I am thinking that it would be possible to make a 3D printable battery case that would utilize more of the interior volume when the battery eventually needs to be replaced. Could use newer higher density cells and fit a few more cells in there for more capacity. I'm sure some people will be 3D printing stuff for the bike eventually.
Nice work! This was exactly my plan but I am still waiting on the bike. The controller should be thermally protected. I think the issue is either the battery bms may not have a thermal cutoff ( I will be looking at the bms in a battery breakdown video) or the motor wiring may not accept the current level you need at 80mph. I would assume it’s more of a battery issue but only testing will know for sure.
Yes, the controller has thermal protection. And it's configurable. But I won't make/post any changes to that until someone can confirm what the motor can take. I have a way to monitor temperature now (ua-cam.com/video/15F4YC-NEOc/v-deo.html), just waiting for some better weather :)
@7:43 you can remove some of the throttle deadband by calibrating the throttle settings. Those shown are default which are guaranteed to work with any hall sensor throttle but if you set them tighter you will get more usable throttle resolution. You just need your multimeter and measure the base throttle signal with the bike on (normally around 0.8v) and then the throttle signal at full throttle. The start voltage (second setting) must be higher than the base voltage or you will get the “whiskey throttle” fault and it won’t run. But 0.1v above base signal is enough. Similarly, the “end of throttle” setting should be 0.1v under the max throttle signal. Then you will have 100% throttle range with minimal dead band.
Go to the UA-cam channel killboy as he has a bunch of videos he just posted about the motorcycle. He owns the store on the tail of the dragon in the United States. The very popular motorcycle and car enthusiast road. He mentions in the video that there are settings in the controller for adjusting to regenerative braking. Stock as soon as you let off the throttle regenerative braking engages if the battery is not full already. Apparently there is a toggle the switch from off throttle regenerative braking to regenerative braking when you apply one of breaks. The problem with that though is if you're on slippery pavement due to water or debris and you have regenerative braking set to activate when you depress the brake levers. You can overwhelm the traction on your rear tire as the hub motor can generate quite a bit of regenerative braking by itself. So if you switch this settings over to regener to break it when you use the hand levers be very careful until you get used to it. As you could easily overwhelm your rear tires traction and low side in a corner. Or even worse high side in the corner!
Also on that 2nd page there is another check mark that says "soft start" in the bottom right if you remove that check it will stop the lag in power off start
That Hack is more important to me vs Sport Mode Hack (I will not be doing Freeway Travel). Let me know if it makes a big "faster start" difference if you do try this!
@@DoyleStein It should make a huge difference, electric motors have maximum torque at 0 rpm. Not sure I'll be doing it anytime soon but I'm sure it was put in there to keep people from whiskey throttling it and getting hurt. The power is instant unlike a gas motor! Just look up custom e-bikes with the VTOL 200 2SP controller in UA-cam, there are guys running custom bikes without the soft start.
Yes, removing soft start makes a big difference. I'll put a video on that soon. Also the 'rate of rise'. However, hub motors are not good at starting from zero, so I will let people with more experience on Votol controllers to chime in.
Great informative video my friend. I am looking to just upgrade the controller to the EM-260 and figure out a way to make it fit correctly since the EM-200/2 and EM-260 are different in size. The harness is exactly the same so it's a direct plug in. I am going to look into opening up the battery and see what BMS was used for it and upgrade it if necessary. Also want to add ferrofluid to the motor and see how I can install extra Heat sinks on the HUB. Once again thanks for this video and good luck with your META.
That's quite interesting, do let me know how that goes! I'm curious if the wire protocol for EM-260 controller is also identical; if you managed to change the controller, do let me know!
I installed heatsinks on my 5kw motor and it works fantastic. So good infact i decided against adding ferro fluid. Youre adding more resistance in the motor by adding that and it doesnt last indefinitely. Meaning it will do what all fluid does and breakdown coating the inside with bad fluid. You would have to take the motor apart to clean it which is a big undertaking. It makes me nervous doing something like that especially if you still have a warranty. Does the meta motor get pretty hot?
I bought the cable, connected it to the right pins, connected the usb to the bike and powered bike on. Launched the program and made sure the port settings were correct. I still get a no comms message. not sure what to do. Windows 10 pc, ran in compatibility mode 7,8, then back to 10. Tried every sequence for connecting cable, opening program, powering bike. tried can mode also. PC doesnt recognize usb device but does recognize com port 1. tried installing drivers but windows only recognizes .inf files not .dll or the other formats. tried installing com drivers to no avail. Please help!
Were you ever able to resolve this? I finally got around to doing this and ran into the same issue. I tried a Win11 and Win10 laptop, reverted to the old drivers, tried different regions, compatibility mode, etc. and no change in behavior.
Things are only fun if you can burn out your motor or brick a controller unit. No disclaimer required. You could also go say 75 mph(120kph) for extended periods just to reduce the amperage a bit to give you a margin of error.
I think you should look into the USB port that USB inside of the charger box has more than just two wires hooked up to it so it could go to the controller you need to look into that
Ugh, I am frustrated :( I have ordered all the parts, but can't figure out how to properly "create" the 20 pin connector. I purchased the one you suggested in the description, but don't know how to get the pin through to connect with the Sondors Metacycle. When I go to "connect", I am unable to establish the connection, most likely because the wires aren't touching. Do you have any kind of a low rent tutorial on how to make the Molex 20 pin connector? I bought you a few coffees for your troubles. TIA
Please note that CAN H and CAN L are on pins 1 and 11. Pins 10 and 20 are battery voltage and will likely mess up your programming cable. But good info otherwise.
I very happy that you managed to hack the VOTOL on the Metacycle. Is there any way that you can color code a diagram for me? I am making my plug in cable but I am not sure how to correctly run each wire from the Molex 20 pin ports 11, 10 and 20 to the correct ports on the 4 pin connector. By the way enjoy the 3 cups of coffee I just bought you LOL 😂
Yes, you can set it to whatever you want. Again, that does not mean it would actually work for that long continuously… Not planning to try to go above that limit, I just don't want it to cut off in the middle of an acceleration, which can be dangerous. Cutting off because of overheating can also be dangerous, so please make your own life decisions!
That $46 usb -> eBike adapter. can anyone confirm whether it's any different than a "USB to TTL" or "FTDI" adapter with a custom fit end on it? that can be found for $10 or less? it looks like it to me. possibly with the caveat that it does 5V signal instead of 3.3V. I've got a few of those laying around from various Raspberry Pi projects that i'm willing to sacrifice, and will report back when i get it wired up to a Molex 20 pin connector.
Hi Ben, it's a bit more complicated than that. I tried 3 Votol adaptors and I can assure you only that one works. You could maybe buy it on AliExpress, but not for much cheaper. Internally, it has a USB-serial, CAN-SPI (like MCP2551) and a microcontroller. Definitely doable to make it, but pretty sure you'll end up with way more than $10. Definitely not level converter. Also, check this out: ua-cam.com/video/15F4YC-NEOc/v-deo.html for a nicer alternative :)
Blue is Can + (HIGH) (pin 10 on the 20 pin connector), Yellow in Can - (LOW) (pin 20 on the 20 pin connector). You can connect them the other way, all will happen is that it won't connect.
Is there a reason why not just eliminate the 20 pin - 4 pin and hardwire the USB straight to the 20 pin? The 4 pin connectors etc are unnecessary unless you use these 2 for other reasons? Also, The USB Dongle only has 2 conductors using only 2 pins on the square connector. Why do you insert 3 wires into the outgoing connector? 1 pin is not being used at all? I do not see where you are combining the grounds (If you are this is IMPORTANT) so the 20 pin will have 2 grnds. 1 Positive. The shown here is only connecting to the USB dongle on 2 wires not 3 Thx!
There are only 2 wires required. You can cut off the connector from the USB dongle and solder the wires directly on the 20 pin connector, but the 4 pin connector is the standard programming port for this controller and I wanted to keep it that way.
Keep it coming. I am very interested in seeing how fast the Metacycle can go even for just a minute. I imagine the sport mode burn up issue is some ratio between how long and how hard the moter is running. If it could go 90mph for a minute that would be sweet. I would also be interested if the cool down period could be reduced. Lastly, I would like to see another battery attached for increased range and or capability for fast charging.
I think there are people out there that are much more versed into tuning the controller. I'm planning to just explore functionality and build the software side. I'd be interested in collaborating on this, that's why I published the interface. I can see already some comments in here that give a few great ideas of future developments.
Thank you for your hard work, ingenuity, and risk. I got the bike in hopes it could be improved. Well I can't exactly say got becouse they arw still not delivering and ignoring me.
Thank you for the useful video! Can you please suggest what documentation are you looking at 1:13? Can't find it. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. This was GREAT!!
Can you explain how you wired up the bluetooth version of the controller? Looks like there are 4 wires on that... red, blue, black and yellow...?
Great video plan to do this as soon as i get my bike in a few weeks. Keep it up!
Great work! Anxiously Waiting for a larger battery... Any ideas yet?
I am thinking that it would be possible to make a 3D printable battery case that would utilize more of the interior volume when the battery eventually needs to be replaced. Could use newer higher density cells and fit a few more cells in there for more capacity. I'm sure some people will be 3D printing stuff for the bike eventually.
Nice work! This was exactly my plan but I am still waiting on the bike. The controller should be thermally protected. I think the issue is either the battery bms may not have a thermal cutoff ( I will be looking at the bms in a battery breakdown video) or the motor wiring may not accept the current level you need at 80mph. I would assume it’s more of a battery issue but only testing will know for sure.
Yes, the controller has thermal protection. And it's configurable. But I won't make/post any changes to that until someone can confirm what the motor can take. I have a way to monitor temperature now (ua-cam.com/video/15F4YC-NEOc/v-deo.html), just waiting for some better weather :)
@7:43 you can remove some of the throttle deadband by calibrating the throttle settings. Those shown are default which are guaranteed to work with any hall sensor throttle but if you set them tighter you will get more usable throttle resolution.
You just need your multimeter and measure the base throttle signal with the bike on (normally around 0.8v) and then the throttle signal at full throttle.
The start voltage (second setting) must be higher than the base voltage or you will get the “whiskey throttle” fault and it won’t run. But 0.1v above base signal is enough.
Similarly, the “end of throttle” setting should be 0.1v under the max throttle signal. Then you will have 100% throttle range with minimal dead band.
Thanks for the insights. I'll try that out when I get a chance.
Would like to know more i f regeneration can be activated also!
Go to the UA-cam channel killboy as he has a bunch of videos he just posted about the motorcycle. He owns the store on the tail of the dragon in the United States. The very popular motorcycle and car enthusiast road. He mentions in the video that there are settings in the controller for adjusting to regenerative braking. Stock as soon as you let off the throttle regenerative braking engages if the battery is not full already. Apparently there is a toggle the switch from off throttle regenerative braking to regenerative braking when you apply one of breaks. The problem with that though is if you're on slippery pavement due to water or debris and you have regenerative braking set to activate when you depress the brake levers. You can overwhelm the traction on your rear tire as the hub motor can generate quite a bit of regenerative braking by itself. So if you switch this settings over to regener to break it when you use the hand levers be very careful until you get used to it. As you could easily overwhelm your rear tires traction and low side in a corner. Or even worse high side in the corner!
Also on that 2nd page there is another check mark that says "soft start" in the bottom right if you remove that check it will stop the lag in power off start
That Hack is more important to me vs Sport Mode Hack (I will not be doing Freeway Travel). Let me know if it makes a big "faster start" difference if you do try this!
@@DoyleStein It should make a huge difference, electric motors have maximum torque at 0 rpm. Not sure I'll be doing it anytime soon but I'm sure it was put in there to keep people from whiskey throttling it and getting hurt. The power is instant unlike a gas motor! Just look up custom e-bikes with the VTOL 200 2SP controller in UA-cam, there are guys running custom bikes without the soft start.
@@JoelDavis13 could try to adj grade value first vs disabled I guess
Yes, removing soft start makes a big difference. I'll put a video on that soon. Also the 'rate of rise'. However, hub motors are not good at starting from zero, so I will let people with more experience on Votol controllers to chime in.
Great informative video my friend. I am looking to just upgrade the controller to the EM-260 and figure out a way to make it fit correctly since the EM-200/2 and EM-260 are different in size. The harness is exactly the same so it's a direct plug in. I am going to look into opening up the battery and see what BMS was used for it and upgrade it if necessary. Also want to add ferrofluid to the motor and see how I can install extra Heat sinks on the HUB. Once again thanks for this video and good luck with your META.
That's quite interesting, do let me know how that goes! I'm curious if the wire protocol for EM-260 controller is also identical; if you managed to change the controller, do let me know!
I installed heatsinks on my 5kw motor and it works fantastic. So good infact i decided against adding ferro fluid. Youre adding more resistance in the motor by adding that and it doesnt last indefinitely. Meaning it will do what all fluid does and breakdown coating the inside with bad fluid. You would have to take the motor apart to clean it which is a big undertaking. It makes me nervous doing something like that especially if you still have a warranty. Does the meta motor get pretty hot?
I bought the cable, connected it to the right pins, connected the usb to the bike and powered bike on. Launched the program and made sure the port settings were correct. I still get a no comms message. not sure what to do. Windows 10 pc, ran in compatibility mode 7,8, then back to 10. Tried every sequence for connecting cable, opening program, powering bike. tried can mode also. PC doesnt recognize usb device but does recognize com port 1. tried installing drivers but windows only recognizes .inf files not .dll or the other formats. tried installing com drivers to no avail. Please help!
Were you ever able to resolve this? I finally got around to doing this and ran into the same issue. I tried a Win11 and Win10 laptop, reverted to the old drivers, tried different regions, compatibility mode, etc. and no change in behavior.
Where did you get the manual w/ wiring diagram for the controller? I did not find it on SIAECOSYS, nor anywhere else.
www.siaecosys.com/upfile/202111/2021111563667301.pdf (EM150-2SP Wire Drawing).
Things are only fun if you can burn out your motor or brick a controller unit. No disclaimer required. You could also go say 75 mph(120kph) for extended periods just to reduce the amperage a bit to give you a margin of error.
I think you should look into the USB port that USB inside of the charger box has more than just two wires hooked up to it so it could go to the controller you need to look into that
Great work - Bought you a coffee or two - keep it coming.
I noticed that for your adapter cable you wired D+/D-/G but the USB adapter is only 2-wire. Does the USB adapter not have a ground connection? Thanks!
Hello, I would like to purchase one of your black box products.
Ugh, I am frustrated :(
I have ordered all the parts, but can't figure out how to properly "create" the 20 pin connector. I purchased the one you suggested in the description, but don't know how to get the pin through to connect with the Sondors Metacycle. When I go to "connect", I am unable to establish the connection, most likely because the wires aren't touching. Do you have any kind of a low rent tutorial on how to make the Molex 20 pin connector? I bought you a few coffees for your troubles. TIA
Hey, I can build one for you if you want. www.ebay.com/itm/304835659092
I’ll take one please
@@metacyclehack I would like to purchase this cable. Do you still sell this?
Please note that CAN H and CAN L are on pins 1 and 11. Pins 10 and 20 are battery voltage and will likely mess up your programming cable. But good info otherwise.
Good catch. It should be: TXD (BLUE) -> PIN 1 (CAN-), RXD (YELLOW) -> PIN 11 (CAN+), GND -> PIN 20 (GND)
@@metacyclehack From the USB dongle as received the blue wire goes to Can + (HIGH), Yellow to Can - (LOW). It didn't work until I reversed them.
Hi handsome. I own a metacycle 0030.
Wow! Thanks so much, I’m going to try it soon.
I very happy that you managed to hack the VOTOL on the Metacycle. Is there any way that you can color code a diagram for me? I am making my plug in cable but I am not sure how to correctly run each wire from the Molex 20 pin ports 11, 10 and 20 to the correct ports on the 4 pin connector. By the way enjoy the 3 cups of coffee I just bought you LOL 😂
Can you write more time instead the 120 seconds ?
Yes, you can set it to whatever you want. Again, that does not mean it would actually work for that long continuously… Not planning to try to go above that limit, I just don't want it to cut off in the middle of an acceleration, which can be dangerous. Cutting off because of overheating can also be dangerous, so please make your own life decisions!
Can u Give us 4 minutes at Sport Mode,at 90 mph, Thanks
Can you just increase the duration of cooldown? Knowing myself, it will be top speed all the time 😁
so sport mode 2 min limitation is completely off?
That $46 usb -> eBike adapter. can anyone confirm whether it's any different than a "USB to TTL" or "FTDI" adapter with a custom fit end on it? that can be found for $10 or less? it looks like it to me. possibly with the caveat that it does 5V signal instead of 3.3V. I've got a few of those laying around from various Raspberry Pi projects that i'm willing to sacrifice, and will report back when i get it wired up to a Molex 20 pin connector.
Hi Ben, it's a bit more complicated than that. I tried 3 Votol adaptors and I can assure you only that one works. You could maybe buy it on AliExpress, but not for much cheaper. Internally, it has a USB-serial, CAN-SPI (like MCP2551) and a microcontroller. Definitely doable to make it, but pretty sure you'll end up with way more than $10. Definitely not level converter. Also, check this out: ua-cam.com/video/15F4YC-NEOc/v-deo.html for a nicer alternative :)
Coming off the USB controller - Is CAN HI Blue or Yellow?
Blue is Can + (HIGH) (pin 10 on the 20 pin connector), Yellow in Can - (LOW) (pin 20 on the 20 pin connector). You can connect them the other way, all will happen is that it won't connect.
@@metacyclehack - Thank you, yea just trying to save some time :) all two minutes of it.
Is there a reason why not just eliminate the 20 pin - 4 pin and hardwire the USB straight to the 20 pin? The 4 pin connectors etc are unnecessary unless you use these 2 for other reasons?
Also, The USB Dongle only has 2 conductors using only 2 pins on the square connector. Why do you insert 3 wires into the outgoing connector? 1 pin is not being used at all? I do not see where you are combining the grounds (If you are this is IMPORTANT) so the 20 pin will have 2 grnds. 1 Positive. The shown here is only connecting to the USB dongle on 2 wires not 3 Thx!
There are only 2 wires required. You can cut off the connector from the USB dongle and solder the wires directly on the 20 pin connector, but the 4 pin connector is the standard programming port for this controller and I wanted to keep it that way.
Any chance you want to sell the USB connections?
I have one left over: www.ebay.com/itm/304809263506. Might be able to build a few more.
@@metacyclehack you going to make more to sell?? I would like to buy
Keep it coming. I am very interested in seeing how fast the Metacycle can go even for just a minute. I imagine the sport mode burn up issue is some ratio between how long and how hard the moter is running. If it could go 90mph for a minute that would be sweet.
I would also be interested if the cool down period could be reduced.
Lastly, I would like to see another battery attached for increased range and or capability for fast charging.
I think there are people out there that are much more versed into tuning the controller. I'm planning to just explore functionality and build the software side. I'd be interested in collaborating on this, that's why I published the interface. I can see already some comments in here that give a few great ideas of future developments.
Thank you for your hard work, ingenuity, and risk. I got the bike in hopes it could be improved. Well I can't exactly say got becouse they arw still not delivering and ignoring me.
Do you regret buying it?
Stupid question , do i need a pc to run the software? Also are you willing to make these cables for me if i pay you? @metacycle hacking