Kagehik
New member
Kind of had this question before but about specific parts. I am looking at a more general things. Near as I can tell a display for an ebike has more "symbols" and things on it that every motor controller knows about, can turn on/off, etc. Heck, my current controller will read the long press on the "mode up", button, then tell the display, "Ah.. turn on the light symbol!", despite the fact that the bloody thing doesn't turn the power on/off for either the display, or the wires they supply to run the lights off of. In any case I am curious if anyone out there has tested this, or knows how it works, and can confirm the theory of mine.
See, I figure that since there is a display symbol for, "You have applied the brakes", then light sets that have this feature, instead of watching to see if the power running through the brakes themselves, could "listen in" on the serial communications going on between the controller and the display, and if it sees, "Ah, the brake symbol was turned on!", and activate the brake light. The brake controls are basically interrupt switches, when you don't have them on the power passes through, but when engaged it cuts the power running through those pins. I tested the switch in a set to confirm this.
Now, I could be totally wrong, but I just asked the befang people directly how this works, and they gave a whole spiel about how I should just use the lights made by the same company as my ebike motor - except, they don't freaking make them with the whole set of features.
In any case, trying to figure this out, because either I will keep the current bike, or upgrade to a better one, but either way I want to bloody add full lights, including brakes and turn signal, and it would be kind of nice to know how "existing" sets actually detect things like brakes being applied, if they read the serial communications, or just watch to see if the power running through the brake wires it cut, etc. Do they turn on by having the controller power them, in which case I can't even install them on the current bike, since its controller won't do this, or, again, is it watching the communications and going, "Ah, someone turned the lights on!"
I mean, to me, it makes far more sense to watch the serial communications, and thus produce a "universal" light set, not try messing with wires that carry power, or other nonsense, which literally won't work if you have the wrong wiring/controller/motor, etc.
Anyone have any idea? Because, ironically, the company whose lights I was looking at either have no clue about their own design, or don't bother to know, since its made by some other company, or refuse to say. This is, needless to say, annoying.
See, I figure that since there is a display symbol for, "You have applied the brakes", then light sets that have this feature, instead of watching to see if the power running through the brakes themselves, could "listen in" on the serial communications going on between the controller and the display, and if it sees, "Ah, the brake symbol was turned on!", and activate the brake light. The brake controls are basically interrupt switches, when you don't have them on the power passes through, but when engaged it cuts the power running through those pins. I tested the switch in a set to confirm this.
Now, I could be totally wrong, but I just asked the befang people directly how this works, and they gave a whole spiel about how I should just use the lights made by the same company as my ebike motor - except, they don't freaking make them with the whole set of features.
In any case, trying to figure this out, because either I will keep the current bike, or upgrade to a better one, but either way I want to bloody add full lights, including brakes and turn signal, and it would be kind of nice to know how "existing" sets actually detect things like brakes being applied, if they read the serial communications, or just watch to see if the power running through the brake wires it cut, etc. Do they turn on by having the controller power them, in which case I can't even install them on the current bike, since its controller won't do this, or, again, is it watching the communications and going, "Ah, someone turned the lights on!"
I mean, to me, it makes far more sense to watch the serial communications, and thus produce a "universal" light set, not try messing with wires that carry power, or other nonsense, which literally won't work if you have the wrong wiring/controller/motor, etc.
Anyone have any idea? Because, ironically, the company whose lights I was looking at either have no clue about their own design, or don't bother to know, since its made by some other company, or refuse to say. This is, needless to say, annoying.