Alien controller failure?

[Jonathan Sturgess]

Hi,
I'm a Pedelec commuter - great way not to arrive at work hot and sweaty (nowhere to shower) and great, too, at the end of the day when the wind's in your face all the way home. I fitted an Alien Ocean 36V conversion to my road bike a couple of years ago. Last week, on the flat with the motor running at light load it just cut out. No amount of switching off & on again has revived it.
Tried the throttle/pedelec changeover switch - no response on either setting. There's voltage at the battery terminals, but not at the motor. The connection diagram supplied by Alien shows that one of the wires to the throttle should be at 5V, but there's nothing there when there's 36V on the wire next to it (actually, it's 41V - should it be that high?). The on/off switch on the energy meter/display is lit, so there's juice that far.
Has the controller packed up, or is it just the on/off switch or Power Mode Display? There's potentially lots of oomph in the battery, so I don't want to just connect one wire to another to see what happens.
Any suggestions for more testing, or what I can do next? My work colleagues will be as grateful as me if I can get back my electric assist!
Thanks

 

[Deleted member 4366]

A charged 36v battery shoild ge between 41v and 42v.

No 5v means that the controller is switched off or tge 5v rail has a short on it sonewhere. The pedal sensor, throttle, brakes and controller all use 5v, so a short could be anywhere.

Do you have a control panel where you can select tgree levels of pedal assist?

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

A charged 36v battery shoild ge between 41v and 42v.

No 5v means that the controller is switched off or tge 5v rail has a short on it sonewhere. The pedal sensor, throttle, brakes and controller all use 5v, so a short could be anywhere.

Do you have a control panel where you can select tgree levels of pedal assist?

Yes, the control panel is in the same unit as the on/off switch.
I have disconnected everything (pedal sensor, throttle, brakes, controller, pedelec/throttle changeover switch) from the controller and there's still nothing on the 5V line.
Does the on/off switch need to be on to get the 5V rail energised?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Yes. The red wire provides power to it. When you switch it on, it sends the power down the boue wire to opera5e the controller. The main battery wires go more or less directly to the motor and have nothing to do with the controller.

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

ok. I've plugged the controller in. Got all 4 lights on the battery capacity indicator and the mode button lights the Low/Medium/High LEDs in turn. Now, I'm getting 1V on the 5V rail. (None of the other bits and bobs are plugged in.)
Does that mean that there's a fault in the controller?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Something is pulling the 5v down. If you have hall sensors in your motor, try disconnecting them and check the 5v again.

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

I've not got the motor connected at the moment. It's just the battery and the combined on/off & power level selector unit that are connected to the control box. Everything else is unplugged.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You ned to take the PCB out of the controller to have a look at it. The 5v regulator is probably blown, but why?

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

I've taken the PCB out from the aluminium case. There is nothing obviously wrong, no burn marks or discolouration that I can see.
Not sure which bit is the regulator, though. But even if I did know, I can't change it myself. Is there anyone out there who can repair these things?
If not, then I guess it's time to get a new controller. Who sells those?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Take a photo of it. If the 5v regulator has 12v coming to it, it's an easy repair, but if you have a blown MOSFET, it can take out the 12v, so game over. The 5v regulator can blow if you get water in the throttle or any short/misconnection on the 5v line.

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

Here's the photo. Let me know if it doesn't show you what you need. The controller has a label on it that says the rated current is 6A (maximum 12A) and the throttle adjustment voltage is 1.2 - 4.4V. The product number is LSW624-50-1 X1206008419, if that's any help.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

That looks promising. If a fet was shorted and pulling down the 12v, the big resisistor would show signs of burning. It looks like the regulators are on that daughter board bottom left, so could be a connection issue. I can't see how it's connected to the main board. Can you get a photo?

I can't read the numbers, but by deduction that three-legged component lying horizontally by the big resistor is the 12v regulator. With the battery connected and the controller switched on, measure the voltage on the middle leg with your black probe on the pad where the thick black battery wire is soldered. Be careful not to short anything with your probes. The voltage should be something in the range 10v to 15v.

The 5v regulator is not so easy because it's probably surface mounted. It will also have three legs, one of which will be on a line to the middle leg of the 12v regulator, its middle leg should be 5v and the third 0v, but as you have no 5v, you might not get that.

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

Here's the daughter board face-on. The connections to the main board are through the pins at the bottom left. The second pin from the left (the one without the solder) is not connected to the main board. The pins from the three-legged component that you identified are top right, underneath the number 280621.


These are the connections to the main board as seen from the back of the daughter board - mother board at the top of the shot. As far as I can see, there are no breaks in the connections.
Here's another view of the back of the daughter board from the top (mother board in the background) One of the pins connecting the two is just visible (out of focus) just to the left of the big resistor.

I measured the battery voltage at 40.9V. The voltage on the middle leg of the component labelled A1013 Y A01 was 39.7V? The voltage on the left hand pin (as seen in photo #3 above) was also 39.7V while the voltage on the right hand pin was 39.0. The combined on/off switch and power level selector was plugged in and switched on (leds lit on the selector).

I couldn't figure out where the 5V regulator was.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Now that I can see the markings, that's a transistor. It's difficult without having the board in front of me. Check the voltages on the three pins of that daughter board to see if one is 12v and another 5v.

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

Reading from the pin nearest to the corner of the board, I get 40.8V, 0V and 0.6V

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The way they normally work is that the battery voltage goes through the big resistor to the 12v regulator. It then branches to power the mosfets and the 5v regulator. The 5v then powers the CPU and a branch splits off to power the throttle, PAS. hall sensors, throttle, etc.

My guess was thst the 12v regulator and 5v regulator should be on the daughter board where the big resistor is. If it were like that, there would be 4 pins: battery voltage, 12v, 5v and 0v, so I probably got it wrong.

I would say at this point it's time for a new controller.

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

Thanks d8veh for the time that you've put in trying to sort out the controller - much appreciated. I think that you're right - time for a new one.

Does anyone know where I can buy a controller for a brushless motor? Can't go to Alien Ocean as they've gone out of business.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

It depends how quickly you want to get going. You could upgrade to one with a LCD for a better biking experience. Pandabikes have a sensorless one with the three level LED display for about £65.
http://www.pandabikes-shop.co.uk/controllers/4588042371

This Ebay one is cheaper, but a bit basic with only one PAS level.
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=381234257623&alt=web

 

[Jonathan Sturgess]

Hi. Thanks for the tip. Pandabikes have been very helpful getting me sorted out with something that will fit with what I have already.