Sram Battery

motrax

Just Joined
Jan 8, 2020
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I have a bike with a Sram ematic hub. I do not have a battery. I wish to use an after market battery. The Sram hub has an inbuilt controller. There are two fat wires and one thin one from the battery to the hub. The fat ones are obviously the feed wires but what would the third one be for?
 

vfr400

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 12, 2011
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Basildon
I would say that there's a 95% chance that your plan won't work due to handshaking between the controller and battery, which a dumb battery won't be able to to.

You can test for that with any voltage source that matches somewhere in the range of normal battery voltage (22v-29v for 24v battery and 31v-42v for 36v) and can supply at least 1 amp. You can use a lab power supply or a battery charger. You can get chargers for £10 on EBay, which is cheaper than spending £200 on a battery that you can't use.

If it doesn't work, you can sometimes strip the controller out of the hub and use an external one. Personally, I'd prefer to chuck all the electrics and start again, but, to add insult to injury, these hubs sometimes have special torque resistance arrangements that prevent a normal wheel or motor.

Good luck. I hope you get the 5%.
 

motrax

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Jan 8, 2020
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vrf400. Thanks for the reply. I will work something out. The question is: what signal goes between the controller and the battery. Is it just a simple voltage or is it more complex?
 

vfr400

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 12, 2011
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Basildon
vrf400. Thanks for the reply. I will work something out. The question is: what signal goes between the controller and the battery. Is it just a simple voltage or is it more complex?
It could be anything from a remote switch to full comms asking about state of charge, etc. I don't know that system.

If a controller is connected to a battery by only two wires, then you can use any battery of the correct voltage, but when there are more than 2, you can't.