keeping the ebike running

hugh

Active member
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May 20, 2021
Messages
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I just spent over 6 hours trying to help an e bike rider troubleshoot and repair his fat tire ebike. He had purchased it used, rode it for one winter and then it died on him and he got a 30H message on the display along with an engine icon. His bike uses a Bafang hub motor but the company who imported it and made the control wires from the display with reversed fittings. As far as I can tell this was done in an effort to make customers only buy replacement parts from them.

So I fitted a new display, new controller along with the necessary wiring and got it running. He took it home, and promptly used the throttle to see how fast it would go and ran it up over 36 kph. Then he tried the PAS which is capped at 32 kph. Shortly after that it died and he got the error code 32H on the display. That code means a lack of communication in the system. Could be a bad wire, or display or controller, etc. I checked the wires for continuity, checked his display by plugging it into my fatbike. Those 2 things checked out fine. That led us to believe it was the controller which was a 20 A unit.

My somewhat long thread is to make a point. In my city there is now a huge number of generic chinese e bikes riding around. When they work and mostly they do work well, they are great. But when problems crop up there is no one to diagnose and repair them and in my city anyway no one has any parts. Parts such as controllers are available but are days or weeks away. And the local bike shops won't touch these bikes for good reason, they did not sell them and they do offer higher quality and expensive e bikes that they will maintain.
 
I just installed a Bafang Mid-drive kit on my wife’s Trek Hybrid bike. Works good and she likes it. So much, that she smokes me on my non-ebike Trek on the hills. Learning as I go. Her unit is the UART type, basically works like what we used to call a null modem back the days of RS-232 Serial ports. USB can translate over to RS-232 pretty easily. Looks like I should be able to use some old Pro-comm software or something similar to talk to the components. Do not know yet, but that is what I am thinking. I will be retiring at the end of the year, so I should have more time to pursue my interests. I am currently installing another mid-drive on my bike, collecting information and learning as I go. After we get a months run time on each of them, I am going to see about resetting the PAS mode parameters to something more to our liking. Looks to be doable. Should be able to set up some basic load / test devices for trouble shooting. Sorry about the rambling.
 
I just installed a Bafang Mid-drive kit on my wife’s Trek Hybrid bike. Works good and she likes it. So much, that she smokes me on my non-ebike Trek on the hills. Learning as I go. Her unit is the UART type, basically works like what we used to call a null modem back the days of RS-232 Serial ports. USB can translate over to RS-232 pretty easily. Looks like I should be able to use some old Pro-comm software or something similar to talk to the components. Do not know yet, but that is what I am thinking. I will be retiring at the end of the year, so I should have more time to pursue my interests. I am currently installing another mid-drive on my bike, collecting information and learning as I go. After we get a months run time on each of them, I am going to see about resetting the PAS mode parameters to something more to our liking. Looks to be doable. Should be able to set up some basic load / test devices for trouble shooting. Sorry about the rambling.
Just use the stock software to connect to your bafang, works perfectly, and simply to reprogram the motor to suit your style of riding
 
I just spent over 6 hours trying to help an e bike rider troubleshoot and repair his fat tire ebike. He had purchased it used, rode it for one winter and then it died on him and he got a 30H message on the display along with an engine icon. His bike uses a Bafang hub motor but the company who imported it and made the control wires from the display with reversed fittings. As far as I can tell this was done in an effort to make customers only buy replacement parts from them.

So I fitted a new display, new controller along with the necessary wiring and got it running. He took it home, and promptly used the throttle to see how fast it would go and ran it up over 36 kph. Then he tried the PAS which is capped at 32 kph. Shortly after that it died and he got the error code 32H on the display. That code means a lack of communication in the system. Could be a bad wire, or display or controller, etc. I checked the wires for continuity, checked his display by plugging it into my fatbike. Those 2 things checked out fine. That led us to believe it was the controller which was a 20 A unit.

My somewhat long thread is to make a point. In my city there is now a huge number of generic chinese e bikes riding around. When they work and mostly they do work well, they are great. But when problems crop up there is no one to diagnose and repair them and in my city anyway no one has any parts. Parts such as controllers are available but are days or weeks away. And the local bike shops won't touch these bikes for good reason, they did not sell them and they do offer higher quality and expensive e bikes that they will maintain.
I live in a fairly large metro area and not one single bike shop, 20+, will touch my Rattan
 
I just spent over 6 hours trying to help an e bike rider troubleshoot and repair his fat tire ebike. He had purchased it used, rode it for one winter and then it died on him and he got a 30H message on the display along with an engine icon. His bike uses a Bafang hub motor but the company who imported it and made the control wires from the display with reversed fittings. As far as I can tell this was done in an effort to make customers only buy replacement parts from them.

So I fitted a new display, new controller along with the necessary wiring and got it running. He took it home, and promptly used the throttle to see how fast it would go and ran it up over 36 kph. Then he tried the PAS which is capped at 32 kph. Shortly after that it died and he got the error code 32H on the display. That code means a lack of communication in the system. Could be a bad wire, or display or controller, etc. I checked the wires for continuity, checked his display by plugging it into my fatbike. Those 2 things checked out fine. That led us to believe it was the controller which was a 20 A unit.

My somewhat long thread is to make a point. In my city there is now a huge number of generic chinese e bikes riding around. When they work and mostly they do work well, they are great. But when problems crop up there is no one to diagnose and repair them and in my city anyway no one has any parts. Parts such as controllers are available but are days or weeks away. And the local bike shops won't touch these bikes for good reason, they did not sell them and they do offer higher quality and expensive e bikes that they will maintain.
I have an old school shop near me and asked them if they would replace both calipers etc. on my bike and they said yes. I mentioned it was an E-Bike, and they said "Bring it"..they were happy for the business. When front wheel drive came out in the 70's old head mechinics said they don't work on front wheel drive. That changed, and so will the local bike shops... I promise you...give it 18 more months and they can't deny the business.
 
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