Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

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badnewswade
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Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby badnewswade » Mon Apr 04, 2011 12:45 pm

A low tech solution to the controller problem. Gonna cross post this to the Electric Moped forum as well.

Hear me out - this may sound loony - but there's an inherent problem with electric scooters as they stand - they have these complex power electronics which need replacing / repairing a lot, and the parts are becoming very hard to come by. As The Recession™ goes from bad to worse, the importers are all going out of business and no UK manufacturer is going to compete with China making something there isn't even that much demand for over here.

So why not do away with all that and go back to DC motors controlled by a simple potentiometer? I think it might be the only way if we are to keep our beloved electric scooters :roll:

One would have to buy a new hub motor, true, something like this:

http://successmotor.en.made-in-china.co ... 1500W.html

Think something might work without a controller? I really don't like the idea of being at the mercy of an industry whose entire manufacturing base is on the other side of the world, so the fewer parts there are to replace, the better.
34 Watt Hours per mile, or > 700 MPG. What, me, smug?

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ChrisB
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Re: Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby ChrisB » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:26 pm

badnewswade wrote:So why not do away with all that and go back to DC motors controlled by a simple potentiometer? I think it might be the only way if we are to keep our beloved electric scooters :roll: .


Because they are terribley inefficient :wink: of course you could just use a basic on/off switch to control the motor..........ah no you cant do that or you'd have to call it a PWM controller :wink:

TBH controllers shouldnt be to hard to source really, well unless its on a Berlingo :lol:

ChrisB
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badnewswade
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Re: Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby badnewswade » Fri Jun 03, 2011 5:33 am

No, for some models they're just impossible. Ended up having to buy a whole new moped!
34 Watt Hours per mile, or > 700 MPG. What, me, smug?

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ChrisB
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Re: Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby ChrisB » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:58 pm

Whats the motor rating and voltage ??

Surely any standard DC controller should be ok unless you've got an AC 3phase type one :?

ChrisB
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badnewswade
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Re: Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby badnewswade » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:14 pm

It was an SW0003 from Jinhua Shiwei, the company that made Swish Bikes. Had an external controller, motor wattage was 800 watts at 48 volts. I think the problem was in the way it closed the circuit to the 12v converter, I'm not sure how it worked exactly but there was an extra connector coming from the controller to a circuit that involved the converter somehow.

In bits now :cry:
34 Watt Hours per mile, or > 700 MPG. What, me, smug?

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hohisilver
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Re: Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby hohisilver » Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:04 pm

Good thing about the Ego is that controllers are readily available and well understood ;)
Ian.

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ChrisB
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Re: Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby ChrisB » Sat Jun 04, 2011 9:56 pm

Would have thought one of the 4qd controllers would have suited :?

http://www.4qd.co.uk/prod/index.html

ChrisB
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Beemer
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Re: Modding a 'leccie scooter to run without a controller

Postby Beemer » Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:56 pm

Years ago I toyed with the idea of contactors so I could wire 2V (FLA) cells into 2V(6P), 4V(3P), 6V(2P) and the full 12V like a four speed gearbox.

Obviously, the more cells the more options for voltages but divisibility must be maintained to run all the cells all the time.


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