Do I have a programming issue or do I just not like my new bafang motor!!

[Deleted member 33385]

I bought this adapter, comes with the standard bafang programme but I downloaded and use the hacked/improved programme. The cable just plugged and played. Win 10.

2 Metre Programming Cable for Bafang/8Fun BBS01, BBS02 or BBSHD Mid Drive Bikes | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 2 Metre Programming Cable for Bafang/8Fun BBS01, BBS02 or BBSHD Mid Drive Bikes at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

Bought it, first class delivery which makes a nice change. How easy is it to fry the motor?

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Actually that's not the cable I used. My came from Ali express. I used this link from edrive.net, I also used the recommended settings in this link...

Bafang Programming - Learn how to improve your Bafang mid-drive ebike - Edrivenet

Learn how to improve your Bafang mid-drive ebike. Reprogramming your Bafang mid-drive system can improve the usability and performance of your ebike a lot.

edrivenet.com

All downloaded and ready to go when the cable arrives. Hope I don't brick the motor... wondering how that actually happens.

 

[Fordulike]

Bought it, first class delivery which makes a nice change. How easy is it to fry the motor?

If you go crazy on changing parameters and ride your bike in the wrong gear all the time, then it can put more stress on the controller.

But, a few subtle changes can make a world of difference to the performance of the bike, without causing any extra stress. In fact increasing one setting, keep current, in my opinion, actually helps with protecting the controller. This is due to the fact, that the keep current setting can cause the motor to labour on hills if set too low. Controllers build up excessive heat if the motor is allowed to labour or stall.

For your peace of mind though, I have tweaked my BBS02 for maximum performance and it's been reliable throughout its life. I did replace the controller many years ago when it failed, but that was down to my controller being the first generation type with rubbish MOSFETS. Bafang now supply controllers with far better MOSFETS, so they are much more robust.

 

[jimriley]

You can download and save the current configuration. (not quite sure it does all the settings (did you see what I did there)), so you can always upload it again.

 

[Fordulike]

Also, just to add to Jim's post. If I intend on changing any settings, I will connect, click on 'Read Flash', then take a photo of the 3 tabs, just in case the parameter save file gets corrupted or lost.

 

[Chris200]

All downloaded and ready to go when the cable arrives. Hope I don't brick the motor... wondering how that actually happens.

If you follow the suggestions in the edrive.net link above then you won't fry anything. Tried and tested suggestions all very clearly explained.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

If you follow the suggestions in the edrive.net link above then you won't fry anything. Tried and tested suggestions all very clearly explained.

Right... the cable has arrived... now to fry the motor!

 

[MontyPAS]

Right... the cable has arrived... now to fry the motor!

Make sure before you do any changes. That you back up the original config

 

[Chris200]

Right... the cable has arrived... now to fry the motor!

Great... Let us know how it goes...

 

[Deleted member 33385]

Turns out, that I had not charged my main laptop for 8 months and the battery had sent my laptop motherboard into a self protective nervous breakdown and coma (it looked ropey last time I tried to charge it). Reviving the poor thing through electroconvulsive therapy would have required more than five minutes of extreme surgery to achieve (BIOS reset), so I turned to my much older, totally ridiculously microscopic Sony VAIO, but it's USB chipset was too old and the config program wouldn't even show some of it's user interface, such as the COM dropdown menu - Windows Home 7, I hadn't got around to installing Professional, and the BIOS on that miniature marvel has very few options for USB, too damn small for options - there are so many COMs in use on the VAIO nanobeast, that it only allowed me COM 26, which didn't connect when I navigated with TAB and spacebar to the button and dropdown, which I couldn't see. I had hoped to use a laptop so that I could tune it up while testing settings on the road, but alas, I was forced to drag the bike over to my PC.

I installed the driver first, before plugging in the USB cable, switched off and disconnected the bike battery, disconnected the C18 controller, connected the USB lead to the newly vacant green controller connector, reconnected the battery and switched it on, and then connected the USB cable to my PC which installed from the recently installed preinstallation, and ran the Bafang config program - it found the right COM straightaway. Then I read the current motor firmware settings, saved those somewhere safe and I was finally FREE! FREE TO KILL MY MOTOR!




I avoided the two buttons on the bottom right, because of the scary skull and crossbones.

It's odd that the battery protection was set at 31, is that enough? I've left it for now.

No sign of password reset - that must purely be set on the C18 controller, which is pants ! Pants security! Unless that part of the motor's firmware is hidden.

This doesn't run on Macs, which proves they're rubbish.

I left the throttle at 17km/h... because I'm scared of my bike. No - it's because I don't use a throttle. And I'm scared of my bike.

After midnight, the road outside swarmed with rozzers, because of intermittent heavy snow with persistent gusts of Tier 4. Can't testily test. Sad.

Hope my bike doesn't lock itself down while I'm in the middle of nowhere, demanding a Bitcoin ransom...

 

[Nealh]

Battery protection at 31v is normal for BBS 36v, leave it as is as a fail safe. The battery BMS will be set higher and will cut out before the controller does it.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

I'm pleased to report that the bike now rides almost perfectly! Near-zero effort required on even the steepest hills - just dial up the PAS to 9 (100% motor assistance) - and it's an odd experience, because it's enjoyable. The assist cutoff set to the shortest time is a useful setting in terms of safety: when U-turning on a road, you don't want power to persist too long after you depress the pedal, because it's alarming if you accelerate into a U-turn at the highest PAS level, when trying to turn slowly. I might slow down the onset of power too, to facilitate safe U-turns. 19.7 miles covered and there's 69% battery charge left! I'm fairly sure I'll get at least 60 miles per charge, even with my power hog settings. I'm sure I'll get even more miles per charge as I very slowly (at a rate, which will no doubt be slower than glacial) get fitter. It's well worth mucking about with this firmware's innards!

 

[jimriley]

What assist cut off settings did you use? It's a problem I've noticed too.

 

[Deleted member 33385]

What assist cut off settings did you use? It's a problem I've noticed too.

These are all of my settings, and my pedal assist stop settings are on the fourth screen on this image:

 

[Raboa]

These two articles are very good at explaining this:

Programming The BBS02 & BBSHD Without Frying Your Controller And Losing Your Sanity

For information on the programming parameters and what they do you should check out The Hackers Guide to Programming the BBS02 located here. UPDATE: The BBSHD is programmed in the exact same way wi…

electricbike-blog.com

A Hacker’s Guide To Programming The BBS02 & BBSHD

One way that the BBS02 middrive unit shines over other competition like the Bosch is the ability to program the controller yourself. Although the process of programming the controller will void any…

www.google.com

 

[Deleted member 33385]

These two articles are very good at explaining this:

Programming The BBS02 & BBSHD Without Frying Your Controller And Losing Your Sanity

For information on the programming parameters and what they do you should check out The Hackers Guide to Programming the BBS02 located here. UPDATE: The BBSHD is programmed in the exact same way wi…

electricbike-blog.com

A Hacker’s Guide To Programming The BBS02 & BBSHD

One way that the BBS02 middrive unit shines over other competition like the Bosch is the ability to program the controller yourself. Although the process of programming the controller will void any…

www.google.com

Thanks! Very interesting that his PAS levels start at 50% at Level 1 and increase in increments of 6 to 100% at Level 9. If I knew what torque was applied by the motor at various power levels (they may be equivalent), I might try to calculate for flat expended effort 1 to 9 from 30% or something. Lots of great food for thought here generally: it'd be better to not tax the motor too much on hills, for instance, protecting it by maintaining a higher cadence (the first link recommends a cadence of 60 rpm) on a low gear, to prevent motor controller burnout. Not setting any PAS level to 100% seems a good precaution! As is installing a temperature sensor in the controller:

https://electricbike-blog.com/2015/06/07/installing-a-temperature-sensor-in-the-bbs02-unit/

...but I don't fancy doing this at all! I wonder if I can get away with finding an exterior part of the housing which gets hot at high load and attach a temperature sensor externally (or into a hole drilled into the casing - more of a "heat probe") instead? Now that I have a 52T chainwheel at the front, I'm waiting for a new rear cassette and chain - if I can't get all of the gears to connect reliably (might need a lot of adjustment), I'll get a 52T Lekkiewheel. I can't get the lower gears working at the moment - either new chain/old cassette problem or incorrect chain length, or incorrect chain joining (I used a chain tool, not a missing link) or something... but it's still a brilliant bit of kit, even if I can't get all the gears (I only reliably have 3 of the highest gears out of 8, at the moment - the rest are slipping, could be the old cassette, which hasn't been changed since 2004)