Grin Technologies C4820-GR User manual

The SineWave Grinfineon
Motor Controller
User Manual - Rev 2.1
Grin Technologies Ltd
Vancouver, BC, Canada
ph: (604) 69-0902
email: [e-mail]
web: http://www.ebikes.ca
Copyright © 2017

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
2
-
Table of Contents
1 Introduction............................................................. 3
1.1 Key Features ................................................................................... 3
2 Installation and Hookup......................................... 4
2.1 Basic Hooku .................................................................................. 4
2.2 Cycle Analyst Hooku .................................................................... 7
2.3 Sensored vs. Sensorless................................................................... 9
2.4 Hall / Phase Ma ing Procedure................................................... 9
3 Core Features........................................................ 11
3.1 Silent Sine Wave Mode................................................................. 11
3.2 LED Indicator............................................................................... 11
3.3 On/Off Switch ............................................................................... 12
3.4 Regenerative Braking via Ebrake ............................................... 12
3.5 Pro ortional Regen via 0-0.8V Throttle Signal.......................... 13
3.6 Fwd / Rev....................................................................................... 14
3.7 Fault Tolerant Hall....................................................................... 15
4 Limitations............................................................. 15
4.1 eRPM Sensorless & Sensored...................................................... 15
4.2 Power Oscillations at Full Throttle when Sensored .................. 16
4.3 60 Degree Hall Timing ................................................................. 17
4.4 No Change to Internal Settings ................................................... 17
4.5 Max Regen Voltage....................................................................... 17
4.6 Won't Show CA Accessory Current Draw................................. 18
5 Specifications......................................................... 19
.1 Electrical........................................................................................ 19
.2 Mechanical .................................................................................... 19
.3 Connector Pinout.......................................................................... 19

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
3
-
1 Introduction
The Grinfineon SineWave controller is based around the popular Xie Chan
device with the XCKJ3232C control chip, but with custom firmware to allow both
sensored and sensorless operation and proportional re enerative brakin . The
enerous cable harness len ths and crimpable connector standards make it
broadly useful in aftermarket and DIY ebike applications for just about any
eared or direct-drive brushless motor in the 500-3000 watt power ran e.
1.1 Key Features
Here are some of the features that make this controller stand out which you won’t
usually find with most 3rd party ebike motor controllers
• Lon phase leads (120cm)
• On/Off Switch
• Proportional Re enerative Brakin
• Dual Mode, works With and Without Hall Sensors
• Silent Sine Wave Operation in Sensored Mode
• Hi h Sensorless eRPM Compatible with Geared Motors
• Fwd/Rev Input
• LED Status Indicator
• Waterti ht Enclosure
• Direct Cycle Analyst Plu
• User Crimpable Connectors (JST-SM and Anderson Powerpoles)
Figure 1: Key Controller Hardware Features

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
4
-
2 Installation and Hookup
The motor controller end plates have a flan e with holes to facilitate securin to
the vehicle. We recommend locatin it in place where the ON/OFF switch is
accessible and where it still has ood exposure to air flow. Common bicycle
locations include on the front of the rear rack support, between the seat tube and
the rear wheel, or on the top tube with front motors.
Figure 2: Common mounting locations and orientations
Althou h it is temptin , we do not recommend puttin the controller inside a ba
or enclosure box that blocks exposure to air flow, as it will be more susceptible to
overheatin . The silicone rommets on the controller end plates do an excellent
job of keepin water out, so there is little concern about havin the controller
exposed to the elements, and the orientation of the installed controller does not
matter.
2.1 Basic Hookup
The controller has 6 cables comin out of it: Battery, Motor Phase, Motor Hall,
Throttle, Ebrake, and Cycle Analyst. At the bare minimum, the controller just
needs a throttle, battery pack, and motor connection in order to work:

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
5
-
Figure 3: Basic hookup diagram (motor, throttle, and attery)
The throttle is a 3-pin JST-SM plug intended for Hall Effe t throttle devi es. It
supplies 4.3V to power the throttle plug and expe ts a signal of 0.9V - 3.6V as
the throttle is twisted. Throttle signal voltages higher than 4.0V are onsidered a
fault ondition, so if a potentiometer based throttle is used then appropriate
resistors are needed to keep the voltage swing within range.
Figure 4: Controller Throttle Pinout

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
6
-
The brushless hub motor will have 3 phase wires that need to terminate with the
3 controller wires. Typically these are reen, yellow, and blue, but many other
possibilities exist. If you are runnin the motor sensorless, then it is only these 3
wires you need to connect and the color pairin does not really matter. If the
motor spins backwards, then simply swap any pair of wires to reverse it.
Figure 5: Example of Motor Direction Change y Swapping Phase Wires
If you want re enerative brakin in a basic setup, then you can connect either an
ebrake cutoff lever or other momentary push switch to the 4-pin ebrake plu .

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
7
-
2.2 Cycle Analyst Hookup
You can also add a V2 Cycle Analyst to this basic setup in order to have an
informative display of all your vehicle and battery stats. The system still responds
the same way to your throttle, but the V2 Cycle Analyst has the ability to over-
ride and limit the throttle si nal if you are exceedin the CA's pro rammed
current limit, speed limit, or battery low volta e cutoff.
Figure 6: CA V2 Hookup. Throttle and eBrake Plug into Controller
(motor and attery not Shown)

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
8
-
Finally, if you are usin a V3 Cycle Analyst, then your throttle and ebrake si nals
will connect to the Cycle Analyst rather than to your motor controller. Only the 6-
pin CA-DP plu of the controller is used.
Figure 7: CA V3 Hookup. Throttle and eBrake Plug into CA (not controller)
The V3 Cycle Analyst is useful when much more advanced control features are
desired, like PAS operation, motor over-temperature protection, torque sensin
pedalec, mode presets etc.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
9
-
2.3 Sensored vs. Sensorless
While the Grinfineon controller will work sensorless with the hall connector
unplu ed, there are several limitations to this mode.
• Startin from a standstill can be a little bit jerky while the controller
attempts to self start the wheel.
• The controller will operate in a trapezoidal rather than the more silent
sine wave mode, resultin in some audible buzz or hum from the motor.
• With hi h ear reduction eared hub motors, you may hit the sensorless
eRPM limit of the controller (~28000 eRPM, see 4.1)
• When usin a Cycle Analyst, you won't have the option of pickin up the
speed si nal from the motor hall line and will require an external speedo
sensor and spoke ma net (i.e. CA-DPS or CA3-DPS).
If the motor has hall sensor wires, then we recommend connectin them to the
controller as well so that you can benefit from sensored sinusoidal operation.
The hall sensor plu has 5 wires, red and black supply power to the hall sensors
in the motor, and the yellow, reen, and blue wires carry the resultin hall
si nals.
Figure 8: Hall Signal Plug
2.4 Hall / P ase Mapping Procedure
Previous enerations of Grinfineon controller had the ability to automatically map
the hall and phase wires so that the exact pinout details did not matter. This was
very convenient but it is no lon er possible with the addition of sinusoidal
sensored mode. It is essential that the hall and phase pinout is correct.
The hall and phase pinout mappin on the SineWave Grinfineon controller is
consistent with how both eZee and Crystalyte motors choose their colour codin ,
and they can be matched yellow to yellow, reen to reen, and blue to blue.
Other popular motor series use a different colour interpretation, and some trial
and error is usually needed to determine the correct pinout.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
10
-
Of the 36 possible ways to map the hall and phase wires, only 3 will spin the
motor properly in the forwards direction. Another 3 combinations will spin the
motor in reverse, and the remainin 30 combinations will either not turn the motor
at all, or will turn it with reat inefficiency.
We recommend usin a systematic approach to determine the hall and phase
mappin . First, plu to ether the hall wires in any pinout that you like. Then
connect the 3 phase wires to ether and test the motor. If it spins smoothly with
low current draw, then reat. If not, then separate the Anderson phase plu s
(they dovetail slide into each other) and keep cyclin throu h the 6 possible
ali nments testin each one. An easy way to keep track of this is by first ‘rotatin ’
the phase connectors throu h the first 3 positions as shown below.
Figure 9: Systematic Approach to Phase Pinout Mapping
Then swap any pair of plu s (yellow and blue swapped in above example), and
rotate throu h the 3 positions a ain. This will cover all 6 possible phase pinouts,
and one of those 6 should allow the motor to run smoothly.
If that one position spins the motor backwards, then you can swap a pair of the
hall sensor wires, repeat the test to find the correct phase pinout and it will spin
the forwards direction.
Be aware that there are some incorrect hall/phase pinouts which will still spin the
motor when you apply throttle, but the motor will turn with reat inefficiency and
draw hi her than normal current, usually with a small ‘kick’ when the throttle is
first applied. You do not want to run the motor under load in this condition.
When the motor is runnin in sensored mode, the LED will be on steady without
blinkin unless there is a fault error. In sensorless mode, the LED will flash at a
slow ~1 Hz rate.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
11
-
3 Core Features
3.1 Silent Sine Wave Mode
When the controller has hall sensors connected, the 3 phase output drive
waveform is sinusoidal rather than trapezoidal. On most direct drive hub motors,
this means a butter smooth feelin as you apply the throttle rather than the
normal buzz or rowl you may be used to. And even on eared motors the
audibly sound from the hub is somewhat reduced.
Figure 10: Illustration of Voltage Waveform of Trapezoidal vs Sine Wave Outputs
3.2 LED Indicator
The LED status indicator lets you know if the controller is powered up, what state
it's in, and most importantly if there are any fault conditions that would cause
thin s not to work. The followin are normal operatin modes:
LED Off No power to controller (either battery is disconnected,
or ON/OFF switch is OFF)
LED Slow Flash Controller powered up, throttle is not pressed or it is
runnin but in sensorless mode
LED Steady On Controller is runnin the motor in sensored mode
The followin state flash si nals occur with quick blinks and then a pause. Note
thou h that in sensorless mode, the error flash codes may not be visible due to
the re ular blinkin that happens when runnin sensorless:
3 Blinks Controller is in over volta e fault
4 Blinks Battery volta e below low volta e cutoff
5 Blink Brake cutoff is en a ed
6 Blinks Throttle either too hi h or en a ed when controller
turned on

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
12
-
3.3 On/Off Switc
The included ON/OFF to le switch on
the controller end plate allows for
conveniently switchin your ebike on and
off without disconnectin the main battery
pack. When the switch is off, both the
Controller and the Cycle Analyst (if
attached) will power down and cease
drawin current from the battery.
If you want the switch to be accessible from the handlebars or mounted on a
dashboard, then it is possible to remove it from the end plate and extend the
wires up to your desired switch location and then seal the hole with a rommet.
The wire au e can be fairly thin, but if it is bein used with a Cycle Analyst with
li ht or other accessories powered form the DC jack, then we recommend usin
at least 20 AWG.
3.4 Regenerative Braking via Ebrake
The Grinfineon controllers have re enerative brakin capabilities, allowin you to
use the hub motor as a brake and return kinetic ener y back into the battery
pack. This can be achieved either with the ebrake lever for a constant 50%
brakin force, or with a 0.0 to 0.8V throttle si nal for variable 0-100% brakin .
In the first method, you connect an ebrake cutoff lever or other momentary switch
between pins 2 and 4 of the 4-pin ebrake plu (Pin 1 = 4.3V power is useful for
powerin Hall Effect ebrake cutoffs). When the ebrake si nal is pulled to round,
then the controller switches to a baseline level of re enerative brakin , puttin
dra on the wheel and a small amount of current in the battery pack.
Figure 12: eBrake Connector. 5V+ for Hall Brakes
The intensity of this re enerative brakin torque is fixed at about 50% of max
re en, and is not affected by applyin the throttle.
Figure 11: On Off Switch Details

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
13
-
3.5 Proportional Regen via 0-0.8V T rottle Signal
The second method to en a e re en is with a throttle si nal that is less than 0.8
Volts. Normally a Hall Effect throttle will only swin from 0.9V to about 3.6V,
leavin the ran e of 0.0-0.9V unused. In the Grinfineon controllers, this unused
ran e is mapped to re enerative brakin , with re en startin below 0.8V and
then increasin to a maximum as the throttle si nal oes down to 0.0V. This can
be seen in the raph below showin the torque measured from a hub motor as
the throttle si nal is swept from 0.0V to 4.0V.
Figure 13: Regen intensity for throttle 0V-0.8V
The test was done with the motor spinnin at 100, 200, and 300 rpm. You can
see that at lower RPMs, the breakin intensity was hi her for a iven throttle
volta e.
Even thou h the re enerative brakin intensity is reduced at hi her speeds, the
actual re en current flowin into the battery pack increases at hi h speeds as
there is more mechanical power bein converted into electrical ener y.
You can see this relationship clearly in Fi ure 14, which shows both the torque
and the ampera e flowin back into the battery at 4 different levels of throttle
re en (0.0, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6V) versus the motor RPM. It also shows mow much
re en current and brakin force you can expect from the fixed ebrake input
switch, which is shown by the dashed black lines.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
14
-
Figure 14: Regenerative Braking Torque and Current as a Function of Motor RPM at 4 different
throttle regen voltages and also with e rake lever pressed (E k, dashed lines)
This throttle mapped re en is handy since it allows for variable brakin without
any additional wires to the controller, and in principle a small bidirectional throttle
would allow you to both accelerate and slow down without the need for any kind
of brake sensors. It is also how re enerative brakin is activated with the V3
Cycle Analyst, which can send any volta e si nal to the throttle line.
If you have a eared motor or mid-drive motor, then the re en won't have much
effect. It will cause the motor to quickly stop spinnin when you squeeze the
brakes, but it won't be able to help slow the bike down due to the intrinsic
freewheel of these systems. There is no need to disable controller re en in this
situation, it is harmless.
3.6 Fwd / Rev
If you have an application where the motor direction needs to be reversed at
times, as is handy with trike and quad applications, then there is an additional
white forwards/reverse direction wire that is tucked under the ebrake heatshrink.
If this wire is exposed and then connected via a switch to the adjacent black
round wire, it will enable you to chan e the motor direction on the fly without
swappin the motor phase and hall leads.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
15
-
Figure 15: FWD/REV, Remove heatshrink tu ing over e rake connector to expose
spare white and lack signal wires, and extend those to your reverse switch.
3.7 Fault Tolerant Hall
Normally a sensored motor/controller setup is somewhat vulnerable to dama e of
the hall sensor itself, the hall wires, or the hall connector pins. If this happens, the
motor will run very rou h or not at all. On the Sinewave Grinfineon controllers,
the control lo ic will still be able to operate in sensored sine wave mode even if
one of the hall sensors is dama ed as it can interpolate the missin si nal.
However, the initial startin can be a bit rou h, and the ebrake input no lon er
does re enerative brakin but just does a controller cutoff.
4 Limitations
Althou h we tried to make this controller fairly universal, there are also more than
a few limitations that can affect its use in some applications.
4.1 eRPM Sensorless & Sensored
The maximum commutation frequency in sensorless mode is about 28000
eRPM. This is substantially hi her than previous Grinfineon controllers (13000
eRPM) and will work with most eared hub motors just fine at typical ebike
speeds, but may still be limitin in very fast setups.
The electrical RPM is easy to calculate by takin the mechanical RPM of the
motor, multiplyin it by the number of ma netic pole pairs in rotor, and then a ain
by the ear ratio if it is a eared hub.
For instance, Fi ure 16 is a dia ram of a direct drive motor with 40 ma nets.
That means there are 20 ma netic pole pairs. A 28000 eRPM would correspond
to a 1400 maximum mechanical RPM at the wheel, which is much faster than
you would have on a bicycle (200-400 rpm is more common); therefore this hub
would have no problem runnin sensorless at bicycle speeds.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
16
-
The eared motor in Fi ure 16 has 32 ma nets and a 7:1 ear reduction. In this
case, the maximum speed in sensorless mode would be 28000 eRPM / 16 / 7 =
250 rpm. In a 26” wheel that would correspond to 31 kph. Below this speed the
bike would run fine but any faster and the controller is liable to shut down in a
fault mode.
Figure 16: Direct Drive and Geared Hu Motor eRPM examples
The maximum speed when runnin with hall sensors is much hi her, but at
values over 50,000 eRPM the commutation timin can be off and motor
performance will suffer.
4.2 Power Oscillations at Full T rottle w en Sensored
In sensored sine wave mode, the motor controller is always attemptin to
interpolate the exact motor position at any iven moment in between hall sensor
events.
With certain eared hub motor installations, the controller can be prone to havin
lar e power fluctuations at full throttle while this interpolation overshoots and
undershoots. This can be tri ered by sudden chan es in motor RPM (such as
hittin a pothole or poppin a wheelie) and it may require releasin and
reapplyin the throttle to smooth out. If the motor setup is prone to this behavior,
we recommend unplu in the halls and runnin the sensorless.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
17
-
4.3 60 Degree Hall Timing
Most brushless motors use 120 de ree hall timin , where at any iven point
there is always at least 1 hall si nal that is hi h, and 1 hall si nal that is low. But
some motors use 60 de ree hall spacin , where 000 and 111 are also valid hall
patterns.
The Sine Wave Grinfineon controller will not work in sensored modes with
brushless motors that have 60 de ree hall timin . If your motor has 60 de ree
halls, then you will have to run it sensorless and leave the halls unplu ed.
4.4 No C ange to Internal Settings
For a number of reasons the controller's internal settin s for low volta e cutoff,
battery and phase current limits, max re en current etc. are fixed in the controller
IC and can't be repro rammed by the user. The fixed values are sensibly chosen
to be around the maximum allowable ran e for flexibility while keepin the
controller in a conservative operatin area.
If you want to further limit these settin s for custom low volta e rollbacks or
current/power limits, then either a V2 or V3 Cycle Analyst will provide that
functionality and a lot more just via modulation of the throttle si nal.
4.5 Max Regen Voltage
The maximum re en volta e is set to ~58V for the 25A and 35A controllers,
allowin them to work with up to 14s (52V) lithium batteries, but without risk of
hi h volta e spikes if the battery BMS circuit trips.
The 40A controllers have a maximum re en volta e of 88V, allowin them to
work with 72V (20s) lithium and LiFePO4 batteries.
This upper volta e re en cutoff is critical to prevent dama e to the controller if
ever the battery is disconnected durin re enerative brakin , since the re en will
stop abruptly before the volta e has a chance to spike. It is also hi her than the
full char e volta e on most battery packs you would use, and there can be a
possibility of overchar in a battery if you start with a full char e at the top of a
hill and your battery's BMS circuit does not have an overvolta e cutoff.
In that scenario it is prudent to have a Cycle Analyst or other volt meter to keep
an eye on the battery volta e level. In practice you will almost always consume
many more amp-hours than you put back in while brakin and overchar in from
re en is not much of a concern.

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
18
-
4.6 Won't S ow CA Accessory Current Draw
The CA-DP plu on the motor controller is wired up so that it will show the
current draw of the motor and controller, but not the current draw of any other
devices (like front li hts) that are plu ed into the CA's power tap. If you want the
Cycle Analyst to show auxiliary device current, then the controller can be opened
up and the black wire from the CA-DP cable moved from the - side of the shunt
(adjacent to the blue wire) to the + side of the shunt (adjacent to white wire).

SINEWAVE GRINFINEON CONTROLLER MANUAL
Rev 2.1
-
19
-
5 Specifications
5.1 Electrical
C4820-GR C482 -GR C483 -GR C7240-GR
Battery Current ( +2% / - 10%) 20 A 25 A 35 A 40 A
Phase Current Limit (+/- 10%) 50 A 75 A 90 A 120 A
Nominal Battery Voltage 36V-52V 36V-52V 36V-52V 36V-72V
6x 12x
MOSFETs
AOT460 IRFB4110 AOT460 IRFB4110
Max Regen Voltage (+/- 2%) 58 V 58 V 58 V 88 V
Low Voltage Cutoff (+/- 2%) 27 V 27 V 27 V 31 V
Control Chip XCKJ3232C
eRPM Limit Sensorless ~28,000
5.2 Mec anical
C4820 C482 C483 C7240
Dimensions (mm) 110x71x34 154x87x46
Weight (kg) 0.47 0.49 0.75 0.78
Chassis Material Extruded Aluminum
DC Battery Connector Genuine Anderson Power Poles
Motor Phase Connector Genuine Anderson Power Poles
Hall Sensor Connector JST-SM Series
Other Signal Connectors JST-SM Series
Waterproofing Gasketed at end plates and wire exits, sealed switch
5.3 Connector Pinout
* White wire in sheath is for FWD/REV - Jump to GND to enable
** Leave hall sensors unplugged for sensorless operation
*** Caution with Old Small Screen Cycle Analysts (will go full throttle
unless additional diode wired inline with green throttle-override wire)