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We currently have three separate BH Emotion Ebikes in the charity. That have been a fantastic reliable ebike for many years. They all are used heavily to tow other Recumbent trikes in what we call ‘Bike train’ configurations. In total We have 6 batteries that in effect are interchangeable between bikes as they all use the same custom curved style
One disadvantage of towing with thease bikes is the reduced range you can get from a single 11.5Ah battery is in the region of 20-25miles depending on terain. so on our longer rides we can often need 2 or 3 batteries for a ride. We therfore were on the lookout for one or two more batteries to add to the stock.
unfortunately due to BH bikes stopping production of the ‘Neo’ range of bikes several years ago there are no new battery stocks avaliable and even old dead batteries are very hard to come by. There are a handfull of companies who still sell recelled batteries but ask arround £700 -£800 delieverd! being a Yorkshire based charity we like to try other options first 😉
We have successfully re-celled one battery in the past, and this is still working great to this day, but we had a dead battery case to use which are still very difficult to find even on the 2nd hand market.
So this time round we wanted to try something different….
We have had a lot of success with low cost Hailong generic E-bike Batteries on recent builds. like on Brian the Cargo Bike…
These are much more cost effective at around £200 – £250 depending on cell types. and would be a great option for the emotion bikes if only they would fit….
So lets build an ebike adapter!
First I made a accurate 3D model of the Emotion Battery weird dimensions using Fusion 360
Then use this as the basis to design a adapter cage..
I decided to add stability and strength to add a solid steel bar through the middle. This also helped me split up the adapter into 4 parts for printing as well as give me a little adjustment to fine tune the size of the adapter to take up any movement. Once printed the bar was gluded into the plastic pieces using epoxy glue.
The nice thing about it being an adapter is you can still remove it and put in a standard emotion battery. to actually get power through I added an XC 60 connector to the controller power wires so either the original battery connector or the adapter would power the bike. It is stick quick to unplug and swap batteries as needed.
So far the new battery has performed perfectly in its role and at 13Ah is actually giving a little more range than the original ones at a fraction of the cost. We also have extra hailong batteries for other bikes which gives us more flexibility on longer rides by standadising the spares we can carry.
3D Printed parts STL files
XT60 plug for when using standard Emotion battery
Empowered People 
I used to have a BH emotion, at the time it was miles better than any other e bike I tried. I recently sold it (12 years on) and now have a BH atom brose cross s hybrid – which is a mouthful, great too but just even better 👍
The article is really interesting, I’ll let the chap who bought my old bike know about it as the battery isnt what it was.
I wonder if you might be able to print another adapter like the one you have?
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You replied to this comment.
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Hi Andrew, I will add the STL file to this post so look out for that.
The metal bar is a section cut from these https://www.screwfix.com/p/sabrefix-roll-edge-restraint-strap-bend-500-x-100mm-5-pack/85398
Its 400mm long 28mm wide and 4mm deep. its just something we had but we had to drill new holes for the Haillong cage so any bar that’s the same size would be fine.
I have to admit the challenge has been to keep strength in the end with the hole, so I am planning on a reworking where the whole thing is strengthened with metal and the 3D printed part is not load bearing.
For the connector, I just removed the Plastic cover and tapped into the battery connector with an additional XC60 male plug. This way we can swap back to a standard Emotion battery as needed. To help keep the connector from shorting i also used a female XC60 plug with a cap hot clued on. its not connected to anything but if an emotion battery is in use it keeps the exposed connector from being accessible. ( I will get a photo when i can for this)
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Hello from U.S.A🤗 well done 👍 I don’t have the charger adapter for my Neo Jumper and want to do this to it.All you had do was power the controller? Brilliant solution.Thanks for the information & your time.
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Do you have the STL file for this? I’d love to do the same thing to my bike! Thanks!
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Has anybody had their battery reconditioned? How did it turn out, I’m considering if I should buy a new battery or reconditioned my old one? Thanks
Anybody know where I can find the battery voltage for the e motion battery.
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Hey, I was planning on reconditioning my battery, but the cost is like $600 + shipping and the battery will only last 2-5 years. In my case I prefer to get a new Hailong battery that will cost around $250 dollars, and it will be very easy to replace it in the future or even add a second battery in parallel to increase my driving distance. Good luck and let us know what you decided to do at the end. Good luck.
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This is such a great idea, but unfortunately my BH has a straight battery. So I went ahead and made my own version with FreeCAD. I really like your metal bar idea so I did pretty much the same thing in my design except I used aluminum and bolted it to the plastic parts rather than epoxying it. Here’s a link to my project for anyone who has a straight battery like mine: https://www.printables.com/model/261299-bh-easymotion-evo-ebike-battery-mount
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Hey, I saw your printable files and pictures and your final product looks great. I have also a straight battery 48V and I will do the same as what you did, but in my case, I will use the Hailong battery (it will be easy to find a replacement battery on Amazon and it will be easy to take it in and out of the bike. My only concern is that I read that on the Bike LCD that is attached to the handlebar you will not be available to read the battery percentage (will show Zero percent) and it may not work other functions, but I am NOT sure if that a true statement. It looks like on your bike you only connected the POSITIVE and NEGATIVE terminals of the new Battery to the Bike to make it work, and I would like to know if that the only thing you will need to connect to make everything work like the LCD, and all components on the bike? I am very excited about this project and lucky to find this post, and people willing to share their own personal 3D files. Thanks so much for sharing them.
My bike is an Evo City Wave for reference.
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Great Job!, Thanks for sharing!
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That’s awesome.
I am in the same predicament as I have the Evo Cross (straight battery design, not curved) with NO Battery that I purchased at a Police auction.
I am scrambling to find a working battery. Now I see the dilemma I have placed myself in. Well I’d like an adapter 3d model for it if you have a link. Cheers!
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Hey, I am on the same boat. URAEUS shared a link to his 3D model for the Straight Battery design. I am planning on buying one of the 48V Hailong batteries in Amazon.com and attached it to the 3D model adapter. Please stay connected and send updates of your project, and I will do the same.
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Hi, this article is very interesting, and I love it. I have a BH Evo city wave ebike, and I would like to update my original battery to the Hailong battery using the straight adapter models shared on this article. I have a couple of questions that I would really appreciate if someone could share with me. Would the LCD light up and all the functions and speed modes will work as expected by just connecting the new battery to the bike using the red positive and black negative cable or there are more cables that need to be connected to make the bike fully functional?
Second question: I noticed that my original battery other that having the main positive and negative terminal, also have tiny other connectors coming out from the battery outlet. Does any of you know if those tiny connector terminals are important for the function of the bike, and why they exist? Thank you, and I would really appreciate any respond.
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Hi, sorry for the late reply, I missed your comment. On our Emotion neo Cross bikes , when we switched from an original Emotion battery (3 wires connected) to a generic 36V battery ( just battery Positive and negative connected) then the bike is fully functional, the display will light up fine and you can change modes etc, but annoyingly the battery display will just flash as if fully empty. I think the third yellow wire is a digital communication with the emotion BMS so there is no easy way to tell the controller what the battery state is. its a small price to pay I guess and you often have a battery level indicator on the battery so its still possible, if a little bit of an annoyance to check the levels if needed. or you could add a separate battery level indicator on the bars if required.
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I have an Evo Cross and I’ve seen somewhere on the internet that yellow wire on the battery connector is the State of charge (SOC) and varies from 0-10 volts. I’ve tested it on my battery, but maybe more like 4-10 volts. I ended up using my original BMS, so I didn’t have to try it, but perhaps you could connect your yellow wire to the negative most two groups of cells (2s) and feed the display with 5.4 to 8 volts: from 2*2.7v=5.4v dead to 2*4v=8v full.
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Very nice mod. I have the curved battery as well on an Evo bike. I have experimented with a moderate over volting by adding a few extra cells. It works – for a bit of time – giving the engine an extra kick 😉
I think the battery controller is the limiting factor. It will not handle the slightly higher voltage.
Have any of you tried anything like this – and maybe know where to get hold of a controller, that would manage the task and still work on an Evo bike?
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No we haven’t ever tried to upgrade the controller on the emotion bikes, instead we switched over to a Bafang BBS02 mid drive motor. we did this as we were having issues with display reliability and rear spokes failing so we wanted to lose the rear motor go back to a standard wheel. You should be able to change the controller over and use the existing motor and possibly the rear torque sensor as an input to the controller. You would have to change the display and cabling though as the emotion does seam quite unique to thier bikes. should be possible.
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Tnx for your quality answer 🙂 Much appreciated.
All things considered, I think should leave the bike, as it was build. Maybe replace the cells at some point.
Considering a mountain bike with a Bafang mid drive as #2. Could be fun!
Kind regards Peter
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Hi my Easy motion battery Suddenly dead and taken the charger with it , I didn’t know before but got a new charger but the battery killed the charger now have no idea, how to fix this please help!
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can you please telle, how to recell an old battery
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can anyone tell me what the signal cables (orange &green) from the controller to the battery under the saddle do and what voltage ? I would like to resurrect this old bike but it’s like 600 for a battery and I replaced all the cells only to discover the BMS is faulty
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Hi When changing batteries does the BMS still function as it should
Regards Kevin
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The BMS is within the battery so works fine with the standard hailong batteries we used. Bare in mind we also changed the motor and controller so if you are asking if the stock emotion display detects the battery, then no it will constantly flash as no battery as it communicates with the original emotion battery and that’s not present. The bike does still work fine other than the display cannot see the battery level.
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Hi Sorry for the delay and many thanks for your reply it is much appreciated
Regards Kevin
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This youtuber: “Gerard’s Tips and Tricks” has done the BH ebike community a great service by showing all details of rebuilding and adapting a battery. Specifically, he answers the question about why the battery charge is zero when connecting only the plus and minus wires of the battery, and how to work around it. Several have asked about it in these comments. This is the video that covers that, but make sure you see his other videos about his BH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iCNyqWnh74
BTW, I have a BH easy motion evo cross 2015 whose battery I just rebuilt with new cells thanks to his video.
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Great thanks for sharing! 😁
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Hi has anyone upgraded the BH bike with the small battery under the seat, I wondered if I could upgrade to a flat battery on a replacement carrier that I have seen for sale with a battery compartment section
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I’m planning on making this upgrade because the original battery can’t even stay on for more than 15 seconds now and is incredibly unpredictable. However the one thing I’m lost on is, the connector. The hailong kit comes with a xt60 but my bike after removing the plastic cover is using some version of a 3 pin connector for the battery. Should I just get a xt60 female and sever the three pin and solder the xt60 on to it? would that even work?
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Yes that’s correct you can simply wire into the red and black of the 3 pin connector and ignore the third wire. The original bh motion controller and display will work but unfortunately you won’t have a working battery indicator as the 3rd wire is a data connection for the original bus in the battery and without that data the display will never know the capacity.
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