Motor tech: Learn the Terms

Most new E-bikers don’t care about the details inside the motors that we ride, as
long as they just work. But, occasionally we use terms in our articles to describe
some characteristic about electric motors, and we want our readers to understand
why one choice is better than another for a given application.
This article is part-1 of a two-part series, with this first part covers the basic terms
that are used to describe E-bike motors. Here is what part-1 covers:

Permanent Magnets and Electro-Magnets

Direct Drive, Geared, or Mid Drive

Brushed and Brushless

Why 3-phase?

Inrunner or outrunner

Kv and “Turn Count”

High pole-count and low pole-count

Axial or Radial

Permanent Magnets and Electro-magnets

A permanent magnet (PM) is pretty easy to grasp. It a piece of metal that seems to

be magnetic all the time, but it is only drawn towards ferrous metals, meaning
metals that have iron in them (like steel). There are only three types of permanent
magnets you are likely to hear about in E-bike motors: Ferric, Samarium-Cobalt,
and Neodymium.
A few years ago some of the smaller and low-priced motors used the fairly weak
“Ferric” magnets that are usually a dark grey color. The Kollmorgen motor is one
example. These inexpensive magnets can still be occasionally found in childrens
E-vehicles.

Samarium-Cobalt magnets were developed in the 1970’s, and they are VERY

heat-tolerant. They retain their full magnetic power (measured in Gauss) when they
are exposed to temperatures near their Curie temperature of 800C (1,400F).
However, they are expensive due the need for using Cobalt, so…the desire for
strong permanent magnets that were less expensive has brought us to the
development of Neodymiums in 1982.

Neodymium magnets are the breakthrough that really allowed the boom in E-bikes
to occur just about a decade ago in the early 2000’s. Neo’s have been around for a
while, but they used to be very expensive. When the boom in computer hard-drives
occurred, the computer industry needed a stronger magnet to package in the
increasingly smaller drives  that had to hold more information. The mass-
production of neo magnets for computers dropped their price, and then the
manufacturers of small permanent-magnet motors began to use neodymium
magnets for mass-production.

To understand the heat characteristics of neo magnets, it might be useful to

explain how permanent magnets are made. The base material is made and
shaped, and then it must be heated up to a temperature that is above their “Curie
Temperature”. This is the temp at which the individual atoms are at an energy state
when they can spin and rotate  freely without being affected by the magnetic
orientation of their neighboring atoms.

At this point, the hot material is subjected to a very strong magnetic field that is
produced by an electromagnet that is positioned near it. Then…while the
electromagnetic field is still energized, the material is cooled. As a result, all of the
atoms (each one being a tiny magnet itself), have all of their magnetic fields
aligned in the same direction, and in effect they are all frozen in place, while still
pointing in the same direction.
The Curie temperature of high-grade Neodymium (with added terbium and
dysprosium) is 320C / 600F. However, common neo magnets  are made from the
cheapest grade, and can start to lose some of their magnetism at around 80C
(170F).

E-bike motor magnets are a grade that is slightly higher than the cheapest variety,
because they are often subjected to higher temps than they should be by
unsuspecting customers. Years of posted experiments by real E-bikers on endless-
sphere have produced a commonly held rule-of-thumb to avoid heating your E-bike
motor to above 95C (200F).

If your motor feels like it has lost some power, and it also now has a slightly higher
top-speed…you probably overheated your magnets…and there no way to fix that.

Of course, our experience has taught us that if a motor is completely cool under all
conditions, it is probably somewhat larger, heavier, and more expensive than
necessary for the job it’s given. And…on the other end of the scale, if you cannot
hold your hand on a motor  because it’s too hot, then you are probably converting
too many battery watts into waste heat. So…any temps from room-temperature
(during cruise-mode), up to 60C (140F) during your heaviest loads are a good
optimum for an E-bike system design.

This brings us to electro-magnets

A basic experiment in electricity is to wrap a copper wire around a nail that’s made
of steel (99% iron). When you apply current through the wire, the
nail temporarily becomes a magnet. Then…when you de-energize the wire, the
nail stops being a magnet. Magnets have a north and south pole, and you can
also reverse the poles of the magnet, by reversing the positive and negative posts
of the battery you are using to make the nail a magnet.

Reversing the poles of the same electromagnet (back and forth) is useful to
understand, because it’s a major component of how some modern E-bike motors
work. One of the most basic laws of magnets is that: opposite poles
are attracted to each other, and same-poles are repelled by each other.

If a PM has its north pole facing outwards, and it is located facing two
electromagnets that are side-by-side….you can see that if the electromagnet on
the left is energized so that its north pole is facing the PM, and the electromagnet
on the right is energized so that its south pole is facing the PM, the left
electromagnet will be pushing the PM to the right at the same time that the right
electromagnet is pulling it to the right.

Direct Drive, Geared, or Mid Drive

Direct Drive hub motors (DD) are as simple as a motor can be. They are large
enough that they are not stealthy, somewhat heavy, and when un-powered they
have a little bit of magnetic drag (called cogging).

They remain relevant, and will likely survive because of several reasons. Their
simplicity keeps their price down, so they will likely remain the most affordable
beginners E-bike kit. Also, above 30-MPH they can handle more amps and heat
than geared hub motors. And last…when combined with a sine-wave controller,
they are virtually silent.

Direct-Drive hubs (DD), are about as simple as it gets. The axle and stator on the
right are fixed, and the spinning part is on the left.
Geared hub motors have an internal gear-set that allows the motor to spin about 5
times for every time the wheel spins. This allows a relatively small and light motor
to have as much torque as a larger direct-drive motor. One of the reasons that they
are very popular is that they incorporate an internal freewheeling clutch, so when
you are pedaling with no power on, it rolls easily with no resistance (no cogging).

These are the most popular type, for power levels between 250W-1,200W

Geared hub motors are the most popular for medium to low power levels.
The extra complexity and expense of a mid-drive has very specific benefits. The
most common style allows the motor to use the bikes gears, and this is a huge help
for two user-profiles. The European Union (EU) has a low 250W power limit, which
makes it very difficult to climb steep hills. Allowing a small motor to downshift into a
lower gear is a major improvement.

The other user who needs  a mid drive is someone who hauls a heavy load on their
bicycle up extra steep  uphills. (a cargobike in San Francisco?). However, the
most enthusiastic adopters of high-powered mid drives have been full-suspension
off-roaders…

The most popular factory mid drive has been the Bosch drive, by a large margin.

The most exciting mid-power mid drive kit has been the Bafang BBS02, and the
best high-powered off-road mid-drive is the Lightning Rods 2800W kit (read our
article on the LR kit here). Edit: as of 2016, the 1500W BBSHD has become quite
popular.

A mid drive has a big advantage when climbing slow and steep uphills.
2-Speed Geared Hub

Here’s a late addition, the Xiongda company is producing a 2-speed geared hub
which could have a big impact on the electric bike world. It has two sets of internal
gears, and the motor reverses on-the-fly to engage a lower “hill climbing” gear.

They currently have only one model (as of 2014), which is a small 500W-max unit
that has been designed for the European market. However, if they ever start
making a larger hub that can provide 750W using 36V, I believe that will be a very
exciting development for North American customers. (Read our article on the 2-
speed Xiongda here)
Brushed and Brush-LESS

Since the rotor spins, we have to add a method energizing and de-energizing the
coils on the rotor while it’s running. For a brushed motor, this is accomplished by a
type of switch-contact that rubs against one of the spinning parts (see video here).

The “brushes” are the contact that is typically on the stationary motor housing (so
the amount of wear can be inspected even when the motor is running, as the brush
gets shorter over time), and they are usually designed so that they are easy to
clean and replace as needed. The part of the brushed contacts that is designed to
last a long time (the surfaces that the brushes rub against) are typically attached to
the rotor shaft, and it is called the commutator.

This is a graphic of a common tiny brushed motor. It has two curved magnets in
the stator (attached to the outer shell). Since the rotor in the center has only three
coils, the commutator at the end of the shaft has 6 contacts, which the two
 brushes rub against. One brush is connected to the positive wire coming from the
controller, and the other brush is connected to the negative.
The reason brushless motors are popular with E-bike DIY builders is that…even
though you may want to run 36V on a motor when you first install it, using
a brushless motor allows you to run that same motor at many different voltages.
The 9C Direct Drive (DD) hub motor is advertised to run at 36V/48V, but…the
Pikes Peak winner used 111V on a 9C, with no problems.

I have read that brushes are messy, they have to be replaced on occasion, and are
less efficient, but…brushes are designed for a specific voltage range (higher
voltages require a wider spacing) and DIY builders want the freedom to experiment
and upgrade. To be fair, brushed motors (like the large Agni) use controllers that
are MUCH LESS  expensive than brushless controllers, and for some builders, that
remains a significant benefit.

But how do the controllers for permanent-magnet brushless motors know when to

turn the electro-magnets (in the stator) on-and-off with perfect timing?  Since these
are 3-phase motors (all the coils in the stator are assigned into three groups of
coils), there are three hall sensors in a common brushless Ebike motor.

Each of the three hall sensors has three legs (nine legs total), but a 3-phase motor
has only five hall wires exiting the motor case. This is because one wire provides a
positive to all three of the sensors, one wire provides the ground/negative to all
three sensors, and then the three remaining wires are for the on/off signal…one
signal wire for each sensor. The signal is a low-amp 5V pulse. So…5V is supplied
to each positive leg on the three hall sensors, and when a magnet is next to the
sensor, the 5V passes on through the hall sensor into the signal leg back to the
controller.
 Here are three Hall sensors in the normal configuration. The left leg on each Hall
sensor is the positive, the middle leg is the negative, and the right leg is the signal
wire. In this pic, the middle Hall sensor is bad (no 5V signal when you put a
magnet next to it) and it is about to be dug out, and a new one epoxied back in.
Three red wires joined into one wire (positive), three black wires joined into one
wire (negative), and a blue/yellow/green for the three 5V signal wires.
When repairing damaged hall wires, the 5 small wires for hall sensors should have
high-temp Teflon insulation (instead of the common PVC) , but they can be as
small as 30-AWG if you want. Due to the low-amp current of the Hall signal, a 24-
AWG is plenty fat. Most controllers have only sensored or sensorless operation,
but…some controllers have both: the option to start-out as sensored (using the Hall
sensors), which provides very good slow-speed control…and then switching to
sensor-less control. Having an integrated sensorless control option means you
always have a limp-home mode if you overheat one of the Hall sensors.

The upscale Tidalforce motor (no longer in business) used optical sensors to

inform the brushless controller of the position of the rotor. Optical triggers can
operate at ultra-high RPMs, but Tidalforce decided to use them because they
had seen how Hall sensors are occasionally damaged by heat. The halls must be
located near the rotor magnets, and the rotor magnets must be very close to the
stator poles, and…it is the stator that gets hot in the motor. This means Hall
sensors will always be near the hot parts.

Optical triggers can be located far away from the heat. Of course, it is best to avoid
generating excessive heat in the first place.

When presented with a choice of getting a motor with or without Hall sensors…

always get Hall sensors. A motor with Halls can still be run with a sensorless
controller, but the Halls are there if you ever want to start using them.

Brushed motors: PMG-132, Agni-95R, Etek  (brushed motors don’t need rotor
position sensors, such as Halls/optical)

Brushless: Mars, Also…about 5 years ago, just about every E-bike hub

motor discontinued making any brushed hubs due to low sales. Brushless became
popular about the time neodymium magnets started to take over in E-bike motors,
roughly the year 2000.

Why 3-phase?

The permanent magnets in a Permanent Magnet Direct Current  motor (PMDC) are
always mounted side-by-side with alternating pole-faces pointed towards the
stator-poles. Because of this, they will always have an even number of magnets.

The electromagnets (the on/off coils in the stator) are typically arranged in groups
of three, called “3-phase”.  If you imagine that the 12 numbers on the face of a
clock are the stator-teeth, then 1, 4, 7, 10 would all be combined into one of the
phase groups, and those four would all be energized and de-energized at the same
time. Following this pattern, 2, 5, 8, 11 would be the second phase-group, and 3, 6,
9, 12 would be the third phase-group.

A DIY one-phase motor can be an educational beginners project. They are simple

to construct and understand. However they do not run smoothly, since every pole
in the motor is energized and de-energized at the same time. I have seen 5-phase
and even 7-phase motors (Falco and Fisher & Paykel)…and they advertise
themselves as being smoother and more efficient.
Although the 5-phase/7-phase motors may be slightly better, they are also more
complex and more expensive. There is no mystery to the popularity of 3-phase
motors. They are reasonably smooth and efficient in operation (much smoother
than a one-phase), and they are simpler and less expensive than 5-phase motors.

Inrunner or Outrunner

An inrunner is the common style of motor that most people see on a regular basis.
The outer shell is stationary, and the spinning rotor has the permanent magnets
attached to it in the center of the motor. An outrunner is quite an odd configuration.
The stator with its copper coils are in the center, and they are attached to one of
the end plates. The shaft, the outer shell, and the permanent magnets (inside the
shell), are the spinning parts. Outrunners are common on a Radio Controlled (RC)
model planes.

Here are the major components of a common RC outrunner. The assembly on

the right contains all the spinning parts.
The 80-100 RC outrunner (80mm diameter and 100mm long), and the 80-85 have
both been used many times on custom electric bike projects. The controllers for
them are very tiny (but expensive!). The 63mm diameter RC outrunners have been
used on E-bike friction drives, and also powered skateboards.

If two radial motors have the same diameter, an outrunner will put the airgap
farther away from the axle, and that increases its leverage, providing more torque
per watt.
In the pic above, a GNG on the left has been scaled to match the diameter of the
MAC on the right. Because the coils are taller than the thin magnets, and outrunner
configuration places the magnetic flux that is the air-gap between the permanent
magnets and the coils closer to the edge of the motor…this puts the power
application as far away from the shaft as possible.

This improves the torque-per-watt applied to the motor due to the extra

leverage, called the “air-gap radius”. This is a huge benefit to small motors.
However, this also means that the hot coils in an outrunner will shed its heat to the
core, which typically does not shed the motors heat very well to the outside air.
 The 4-inch Transmagnetics motor is an inrunner. The stator is mounted around
the outer edge, and the spinning rotor operates in the center. This configuration
sheds heat well.
With an inrunner, the relatively small diameter of the rotor (in the center) must spin
many more RPMs in order to provide the same power (compared to an outrunner
of equal diameter). This means that an inrunner must sometimes rely on a large
external reduction (belts and chains) to get the output speed down to the wheel
RPMs. Remember, a 26-inch wheel at 26-MPH spins only 333-RPM, while…
electric motors usually perform very efficiently near 3,000-RPMs.

One benefit of an inrunner is that since the hot coils are attached to the stationary
outer shell, they typically shed heat well to the outside air.

Inrunners: Astro, GNG, Transmagnetics, mid drives such as the Bosch,

Panasonic, and BBS02/BBSHD.

Outrunners: Most E-bike hub motors (whether geared or Direct-Drive), Most RC

motors such as Turnigy.
Kv and “Turn Count”

There is a certain amount of airspace around each steel stator “tooth” in a motor of
a given size. You could fill that space with either many turns of thin wire, or…fewer
turns of fatter wire. A low “turn count” motor will spin faster per each volt that you
apply, and a high turn-count motor will spin slower.

This is called the motors “Kv”, from “Konstant [per] voltage” (I don’t know why, but
it involves German researchers in the late 1800’s). The powerful Cromotor’s Kv is
9.3 RPMs per volt. So…10V would spin a Cro at 93-RPMs and…100V would spin
it 930-RPMs. You can change a motors Kv by removing the stock wires and re-
winding it with a different diameter of wire, or by re-terminating the phases from
Delta to Wye/Star (which is described in part-2)
 Here are two examples of the same stator from an 80-85 RC outrunner. One of
them has a high turn-count (low Kv) winding, and the other has a low turn-count
(high Kv)
Most E-bike kits will stock only the two most popular Kv’s of a given motor, and
they are sometimes mis-named “speed” and “torque” to make it simpler for the
customers to decide. The QS company stocks many different Kv’s of their popular
hub motors. The Bafang factory produces their popular BPM geared hub
in nine different Kv’s, but most retailers only stock the two most popular models.

Kv = Konstant [per] voltage

kV = kilo-Volt (1,000-volts)

High Pole count, low pole count

Probably the biggest benefit of using a high number of poles in a hubmotor is

that…it means you can use shorter magnets, and that results in the back-iron
being able to work properly while being MUCH thinner…and that saves weight. In
the two pics below, compare the thicknesses of the outer steel rings that holds the
magnet-segments in the two rotors.
 The BMC geared hub motor is on the left, and the low pole-count Bafang-BPM is
on the right. The green circuit-board at the top left is what anchors the three Hall
sensors, The BPM’s three Halls are on the opposite side.
In the picture above, you can immediately see the visual difference between a high
pole-count motor and a low pole count. The benefit of the (more expensive) high
pole-count motor is that if you want the option to use a sensorless controller,
having many small poles will provide a smoother take-off from a stop.

However, if you think you might want to try a higher voltage later (which will make
the motor spin faster), you may find the high-pole-count motor to be limited in the
electrical switching frequency (how fast each phase has to be turned on and off)
when using common controllers.

And then there is the issue of eddy-current losses. Eddy currents are too complex
to fully explain here, just know that for very high RPMs, you need thinner
laminations and a lower pole-count, or…you will reach a certain RPM (different for
each motor design) where there is a sudden and seemingly unexplainable
increase of heat.

One example of this is the popular BMC geared hubmotor. The standard model
performs well at 36V and 48V. But when builders began using it at 60V and 72V
(which makes it spin faster), some of them would encounter heat spikes when they
were at their highest RPMs (caused by eddy currents and a high switching
frequency). Ilia at ebikessf.com upgraded the BMC geared hubmotors with thinner
laminations for builders who want to run higher RPMs.
 Here is the stator of a tiny high-RPM RC outrunner. You can see that the stator is
made from a stack of 22 very thin 0.35mm thick sheet-metal laminations.
A stator core must be made from some type of steel, but they are not solid blocks.
The stator is made from many thin slices (called laminations) that are stacked
together to make the final shape. Laminations that are 0.50mm thick are common
and very affordable (due to the high volume of production).

The thinner (and slightly more expensive) 0.35mm thick lams are the next common
upgrade, but I have recently seen some motors being produced wit 0.27mm lams.
The High-efficiency Joby motor (no longer made) is capable of 10,000-RPM’s, and
it uses 0.20mm thick lams.

High-RPM laminations also have a higher content of silicon in their steel. I don’t
know why that helps them run cooler…but it does. A typical silicon alloy for
laminations would be around 3% Si. An alloy of 4%-6% Si-steel can be found,
but…it also makes the steel very brittle and difficult to form, so…3% Silicon in steel
motor lams is common.
Axial or Radial

Axial motors are rare, almost all of the motors that you can find in the electric bike
world will be radial-flux. The Agni motor is one of the few axial motors around, and
it performs well (designed by Cedric Lynch).

I believe that the reason so many motors are radial flux is because a factory can
make several motor sizes and power levels by simply making the stator-stack
longer or shorter. There have been examples of axial-flux motors that added more
stators and rotors onto the same shaft, but that doubles the size…rather than
allowing a motor family to have many small steps in the size-range.

Here is a video of a small axial-flux of a very similar construction and operation to

the brushed Agni, PMG, and Etek (the Mars is almost identical, but it is brushless).
The video only shows one permanent-magnet stator, but these motors listed have
two stators with a single spinning rotor coil-set in the center. Make note of the two
spring-loaded brushes at the beginning (made of carbon).

Since the center area inside a common radial-flux motor does not have any
magnets or electro-magnets there, an axial-flux of the same diameter and width
would have more magnetic interactions. That makes an axial-flux more power-
dense per volume, which also means…you could get the same output power from
the same input watts with a slightly smaller Axial, compared to a larger radial.

Axial = Agni-95R, PMG-132, Mars, Etek, Heinzmann

Radial = Almost all E-bike hub motors, RC motors, Astro, GNG, Transmagnetics,
Zero Motorcycles
 Radial-flux motors are common, and axials are rare, but…both can perform well if
designed from the beginning for a specific task.
Here’s a video of dis-assembling an Agni, one of the few axial motors that are
available to the public.

Here is a DIY axial-flux motor from ES member Lebowski. If you want to build a

DIY 1,000W motor from scratch for a non-hub ebike system, the single-stator, dual
rotor axial Lebowski is the best motor BY FAR.

Switched Reluctance Motors

The Tesla Model-3 is using a switched reluctance motor, since the rare-earth
elements in the neodymium magnets of common motors will be a bottle-neck to
future motor production. I didn’t know what that was, so I researched it and dug up
everything I could find on them. To read about Switched Reluctance motors, click
here.

A Cool Video I found

Here’s an 8-minute youtube from Avid Technology on motor configurations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5VS4s-R7vk
Motor Tech: learn the terms,
Part-2
If you actually know anything about electric motor technology, and you don’t hate
me yet? Buckle up…this article is going to be a bumpy ride. I think I have a firm
command of the terms that define the more common aspects of electric motors
(found in part-1 of this series, click here), and now…I’ll try to explain some of the
more obscure aspects of their design and application (as it pertains to electric
bikes).

If you like a lot of pictures to make the explanations more clear? this article may
not be for you…here’s an index.

Phase/Battery current ratio

Swept Magnetic Area / SMA

Tangential Magnet Speed / TMS

Saturation

Magnet Speed per Meter [traveled] / MSpM

Back-EMF

Inductance

Ohm’s Law

Delta/Wye

Phase/Battery current ratio

Most common controllers allow the owner to adjust the motor-phase /

battery amps current ratio. If you don’t know what that is, the motor-phase current
can be set a little higher than the battery current, and 1.5:1 seems to be pretty
common.

From madin88, in Austria:

“…High phase amps = good acceleration from zero to mid speed
High battery amps = good acceleration from mid to top speed
For higher efficiency, lower phase amps is better…”

From NeilP, in the UK:

“I would say…use XPD software rather than Lyen / Keywin…then, you can turn
block time down to 0.1 seconds”

From gwhy! in the UK:

“The way I have adjusted it in the past is:

Set the battery current to something safe, like 40-50A (depending on the type of
battery), set the over-current detection to 0.0s (this is very important), set motor-
phase to approx 1.5 times the battery current (1.5:1).

You need to attach a watt meter. On a slightly uphill road (maybe a 2-4% grade),
accelerate hard (from a dead stop) up to top speed, or until it stops accelerating
but throttle is still at WOT (this may take a while, so you need a longish stretch of
road).

Then check the watt-meters’ max current pull. If the max current pulled is less than
your set battery current, then…you need to increase the phase current, maybe by
10A. Or, if the set battery current is reached, then reduce phase current by 10A.
You keep increasing or decreasing the phase current until the max current pulled
from the battery is what you have set it to. Once you have found a battery/phase
ratio where the max battery current is always reached? Then this will be the ratio
you would use when increasing the battery and phase current together.

If the phase current is too low, then you will never reach full speed or max battery
current. My controllers use a ratio of around 1.7:1 for the motors, gearing , my
riding style and total weight of my bikes

Another method I have used, is set at a much lower battery limit (maybe 20A), and
a phase limit of 30A with the wheel off the ground go WOT and then start applying
the brake to slow the driven wheel down (loading the motor). When the wheel is
approximately half the max speed, watch the battery current on the watt meter.
This should go to your set max battery current, and should stay there as the driven
wheel gets slower and slower until the controller cuts out (locked rotor fault
protect).

The same applies when you increase or decrease phase current until you see the
set max battery current limit hit, always just before the controller cuts out. Each test
needs to take around 5-seconds, so it’s a much quicker and easier method of
finding the optimum phase setting for the motor. Once you have found your
optimum phase ratio you can always turn the battery current down and keep the
phase limit at the optimum”

“if you go too high with the phase current, you could pop your controller, if the
motor is really chugging and the throttle speed is being dragged down too much. A
standard 12-FET controller should be OK for around a safe max of 150A phase
current…if I was you, I would play it really safe and do no more than 100A phase
current.

So, if your Battery current is 50A, set phase current to no more than 150A (3X
battery current) or be extra safe, and use 50A battery and a motor-phase of 100A
(2X battery current ). As NeilP said, set the block time down to zero, this will should
limit the current as fast as possible if an over-current situation occurs. The optimum
settings will just be the least stressful (but still working 100% correct)…”

From AlanB, in the USA:

“…[more] Phase current makes [more] torque, up to magnetic saturation. Then, it

still makes [more] torque, but…it increases at a much lower rate [per added amp].
It is best to set max phase current to no more than the point where magnetic
saturation begins (and is compatible with wiring and connector capacity), though…
you might want to set it slightly higher, but heat is going to be a problem if you run
at that level very long. Don’t worry about the ratio, worry about the max current.
Calculate the I-squared-R heating and think about your motor dissipating all that
heat…

Phase current “squared” makes heat in the motor. So, you will quickly overheat
with high phase currents [that are above saturation] for only a modest improvement
in torque, because the square grows so fast. The battery current determines the
max power, and should be set for battery, BMS, and wiring capacity (or less).

I set the phase current to control the front wheel lift (if nothing else limits it first). No
point in throwing the front wheel skyward too quickly, that’s just wasted torque….”

Swept Magnetic Area / SMA

I don’t know the proper term for this, so…I just invented this term, and I’ll use it
until I stumble across the correct term (if you are a professional motor-design
engineer, email me. Please understand that, I will still ignore you, but…at least
then I can say that real engineers emailed me).

I needed a way to compare two similar hubmotors, which both use the same
common off-the shelf lamination, which results in a 205mm diameter stator. I
already covered my “rogues gallery” of hot rod hubmotors in this article on large
Direct Drive (DD) hubbies.

An outrunner DD hubmotor. The circumference of the stator, times the width of

the electromagnet-faces on the stator…equals the Swept Magnetic Area  / SMA
So here’s a direct drive hubmotor list (off the top of my head) to help explain what I
mean. All of these motors have a 205mm diameter stator, and the numbers listed
below are the width of their stators.
28mm, MXUS 1000W

35mm, Edge 1500W (click here to read about this motor)

45mm, MXUS 3000W (click here to read about this motor)

50mm, QS 205/50H V3

The wider the stator, the more copper mass (in wire) is wrapped around the stator-
teeth, which results in a greater ability to use higher amps without overheating.
However, even if they are all being fed the same exact amount of volts and amps,
the larger magnetic area that results from a wider rotor magnet (which interacts
with the stator electro-magnets) will result in more wheel-torque.

(edit: a larger diameter motor, like the QS 273, adds a lot more weight, and also
shortens the available spoke length)
 Both of these DD hubmotors have the common 205mm diameter stators. One
has a width of 28mm on the magnets and stator tooth-faces, and the other is
50mm.
I’ve already listed the width of the magnets, so…next comes the circumference. Of
course, circumference would be “the diameter times Pi”, which for our purposes
can be rounded-off to 3.14 (for the OCD among us, 3.14159265 is more exact).
This means that 205mm X 3.14 = 643.7mm, and…this is the circumference of the
magnetic “air gap” where the electrical power is converted to rotary movement, and
produces torque.

This common motor-stator circumference multiplied by the width of the various

stators, will give us the active magnetic area in squared millimeters (I know there
are small gaps between the electromagnets, but they are fairly equal between all of
these hubs, so their area is negligible in these calculations, when comparing one
motor to the other).

There are 100 square millimeters in one square centimeter, so moving the decimal
point over two spaces will result in the motors’ useable magnetically-active area
being listed in square centimeters.

The rule of thumb has been that;…if your motor is getting hot under your loads,
you need a bigger motor. If it’s running very cool, you could probably get by with a
lighter and less expensive motor. If it only gets warm, then…it’s “just right”

But now? this calculation can show you the ratio of how much more torque (or less
torque) a given motor has, compared to another…IF…the permanent-magnet
strength and input watts to the stator are the same.

180.2, MXUS 1000W V2

225.2, Edge 1500W

289.6, MXUS 3000W V2

321.8, QS 205/50H V3
Tangential Magnet Speed / TMS

This is a real engineering term, not to be confused with the rest of the bullshit
terms I used in this this article.

In casual conversation, “motor speed” is often referring to the RPM’s (Revolutions

Per Minute). As a result, motor design engineers had to invent a phrase that
specifies how fast the permanent magnets in the rotor are passing by the electro-
magnets in the stator (which can be turned on and off as needed, in order to make
the damn thing spin).

I try to find the proper term for anything that I feel is important enough to write
about, and TMS is one of those instances where I accidentally stumbled across
something when reading a lot of obscure technical papers on motor design. (*most
of which I still don’t understand. Edit: change “most” to all).

[This section of this article has exceeded the maximum allowable “word per
picture” ratio, so…here is a 4-minute video of kittens and dogs]

To try and make this as simple as possible: A large-diameter Direct Drive (DD)
motor that is spinning at “X” RPMs (like a Magic Pie?), has a much faster TMS
than a small diameter DD hub (like the rare Crystalyte G-series, or a Conhis?).
Imagine both are spinning at the same RPM’s, but…the larger-diameter motor has
a faster / higher TMS. So…should the magnet speed be measured in feet per
second, or meters per second? (here’s a hint: Benjamin Franklin liked bangin’
French chicks)

A common 26-inch diameter tire at 28-MPH (45 km/h) is spinning at 362-RPMs,

and…if using a DD hubmotor with a common 205mm diameter stator (643.7mm
circumference, listed below), the TMS is 0.6437 meters per revolution X 362
RPM’s, or…233.0 meters per minute (equal to 764.5 feet per minute).

“Feet per minute”  would provide more discrete steps in the systems we often find
ourselves using for electric bikes…however…with the global trend towards the
metric system? I think meters per minute is the metric that will prove to be the
most useful in calculating TMS between one motor and another.
Saturation (max amps?)

There’s probably a way to form an equation so you can calculate ahead of time
exactly how many amps you can feed a given DD hubmotor without overheating it,
however…The “fast and dirty” way to find out how many amps you can shove
down it’s throat (before spending a lot of riding-time with the stators’ copper mass
being over-saturated) is to log the amps you used, and the temperatures that
result.

Brushless motors can operate in a wide voltage range, which is part of their
appeal. If you upgrade the battery and controller, you can take your system to a
higher voltage, and the motor doesn’t mind. Anything above 20S is pricey, and
anything above 24S is going to get VERY expensive for the controller and charger.
Using 24 cells in “Series”, at a nominal 3.7V per cell, has its “average” at 88.8V
nominal. A 24S battery fully-charged to 4.2V per cell means a high voltage of
100.8V, hot off the charger.

If you are worried about safety, and you don’t like the fact that higher-voltage
electricity can penetrate dry skin, stick with 14S or lower (51.8V nominal, and
58.8V fully charged), and…the lower, the safer. If your skin is sweaty and salty? At
that point the volts don’t matter, because even low volts will fry your finger if the
system you’re touching [without gloves] has high amps.

But…let’s get back to amps and saturation. It’s actually not a bad design goal to go
into saturation a “little bit” once in a while. However…if your user-profile spends a
lot of time in saturation? Your motor will be soaking-in more heat than it can
shed.
 An infra-red (IR) image of an electric motorcycle, as soon as it was parked after a
run. The tires, brakes, and battery are warm, but…the cylindrical motor is
obviously hot. It might need high-temp samarium-cobalt magnets, and high-temp
shaft-bearing seals to survive this. The batteries, however, actually perform better
above 104F / 40C, but…just don’t ever get them above 140F / 60C
This is less of an issue for mid drives, because the operator can control what gear
the bike is in, and that  controls how many RPM’s the motor is spinning at [hint:
motors love high RPMs].

However, a large DD hub is by definition always at low RPMs when starting out at
a red light, when it turns green. I mean that, if you live in a relatively flat area, it’s
not a bad thing to saturate the copper mass with high amps for five seconds or so
(when accelerating), as long as you allow a full minute of just cruising, in order for
everything to cool off a little.

Where is the point of saturation? There are many factors, but…if you really want to
know, get a temp probe. Start at reasonably low amps. Raise the amps 5A at a
time, run your usual commute, and watch the max temps. Every time you raise the
amps, you will “feel” more acceleration, but…there will come a point where…even
though you still feel more power? You also notice a significant bump in heat. That
point is the “quick and dirty” point of saturation.
The reason this is worth taking the time to sort out is because…my hills might be
longer and steeper than your hills. Why not get the maximum performance that
your components are capable of, if it only takes a minor adjustment? You can likely
go into saturation just a little bit once in a while, but…if you go too far, and for too
long? Any one of several things can happen from the heat-soaking that results.

1. Rubber seals on axle-bearings might deform/melt, and the bearing will die soon after
that, from grit and water-intrusion
2. Weak Chinese wire-joints will re-melt at low temp due to using cheap “cheese grade”
solder instead of the good stuff.
3. Generic Hall-sensor dies, [buy three authentic Honeywell Halls to replace all of them]
4. The clear enamel on the copper wires in the stator will bake off, and wires short out.
The wires will look dark and they smell bad. It’s called turning your motor into “wall art”
5. Cheap Chinese neodymium magnets will begin to de-magnetize. The top speed will go
up a little (altered Kv), but…the power will go down at all RPMs

Due to these reasons, keep the motor below 200F / 93C. If your DD hubmotor is
getting hot too often? Add more copper mass by going to a larger motor. You could
also add cooling mods, like oil-cooling, and ventilating the side-plates. Plus maybe
upgrade to a model of hubmotor with an aluminum stator support to act as a heat-
sponge…and maybe add Ferro-fluid with motor-rim fins? but…that info will be in an
article for 2017.

Concerning temps, brushless motors can take a lot of abuse, but…the battery and
controller work better when they are warm, however…it is bad for them to be too
hot, or too cold. There are many factors that affect the actual “best” temps, but…
100F to 120F is a really great zone to aim for (38C-50C). Warm is good, hot and
cold are bad.

Magnet Speed per Meter traveled (MSpM?)

I know this will sound arrogant, but…This is another term I just made up out of
thin air.  I created it to help me mathematically compare a given Direct
Drive  hubmotor (DD), to a geared hub, and then to a mid drive.
If the input watts are the same, the worst-case scenario would be a small-diameter
DD hub in a large diameter wheel (Crystalyte 408 in a 29’r?). It will struggle to get
up to its designed top-speed. And…the method that the controller will TRY to use,
is to keep applying high amps until it gets there. Since this combo will accelerate
slowly, the continuous high amps will result in frequent overheating.

The next step in increasing the magnet-speed, is to switch to a smaller diameter

wheel, or…upgrade to a larger diameter DD hub, OR…maybe both. In part-1, we
saw that many motors are now available in a variety of Kv’s, which means it’s
designed top speed can differ, even when the same volts are applied.

If we switch to a larger diameter of DD hub, away from the smaller 408 (like any
one of the 205mm diameter stator’ed motors listed above), and then swap it to a
smaller diameter wheel (like a 20-inch bicycle rim, or the very similar 16-inch
moped rim), we can also then specify a much faster Kv version of that motor. The
result is that…the final form of this theoretical wheel can have the same top speed
as the “bad” example, however…it will have a much higher magnet speed, per
meter that the bike travels.
 A common geared hubmotor. The blue disc on the left is the one-way clutch,
using cylindrical ramped rollers, in the middle are the white plastic gears, and on
the right is the stator in the center, with a thin permanent magnet rotor around its
rim (cutaway to show the stator).
Geared hubs have a distinct advantage over a similarly-sized DD hub at any power
level below approximately 1500W. Inside the motor housing there is a mechanical
gear-set, which allows the motor to spin about 5 times for each wheel revolution.
This allows a small and light motor to make a LOT of torque from an average
amount of watts.

Geared hubs all have a one-way clutch inside too, and that is the component that
sometimes fails when any power above 2000W is applied firmly. If you get one of
the larger geared hubs (like the BMC), a common power level is 48V X 25A =
1200W, and the most I would risk using on those is roughly 60V X 30A = 1800W
(with an added temp sensor, and…maybe oil-cooling).
[You may notice that in those two examples, the amps are about half the volts. This
is because geared hubs have a poor heat-shedding path, so amp-heat will be the
limiting factor. If you want more power than 1800W (using a geared hub), I’d
recommend going to a 2WD]. If you want more power from a motor that has poor
heat-shedding, raise the volts more than the amps…

Getting back to MSpM, if…you are limited to 1800W, a geared hub is lighter

(compared to a similarly-sized DD hub), and the 5:1 gearing means the very fast-
spinning motor will run more efficiently. How much more? The popular BMC has a
stator that is 135mm in diameter, so 135 X 3.14 = a circumference of 424mm
(times five geared revolutions) = 2120mm of magnet travel per wheel revolution.

Let’s compare that to the common DD hub circumference of 205 X 3.14 = 644mm
of magnet travel per wheel revolution…which equals 644 (DD) vs 2120 (geared). If
the common geared hubs were matched up against a DD hub that had the same
diameter and width of stator (SMA), it would be a huge mismatch, with the large
geared hub winning. It is only when you begin using more than 2000W that a DD
hub begins to provide the type of performance that a geared hub cannot compete
with (due to limited heat-shedding).

Maybe someday a vendor will make a geared hub with more rollers in the clutch (to
lower the “load per roller”, which would raise the clutches’ power rating) and also
widen the stator to the point where it can only hold a single-speed freewheel.
Then…it could provide more torque per the same input watts. However,…right
now? the existing examples are capped somewhere near 1800W per motor. Even
at the same input watts (heat-limited), a wider stator would provide more SMA
torque. If such a geared hub was designed from the factory to have oil-cooling, it
would not leak (I worked for a dozen years in the hydraulics industry, trust me on
this)

[I realize that common DD hubs have more leverage due to the length of the
magnetic gap radius, but I’m trying to keep this as simple as possible for now. A
205mm diameter has a roughly 30% more radius “leverage” compared to a 135mm
diameter stator from a geared hub]
Next…The most common way to increase the motors “magnet speed per meter” of
wheel travel is to configure the system with a non-hub motor. It would typically be
mounted in the frame, and connected to the rear wheel by a chain. If you want an
even higher magnet speed (per wheel travel), you could add a jackshaft to form a
dual reduction. This results in the same wheel-speed you designed the original
system for, but…the motor can spin even faster.

Up until somewhere around 2000W, there are significant benefits to having the
motor drive the multiple sprocket-sets of the rear wheel (with the rear wheel having
at least 3 gears minimum). Then, when using any power level above 2600W, the
rider will experience significant driveline wear, if…you are
using bicycle components. Using #219 Kart chain, and #420 motorcycle chain (and
sprockets) are the hot rod options that are the most popular for extra-high power,
and you can’t run those through a derailleur.

Non-Hub motor systems

Up until somewhere around 2000W, it is a huge benefit to efficiency, to give the

motor the use of the Bicycles’ gears. A common method is to use a Bottom-Bracket
(BB) crankset with two chainrings. The motor drives one chainring, and then…the
other chainring drives the gears on the rear wheel. However, if you don’t want the
pedals to spin all the time? you have to incorporate a freewheeling crankset, like
the kind used in a trials bike.

You ‘could’ do this at power-levels above 2000W, but…the chainrings and chains

will wear out faster, and sometimes even break. For power levels above  2000W
(and also up to “the sky is the limit”?), you might want to run a one-speed chain to
the rear wheel. I have seen set-ups like this driving the LEFT side of the rear wheel
(recommended), which leaves the stock pedaling system intact…or…with a chain
driving the right side of the rear wheel.
 Using a hubmotor as a non-hub, by Rassy. This borders on genius. Trikes and
longtail cargobikes are two frame-styles that I know of, that allow this kind of
configuration.
If someone mounted a DD hubmotor on the frame, and then attached it to the rear
wheel with a 1:1 ratio…would there still be any benefits? Yes!

With the unsprung weight of the motor being taken out of the wheel, it would make
the rear suspension more nimble and responsive. Also, it would be easier to
incorporate some cooling mods with no spinning spokes in the way.

However, I feel the biggest benefit to this configuration is in the fact that you can
take a cheap and robust DD hub, and run a completely different ratio to the rear
wheel. Remember earlier how I touted the benefits of the geared hub over a DD at
power levels up to 2000W? Imagine a DD hubmotor running a 55T/11T (5:1 ratio)
#219 chain to the rear wheel. It would have all the benefits of a common geared
hubmotor (with its internal 5:1 gear ratio), but…it would NOT have a 2000W power
limit.

Heat would not be much of an issue, so the Leafbike 1500W motor (with 35mm
wide stator, adding Ferro-fluid) could provide an insane amount of wheel-torque, if
there was even just a 3:1 ratio (or more) between the motor RPM’s, and the rear
wheel RPM’s.

A one-speed non-hub motor on an extended swingarm, with the tire diameter that
has been reduced to 20-inches. The sprockets here are 44T/11T for a 4:1 drive
ratio.

Back-EMF

From: Luke/liveforphysics:

“…Every direct drive ebike hubmotor is also acting as a generator as it turns. The
separation between motor/generator is merely if you happen to be feeding it
power…or… drawing power from it’s rotors’ induced changing magnetic fields
creating back-electromotive-force in the windings…”
For some reason, BEMF is how the most common controllers sense if the motor is
at its max system RPM, or if the controller needs to add more amps to get it up
there.

Inductance, and voodoo magic

I’m probably going to get some hate mail on this because I really don’t understand
inductance, but…I’m going to add this here anyways. Inductance is measured in a
unit called “Henries” (I’m not making this up…unlike the rest of this article). And…if
the amount of inductance is very small, it is measured in “micro-Henries” (μH, or
uH).

Coils in a stator from a 3-phase motor. Look at all the wasted airspace between
the coils! Doing it this way makes it easy to mass-produce, but if you took some
 extra time, you could easily increase the copper amass by 50%. the motor in the
pic shown here is a “stepper” motor.
According to this video here, when any “iron-core” electromagnet coil is energized,
it creates a strong and focused magnetic field (which we want). However…when
we suddenly de-energize it?…the collapsing magnetic field creates a very brief
voltage spike (in that phase-group) which can possibly damage sensitive
electronics.

Here is a link to another video that I found useful.

This is similar to how a car from the early 1960’s uses two concentric coils to
convert 12V into a high-enough voltage, to jump across the air-gap of the spark-
plug tips. Old car spark plugs need lots of coil-inductance feeding them, but…
electric bike controllers don’t.

From izeman:

“Inductance is measured in Henries and it evens out  the current pulses to normal

levels. Desirable motor inductance is around 50-150μH. Figures lower than 20μH,
apart from causing excess heat, start to make serious problems [voltage
spikes/overshoot].

Some large RC motors and, especially, various “cheap” coreless motors have
inductances of less than 5μH. Also, you don’t want inductance too high, because it
will give problems at high RPM’s. You can add air core inductors to a low-
inductance motor to increase inductance. [building the magnetic field takes some
time, even if it’s measured in fractions of a millisecond. But, at high RPM’s, the coil
is energized for such a short time, that there is less current creating the actual work
of moving the rotor, because some of the time is wasted during the building up and
drawing down of the magnetic field]

When inductance is too low, you can run into a situation where current limiting
does not kick in fast enough and overshoots. The lower the inductance, the faster
the overshoot rises” [end quote]

Do I understand inductance? Hell no! I just read that if you don’t get the inductance
right, you can fry your expensive hot rod controller. Always match (and adjust) your
controller to the motor you want to use. I am always a “late adopter” of new tech,
and I only use components that are proven to work well together (using accepted
settings).

Experimenting can be fun, but…but trust me when I say that I have found out…
experimenting is always expensive!

Here is the best video I found so far, which describes what inductance is, and what
the practical effects are (click here)

Ohm’s Law

V = I × R          I = V / R          R = V / I

R = Resistance [in Ohms], discovered by a German, Georg Ohm

V = Voltage, discovered by an Italian named Alessandro Volta

I= Current [in Amps] from the French “Intensité de Courant”, from a French
scientist named André-Marie Ampère

OK, so…a German, an Italian, and a Frenchman walk into a bar, and…the
bartender says “Is this some kind of joke?” (in this joke, the bartender is from the
USA, the only country mentioned that put a man on the moon just to prove that
they could, and then…refused to build the moon base we were promised)

In plain english, raising the volts increases power without a huge increase of heat
(however it increases the motor RPMs if the Kv isn’t changed, and the battery pack
might also be larger and more expensive), but…raising the current/amps will
dramatically increase the motors’ torque, and also the heat.
Delta / Wye configuration

Each coil (or group of coils) that forms an electromagnet, has two wire-leads
coming from it. Since current will only flow through a complete circuit, you can join
one leg from each of the three coil groups. Doing this allows you to configure only
three wires (out of a possible six) to exit from the hollow axle. And…doing that 
allows each wire to be as fat as possible within the allowed space. As a result, the
common controllers have only three phase leads (typically colored BGY, for Blue
Green Yellow ).

Now? most hot rod hubmotors have the motor-phase leads exiting the axle from a
slot near the center, instead of at the axle-tip. This makes the axle much stronger
(which is important in a hot rod)

Wye is sometimes called “Star”, because if you are using a motor with five coils per
phase-group (which is common in industry), the electrical engineering drawing will
look like a 5-pointed star.

Delta will produce a motor that has 1.7:1 more RPMs per volt, compared to that
same motor configured in Wye/Star. Delta is faster. Wye runs a little cooler.
 Outrunner style of motor shown, Delta is on the left, and it is called Delta because
a flat bottomed triangle looks like the Greek letter D, Wye is on the right, and it’s
called Wye because…
Delta will have a 1.7:1 faster kV than the same motor terminated in Wye, but…
Wye pulls less current on start-up. A long time ago, some ebikers pondered
Delta/Wye switching “on the fly” to help their low-current battery packs to provide
better performance (Wye at low speed, Delta at high speed).

But now? high current batteries make that a thing of the past. Which is better?
Most ebike DD hubs (that you can actually buy) are terminated in Delta, but…it all
depends on what you are going to do with it.
Anything else?

I thought about trying to learn more about hysteresis, iron losses, core losses,
phase resistance, reluctance, permeability, copper losses, etc…but…this article is
way too long already, and those motor characteristics will probably never affect any
motor system you are likely slap together in your garage, so…

[edit: found an article on reluctance, click here]

Please address all “hate mail” to inmate #41, Kansas state correctional facility for
the mentally unstable. You will get extra points if you add a pack of Marlboro’s. If I
get enough of those, I can trade them for a huge DIY tattoo of “Ebike Lyfe” across
my back.

Or…you could go to our Facebook page, and start a conversation with me. Don’t
waste your time by simply posting that I am an idiot…I already know that. Tell me
exactly HOW I am an idiot, so I can learn.