kayakindude

I'm more of a stumbler than studier, ironic considering my background is in training. That said I have a few frustrations that hopefully sharing will help the next newbie out there-

PAS sensors- many different kinds and it is all based on crank clearance and tube size. There are left side and right side sensors, determined when sitting on the bike- yeah I've messed that one up. When ordering also pay attention to the wire length I've ordered a replacement on Amazon that was 6 inches shorter than stock...an important 6 inches when making turns.

Make sure if you change the sensor direction, depending on your final setup you verify your system is set in the same direction. I had the sensor light on, battery remaining on so the system was engaged, but the motor was not engaged. After several miles of riding the lightbulb went off and I realized that I had messed with the settings and the direction was off. A quick adjustment and the motor engaged.

Hopefully I'm not the only one making it difficult on myself and this helps the next person.

2old

The thing I've learned with PAS "disc" systems that came with the hub motors I've DIY'd is that the old square taper bottom brackets (and cranks, of course) make the installation much easier (for me).

linberl

I don't understand why all systems don't use wireless sensors (if they are cadence based). just sticking a sensor on a crank arm is easy for even the most non-mech person. My OM uses one and I loved it. Wireless controllers, too, should be standard. Wires are so yesterday, lol.
And if they're trying to market systems to DIY people (some of whom are less DiY than they think) wireless is even better. Is there some reason (other than cost) that this isn't common? If all you have are wires from the battery to the motor, and everything else is wireless, one model would fit a larger variety of bikes, too.

Doc_Wui

WIreless means a battery. My non-ebike uses a wired speedometer. One less battery ti change, and no problems with losing the signal.

I've come to really dislike working on PAS sensors. There's no standard in the connectors or wire colors, so that has to be figured out when replacing a sensor. Then tthey are encoded to indicate forward or backward rotation of the crank. Where you install them, which way they face, and the orientation of the magnetic disk will affect this. You can't tell if it's right until you spin the pedals.. The introduction of the integrated all-in-one pedal sensor sure helps, but you still need the right connnector, and some of them still don't have any arrows that tell which way they're supposed to turn,

2old

Great idea, but there must be something really difficult about it or the major OEM's would be racing to be the first.

kayakindude

Lack of standardization is an issue, there are many different couplings on top of the many different sensor styles, compounded by left vs right. Agreed square taper is the easiest. My 1st installment was on a Cannondale tandem which presented a host of challenges with clearance and limited surface areas to mount a sensor. Add to that the wire length (that not being standard was another twist) and one would think having a simple checklist of the system requirements and more standardized options would only promote conversion systems.

linberl

The whole proprietary lack of standards thing is based on greed. Whether it's batteries or sensors or whatever, manufacturers seem to go out of their way to make things specific to only their bikes/kits/units to ensure you are locked in. Which is tolerable except when you are in a business where manufacturers fail constantly and go belly up and disappear and consumers are left with incompatible stuff. Grrrrrrr....

Doc_Wui

I wouldn't call it greed. Switch, for example, has a PAS that can be installed without puling off the pedals, but I don't think it's wireless.

Really, no one wants to be pedaling and have the assist fail because of a battery, I've got aftermarket LED light with a noisy power supply that knock out the radio signals in my wireless bike computer (fancy name for a speedometer). So I've switched over to wired speedometers. They work, and there's no battery on the fork to change annually. Just one battery in the speedometer.