Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Damaged Tidalforce motor

I received a badly damaged Tidalforce motor recently. I was curious what had happened to it. It's the first time I've actually opened a Tidalforce motor. I won't open a working Tidalforce motor since I might damage it. However, opening a damaged one seemed doable. One of the magnets seems to have hit the poles of the motor and cracked In half. That caused a catastrophic failure of the entire motor. The previous owner damaged the bearings on the torque arm side and also the seals as well. This may not be salvageable.

The open 7 pole Tidalforce motor.

The damaged ring of magnets. They we're help in place by small plastic spacers between each magnet.

The damaged magnet.

A good (but tarnished) magnet.




8 comments:

  1. Hi
    Did you do any attempt at salvaging this motor?
    Just got hold of an IO cruiser with a loosened magnet and a motor case leak. Possibly one of a few or the only TidalForce bike in Norway. It is a Matra build, but the motor looks to be identical to the one in the pictures.
    Have no experience working with electric motors, but would be willing to have a crack at it after reading about the magnificense of the motor used on TidalForce bikes.
    Any and all help is appreciated.
    Will be posting for help at E-S as well, along with some pictures.
    Best regards
    Snorre

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  2. I don't plan on fixing the loose magnet since I have other TF motors that I can scavenge. It looks as if it is very fixable though. Perhaps I could send you a couple of good magnets from this damaged motor and you can replace the damaged ones on your motor. I don't know what type of adhesive to recommend, however, you may be able to determine that from other sites on the web. Just let me know.

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  3. I read on Endless sphere that someone used 3M Weld glue to fix those magnets (doctorbass, maybe ?)

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  4. Yes, Doctorbass uses 3M Scotch-Weld DP420. It's VERY powerful.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. I searched the internet high and low for pics of the tidalforce motor, specifically the MOSFET part, but couldn't find any. You mind writing something about that, Ambrose ? I think it'd be good for TF owners to know the refs of the mosfet i case they need replacing. Thanks !

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  7. I have never had the opportunity to open up the Tidalforce motor enough to see the controller board. I've never heard of anyone having any problems with the controller in the motor. I've never experienced any issues with the internal controller either. The one in the picture above suffered a magnet dislocation and is actually an X version motor so I'm hesitant to take it fully apart. I plan on replacing the damaged magnet ring with a non-X version rotor.

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  8. Actually, I asked about the mosfets reference not so much for replacing them directly but mostly for having the opportunity to upgrade them to something stronger (with something that can accept voltages superior to 48V maybe 60V).
    I know there are issues with the controller logic not able to cope with more than 44V or something like that, but any step that can bring the TF community toward more knowledge about these bikes will benefit all of us in the long term.
    (on a side note, I now understand why you advised to stick with 36V battery packs on the ES forums - it took quite some time for me to get it but now I know why. Also, I think I will also trawl through the internet ads to get another TF bike for spare parts of even another fully working bike - I just love the silky smooth rides !).

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