answer. Any competitor which sends that message would be in breach of copyright.
I looked for and found no references to a successful complaint for Epson, can you provide it?.

 

[Trevormonty]

I previously fitted a cyclotricity 1000w to my bike and made a battery using hobby king quadcopter batteries. All very successful.

I have now purchased a bike with no battery or charger and wonder if I could build a 36v replacement using hobby kings again.

The original battery was Bosch powerpack 400 and a replacement with charger is around £600

Hobby kings would be under £200

My question is , does anyone know what the 5 pins on the bike do ?

Why was bike sold without charger and battery?

 

[Scotchgitt]

Why was bike sold without charger and battery?

I asked that too, it was a colleague moved to the uk from Germany and the bike made it safely but the battery and charger got lost in transit. He could stomach the £800 insurance payout for replacements on a bike that would end up being worth £1200 at best so I gave him the £400 and he bought a new bike.