Motors & Controllers: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:43, 19 July 2023

Brushless Motors

Vevor Motors

Suggested replacement hall sensors for Vevor motors: "Hall effect sensors 49E OH49E SS49E linear Hall switch".

Fault Finding Wiring Issues

Running backwards? Swap two motor phases. Some controllers may also need hall sensors swapped too, but not all. Motor not running smoothly? Does your controller have a teach or learn input? That's the easiest route to get it to work. If not, check out the flowchart to the left (credit lsdzs.com).

E-Scooter Controllers

See Rule Zero

Alternators & ESCs

See Pink My Ride

Hoverboards

See CYBR TRK

Second hand Hoverboards are a great way to secure cheap motors, and sometimes even come with a working controller PCB! If the PCB is blown up, common faults include the TIP127 transistors to switch on / regulate the voltage to the board, or the H Bridge MOSFETs. Hoverboard motors are built in to the hub of the wheel, and are available in a few different sizes. They have the advantage of not requiring a chain, and are not locked to the same axle which improves cornering. Wiring is howerver a little more complicated.

The boards typically run at 36V, but will tolerate 48V if you're lucky. Some boards are designed for 24V, which are a little less easily hackable.

Schematics have been quite well reverse engineered for these PCBs, and several alternative firmwares are availible. hoverboard-firmware-hack-FOC by EFeru on GitHub is a favourite, which has lots of hacky friendly features.

Although the motors are only rated at 350W each, some experimentaton with the PCBs showed they will briefly tolerate peaks up to 1.4kW, but catastrophicaly fail at 1.6kW.

It is possible to fit pnuematic tyres to the 6.5" hub motors with some careful modifications. 4.10/3.50-5 tyres are about the only size which can be made to fit. A brake from a Xiaomi M365 can also be fitted to the inside wall of the motor with some modification.

For the latest news, posts and discussions about everything Hacky Racers, head over to the Facebook group.