2 Swytch conversions and a kit from Amazon

[Largered]

Hi Everyone,

As I have just finished converting some rather old bikes, I thought I had better join this forum!
I do, however, have a question.
Would anybody know where I can get thumb throttles for the Swytch conversions please?
I am not getting any replies from Swytch when I emailed them to ask if I could purchase one from them. The Amazon kit came with one and so I would like to fit one to the Swytch bikes.
The Swytch bike controller has an orange 3 pin male connector for a thumb throttle so I thought I would get a thumb throttle from Amazon with a 3 pin female connector. Obviously, that was too simple an answer because the throttle would not work.
Any help gratefully accepted.

 

[Nealh]

First to check is the wire to wire connection, are they in the correct sequence ?
Show us a pic off the connection.

 

[Largered]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have checked. You can only fit them together one way. There is an arrow on the controller connector which has to line up with the arrow on the throttle connector.

 

[Nealh]

Can you confirm the wire colour mating's as not all throttles may be wired in the correct sequence to match the controller.

 

[AndyBike]

Swytch appear to work on the premise that you join their mailing list, and when they have X number on it, they order from China some of their kits. They dont appear to keep them in stock.
They then tell you once they have them that they cost £600, reduced from £999, and you've made a big saving from joining the mailing list so its kind of pointless emailing them looking for one.

 

[Largered]

Nealh, thanks again for the reply. I can't really confirm the wire colour mating without stripping the controller connector and the throttle connector but I guess I will have to do that if I can't find a throttle to match.
AndyBike, yes you are correct about Swytch. If I had done my research on conversion kits I wouldn't have purchased a Swytch. The Amazon kit I used is better.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

If the Swytch kit is customised with a customised battery pack surely it would not be un-realistic to expect the controller logic to be customised too with the throttle connection either disconnected internally or the logic of the chipset simply ignoring any electrical signal from a throttle controller. The Swytch kit is a customised kit based on very easy installation and usable with a wide range of bicycles but it is not a open system like many ebike kits. I personally don't see the value in the Swytch kit especially at the so called full price as the battery packs are so low capacity. On youtube a huge number of bike review sites were given free Swytch kits in order to promote Swytch but that all has to be paid for. In contrast many generic Chinese ebike kits have pretty much no marketing budget and they compete on price only.

I've seen cheap ebike kits with 600-700Wh batteries probably giving the bikes a range of 3x that of a Swytch kit yet the price compared to the Swytch kit at full price is only 1/3rd as much. So almost 10x the distance for each £ spent. However admittedly the Swytch kit is designed about being low impact on the bike with a low weight battery and a lightweight motor wheel. Just about any bike can safely take a Swytch kit where as some of the cheaper kits have significantly more powerful motors and much heavier batteries. You need to consider if the underlying bike is suitable for the kit. Most are I'm sure but some I would say definitely aren't.

 

[Largered]

Thanks for the reply Bonzo Banana,
A thumb throttle was an accessory that was on offer with the Swytch so I don't think that the throttle connection would be disconnected. Other people have managed to get a throttle from Amazon and by cutting and re-soldering wires etc have got a working throttle. I was hoping to go down the simple route and find a throttle which was "plug and play"
I agree entirely that the Swytch is not value for money but it is a very simple kit to fit and the support when fitting is very very good. If I had done my due diligence I would not have bought it.
I have fitted a Swytch kit to my wife's Pendleton style bike and another to a full size folding mountain bike. The Swytch kits were the Pro with the bigger battery. The Amazon kit I have fitted to my old Claud Butler Spirit mountain bike. The Amazon kit has a battery with twice the capacity as the Swytch kit.

 

[ben619]

Thanks for the reply Bonzo Banana,
A thumb throttle was an accessory that was on offer with the Swytch so I don't think that the throttle connection would be disconnected. Other people have managed to get a throttle from Amazon and by cutting and re-soldering wires etc have got a working throttle. I was hoping to go down the simple route and find a throttle which was "plug and play"
I agree entirely that the Swytch is not value for money but it is a very simple kit to fit and the support when fitting is very very good. If I had done my due diligence I would not have bought it.
I have fitted a Swytch kit to my wife's Pendleton style bike and another to a full size folding mountain bike. The Swytch kits were the Pro with the bigger battery. The Amazon kit I have fitted to my old Claud Butler Spirit mountain bike. The Amazon kit has a battery with twice the capacity as the Swytch kit.

Would you share your amazon kit so i can have a nosey please?

 

[Largered]

The Amazon kit is this one
SEASON 26 Inch E-Bike Conversion Kit 36V 250W front motor with 36V15.6Ah Hailong battery, for front wheel disc/v brake, with integrated controller, front light and battery charger
I will post a pic of it on my bike later.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Thanks for the reply Bonzo Banana,
A thumb throttle was an accessory that was on offer with the Swytch so I don't think that the throttle connection would be disconnected. Other people have managed to get a throttle from Amazon and by cutting and re-soldering wires etc have got a working throttle. I was hoping to go down the simple route and find a throttle which was "plug and play"
I agree entirely that the Swytch is not value for money but it is a very simple kit to fit and the support when fitting is very very good. If I had done my due diligence I would not have bought it.
I have fitted a Swytch kit to my wife's Pendleton style bike and another to a full size folding mountain bike. The Swytch kits were the Pro with the bigger battery. The Amazon kit I have fitted to my old Claud Butler Spirit mountain bike. The Amazon kit has a battery with twice the capacity as the Swytch kit.

I didn't realise there was a throttle option but the fact Swytch modified the wiring to make it more proprietary so they could charge more for their own version sort of shows how Swytch think as a company forcing people to hack a standard throttle to work. Good luck to Swytch though many people have higher disposable incomes and want a quick solution and that could be right for them. I like to maximise my value and look at what I would actually be getting for the money and it feels a little pricey to me even for pre-orders.

Also I wonder about the lack of brake sensors included. How fast does the motor cut off if you stop pedalling? Would it be as fast as brake sensors cutting the power? I've not seen anyone make the comparison.

Anyway best of luck finding your solution to the throttle issue.

 

[Largered]

The brake sensors were another optional extra from Swytch. I have to admit it was great marketing by them! Thanks for your input Bonzo Banana

 

[Bonzo Banana]

The brake sensors were another optional extra from Swytch. I have to admit it was great marketing by them! Thanks for your input Bonzo Banana

I have to say I bought a voilamart kit and it was only about £100 from ebay about 2 years ago. It included brake sensors and throttle although no battery I had to buy that separately. In fact you were forced to have a throttle as the controller was an LED display with throttle combined. So a bit difficult to make it an option.

 

[jdunphy]

Hello, I am also a new user and my wife has had her swytch for 2 rides and wants a throttle. As a result, I began looking for one and found this thread. I found this:
Ref: https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/swytch-kit-replacement-500w-controller.42281/#post-632577
where someone has diagrammed the connections inside the proprietary battery pack. I also did a reverse image search on the swytch product which is: https://swytchbike.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/4404133116945/mceclip1.png and found a 3 Pin Bafang 8fun Thumb Throttle for BBS01B, etc 36V 48V 52V 72V Mid Motor Conversion Kits that looks like a fit.
Ref:

https://www.dhgate.com/product/3-pin-bafang-8fun-thumb-throttle-for-bbs/422760683.html

But this entire thread has me wondering if they have switched one of the pins. She wants me to wait but I think we can probably use the one above provided I have a method to verify the pins. Does anyone know what the name of this connector is and what pins are normally what? I am going to keep researching this today and will update this thread if I find anything.

 

[Largered]

Great info thank you.
The connector is a male Julet 3 pin but I don't know which pin is which without stripping the cable.

 

[Largered]

Also I did find a throttle on Amazon with a 3 pin Julet female connector so it fitted the controller on the Swytch but it didn't work.

 

[Largered]

Also you might want to look at this, the seller says it's not compatible with Swytch.

Left Thumb Throttle for Bafang BBS01 BBS02 BBSHD Mid Drive Electric Bike Ebike | eBay

Function: Left hand thumb throttle for adjusting the speed. Honesty, reliability & integrity - I am not a ‘dump & run’ trader. Install: Left Hand.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[jdunphy]

Thanks. It looks like we should be able to figure this out. The name brand throttles appear to be well documented. I found this: https://electricbike.com/forum/filedata/fetch?id=77041&d=1540926770 showing some pin-outs.

So we should be able to back probe the connector from the switch to figure out which one has voltage and which one is ground. I am leaning toward cutting the throttle cable in half when/if it doesn't work, swapping pin 6 and 7 and then use that self fusing waterproof tape to put it back together.

My wife is dealing with swytch directly but I would rather figure this out what they are doing and what products they are using so that we can keep this thing rolling in the future.

Another reference:

Thumb Throttle

Multimeter won't measure any volts when there isn't any. Ground wire should read continuity to the frame, so you can identify it without powering the battery. You sure can put thumb throttle on the left side, if you installed a grip-shifter. Order from Grin, they have thumb throttles that can...

electricbikereview.com

 

[Largered]

Thanks, I think that is the way forward.

 

[jdunphy]

Joined a Swytch facebook page today and one of the posts there said that the Swytch provided throttle has FT-21X stamped on theirs. A search on google, ebay can find many that appear to be match. Example:
EBike Electric Bicycle Thumb Throttle, FT-21X Finger Throttle Accelerator, S NU3 - $10.49 USD + $1.59USD S/H on ebay.ca for example.