In-line brake cable sensors any good?

[Laser Man]

Looking to convert three more bikes, two of which have integrated brake levers/gear triggers.
Rather than messing about with hall sensors and magnets (like for hydraulic brakes) I was wondering if these in-line cable movement sensors were effective and reliable - and also if they would work with Liushi controllers (Woosh kits and cabling).

This is the sort of thing I mean -
https://www.brightonebikes.co.uk/store/p66/In-line_brake_cut-out_sensors_(Higo_connector)_for_Bafang_BBS01/02/HD_-_Pair.html

Anyone tried them?

 

[anotherkiwi]

Been on Number Two since day one, works fine, no issues.

 

[rilot]

They look to work in exactly the same way as the gear sensors. In which case they will be faultless.

 

[Laser Man]

Thanks Rilot.

So the only question is whether the pinout of the connectors and the signal polarity is right for the Lishui controller.

 

[Woosh]

the Lishui controller only needs one wire (grey) for the brake signal.
You will need a new trunk cable with 3-pin yellow brake sensor connectors like on BBS01B kits.
I don't have them at the moment, they need to be ordered specially from Julet.

 

[Laser Man]

Thanks Tony
So all three bikes will need the "special" cable, as the third has hydraulic brakes and will need the hall sensor jobbies.
I'm anticipating ordering more XF08-CST kits for these unless there is a really good reason to go for the more expensive SWX02's.
Presumably you will be able to sort it out when I'm ready to order - which won't be until October now as I have to go and get a new knee.

 

[Woosh]

the special lead is only needed for drop bar bikes where you want to keep the STI levers.
customers converting bikes with drop bars change often to straight bars or not bother fitting brake sensors so the special cable is rarely needed.
For bikes with hydraulic brakes, the hydraulic brake sensors are available with 2-pin red plug so don't need special cable.
The main reason for the 48V SWX02 is its strong torque.
By the time you get your op done, I would have got the 48V STDZ2 kits in stock. Their wiring is particularly suited to bikes with drop bars.

 

[Laser Man]

Don't know where drop bars came from - these are recent hybrids (the oldest is about 5 yrs) and the integrated brake levers have compound curved surfaces giving nowhere suitable to stick a sensor onto.
The neatest and mechanically most robust would be the cable sensors,but it depends on how much extra the special cable would be (on top of the cost of the sensors).

 

[Woosh]

Don't know where drop bars came from

The yellow plug has signal, 5V and ground pins, the red plug has only signal and ground pins. There is no extra cost, it's just that I have to order them specially from Julet and the minimum quantity is 100 pieces. HWBS used to be popular until about 3 years ago, the stick on hydraulic brake sensors seem to be everywhere now.
I tried to explain the background of why we kept the special Julet cable with 3-pin yellow brake connectors, I apologise for the confusion.

 

[anotherkiwi]

HWBS used to be popular until about 3 years ago, the stick on hydraulic brake sensors seem to be everywhere now.

Because most new bikes now come with hydraulic disks maybe? The cheap ones that don't are hardly worth fitting a motor to. All the cheapo Chinese "dumped" supermarket special <600€ e-bikes have V-brakes fitted, some even have branded ones!

The best braking system for a bike used on the road is a hydraulic front brake and a cable V-brake on the rear. It saves weight (over 200 grams), it saves on cost (if you use brand name brakes) and gives a more natural feel when braking (you can feel when you are over braking on the rear through the cable). If you use a hydraulic rim brake instead of a disk on the front you save another >200 grams with braking power just as good as a disk in my experience. It's a bike. You are doing 45 km/h and your bike weighs less than 30 kg...

 

[Laser Man]

Thanks Tony
No worries - I'm easily confused.
The good thing is that I now know exactly what to order when the time comes.

 

[Terry625]

I am very new to electric bikes but I have some experience in electronics.

I have just bought an electric bike that proported to work just needing a battery. I bought the battery only to find the motor controller needed to be transferred to the new housing. When I took off the covers I noticed it had been wired up with choc-block connectors except for the motor wires (3 motor wires blue, yellow and green and five wires on a plug).

There are then 3 wires to the twist grip and 3 wires going to an inline brake switch. It is these 3 wires that are broken. The wires that come out of the controller to this connector are 2 red and one blue whereas the the wires going to the brake switch are blue, red and yellow.

Can anyone tell me how this inline switch works, I know it detects the movement of the cable just not how it does it - hall effect? I also don't know what the wires do.

The controller is slightly different to the ones currently sold on eBay and I have ordered a new controller but without knowing about the inline brake switch I will probably have difficulty getting the new one to work.

 

[vfr400]

It's a simple bi-polar hall sensor running at 5v. Red is 5v, yellow is ground and blue is the switched signal. Some controllers have 3-wire connectors and some have 2-wire ones for the brake switches. If they're two wire ones, you connect the ground to the ground wire and the signal to the signal wire, then you connect the 5v to any of the 5V wires, which are normally thin red (always check with a meter). There's one on the pedal sensor, one on the throttle and one in themotor hall sensor group.

It's very important that you connect the wires to their correct partners. You can't always go by colours or positions in connectors.

Throttle is a 3-wire linear hall sensor working at 5v. The signal wire gives 1.2v at zero throttle position and 3.8v at full.

 

[Terry625]

Thank you that is very helpful. I'll have another look at it tomorrow and if it works great, if it doesn't a new controller is on its way.

I'll post the results. Thank you again.