Elife Lagrande issues

[Brigitte]

Hi everyone
I have lagrande electric bike and having issues with something draining my battery I have bought a new battery and same can't do much in term of mileage. Its ok on the flat but I soon as I go up the hill it does not like it and eventually the battery lights disappear its like its been drained I must say the speed on the hill from 1 to setting 3 is not noticeable on a significant hill it has the got that hoomf
Bike shop looked at the magnets that didn't help there are 3 other possible problems I guess the motor and the unit the battery seat in not sure what it does or called? As anyone had a similar problem
Be good to know before I spend money on wrong diagnostic
Many thanks B

 

[Nealh]

The bike will use speed control I expect and this means it will use max current all the time. The controller current rating may not be suitable for the battery ?
Or the controller could be faulty, it is the controller that determines how much power to draw and nothing to do with the hub motor.
The batteries are only small 8.8ah or so, so not very good. Once one depletes the voltage a bit any hill will soon show up it's short comings, it may be better for a bit fully charged on hills but other wise likely not up to the job.

 

[Brigitte]

The bike will use speed control I expect and this means it will use max current all the time. The controller current rating may not be suitable for the battery ?
Or the controller could be faulty, it is the controller that determines how much power to draw and nothing to do with the hub motor.
The batteries are only small 8.8ah or so, so not very good. Once one depletes the voltage a bit any hill will soon show up it's short comings, it may be better for a bit fully charged on hills but other wise likely not up to the job.

Hi
Thank you for your reply what is the controller is that what the battery seat in?

 

[Nealh]

The controller is small metal box, a PCB that control's the commands via signals to the motor and pedal assist. It is either intergrated in the battery base holder or is a seperate item hosued on th bike somewhere. If one follows the battery or motor cable they both lead to the controller.

Looking at pics the controller is likely mount to the bike seat post and the frog battery attaches to that.
For climbing hills one may be better using assist 1 rathe rthen 2 or 3, the speed is different but the current deliverd is the same. The faster speed on a hill will wear/strain the battery more.

It's a basci cheapish bike so one can't espect it to work miracles and tbh isn't a hill climbing bike with the small battery.

 

[Brigitte]

The controller is small metal box, a PCB that control's the commands via signals to the motor and pedal assist. It is either intergrated in the battery base holder or is a seperate item hosued on th bike somewhere. If one follows the battery or motor cable they both lead to the controller.

Looking at pics the controller is likely mount to the bike seat post and the frog battery attaches to that.
For climbing hills one may be better using assist 1 rathe rthen 2 or 3, the speed is different but the current deliverd is the same. The faster speed on a hill will wear/strain the battery more.

It's a basci cheapish bike so one can't espect it to work miracles and tbh isn't a hill climbing bike with the small battery.

Thanks you for your assistance the shop find it difficult to diagnose the fault as they cannot plug it so to speak like a bosh bike for instance
so looking at the bike being bassic my understanding is that things can go wrong in this bike is either the controller as you mentioned or the motor!
What about the unit which indicate the power and level 1, 2,3 level would that affect the working in anyway
What does the magnets do
Trying to understand a bit better
I didn't think it was a small battery 36v is that not a common size on electric bike?
Brigitte

 

[Benjahmin]

1 The display on your handlebars only tells the controller what level of assist has been selected.
2 The magnets are usually mounted in a disc on the pedal shaft. They tell the controller when the pedals are being turned so that the controller can give power to the motor.
3 36v is a common voltage for bike batteries but, like cars have different capacity petrol tanks, batteries come in different capacities.
The AmpHours (Ah) rating of a battery gives an indication of how much juice it can hold. If yours is 8.8Ah then it is on the small side and will not give much range in hilly terrain.
The problem you are having is not entirely clear from your description.
Can you post some pictures of your bike? Any writing on the motor? Any writing on the battery?
If you could try to describe the problem again, but with some punctuation, we may understand a bit better what's going on.

 

[sjpt]

In addition to what Banjahmin mentions above: as well as the magnets at the crank to detect pedal motion, there is probably a second magnet mounted on a wheel with a sensor on the forks (or frame) to sense how fast the bike is going. It doesn't sound as it your problems are in that area.

You mentioned a new battery. Is that the same spec (8.8ah) as the original? Also, as well as how much electricity the battery can hold there is a maximum rate (current) at which it can deliver it; more expensive batteries can deliver more current. If you stress the battery going up hills the voltage will sag until the system detects it needs to turn the battery off to protect it from permanent damage. As Nealh says, hills will quickly show up battery shortcomings. Batteries are the first thing that gets compromised on putting together a relatively low priced ebike. Unless you provide significant effort and just use the electric for assistance you might expect under 20 miles on the flat, and not much over 10 in hilly terrain; even less if you basically let the motor do all the work. (You don't mention how heavy you are, that makes a big different to range on hills)

One easy thing to check. There is a cable coming from the motor, with a connector a shortish way along that cable (to allow the wheel to be removed). Make sure that connector is really pushed very firmly in. There are probably arrows on each side of the connector; they should meet.

 

[Brigitte]

This is the bike

 

[Nealh]

Problem with that bike and the control system used (speed control) is they are power hungry and demand near 100% power all the time, so any battery will be stressed more then other systems. In asssit 1 -3 one gets max power but the speed limit is preset in each level. I can understand the older battery being a bit weak but the new one should do better, depends how long the newer one has been sitting in storage as ageing does set in and can affect the cells.

 

[Nealh]

Thanks you for your assistance the shop find it difficult to diagnose the fault as they cannot plug it so to speak like a bosh bike for instance
so looking at the bike being bassic my understanding is that things can go wrong in this bike is either the controller as you mentioned or the motor!
What about the unit which indicate the power and level 1, 2,3 level would that affect the working in anyway
What does the magnets do
Trying to understand a bit better
I didn't think it was a small battery 36v is that not a common size on electric bike?
Brigitte

Bosh bike shops are no good at fault finding even the bosh bikes they sell they can't repair them, all they do is order a new part and swap it out. Even a monkey can do that.
One supsects it is simply down to the control system (not a very good one ) used on your bike and a poor battery. Though 36v it is quite low in capacity at 8.8ah and the cells in side may not be either very good ones or the battery is aged and been sitting in storage for a long time.