Lafree switch problem

[mitty]

Hello, I have come by an older lafree twist (2002) which has stopped working. the battery takes a charge and shows a full set of lights on its side. The switch seemed Ok, as when you switched on it lit up for 2 seconds and then went out as it says it should in the manual. I have taken the switch apart as instructed on fleccs lafree technical page. Inside there was a small amount of moisture and signs of corrosion to the board. Can the corrosion be stopped/fixed or should I move straight towards sourcing a replacement switch ? I have a photo of the switch corrosion if that would help with the diagnosis!

Any help much appreciated, Mitty

 

[flecc]

As long as it's dry and basically clean Mitty, just a light squirt of WD40 or similar should stop further corrosion and keep the switch working for a lot longer.

If the bike is still not working it's more likely to be the main circuit board has failed rather than the switch, a few of the boards on that series unit do fail after long service.
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[mitty]

I dried the switch out and brushed down the corrosion and reassembled the switch. I can't feel the motor kicking in when pedaling. In eco mode would you expect to still feel a boost ? are there any simple tests to find out if it is a switch or a board fault ?

Thanks again Mitty

 

[flecc]

Yes, you should still feel the boost in Eco mode Mitty, especially from a standstill.

There's no easy test possible. This sort of failure is almost always the mainboard, though in a very few cases it has been the motor that's failed. Either way, there are no spares available, Panasonic's policy has always been whole unit replacement.

I've identified some repairs that are possible to overcome errors in the way they run, but complete failure to run has no solution other than a new unit or swapping mainboard or motor from another failed unit to try to make one good one out of two.

Giant e-bike dealers can get a new unit for you and fit it, but the high cost might not be thought sensible on an eight year old bike, since the unit was £450 last time I checked and the dealer would charge a bit extra for fitting.

If you do want to go ahead with that, go to the page below, enter your postcode or town and click the "Hybrid" option to find your nearest e-bike dealer:

Giant dealer page
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[mitty]

Thanks Flecc, There was some power coming from motor when I collected the bike ! Both me and the bike got drenched for 30 min and then the power seem to drop off, I presumed it was the battery so I turned off the pedal assist. When I got home I did a refresh on the battery charger as per the instructions.(It went from refresh to charging in under 30 min then took about 5 hours to charge ) When the battery was charged, I tried the bike again but got nothing. so I brought bike inside to dry out and took the switch apart as per your instructions which was fun (I didn't know you could get ball bearings that small !) Do you know any members who might have a switch I could buy or borrow to test ? Can the switch be bypassed ? Should I explore the motor unit ? Thanks again M

 

[flecc]

I don't know of anyone who has a switch offhand, but you can try bypassing it by shorting across the connections of the microswitches in turn. They sit just under the switch circuit board of course. If you short out each one in turn with a piece of wire bridging the connectors, you could then try a pedal kick to see if there's power.

The main unit is normally totally waterproof so the rain is very unlikely to have any connection there. You could strip it down, but it wouldn't tell you anything since neither the circuit board, motor or Hall sensor board will show any visual sign of failure.

You could contact member Branwen who was advertising a failed Lafree to be sold for spares in the classified section on this link so he might be prepared to break for spares if he still has it, if not you might find a unit or spares through ebay or the like.

Details on stripping the unit are on my webpage here. The mainboard is glued into place, so to change it means swapping the whole right hand side crankcase.
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[mitty]

I'll try to bypass the switch and see if there is any life in the motor.

Thanks for all the advice, Mitty

 

[Andrew harvey]

As a last resort it's possible to fit a standard 24v controller and throttle. This does mean stripping the motor however.

 

[mitty]

Thanks for the reply Andrew, do you mean you have converted an old lafree into a throttle driven bike ? I would be interested in how you did this, does it work well ? I was considering a lafree xtracycle hybrid for a down and dirty cargo bike. so having a throttle control might work well. Apart from range are there any drawbacks ? All food for thought

Thanks again, Mitty

 

[PaulC]

Converting a LaFree into a Throttle-driven bike

Hi,
one of the A to B magazines last year (May09) had a full article (with named suppliers) on how they had converted a LaFree to be a throttle-driven bike. The Panasonic motor was reused but the Panasonic control board was discarded and a special sensorless controllor used with a throttle to control the bike speed.
Hopefully this is helpfu,
Paul

 

[flecc]

Hi,
one of the A to B magazines last year (May09) had a full article (with named suppliers) on how they had converted a LaFree to be a throttle-driven bike. The Panasonic motor was reused but the Panasonic control board was discarded and a special sensorless controllor used with a throttle to control the bike speed.
Hopefully this is helpfu,
Paul

Unfortunately some who wanted to try this just after the article was published found the supplier mentioned, Brett White in Australia, who deals direct with the controller manufacturer could no longer source the right controller.
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