Part 5 - Configuring the New Controller

At this point in the project, you are ready to head out and start playing. At least I was. Unfortunately the configuration of the controller as installed on my phone was not ideal for what I needed to do. In fact, as I alluded to in the previous post I had a problem that when I rolled the throttle too quickly, or loaded the motor too much the controller would turn off the motor and it wouldn't work until I cycled the ignition key again. After I was told how to configure the controller, that problem and others went away. So let 's look at the last piece of the puzzle, Configuration.

If you haven't already done so, download the Daymak Drive App. Throughout the blog I've linked to Google Play store to download the Android version, but the Apple App store has Daymak Drive App as well.

Daymak has a few guides to help with the app;

• Daymak Drive Quick Guide
• Daymak Drive IOS Manual

Reading both will help with setting up and using the app. They also discuss the various configuration settings as well. I won't be detailing all of them here, but I will touch on the ones that I had to play with to make my Beast perform properly.

Turn the key on, start the Daymak Drive App, and when the list of available Bluetooth devices appear, select "Daymak Drive". The first time you connect you will be asked for the password, which is; 12345678.

Main Screen

Once you are connected you'll see the main screen. Tap the Settings Icon to change the configuration settings. As you can see there are a number of them that you can play with. To get things going we need to look a few of them.

• Low Voltage Threshold
• Battery Current Limit(A)
• Phase Current Limit(A)
• Speed Notification
• Wheel Size

The problem I had with the controller cutting off the motor prematurely was caused because the default voltage setting for the Low Voltage Threshold was 63 Volts. So anytime the voltage dropped below 63 Volts the motor stopped until the ignition was cycled. So I was told by the Daymak Technician to set this to 42 Volts. That made all the difference.

The Motor Amperage and Phase Amperage was set at 50%, I was told to put both to 70%. I ended up at 100% to get me all the up my hill, however.

I turned off Speed Notifications because I didn't want to be notified if I was going too fast. But that's your choice.

Wheel Size was incorrect for the Beast as well. As seen on the side of the tire, the wheel size is 10".

There are a lot of other settings that I still need to play with, but overall making the changes mentioned made this upgraded Beast a blast to drive. I'll comment on a few other settings that I've played with, but I may not be completely accurate.

• Turbo - Turning this "On" help with the road speed noticeably compared to Off-Road.
• Off-Road - Seems to accelerate at a more leisurely pace.
• Eco - Noticeably reduces the acceleration and top speed. Good for kids and Grandmas
• EBS Brakes - Uses the Motor to electrically slow the Beast down. Higher the number, the more noticeable it is. Very helpful on long declines.
• Forward/Reverse - Allows you to force the motor to spin in the opposite direction.
• Reverse Speed Limit - limits how fast the motor will spin in reverse.
• Hall Sensor Phase Angle - Leave at 120 degrees since there are 3 Hall Sensors in the motor. 3 sensors x 120 degrees = 360 rotation.
• Adjust Accelerator Angle = I didn't notice a big difference, but it seems to change the acceleration from a linear mapping to one where you get more acceleration with less movement of the throttle in the center of its range.

The other settings I haven't worked with enough to truly know what they do. I'll add as I can. I should also mention the Calibration button at the bottom. I ran through this, but didn't notice a difference in how it ran. So I have to try it again and see if I can figure it out.

I know this app is a work in progress, so if I could suggest an improvement, it would be to be able to save all the configuration settings into a profile that would be easy to get to. This would allow me to set the settings for Off-Road Mode, On-Road Mode, Kid Mode, Eco Mode etc. I have found myself wanting to stop and change the settings in the middle of a ride because of the different conditions. Hopefully they will add this feature.

At this point, I'm assuming your Beast is running at least as well as mine. I'll continue to add information to this blog as it becomes available. Happy Trails!

Part 4 - Testing the Setup

I'm sure there have been a few set-backs and/or questions about your setup compared to what I've been explaining. But if you have gotten this far, you've learned a lot about your Beast. You have probably already turned the key on and cycled the throttle. And you may have even got everything working as expected. To those of you, I'd like to congratulate you. For all the others (which includes myself) testing and trouble shooting may be in order. This post is dedicated to describing tips and techniques that may help in correcting some issues.

The Beast Back Together and Ready to Ride.

First things first. This may be obvious, but then again maybe not. Be sure the battery pack is fully charged and do all your testing with the rear tire off the ground and the side kickstand in the up position.

Turn the key on and rotate the throttle, if you find the rear tire spins in the forward direction in a smooth manner, then you are half way home. Assuming this is working properly, test both brakes with the throttle partially on and motor energized. The connection you made to the "High Brake" pigtail on the controller should cause the motor to stop being energized. You may also notice that the motor actually slows itself with a change in the sound the motor makes. This is due to a feature called EBS - Electronic Braking System. If this occurs then you know that this functionality is working properly.

Now rotate the throttle again and watch the instrument panel. You should see the speedometer increase with the speed of the tire. This is the signal coming from the "Hall Meter" wire you connected.

Next, put the side kick-stand down then twist the throttle. The motor should NOT spin. BTW: This caused me to waste 20 minutes when I was troubleshooting the setup because I left the side kick-stand down and I couldn't figure out why the motor suddenly stopped working! So be aware.

If you have gotten this far and everything is working, then its time to move to Part 5 and set up the configuration of the Daymak Drive App. Otherwise, continue reading this post.

Things not working properly? Let's go over a few things that may have occurred.

If you hear that the motor is growling and not spinning, or spinning roughly and making lots of noise, then either the phase wires are connected out of order, or the Hall Sensor wires are connected out of order. It's also possible that both are mis-positioned.

Look back the the schematic to ensure the proper color motor phase wires are connected to the proper terminals on the controller (Blue Yellow Green on the bottom row going left to right). If these are connected in the proper order, then turn your attention to the Hall Sensor wires. In my case, the wires just needed to be connected color for color. Red to Red, Black to Black, etc.

If these are connected according to the schematic and not working, then more testing will need to be done, since your particular setup must be different than what I had. Never fear, you can go through a systematic process to verify the Motor Phase wiring and the Hall Sensor combination. This will take time and education, which is why I would encourage you to read the site I've mentioned a few times. It can be found here. Also, it might be worth a call to Daymak themselves to speak with one of the their technicians. I found them very helpful, but hard to reach at times.

If it comes to this, I would highly encourage you to protect the controller by installing a 5 or 10 amp fuse in series with the B+ cable coming from the battery pack to the B+ terminal of the controller. If you have one, I'd also suggest that you wire an ammeter into the circuit as well so you can see how much current the controller is using. A normally working system will show the amps increasing smoothly and in concert with the movement of the throttle. If there is an issue with the motor phase or Hall Sensor, then the ammeter will spike quickly and that's why you want a fuse in the circuit. In my case, I blew two 10 amp fuses before I figured everything out. Glad I had it there!

Here is a quick video of my testing setup at work. In the video, you'll see that the controller cuts off the motor prematurely and I have to cycle the key to get it to work again. This ended up being a configuration issue in the Daymak Drive App which we will discuss in Part 5.

Another technique that can be used is simply to touch the three motor phase wires to check how hot these are. In normal operation the temperature will feel elevated, but only warm. Never hot.

After the motor phase wires and Hall Sensor wires are properly matched, the motor will spin in the proper direction and do so smoothly with a minimal of noise. The video is a good gauge of how it should sound.

Finally, depending on how the Daymak Drive App has been configured, you may find that even though the motor is working, it may not perform properly. In my case, when I twisted the throttle too quickly, or loaded the motor too much the controller would turn off the motor and I would have to cycle the key before it would work again. This, as I finally found out, was caused by the way the app was configured, and not a bad controller. This is why Part 5 will be important. It will go over some of the more important configuration settings in the app. So take a look when you are ready.

Part 3 - Connecting the Signal Input Circuits

Part 2 went through how to wire the motor and battery pack to the controller. But that is only half of the process. We still have a number of other circuits to connect. Luckily we won't be required to utilize all the pigtails coming off the controller. In fact, we only need to connect 5 of the pigtails. Though I ended up using a few more, which are discussed later.

Notice the Motor and Battery Pack connections are shown on the left.
Other Low Voltage are depicted on the right.

Daymak did a nice job of labeling each pigtail and its purpose, so that makes our job easier. However, most of the connectors will have to be replaced. You can easily match the wires and use individual butt connectors, or simply solder them together. Neither option is the best in my opinion.

I would strongly suggest that you source weather proofed connectors to use. This will allow trouble free use in all types of conditions. A good source for these types of connectors is a company called Del City. You can visit their web site at www.delcity.net. I chose to use "WeatherPack" style connectors, mostly because I had back-stock of these in my garage, but there are a number of other styles that may be equally suitable. I'm sure most auto parts stores will have a similar style of connector. Regardless of style, you'll need to ensure a good, solid connection. This is especially true of the 5 Hall Effect Sensor wires.

The 5 pigtails (with brief descriptions) that you need to locate and connect are;

• Hall Sensor - Sensor is located inside the motor and the controller uses its information to determine which phase of the 3 phases to power to properly rotate the wheel.
• Power Switch - Connects to the ignition switch so that in the "On" position it turns the controller on.
• Hall Meter - Provides needed information to the instrument panel for the speedometer.
• Throttle - Provides throttle position information to the controller.
• High Brake - Connects to the two hand brakes on the handlebars, which I believe is why its labeled "High Brake" as opposed to a foot brake that other models have which I believe is called "Low Brake".

The other pigtails should be culled out from the others. I used corrugated plastic harness cover to achieve this.

Using the appropriate techniques, install the terminals, seals and connectors for each pigtail. The schematic will show what needs to be connected. A couple of small notes are appropriate here, however.

You will notice that connected to what I determined to be the main connector, (white 6 way with blue insulators) is a harness that went to the original controller. It terminates in a Black connector which plugged into the side of the original green controller. 

On my unit, I noticed that there was a bunch of electrical tape over something on the end next to the white connector. 

When I removed the tape I found capacitors and resistors connecting a few of the wires. I have yet to determine what this is for, but at some point I'll trace them down. 

The bottom-line is you won't need this harness, so just remove it from the white main connector and set it aside. 

You will need to use 2 of the wires from the main white connector, the Solid Yellow (Power Switch) and the Yellow/Green (High Brake). The others will not be used at this point.

Used 1 connector to connect 2 different circuits

The second note deals with the 3 wires that make up the throttle circuit. These three wires connect to the TPS through a unsealed white connector.

Harness coming off TPS

If you follow these wires, they run to the white main connector. This 6 inch stretch of wires will not be used. You will connect the wires from the TPS directly to the Throttle pigtail coming from the controller, matching color for color. I had to rearrange the wires to match the three wires color for color.

TPS Connected

The next pigtail to connect is the "Hall Meter", which requires the single purple wire that goes through a white connector. Again, I'd suggest using a weather protected connector for this circuit as well.

Finally, the Hall Sensor wires need to be connected. There are 5 wires that need to be connected and in our case, we need to match color for color. This isn't always true because there are no industry standards between controllers and Hall Sensors. It might be helpful to know that the Red wire is +5v dc and the Black wire is ground. The other 3 make up the signal wires coming from one of 3 hall sensors located in the motor. Making sure that these are connected properly is critical to the proper running of the Beast. In a previous post I linked the following site https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3484 which does a good job explaining the details of this. However, as I mentioned all we have to do is match colors and we should be fine. Below shows a picture of my completed wiring using WeatherPack connectors discussed earlier. For info on using the Weatherpack connector, check this site out.

Finished wire connections using WeatherPack Connectors

Now that all the necessary circuits are connected, we are ready to test it. Part 4 will discuss testing the Beast to be sure it is working properly. We'll finish in Part 5 with configuring the Daymak Drive App to optimize how your Beast performs. I promise you won't be disappointed. At least I wasn't.

Part 2 - Wiring Battery Pack and Motor to the Controller

Unofficial Schematic - Bluetooth Controller to Daymak Beast

I put together this schematic diagram to help me negotiate the various wires, terminals and connectors that come out of the controller and somehow match them to the Beast's own wiring harness. This proved to be a challenge, which I hope to clarify for the next person who is attempting the same conversion.

If you have read the previous posts, you may have watched the video on YouTube on how to connect the Bluetooth Controller to an Austin SX. I watched this and assumed this was how I should connect the controller to the Beast. This was not the case. So while watching it was educational it proved to not be the way the Beast needed to be wired.

First, and foremost; I highly recommend that anytime any connections to the controller from the battery pack and motor are made, the Battery Pack be disconnected. In fact, I completely removed the battery pack from the Beast while the mounting and wiring was done so I wouldn't accidentally short anything out. I'd encourage everyone to do the same.

I would suggest that you print the schematic and follow along with the description. Let's start with the big wires, the Battery Pack and the Motor Phase wires.

First, start by connecting the 3 Phase wires. These are the Blue, Yellow, Green wires to the U, V, W terminals respectively on the controller. The terminals on these wires were too small for the bolts on the new controller. Rather than try to make them bigger, I chose to replace them with the proper size terminals. I would highly suggest that these terminals be soldered. Also, the position of the 3 wires will determine the direction of the rotation. So be sure to connect them as shown.

FYI, if you were to switch the Green and Blue wires, the motor will spin backwards. While we won't go into details on this post, there is a Hall Effect Sensor inside the motor that is needed by the controller to properly spin the tire. These wires also need to be properly matched for things to function properly. There are a number of sites that describe how to figure out the proper combinations. If you are interested, here's one such site that goes into details. I will show you in the next post how this sensor needs to be wired, so hang tight for now.

Next, connect the Battery Pack wires. Black (B-) to the B- terminal and the Red (B+) to the B+ terminal on the controller. The terminals on the battery pack wires were the correct diameter, so I didn't have to replace them.

Battery Pack wires on upper level, and 3 Phase wires on bottom

When you removed the original controller, you removed two thinner wires that were connected to the battery B- and B+ main terminals of the old controller. They are smaller gauge than the battery pack wires, and their colors are Red and Green. The Green wire needs to be reconnected along with the Black B- wire and the Red wire reconnected along with the Red B+ wire at the controller. See picture above.

Now is the time to be sure the routing of these cables are clear of the TPS, also be sure to wire tie or clamp these wires down so they won't have freedom of movement.

This takes care of the high voltage wires. On the next post we'll start into the low voltage circuits such as the Hall Effect Sensor.

Part 1 - Locating and Installing the Controller

Original Controller's Location

New Controller's Location

These 2 pictures show the 2 different controllers in their locations, along with the relative location of the other components mounted.

The new controller is noticeably larger than the original one. This necessitated the repositioning of the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) and the voltage regulator to accommodate the new controller as seen in the picture. BTW, I have no idea what Daymak officially calls these components so I picked generic descriptive names.

Note 1: The throttle position sensor is the black square unit that the throttle cable goes into on the left side and an electrical connector coming from the right side. The signal provides the proper throttle position information to the controller.

Note 2: The voltage regulator takes the high voltage from the battery pack and regulates it down to 12 volts so the accessories such as lights, horn etc can function properly.

The TPS had to be moved down one row of slots and over to the right to clear the chain guard. This however causes the body of the TPS to overhang unsupported which would likely cause it to break. So I added a metal plate to the back, connecting the top bolts to the bottom of the TPS. If you look carefully at the picture you'll see the strap extending from the bottom. This provided the needed support for off-road driving.

I mounted the controller in such a way that the top mounting holes were above the slotted mounting plate. To make this secure, I put two metal plates behind the mounting plate that reached above and allowed for secure mounting. (See pic below).

Notice the 2 vertical metal straps added to secure controller

I had to position the Voltage Regulator below the controller next to the TPS. It was mounted after the controller was mounted, and overlapped part of the controller. I used self tapping screws to secure it.

My goal was to set this up in such a way that the original controller cover would fit properly back into place. To do this, the new controller had to be positioned properly so the right side of the controller was butted up to the installed cover. This worked fine, with room to spare on the left side for the wiring.

The Bluetooth module was located on the top of the controller using 3M double sided mounting tape. This provided an area high on the bike and out of the way. I wire tied the wires coming from the Bluetooth module to keep them secured.

Completed installation of components. Ready for wiring

Note 3: The TPS needs to have freedom of rotation, so be aware of how the wiring is routed around it, especially with the large cables coming from the battery pack.

Now that we have the controller installed, we need to wire it properly. This proved to be a bit of a challenge. This will be the subject of Part 2.

The Controller Upgrade Overview

The performance of the Beast up a 10% incline behind my house had me concerned that maybe this wouldn't handle the beach in Mexico the way I hoped. So I called Justin up at Rush Outdoor Gear and asked what, if anything I can do to increase performance.

Looking back down the 10% incline in question.

Because the unit I purchased from him was last year's model, it had an older controller and display. The newer units have a newly released controller known as the Daymak Bluetooth Controller, model #DMK1802LED. This controller is larger in size and is configurable through it's Bluetooth interface using Daymak's phone App called "Daymak Drive". According to Justin, this will allow for the Beast to perform better under the conditions I described to him.

So he ordered it for me and I received it a week later. Unfortunately it arrived with zero instructions, or schematics. On top of that, I noticed that the connectors didn't match the Beast (There was one that did). This required altering the harnesses to properly match up the circuits. And while some of the wire colors matched between the controller and Beast, many of them did not. Finally, it was apparent that manuy of the connectors included with the new Controller will not be used with the Beast. In other words, there was no intuitive way to determine what was needed to be connected.

So, not one to let this stop me, I contacted Justin again who pointed me in the right direction. He gave me the number to Parts and Service at Daymak in Canada. When I called I spoke with the Parts Dept. and they pointed me to YouTube to watch a video of the unit being installed on another product of theirs called the Austin SX. You can watch the video here or below. NOTE: The wire connections discussed in this video do not correlate to what will be needed on the Beast! 

I connected my new controller the way this video described, but found that it did not work. However, it did help me get to know the unit better, so it wasn't a total loss.

I got a hold of a Service Technician at Daymak who then helped clarify the connections which greatly helped the project along. It still did not work quite right, in fact the connections described had the motor spinning the wheel backwards, which was quite a surprise on my first test drive! Thank heavens nothing important was behind me.

Ultimately, I did a bunch of research which helped me re-wire the phase wires on the motor to reverse the direction of the motor, but still had an issue with the controller cutting out prematurely. So one more call to Daymak hooked me up with the Lead Technician who efficiently solved the problem. As it turns out, my installation was correct, but I hadn't properly configured the controller through the Daymak Bluetooth app. He had me change a few settings and all of a sudden it worked!

In future posts I will cover the steps I took to get this controller up and running. And by the way, all the hassle was worth it. I can now summit that hill behind my house with power to spare!

So if you are in the same boat as I was, keep reading and I'm sure it will be helpful.

Changes to the Beast

As I mentioned in the previous post, the first thing I did was to remove the storage compartment from the rear rack. The thinking was that a passenger seat will be located in its place. I also decided not to install the 2 rear view mirrors on the handle bars. The horn unit was broken when I received the bike so I remove it from the scooter and tucked the remaining connected into the electrical box so as to keep it out of sight.

The next change was to remove the bicycle pedals and build foot pegs for a passenger. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the pedal mounts are 1/2" squares on the end of the sprocket shaft. So I went to our local Harbor Freight Tool store and purchased a set of 1/2" drive Deep Well Sockets and used the two largest sockets along with Anti Slip Tape wrapped around them as foot pegs. I did have to purchase 2 longer bolts to secure them, but other than this, the setup was almost complete.

Foot Pegs, and Bicycle Chain Removed

The only other issue was that the sprocket would roll, due to the shaft being installed in bearings. The answer to this was to wire tie the chain sprocket to the frame using 2 wire ties. I'm hoping that I'll come across another, more permanent way in which to keep the shaft from spinning. But for now it works quite well.

The decision was made to remove the chain from the scooter as well. Mostly because it was unneeded but also to reduce the chance of foreign material getting into the chain and sprocket assemblies, i.e. sand from the beach. I also removed the hall sensor and reluctor wheel from the left side pedal shaft. It was just a single screw for the sensor and the reluctor wheel is just a interference fit that came off by spinning it while pulling. I kept these in case I ever wanted to restore the PAS (Pedal Assist System).

The last alteration was the addition of the passenger's seat where the storage compartment was originally located.

Passenger Seat Installed

Looking at Daymak's Parts supply web site I noticed that you can purchase a seat for the Beast. I had to tap the the pipes of the support bracket to accept bolts, 2 for the back and 2 for the front. I used 1/4" x 20 machine bolts to fasten the seat. The front of the seat also required a metal cross member to be added, and the front seat bracket was bent 90 degrees to properly sit on top of the support bracket. This proved to be a simple and strong solution. I didn't need to weld anything, but I'm sure an accomplished fabricator could create a more elegant solution.

So now I have a 2-passenger off-road e-bike that my wife and I can enjoy in the forest and hopefully down on the beach. However, the performance of the unit was not quite what I expected which will lead me to the next few posts.

Why the Beast - A Brief Summary

In the winter of 2016, our family purchased a share of a house down in Rocky Point Mexico. A beautiful place on the beach that screamed for some kind of off road toy. I hate the noise of gas powered quads and such so I started looking for a toy I could afford that would be powered by electricity and could handle the sandy beaches down there.

Some of the bigger toy makers, such as Polaris sell an electric version but their price was way out of reach. I then found a company out of Phoenix that sells a Chinese built Electric Fat Tire scooter. Check it out here.  I purchased the scooter and had a great time with it, but when I brought it down to Rocky Point, I realized that it wasn't going to do what I had hoped. I ended up selling it.

My research happened across another e-bike company called Daymak.com. They are located in Toronto Canada and build a wide variety of e-bikes that look very cool. One such model is called the Beast. There is a number of models to choose from, Look here to see them. Based on the specs, it would seem that the Beast Ultimate would suit our needs. I found a distributor in Salt Lake City called Rush Outdoor Gear who had the Beast Ultimate in stock, albeit the 2016 model. I worked with Justin there and he was easy to work with and answered all of my many questions.

Seen After the Storage Compartment was Removed.

I love how beefy the unit is. It's very stout. I also love the features that came with it, for instance it has a great headlight etc.

I made a few changes and upgrades that I will cover and I'm anxious to get it down to Rocky Point to see how it will handle the beach. More to come.