When developing a electric scooter vehicle, what is one that you cannot miss? Sure, the motor is easily the most important part of electric scooters for adults, but an electric controller is just as essential.
Suppose, you could not control how fast or slow you can go. So despite you wanting to walk, you might just take off at maximum speed, which can be very dangerous at times. This is exactly why an electric motor controller is essential for a motorized scooter.
These controllers are responsible for directing the current flow from the battery to the motor. In a nutshell, the better the controller, the better the electrical scooter.
What is an Electric Scooter Controller?
As we discussed earlier, an electric motor speed controller is an electronic circuit responsible for controlling the flow of current throughout your electrical scooter. You can say that this is an electric motor speed controller because its primary job is to direct the current precisely from the motor to other parts of the motorized scooter, according to the input received from the throttle.
What does this mean? A motor scooter would act as a controller that would only dispense the energy necessary to achieve your required speed at the moment. So if you only slightly hold down the throttle, you should only be going at a fairly slow speed. And as you rev up, you can go faster and reach the motor scooter’s top speed. This controller will ensure you do not overdo it, precisely controlling the flow of current into the electric scooters for adults.
Electric scooter controllers are rated as per the rate of current in amps and the rate of voltage in volts. Higher current and higher voltage will result in a more powerful electric scooter. A motor scooter with a single motor will also come with a single electric motor controller. However, some high-performance scooters, like the Varla Eagle One, have two motors that contain two controllers that simultaneously respond to you using the throttle.
Where is an Electric Scooter Controller?
You buy a new electric scooter online, and it runs great for a couple of weeks, but one day the motor starts making strange noises. If you start hearing these strange noises, it’s likely because of a faulty electric controller.
Now, before you bring out your toolkit to replace your electronic motor speed controller, you first need to know a couple of things. For starters, you need to find the controller in your motorized scooter.
It’s a little difficult to pinpoint exactly where the controller is in your electric scooters for adults, but usually, you can find it underneath the deck. The deck is the platform you stand on when you are riding your electrical scooter.
Most of the time you can find it away from the batteries, so you might also have to take off the battery cover. However, there are some cases where the controller should be visible right after you remove the wires.
Types of Electric Scooter Controllers
Electronic motor speed controllers come in various types, each with different ratings of current, voltage, functionality, and motor types.
First of all, let's talk about the motor types that different electric controllers can have. The two most popular ones happen to be the Brushed and Brushless DC motor controllers.
- brushless motor controller
The most notable difference between these two motor types is that due to its design, the brushless motor controller is manufactured to be very efficient and reliable and used in more powerful scooters like the Varla Eagle One.
- brushed DC motor controller
On the other hand, the brushed DC motor controller is an electric controller, which is a lot cheaper. Manufacturers will often use this motor in less expensive adult scooters due to its limited functionality and power.
How does the Electric Scooter Controller work?
Now that we know what different variations of an electric controller exist and what factors influence their types, let's get into some technicalities. We know that electronic motor speed controllers work as the brain for your best electric scooter, but what are its inner workings?
Within your electronic motor speed controller lies a small processor chip. A processor chip is a mini computer with only a singular task, and in this case, it's to control the flow of current. The controller is signaled by various sensors and acts accordingly. For Instance, when you are revving on the throttle would signal the controller to direct the current flow needed according to how hard you push the throttle.
Due to the processor being a small, low-power component, it's not capable of starting up the motor by itself. Instead, it sends the current to transistors, which act as amplifiers for the current.
Another aspect an electric motor speed controller depends on is its rating in voltage and current. Iterating on what we discussed earlier, the more voltage and current, the more powerful the electrical scooter, but it is not that simple.
One thing to note is that the controller's and motor's voltage should be somewhat similar for optimal efficiency. And as for the current rating, it is general practice for the output current of the controller to be less than that of the battery output current.
Tips for diagnosing a faulty controller
When buying an e scooter, electric scooter adults should always gather some knowledge on how to diagnose a faulty electric controller. Here are some helpful tips:
- Know how to test an electronic motor controller
- Learn how the controller functions
- Learn how to perform troubleshooting and component testing
Wrap-up
To summarise this discussion, we learned the importance of an electronic motor speed controller, its different types, and how you should go about diagnosing a related problem.
These are just some helpful indicators to look out for when searching for electric scooters for adults with an electronic controller best suited for electric scooter adult’s needs. Everyone here at Varla values all these qualities and works diligently to ensure all our electrical scooter meet optimal requirements, from our powerful dual motor Varla eagle one to our much more economical Varla Pegasus, now at discounted prices!
