Hi, To all that helped with my queries; I have only very recently got back to the project to restore the Raleigh Pioneer Ebike. So I bought the battery, control box and associated LCD800 display from the guidance you gave. Bit of a challenge to wire it all up, change the connectors etc, but now done and annoyingly the motor/power output from the control box may be faulty.
In short, power is getting to the display unit (see pics), however, I believe that a power band should show on the display below the battery level one? …it doesn’t, and the motor does not kick in on cycling. Have rechecked all my connections, all seems as should be BUT, whereas > 41 V showing on display, a multi meter check on the 3 motor output wires from the control box ( again see pic attached) indicates no voltage at any of the 3 pins when the battery and display is powered up. My conclusion is that there must be a fault within the controller box…am I correct, or does the motor only draw power when another, possibly missing signal/sensor reading, tells it to draw power?
Any help welcome, Regards Rob
You're understanding is incorrect. The motor's three phase wires wires carry a sort of A/C. The controller fires timed pulses ar the motor, but it also checks feedback, so stops if the motor doesn't turn.
Here's how to test an ebike:
1. Measure the voltage at controller's battery connector. Obviously should be battery voltage. 36v - 42v for a 36v battery would be an acceptable range, but if you've fully charged the battery and it's less than 41v, it needs some sorting.
2. Measure the voltage on the 5v rail. You can measure that between any ground (black) and any of the reds going to throttle, PAS or motor halls. It should be around 5v.
3. Check throttle signal wire voltage on it's connector while connected. it's the wire that's not red or black on the throttle connector. Should give about 1v to 4v when you twist the throttle. If there's more than one wire, your meter will find it. It's the one that's between 1v and 4v, assuming that it works.
4. Check that the pedal assist sensor is pulsing. Measure the PAS signal wire while turning the pedals slowly. Should pulse 5v on and off every time a magnet passes the sensor. The signal wire is the one that's not red or black.
5. Check the motor hall signal wires (blue green and yellow) on the motor connector at the controller. They should each pulse with 5v going on and off as you rotate the wheel
BACKWARDS.
6. Mosfet test. Disconnect the motor cable and battery from the controller. Measure the resistance (200k scale) between the red battery connection and each of the three phase wire connections, then repeat with the black battery wire. Each set of 3 readings should be the same as each other and in the range 7K -24K. Though can be higher as long as they're all the same. Due to the capacitor across the battery wire, you can get a constantantly changing measurement while it charges. In that case, try swapping your probes round. Even though can be a moving result, the only important thing is that all three move in a similar way.
To test whether it's working, you should disconnect everything that's not needed, like Pedal sensor, lights and brakes. Listen for a tick or click from the motor when you operate the throttle, which indicates incorrect timing of the power pulses caused by incorrect connection sequence or faulty connection in the motor cable.
If your bike passes all those tests, it should work, so then you can look at any settings or other logical causes, like stuck brake switches, PAS installed backwards.