Electric Bikes - Best conversion kit without giving up Regen Brakes.

Okay, I recently bought a Golden Motor : Magic Pie II.

It's very cool, but the internal controller is giving me some very mild heat problems. My fear is... It's November. This thing will probably cut out every 5 minutes in the summer heat...

To use this bike as a commuter this summer, I'm going to need to figure something out.
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I'm willing to spend the money and get a Crystallite Phoenix Cruiser. I would get MUCH better performance and reliability. (I believe)

However, the Crystallite controllers do not have any sort of Regenerative braking. I kinda don't want to give that up.
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Do you guys know anybody that sells GOOD 48 volt controllers with regenerative braking features?? I could bypass my Magic Pie's internal controller, or go ahead and buy the Phoenix Cruiser.

Okay, I recently bought a Golden Motor : Magic Pie II.

It's very cool, but the internal controller is giving me some very mild heat problems. My fear is... It's November. This thing will probably cut out every 5 minutes in the summer heat...

To use this bike as a commuter this summer, I'm going to need to figure something out.
------------------------------
I'm willing to spend the money and get a Crystallite Phoenix Cruiser. I would get MUCH better performance and reliability. (I believe)

However, the Crystallite controllers do not have any sort of Regenerative braking. I kinda don't want to give that up.
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Do you guys know anybody that sells GOOD 48 volt controllers with regenerative braking features?? I could bypass my Magic Pie's internal controller, or go ahead and buy the Phoenix Cruiser.


If the motor is still unde warranty, would they be willing to exchange the internal controller for a new external one?
I have 3 of the "Magic Controllers" and they work just fine, here in southern Florida in the summer. (95+f every day)

Thats very interesting i am also fond of these mechanic i would also like to have more knowledge of electronic bikes please somebody help.

Do you guys know anybody that sells GOOD 48 volt controllers with regenerative braking features?? I could bypass my Magic Pie's internal controller, or go ahead and buy the Phoenix Cruiser.

Ebikekit sells the infineon controller. Can be used at 48v and has regen and cruise control, but you have to open up the controller and solder a jumper to enable them.

http://www.e-bikekit.com/shop/index.php?p=product&id=16&parent=13

Note: the ebikes.ca controllers are now enabled for regen by default, so if you don't want it, you have to mod the controller by desoldering, which is what you should probably do if you are running a ping battery...

Note: the ebikes.ca controllers are now enabled for regen by default, so if you don't want it, you have to mod the controller by desoldering, which is what you should probably do if you are running a ping battery...

Okay, so we are still in a situation where regenerative breaks can completely cook a Lithium battery, huh?

** Something I've noticed on my Magic Pie II **

If my SLA battery pack just came off the charger, and I jump on my bike and get it to 25 MPH. Then I hit my brakes...

The regenerative breaks will stutter... Apparently, (This is just an educated guess) the battery pack is full, so the regenerative brakes have no place to dump the power.
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Thanks for the input guys 'n' gals... I'll have to think about this. I have several months before it heats up. =P

I don't think regen will cook ANY lithium battery. Only my Ping LIFP04 battery, which needs special diodes and precautions - related to the question "how much regen current can the motor produce, and how much can the bms accept or the cells accept (if full) - complexity which I don't need or want. Ping's manual has the setup - if you don't do it you could cook it. YMMV. My bikes are tremendous without regen - it's quite immaterial to ME.
But its a tradeoff. Brake pads vs complexity vs range vs battery size. A big lithium will put me fifty miles from home with no regen. I don't like Halls either. Another possible point of failure. I prefer simplicity.

Hey chvid,

What would you recommend if my top two concerns were "Reliability and Regenerative Brakes"??

Crystalite Phoenix Cruiser with one of those external ebikes.ca controllers? (Do crystalite motors have those hall sensors?)

As I said before, just get the external magic controller from GM..
I've had mine for 3 years now with no problems whatsoever.

I think the controllers are largely interoperable from different vendors, as far as getting them to work with any particular direct drive motor - geared will require sensored - you often have to experiment with the non-standard wiring colours and rearranging combinations of Hall wires and phase wires, and you may want or not want particular features like regen enabled, use of ebrakes, pas and/or regular throttles etc. The crystalyte motors are not renowned for reliability Hall-wise in wet conditions - and I've had Hall problems with them here in Victoria. The 9C motors and especially Ezee kits are much more water resistant. The ebikes.ca sensorless controller, which doesn't need Halls and is rated at 20 amps is a rather lame controller - I can only get 800 watts out of mine, with a 48 volt pack. The HighTekBikes sensorless controller is a bit better at 25 amps. The BMSbattery 12 mosfet universal, which can run sensorless or with Hall sensors if available is a considerably better controller than the other two sensorless/pedal-first ones I've tried - and can pull about 1300 watts out a 48Volt pack. It runs great with a 9C, with is a very reliable and powerful combination - except you can't run a CycleAnalyst on it. I would think it work great with a Magic Pie motor as well, set up for external controller. It can also support regen. And cheap. I do have several good sensored controllers from Crystalyte - and they can put out about 1300 watts as well, rated at 35 amps. They run great with a 9C as well. Also a good combination, and much less chance of Hall failure. I really like the 9C motors. The Crystalytes are very nearly silent though. And if you are running a geared motor you will need a sensored controller. I find I like to have a CycleAnalyst on any bike that is oriented to long-distance cruising, as depth of discharge is typically greater in that scenario. For short blasting about town, it wouldn't be necessary - and a 9C and BMSbattery controller is a cheap powerful and reliable setup with no Hall headaches...The Cycleanalyst is great product and allows you to limit a controller set up for it in various ways such as LVC, max amps etc. and gives you nice efficiency readings in watt hours per mile, and distance travelled etc., replacing a bike computer. I think the ebikes.ca controllers are excellent with a 9C - they are mostly sensored and have several configs up to 35 amp ratings. Another nice thing with them is they have a fairly low LVC built in, meaning you can run them on packs of different voltages, such as 36 and 48. Anything higher voltagewise and I'd contact Lyen on the endless-sphere threads for a more powerful unit. And you want to match your controller to baby the battery - not to high an amp rating, or set an amp limit in the CA to help protect the pack. On the other hand if you want someday to run two packs, its nice to have a higher amp rating on it, and just manually go easy on the throttle when using one pack. The ebikes.ca controllers support regen, except not the lame Crystalyte sensorless one I don't think - not sure about your pack - that takes some thought. The 35amp infineon from ebikes.ca is sensored and will work excellently with a 9C but will cost more than a hundred dollars more than the BMSbattery sensorless one. It will of course support the CA, the BMSbattery one won't. There are also some similar controllers from ShenzenSucteam (ebay ecrazyman) which are similar to the BMSbattery ones.

Rather a rambling expose, hope this helps...