My E+ is finally back on the road but without the original hub motor, display or wiring. My final attempt to salvage the original hub motor failed (hub with hall sensors and phase wires, controller removed.) My tester reports E+'s hub phase timing to be 60degrees; 120degrees is more common. Even with a controller designed for 60 degrees, starting was so jerky the bike couldn't be ridden below 10mph (over 10mph great). I got a lot of help and suggestions over at Endless Sphere, but using the E+'s motor with standard external controllers was not possible for me.
I ran out of patience never knowing when an error would pop up with the stock E+ . If I had more patience a couple thing I would have tried. (1) When I opened the hub, one of the 18 Mosfets was fried. I opened the hub because I couldn't clear error 2 (communication loss between motor and display). If there was a bad chip error message (or a way to test) I would have first tried changing the chip before giving up. (2) When I moved the charge boards to Lithium setup at least 2 the 6 of the "sense boards" must be connected otherwise the boards goes into charge mode. In addition to the 3 wires from the sense board to the charge board, the sense boards has +/- connected to 5 NiMH cells in series (5x1.2v=6v). I discovered by accident that it worked fine without the 6v connections. No issues during months of use, but perhaps the 6v is eventually necessary and the cause of some of the persistent errors.
My E+ is now powered by a TDCM Power48 rear hub motor from a Stromer ST1. The hub motor has a similar design to the E+'s with the controller inside the hub and I suspect the E+'s hub was built by TDCM. The controller in the ST1 was bad, so Stromer scrapped the whole motor/wheel (my cost $10). I removed the controller inside the ST1's hub and connected the phase and hall wires to a 30amp Ebikling external controller and a 54v battery. The bike has mounts for 6 Makita style batteries. Mounting 3 yields 54v10.5ah(567wh) capable of 30amps continuous. Mounting 6 doubles those numbers and more than doubles the range.
The ST1's motor has 120 degree timing and works flawlessly with every controllers I tested. It's a bit heavy but very quiet and powerful. Of course, any rear hub motor that fits E+'s drops could have been used. The Ebikling controller has a "legal"/"off road" mode switch. In the "legal" mode, the current is reduced if above 24mph but still delivers up to 1600w (on hills). About the same top speed as the stock 1000w E+, but a better climber. In the "off road" mode there is no limits. When I reached 40mph on the flat I decided to back off on the throttle. I installed a 60t front chain ring so I can pedal up to 32mph without spinning out. The Ebikling controller doesn't have a cruise function, so I installed a Crystalyte cruise module which is a joy to use and works with any controller.
A working E+ with a good lithium battery is a great ride. My new set up is much better. If something breaks, it's easy to find and cheap to fix. Best of luck to all who have working E+s. May they go forever. If not, the E+ has a great frame suitable even high powered newer kits. The very sturdy front suspension forks installing disc brakes allows the bike to double as a fine cargo hauler.
I got E+ charge boards, controller, display and throttle if anyone needs them.