Electric Bikes - cyclone-usa.com motor : reverse?

I bought the kind of motor they sell at cyclone-usa.com ... and I would like to set it up so that the motor needs to spin clockwise, rather than the standard counterclockwise. I don't know a lot about how to manipulate brushless motors/controllers, does anybody know how to make this motor run in reverse?

I would have told you to go ask on visforvoltage, but I see that you did :)

Did you see this thread in the bicycle/pedelec forum?
http://visforvoltage.org/forum-topic/bicycles-and-pedelecs/478-kollmorgen-24-volt-bike-motor-needs-reversing

it sounds pretty relevant.

Hi cerewa

I have not tried this but my suggestion is based on motor theory.

A BLDC motor is a motor that mimics a polyphase AC motor, normally 3 phase. I have looked inside these motors and note that they do have 3 sets of windings. So far so good.

Now to reverse direction in an AC motor you just reverse two phase connnections. I therefore think that the same would apply here.

Top do this you will need to desolder two set of copper leads running to windings and then resolder on opposite pad.

Hope this helps.

Woody
www.elationebikes.com.au

thanks for the advice, woody. I think I may make this my first ever soldering project :eek:

I think I may make this my first ever soldering project :eek:

Easy enough to practice soldering with scrap parts before trying something valuable. Soldering ain't hard but it takes a bit of practice/experience to understand quick & complete heat transfer to a job.

Advice - use clean tips and flowing solder to help transfer heat to the workpiece. In other words, hold the solder wire between the tip and the part - as it melts it will conduct the heat more evenly than the usually small metal-to-metal contact the iron makes with the workpiece. Keep tip clean and tinned (coated) with solder. Don't have too many cups of coffee!

After you're done, when you go to test i'd try to use minimal current and be gentle on the throttle to figure out if its working properly. That way there's less chance of damage if there are any problems.

Others have been there, maybe not so trivial
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/power-assist/message/62810

But this thread about reversing direction could help
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/power-assist/message/52935

Otherwise, seems Jim Olsen of Cyclone usa can do it for you for 50$
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/power-assist/message/62757

Hi cerewa

I have not tried this but my suggestion is based on motor theory.

A BLDC motor is a motor that mimics a polyphase AC motor, normally 3 phase. I have looked inside these motors and note that they do have 3 sets of windings. So far so good.

Now to reverse direction in an AC motor you just reverse two phase connnections. I therefore think that the same would apply here.

Top do this you will need to desolder two set of copper leads running to windings and then resolder on opposite pad.

Hope this helps.

Woody
www.elationebikes.com.au (http://www.elationebikes.com.au) Two hall sensor wires will also need to be reversed and the hall sensors will need to be rotated the same amount of advance past nutural timming to the other side.

Thanks, everybody, for the advice.

I decided to mount the motor the regular way to avoid having to desolder/resolder stuff in the motor. (and I have no idea how to adjust hall sensors, but maybe it'd be easy enough.)

The plan before was to bolt the motor on below the seat, on top of the seatstays. I'm not sure that would have been any good, but some day maybe I'll try it anyway. Had I gone with the under-the-seat mounting for the motor I would have been able to avoid switching out my cartridge bottom bracket for an adjustable one using the BB spindle from cyclone. However, that setup would put a lot of stress on the motor mount and maybe the motor bearings (which would have to hold up against the pedaling force).

But really, it just came down to the fact that I didn't want to fiddle with the innards of the motor.

I did learn to solder today though, because I had to get my battery pack's wires attached to a plug, otherwise there'd be no way to connect it to the motor. The bike is progressing nicely-- I had to ditch the bullhorn bars to be able to attach the throttle so I put on another chopped-off pair of handlebars, this time ones that were originally cruiser bars.

After all this time it's very exciting to have nearly everything done, although I still don't have the rear rack installed and ready to hold the battery. The cranks are also not reinstalled yet on the new (extra-long) bottom bracket spindle.