S866 / Brain Power Motor Controller showing communication error with PAS

[DougalDogHead]

Hello All

I bought this controller / display combo from Amazon to replace the controller that had died in my pre-built ebike (E-life Voyage):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07JVJ6XQF?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

The controller can drive the motor on walking mode, detecting the speed correctly, and it detects when the brakes are applied too. However, whenever I connect the PAS I get a little exclamation mark icon appear on the right side of the display (not to be confused with the brake icon which is at the top) which I believe means communication error (see photo).

Does anyone know why I might be getting this / how to resolve it please as I'm completely stuck? Could it be as simple as an incompatibility with the PAS?

Thanks in advance.

 

[saneagle]

Did you do the self-learning procedure mentioned in the listing?

 

[DougalDogHead]

Did you do the self-learning procedure mentioned in the listing?

I tried to do it but it didn't seem to behave as I expected. If I interpreted the manual correctly, the motor should spin / try to spin when you connect the self-learning lead together, if it doesn't work or spins in the wrong direction, unplug and plug it back in again. Repeat until it spins in the right direction. Is that right or am I misunderstanding / missing something?

It didn't do anything when plugging and unplugging the self learning cable

 

[saneagle]

I tried to do it but it didn't seem to behave as I expected. If I interpreted the manual correctly, the motor should spin / try to spin when you connect the self-learning lead together, if it doesn't work or spins in the wrong direction, unplug and plug it back in again. Repeat until it spins in the right direction. Is that right or am I misunderstanding / missing something?

It didn't do anything when plugging and unplugging the self learning cable

That's right. Connect the green wires; switch on and wait. you should see the wheel twitch or tick while the controller sorts it out, then it should start either rotating slowly or whirring (going backwards); switch off; disconnect the wires; and it should work afterwards.

If that doesn't work, there must be another problem, like motor connector not in far enough, pedal sensor connected in the wrong sequence, or pedal sensor working backwards.

It's always best to install a new controller, then test with a throttle. Did you get a throttle?

 

[DougalDogHead]

That's right. Connect the green wires; switch on and wait. you should see the wheel twitch or tick while the controller sorts it out, then it should start either rotating slowly or whirring (going backwards); switch off; disconnect the wires; and it should work afterwards.

If that doesn't work, there must be another problem, like motor connector not in far enough, pedal sensor connected in the wrong sequence, or pedal sensor working backwards.

It's always best to install a new controller, then test with a throttle. Did you get a throttle?

Good morning, I have an update from further testing yesterday. I did test with a throttle but got the same results. I think I have now worked out why though, and worked out why the green wire didn't do anything; I had set the speed limit to 25 thinking that it was in kmph, but it turns out it's a percentage (a percentage of what exactly I'm not sure). Changing that back to 100 and sure enough the green wire makes the motor spin as described now. The 'number of speed magnets' setting might also have had something to do with it as I reduced that from the default of 80, but I'm not sure yet; more testing required after work today.

So I got the motor working on pedal assist last night, however it only runs when pedalling backwards. Hopefully I just need to swap some cables around to get it running the right way, but all will become apparent later today. I feel like I'm within touching distance of having this working now!

 

[Nealh]

Reverse/ swap the magnet disc face , the magnet field is wrong as they are north or south.

 

[DougalDogHead]

Reverse/ swap the magnet disc face , the magnet field is wrong as they are north or south.

Thanks for the tip, that did work however when I came to trying to rewire the PAS to match what the controller was expecting I struggled, so instead of buying tools to re-crimp the cables and make a new connector I decided to just replace the sensor. I bought this one from Amazon, but I think some of the magnets are installed backwards because it now detects pedalling in both directions and only detects intermittently. Is this product likely faulty or are the magnets supposed to alternate between N and S facing the sensor?

Putting the old 5 magnet disc back on only works in one direction but you have to pedal quite fast for the bike to go at any decent rate, probably because it's expecting 12 magnets rather than 5 (I have set the controller to 5 expect 5 magnets and set the sensitivity to the highest level)

New Speed Sensor Electric Bicycle Pedal PAS 12 Magnets E-bike System Assist https://amzn.eu/d/9Jgz9yN