Fazua - code 30 Bottom bracket not detected

[bfgMedia]

Hi, not sure if this is a common issue or just me. Boardman e-bike with Fazua Ride 50 Evation, working fine one day then came for my ride yesterday and permanent Red light on handlebar 'Remote b' . All other LED's light correctly but no power to bottom bracket. I have removed all dirt and sprayed all contacts with electrical spray to make sure contacts are all clean. No Joy. Connected to Fazua Toolbox and made sure all firmware is up to date. Ran Diagnostic report and error codes
'76 - I2C Transfer',
'8 - Gear Temp Sensor'
'30 - Bottom bracket not detected' were identified.

Any one else had/resolved this problem?

TIA

 

[Robba]

did you do the diagnostics with the motor in the bike? if not you get the HW error 30.
I have 2 batteries and when upgrading firmware I have to repeat the process with each battery mounted in the motor. If not I get funky errors and unpredictable behavior. Re-flashing the firmware is also helping out when having problems. I haave to do this monthly especially in the winter as fazua ride 50 doesn't like it below 0. If I keep the bike indoors it works, leave it outside and it refuses to engage the motor drive. I will never buy fazua again, but I have to live with my current bike some more years. When everything works its reasonably good with the upgraded firmware, but initially it was terrible and the fact that I have to take of the motor to charge the battery every time ruined my initial plastic locking mechanism. I got a new metal one which works better, but still why do I have to take of the motor to turn the bike on? And it sleeps after 7-7.5hr so every time I finish work I have to open the motor and turn on the bike. that is a minimum of 440 battery mechanism operations a year. I have had it for 3 years now and I use the bike in the weekends and holidays as well so probably 600 operations a year, the wear and tear from that is plain bad design.

 

[bfgMedia]

Yes, diagnostics done with battery in situ.

The bike has now been with Halfords since 16th March. They have been in contact with Fazua but still no solution. As a last resort Halfords are getting in a new Boardman cycle in order for them to see whether the issue is with the battery itself as opposed to the motor, despite the battery showing full charge and diagnostics indicating battery condition is good. Fair play to my local Halfords store who are pulling out all the stops to seek a solution. The Fazua motor is out of warranty and I wonder just how interested Fazua are in identifying the fault and offering a solution?

As you say, really pleased with the bike and motor when it works, but the lack of quick solution following the diagnostics makes you wonder how good the diagnostic tool is? Fortunately, I have a second (manual) bike to use so the delay in repair at the moment is frustrating but not critical.

It might become critical when I find out how much a repair is going to cost me!

 

[Captain Slocum]

The same thing has been happening to me for months. If you look at how the contacts are designed, it is clearly a disaster waiting to happen. Cleaning the contacts sometimes makes it work for a few miles but then it drops out again. What you have is not a fault as such but the inevitable consequence of a poorly designed contact system. As someone with electrical engineering experience, I was amazed when I saw how the contact with the bottom bracket is made. I am throwing mine away as there seems no way to fix it, short of cutting out the flexible contacts at the bottom, and designing and soldering a new contact system. Shame, because I liked the bike.

 

[bfgMedia]

After Halfords having the bike for several weeks trying to diagnose the fault they eventually had to replace the bottom bracket at a cost of over £430! What a shame that such a basic connection issue results in catastrophic failure of power to the drive motor. If this happens again I will be getting rid of the bike but, as you say, it is a great bike which I love to ride. After a short period of riding with the replaced bottom bracket unit I started to get a loud 'clunking' sound from the unit when power was not being used. The noise disappeared once power was being utilised but came back when my speed meant power to the unit turned off. After several emails to Fazua it turned out that a couple of the bottom bracket screws were not tightened sufficiently, after setting them to the correct torque values all is silent once more. Fingers crossed that I can once again ride this ebike with the confidence that the battery power will kick-in when I need it!