installing a throttle

[Deleted member 4366]

Hi I'm about to put a throttle on my Viking harrier and the way you say to test is for the power plug on the bike but how do I test for the throttle before I connect it thanks

Never connect anything until you've tested the connector first with a voltmeter. Many throttles get destroyed before they ever have a chance to work, when they get connected to a connector that carries battery voltage.

Connect the black meter probe to any known ground and with the red probe, check each pin in the connector to see the voltages. The controller needs to be powered and switched on for that.

Next, set your meter to test continuity (beep) and with the black probe on any known ground, test each pin to see which is grounded.

Note that it's normal for the signal wire to have a pull-up or pull-down resistor, so it'll would read as a 5v or ground. You have to apply a bit of common sense by looking at the wire colours to figure out which is which after you have the measurements.

Throttle wire colours are always logical on three-wire ones, but the 5 and 6 wire ones take a bit more detective work to figure out which three are the actual throttle.

Once you've figured out what wire is what on each side of the connection, check that the pins match on each side. In about 50% of cases you have to move pins in the connector to get them to match.

 

[Swinman]

So far thanks to help from all I've only had to get the throttle wiring correct and plug it in and my bike worked straight of with the throttle no need to even turn the crank , the original power display with low med high still has to be on so that's good as you can't just turn the battery on an the bike becomes live , when the weather picks up I can go for a trip and see how it all works again thanks for the help

 

[littlebmw]

Hi Swinman glad your viking harrier worked ok. I am having no luck with mine so far. Could you post come pics or details of which wires you connected on your viking as my friend has that bike and wants to install a throttle too so knowing what you connected to do it would help with getting his throttle sorted. I assume accessing the controller at the back of the rack battery box was simple enough.

 

[Swinman]

Hi Swinman glad your viking harrier worked ok. I am having no luck with mine so far. Could you post come pics or details of which wires you connected on your viking as my friend has that bike and wants to install a throttle too so knowing what you connected to do it would help with getting his throttle sorted. I assume accessing the controller at the back of the rack battery box was simple enough.

Yes will do I've a post on the Viking harrier have a look at that as well I've had chance to take the bike out yet so as soon as I do I'll post all the best

 

[Swinman]

This is the update so far ,
The bike has a thumb throttle that works fine, and still has all original wiring connected so it still has peddle assist,
My test of the speed with the wheel in the air and full throttle is 14.6 mph , the other 1 mph would be if you pedal so I think it's just the set up on the control unit that comes with the bike,
My plan is to buy a new control unit and fit it with just the throttle and no peddle assist, this will mean removing most the wires and starting again but the new control unit will be 24v and 15a not 24v and 12a that came with the bike, this should give me a bit more push .
When I've sorted all the bits I'll take photos and let you know how it works,
But if you only want to add a throttle then it's just plug and go, but make sure you get a throttle with a long wire as the one I got was short and I had to extend it ,
Hope this helps all the best

 

[littlebmw]

Hi Swinman, well no luck getting the throttle to work on my bike, nothing I tried would get it to work. but I took the throttle off and put in on my friends Harrier Folding bike. Now that was a piece of doddle. Connected it to the red/black/yellow plug (the thumb throttle came with red/black/green so green to yellow connection was the only difference) and hey presto immediate throttle reponse without having to peddle. as you mentioned the normal 1.6metre length on throttles is too short and you need to put an extension on. As this bike folds I found I needed to leave a fair amount of slack in the cables at the front so you run out of wire just after the seat post. I found that some old computer fan wires were perfect for this from a PC case fan. Same 3 cable colours and cable thickness etc and already braided together. covered this in electric tape and secured it to the existing wiring loom with thin cable ties. hard to spot the extra wire now. taking the battery box apart was just a dozen screws after pulling the battery box out of the cradle. If anyone else has a harrier it is dead simple to fit a throttle at a cost of about £4.

 

[Vinrouge]

Hi Swinman, well no luck getting the throttle to work on my bike, nothing I tried would get it to work. but I took the throttle off and put in on my friends Harrier Folding bike. Now that was a piece of doddle. Connected it to the red/black/yellow plug (the thumb throttle came with red/black/green so green to yellow connection was the only difference) and hey presto immediate throttle reponse without having to peddle. as you mentioned the normal 1.6metre length on throttles is too short and you need to put an extension on. As this bike folds I found I needed to leave a fair amount of slack in the cables at the front so you run out of wire just after the seat post. I found that some old computer fan wires were perfect for this from a PC case fan. Same 3 cable colours and cable thickness etc and already braided together. covered this in electric tape and secured it to the existing wiring loom with thin cable ties. hard to spot the extra wire now. taking the battery box apart was just a dozen screws after pulling the battery box out of the cradle. If anyone else has a harrier it is dead simple to fit a throttle at a cost of about £4.

 

[Vinrouge]

Hi littlebmw, Is the Harrier you fixed the throttle to a modern one? I've just bought a new Viking Harrier 36 and wondered if I could fit a throttle to it as easily as you did - if I can find out where to buy a throttle!

 

[littlebmw]

Yes the bike was only 6 months old. Dead easy to fit. Done 2 now, same bike. Last one was 15 mins to do. So good to ride with a throttle.. Get a thumb throttle off ebay for abot £3.15. Ebay id 151965071380 as an example. Fitted to left of the gear charge between gear change and right brake lever. Sits just at right position then

 

[Nealh]

Twist throttle ;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-E-Scooter-Bike-24v-36v-24-36-Volt-TWIST-THROTTLE-Handle-Rechargeable-/172618451362?hash=item2830dc89a2:g:BNYAAOSw4shX4PKv

Thumb throttle; seller has 99.6% feed back so no problem dealing with them. Same seller Littlebmw used.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal-Thumb-Throttle-Speed-Control-for-E-Bike-Electric-Bike-Scooter-3-Wires-/151965071380?hash=item2361d2f814:g:jeUAAOSwL7VWqSJ1

 

[Vinrouge]

Thanks v.much littlebmw, will get throttle ordered and give it a go. Thanks also Nealh for added info' on where to purchase throttle.