An Electric Scooter Community on a Mission to Stamp out Transportation Mediocrity.

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By Johnny05
#18707
Hi Guys,
I want to show some parts of my personal Lime 3 Scooter that I am working on.

After I got my Scooter (from an auction) I took it apart and looked through the parts to see what im dealing with.
The thing that quite surprised me was the size of the battery. It is as big as some of the biggest e-bike batteries that I know about.
First I was thinking about using all the original parts of the scooter with the stuff that @M20001 had provided to this forum.
But then I went with the route that most people follow and use an off the shelf motor controller.
Since I hated the Idea of using the cheap Chinese controller, I used a VESC (I had one around anyway)
Original build to power Skate- and Long boards, it became some sort of an universal three phase motor controller with loads of power. I got mine from Flipsky. A company who copied (legally) the design and improved the power capability quite a bit.

Some technical data about the VESC:
It can run off Li-Po batteries up to 12S (44,4V) Absolute max Voltage is 60V
This board is able to withstand 100A of current with a peak of 400A (insane)

From previous e-bike projects I had two 6S Li-Pos with 12Ah laying around. They can provide 240A constant.
So my whole setup is rather beefy and got no issue squeezing all the (Lime) juice out of the poor little scooter. :D

Previously I even had a bluetooth connection and I was able to adjust everything with my Phone, plus I had gauges and stuff to monitor everything from speed to power and so on. Unfortunately that module died somehow.
Now I had to make a little Display for the scooter so I could Monitor some value information.

I used an Arduino Nano and I was able too connect it to the VESC with CAN Bus to get all the values I need.
Now I'm using a 16x2 Letter LCD Display to show me the Voltage and Current consumption, but also the max current and max power as seen in the two images below.
Image
Image
As you can see I got nearly 2.5kW of power (3.3HP)
I think the limiting factor is my max current setting in the VESC is at 51A
Eventually I'll test higher current settings, but I'm not sure if it will blow the motor winding.
From what I can tell it is still fine since the Temp sensor is giving me confidence that it is not getting too toasty. Will report back later on this one.

One nice feature is the working brake light and you can turn ON/OFF the headlight by pressing a button on the display.
By ScooterScammy
#18712
NIce setup, I spent about 60 bucks on mine, I have one of those cheap brainpower controllers, it works just dandy, and shows me similar volatage (full charge = 42V, 0% charge is about 32/34 volts resting). I'm painting it this week, since lime left our city, I get a lot of envious people wishing they were still here.
User avatar
By Johnny05
#18719
ScooterScammy wrote:
Mon Jan 06, 2020 12:44 am
NIce setup, I spent about 60 bucks on mine, I have one of those cheap brainpower controllers, it works just dandy, and shows me similar volatage (full charge = 42V, 0% charge is about 32/34 volts resting). I'm painting it this week, since lime left our city, I get a lot of envious people wishing they were still here.
For 75$ you can get the cheapest Flipsky VESC some other copied versions are even cheaper.

I've painted mine as well ;) and I put some Griptape on it.
Image
Image
By ScooterScammy
#18780
Interesting you still have the com box attached! What happened to the LCD display?! I left mine there for a space keeper, I still hope someday to utilize it and the Com/original controller, but I'm giving up for now. And for the com box: I took it off completely, only one wire going into the main shaft directly from the throttle, sealing it in with some rubbery solution and a reflective sticker. Also I'm painting it all black - metallic, and using basically the same sticky grip as you. Just finished the paint job primer tonight, it doesn't look like a lime anymore, it looks like a road machine...

I'll post some pics when it is done. Yeah I mean 75 for the vesc controller, meh, I had the goal of getting a great scooter as cheap as possible, as long as the controller keeps working, i'm happy, I just have to ease into the throttle.
User avatar
By Johnny05
#18783
ScooterScammy wrote:
Wed Jan 08, 2020 3:41 am
Interesting you still have the com box attached! What happened to the LCD display?!
< ... >
Hey, yes I left the box. Currently it contains an Arduino for all the added functions Like Voltage, Speed, ect
I'm even able to turn the head light on and off.

The Display Left the scooter for now since I'm using this Blue LCD screen as a crude replacement.
I had hopes to use the original screen as well, but I might replace it with an off the shelf component.
One Idea for that would be an PITFT. It is the same size as the original one, but you can connect a Raspberry Pi zero to it and it got touch.
That way you could customize it in any way shape or form.

Buuuut its like 35€ for only the screen :(
ScooterScammy wrote:
Wed Jan 08, 2020 3:41 am
<. .. > I'll post some pics when it is done. Yeah I mean 75 for the vesc controller, meh, I had the goal of getting a great scooter as cheap as possible, as long as the controller keeps working, i'm happy, I just have to ease into the throttle.
Thats fine. I think the chapest way currently is to flash the original Motor controller with the stuff that @M20001 provided.
The best thing about the VESC is the flexibility. Its very easy to add a custom display or a remote, or what ever you fancy about.
By ScooterScammy
#18847
Yeah I flashed it like M20001's post, but alas, the throttle would never engage. There was some other mechanism at play that I don't understand, and the LCD display never came back on. The wheels were unlocked, the brake light and backlight both worked (reacting to pressing the brake), just no throttle or LCD display. So I gave up, I think something got triggered as a lock from the communication box that we don't know about. If anyone wants to give up the firmware/software programming, I'd gladly plug it all back in (I guess I'd have to re-solder some wires) and give it a go lol.
By M20001
#18853
Hello,

I have seen here that some scooters work with my software and some not. It seems that lime has some "Permanent remote locking system" the scooters left from lime in abandoned citys can not be unlocked with my software, thats the way it seems.
You can try to disconnect the green box from the scooter and flash then my software on the motor controller, would be interesting, if it works then. Is that the case, we know that the black box is on some way permanently locked.
By ScooterScammy
#18917
As mentioned, here's my final version a bit of background:

1. Lime left our city this November, I was a participant and both rode and charged them for fun after work hours.
2. A few scooters were abandoned and left for auction, which I acquired for a small fee.
3. They were all Gen 3 and had only been on the streets a 2-3 months max, what a waste
4. I took it home and began researching how to enable it after I found it was 100% functioning
5. Lime was no help at all (of course)

So Began my 3 week project.

1. Bought the tools for Torx and took it apart (had a great difficult time removing one of the central bolts in the neck, I had to actually drill it out and re-threat the hole, this was the most painful process)
2. Studied how to remove the software/hardware
3. Bought an ST-Link V2 and learned how to flash firmware
4. Learned how to Solder a PCB and wires
5. After I realized there was some software gap in knowledge, I gave up on hacking/unlocking the original components (I mean until we can re-program them with custom firmware), and bought an amazon key ignition and 350w Controller for like 50 USD total.
6. Installed everything with my newly acquired Soldering skills
7. Researched painting cars
8. Painted an all-black + holographic paint job
9. It's not perfect but it works incredibly well, and looks great, now if anything breaks down I have the skill set to swap out a component.

Here's the pictures from my process:
Began stripping some elements down
Image
Began by trying to figure out what was left:
Image

Left the 2.8 LCD display on for someday in the future (and because it looks appropriate) but added the LED Panel that displays the voltage level (42.0 is max) 34V = basically dead and 36V = about 50% remaining while resting. So it's sort of a throttle speed/battery indicator. New appreciation for how devices determine battery %..
Image

Street look on its first run!
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Contains the end result paint, was a bit tricky for a novice to pull off.
Image

Learned a lot of useful skills in this process, feel like I could repair a car now or make a drone.
User avatar
By Johnny05
#18918
I really like how you evolved to get it done and the result is not to shabby.
The best part I would say is the fact that you dint have a bulky box with the controller on the outside.
The color of the spray paint would not be my first choice :p but the way you've done it looks fine.

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