Bam!!! Guess what came in today? That's right, the motor controller!!!!
It's a little bigger than I thought it would be, but it still snuggles right between the batteries and the seat post. So after rigging up everything, I plugged in the leads, twisted the throttle, and wait for it: nothing happened! :(
If I've learned anything at NI, it's how to figure out which subsystem is broken. The first test was wiring up a two resistor voltage divider in place of the throttle. The motor immediately jumped to life... Hmm, the throttle must be broken... fiddle fiddle. DMM. Hmm, 5 volt line gets pulled to 2.2 volts. Hmm, build external 5 volt circuit. No luck. Always outputting 800mV. Fiddle some more. BAM! Deciphered the wiring diagram. It turns out even though the throttle and the motor controller have mating connectors, the pinouts are different. The weirdest part: the signal line in green (typically reserved for ground). The red and white lines are also flipped. So here's the correct wiring:
And here's the power meeting rigged to the top tube. Note the light so I can see the display (it isn't backlit and it's night time).
So yeah, this thing is FUCKING FAST! I drove to HEB and back home, up Mesa, down and back up steep hills, this way, that way, etc. Simply amazing. There's absolutely no need to pedal. This motor takes you from zero to "please, no more" in just a few seconds.
I drove around for a long time, then let my room mates ride it. It's really awesome to see other people speed off like they're on a motorcycle!
I've got a huge, satisfied grin on my face! I'm in eheaven.
So Lars rode the bike and when he came back mentioned the motor turned off. I thought he was just coasting, but then I got back on and saw the same thing. After fiddling a bit more, I'm convinced that this was the low voltage protection circuitry kicking in. On closer observation, some of the battery plugs had come undone. I'll definitely need to find something to hold the plugs together.
With the batteries dead, I rigged up my BMS to the ten dead battery packs. I'm a bit scared at this point to try my customer charger because I haven't really thought it through yet. So for now I'm using a Dewalt 2.2A charger, which means it'll take ten hours to charge this pack. Again, my ultimate goal is one hour; for now I'm fine letting it sit overnight.
Here's everything connected and charging.
So fantastic. I'm gonna ride it to work tomorrow and show it off to everyone.
