BBS01 Issue

[Ian London]

Hi all,

I got a lot of great information from this forum before purchasing my BBS01. I purchased and had Woosh fit the BBS01 on a brand new Cube Cross Pro 2017. I've had the bike for 2 weeks and all was well. The performance of the motor exceeded expectations. However a week ago the pedal assist and thumb throttle have stopped working. Basically the motor isn't kicking in. I have checked all the connections and there is no issue. The display is operational and recognised the battery and remaining charge.

I can get the motor to engage if I step off the bike and wheel it backwards. Once I wheel the bike backwards the crank is forcibly engaged and the peals move counter clockwise. There is a sound once it reaches this point moving backwards. After this I can lift the bike and the thumb throttle works. I can reliably repeat this procedure so it's not random. If I push the bike forwards I cannot get the motor to engage. The motor also doesn't engage if I lift the back wheel and peddle forwards.

Woosh have said they will look at the bike but it's quite a tip there and back for me. If anyone has experienced this and knows how to fix it I'd be very grateful.

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 4366]

when you say that the motor doesn't engage, do you mean that it runs, but doesn't drive, or is the motor silent and lifeless?

 

[Ian London]

I mean that, from being powered off, if I power up the system via the thumb control and press the throttle there is no action with the motor, it is silent and it does not respond to the throttle. If I get off the bike and move the bike backwards until the pedals start turning, lift the bike up and press the throttle then the motor starts up and the back wheel turns. If I press the brakes to stop the back wheel turning and press the throttle again then there is nothing from the motor. If I again get off and push the bike backwards, without turning it off and on again, I can again press the throttle and the motor works as normal. After going through this process and the throttle / pedal assist begin to work it is only a short matter of time after before it stops working again (20-30 seconds) and I have to repeat the process outlined above (getting off and pushing it backwards).

It's almost as if when the pedals are rotated by virtue of pushing the bike backwards there is a point at which the motor seems to recognise it is allowed to operate. You can also life the bike up and rotate the peals backwards manually. When rotating the pedals back there is about 1/5 of a turn of slack/play before you meet some resistance. If you try the throttle before you reach this resistance then the motor does not work/turn on/engage. If you do it again until the point of resistance then it will work. It's almost like when you hit the resistance the motor is activated and will respond to the throttle.

There is no rubbing or issue with it when the motor is active.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

That rub was a typo. It should have been runs.

It sounds like the problem is between the hall sensors and the controller. Can you confirm that there's no error code coming on the display?

 

[Ian London]

Thanks for responding. I can confirm there is no error code. I filmed a short video (50 secs) to show the symptoms if you have the time to watch it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r43izbkcl2xz94p/20170731_234951.mp4?dl=0

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I had a pair of hub-motors do that, i.e. only kick into live when turned backwards a bit. Interestingly, they would work properly when I used a sensorless controller and then they'd work at the first attempt thereafter with a sensored one, but as soon as I let go of the throttle, they wouldn't go again until I used the sensorless controller again. If I reversed them, they would run if I was gentle on the throttle. After a long investigation into the cause, I gave up and consigned both motors and both controllers to my spares bin. Some time later (6months), both motors worked with other controllers and both controllers worked with other motors, so the whole episode ended up as a complete mystery.

The only logical explanation for yours is a dodgy hall sensor connection or a dodgy hall sensor. Whichever it is will require a certain amount of dismantling. To get at the hall sensor connector, you need to remove the controller, but first you have to remove the chainwheel and the cover underneath it. The hall sensor connector is siliconed into the motor. You can normally just pull it out, but you might need to cut away some of the silicone. Once the connector's out, you have to remove all the silicone to get it to sit back in properly.

Try that first. you can test the motor with the controller hanging by its wires. If that jogs it back to life, you can reassemble everything. if it doesn't, you need to test the hall sensors, for which you need a 5S balance connector:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5pcs-2S-3S-4S-5S-6S-Lipo-Battery-Balance-Charger-Cable-Connector-Plug-Wire-JX-/132253587871?var=&hash=item1ecaed999f:m:mNOu679QRymo5ZAGE_GwB0w

 

[Ian London]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. It sounds like something I could do but I might opt for taking it back to Woosh. The motor has a 1 year warranty so it might be better to go down that route rather than start dismantling it.

It's very disappointing that this happened so quickly but it sounds like it's quite rare the motors are generally quite reliable.

Thanks

 

[tommie]

Sounds like hall sensors but they usually put up the `Err 08H` message on the display. Are you getting that at all?
Also disconnect the two brake cutoff lines as well, see if any difference.

 

[Ian London]

Not getting any error messages or codes on the display. That works as if there is no issue.

I'll try the brake cutoffs. Thanks for the suggestions.