Volspeed tuning box for Bosch gen 4

[stonedwolf]

I've also noticed something I did not expect. Before installing the chip I could not turn the lights on or off. I asked the shop that sold the bike and they told me: "Yea, we know and there is nothing we can do about it".

It's a standard Bosch dealer laptop thing to activate the lights with their laptop/software thing.

If they are a Bosch servicer and can't do that then you need a new store and pronto.

 

[SalEmtb]

Is there a possibility of losing warranty, when you use bosch ebike-connect with derestricted bike?
Do you think that bosch can use your ebike-connect ride data to see if the bike is derestricted?

 

[Froffytop]

Hey Guys,

Was at a riding on the weekend & started getting error 511 codes popping up with the Volspeed engaged at my normal setting 35kph.
All of the trails were longer descents where I was pushing it/pedaling a lot, tried restarting it a few times & this didn't seem to help. Decided to turned off the Vol speed to see if that helped & I didn't have the error come again for the rest of the day (lots more runs done)

Has anyone had this issue happen?

Wondering whether its likely that my motor is just on the way out & the Volspeed has just highlighted it early?

 

[RustyMTB]

Is there a possibility of losing warranty, when you use bosch ebike-connect with derestricted bike?
Do you think that bosch can use your ebike-connect ride data to see if the bike is derestricted?

As I understand it, there is some debate on whether Bosch can detect a derestriction device & I imagine Bosch wouldn't disclose what their software can do but at a guess, if they see you bombing around at 25mph everywhere, then they could reasonaby infer that if you're not an Olympic athelete, then there's a helping hand about.

 

[stonedwolf]

hey could reasonaby infer that if you're not an Olympic athelete, then ...

... you're doing a day or weekend of uplifted downhills?

 

[RustyMTB]

Uplifts? Ebikes? Ok.

 

[Planemo]

... you're doing a day or weekend of uplifted downhills?

That fact wouldn't matter. If you're getting uplifted and bombing downhill, you're not exactly using a lot of power. The system doesn't just look at speed.

 

[Planemo]

Uplifts? Ebikes? Ok.

Tbf I'll be in Morzine again this summer for a week of uplifts. I have to have the battery fitted as I don't have a blanking plate

 

[stonedwolf]

Uplifts? Ebikes? Ok.

If you're with your clockwork mates its not impossible.

 

[RustyMTB]

Nothing's impossible. If I were a dealer, I'd deduce the guy with the average speed at 18mph for 15 miles is more likely to have a happy chip than the guy doing thirty for five minutes ten times in a day with a break for lunch. Assuming plugging one in doesn't leave a trace in the system in the first place.

 

[dschae1]

Hey Guys,

Was at a riding on the weekend & started getting error 511 codes popping up with the Volspeed engaged at my normal setting 35kph.
All of the trails were longer descents where I was pushing it/pedaling a lot, tried restarting it a few times & this didn't seem to help. Decided to turned off the Vol speed to see if that helped & I didn't have the error come again for the rest of the day (lots more runs done)

Has anyone had this issue happen?

Wondering whether its likely that my motor is just on the way out & the Volspeed has just highlighted it early?

Hi, I was wondering if you have the Volspeed 3 or 4? Also, what bike do you have (Year, make, model). I think you are in Australia, do they have the crazy 15mph (24kph) limit like Europe has?

 

[Jack___]

Hey Guys,

Was at a riding on the weekend & started getting error 511 codes popping up with the Volspeed engaged at my normal setting 35kph.
All of the trails were longer descents where I was pushing it/pedaling a lot, tried restarting it a few times & this didn't seem to help. Decided to turned off the Vol speed to see if that helped & I didn't have the error come again for the rest of the day (lots more runs done)

Has anyone had this issue happen?

Wondering whether its likely that my motor is just on the way out & the Volspeed has just highlighted it early?

The anti tampering error code is 504 right?

511 seems to be 'Internal error in the drive unit'. Only guessing but could be an issue with the motor if it's under a lot of stress and older?

 

[Froffytop]

Hi, I was wondering if you have the Volspeed 3 or 4? Also, what bike do you have (Year, make, model). I think you are in Australia, do they have the crazy 15mph (24kph) limit like Europe has?

I've got the Vol speed 3 & is on my Focus sam2 2021 model, unfortunately we have the 25kph limiter as well

 

[Froffytop]

The anti tampering error code is 504 right?

511 seems to be 'Internal error in the drive unit'. Only guessing but could be an issue with the motor if it's under a lot of stress and older?

Yep looked up the codes 504 is the anti tampering code where as 511 is a internal drive unit failure. Just seems strange that the code just goes away once you turn off the Vol speed 3 really hoping the motor isn't on its way out

 

[Mr.Spaceworld]

It's a standard Bosch dealer laptop thing to activate the lights with their laptop/software thing.

If they are a Bosch servicer and can't do that then you need a new store and pronto.

I was wrong. I checked the answer I got and it turns out I thought the "lamp" sign on my Intuvia showed me low beam or high beam. Turns out it only shows if the lights are on or off. So I guess I have the option to turnhte light on or off all the time.

That said my bikedealer is really bad so I'm using them at a bare minimum.

 

[Mr.Spaceworld]

Spoiler: Last review

Mini-review of Volspeed V4

First my setup. I know this is a EMTB forum so excuse me with my big ass R&M Load 75 2021, but I'm mainly here to share my Volspeed V4 data with you guys. I've had the Volspeed V4 for about 2 weeks now and commuted 306 km / 190 miles with an avg. speed around 32kmh / 20 mph. Giving me no issues what so ever. The installation took me about 15 min in total and it worked right away. I'm very pleased!

The battery drains (obviously) faster and with my dual battery pack @ 1000Wh I get around 60-80 km / 37-50 miles. This is on "Turbo" all the way. I got a Bosch Cargo Line Cruise 250 W (Gen4) with Intuvia display. Before the chip I got maybe 90-110 km / 56-68 miles on the same settings. I live in a area with a lot of climbs and hills which helps drain the battery more.

I've also noticed something I did not expect. Before installing the chip I could not turn the lights on or off. I asked the shop that sold the bike and they told me: "Yea, we know and there is nothing we can do about it". After installing the chip I can for some reason turn the lights on and off. Also the range now swap between actual range and % on the battery which is a really nice feature since I had no chance to read the % of the batteries before.

All in all I give 10/10 for now!

Review update

I've ridden 225 km / 140 miles (530 km / 330 miles in total) since last review, and have a couple of things I wanna go over.

The range calculator I feel is all over the place. It may seem to update rather quickly on a very short range making it go from 10 km / 6 miles left to suddenly jump (in some extreme cases) all the way up to 40 km / 25 miles. This makes the rang-calculator somewhat useless. On the other hand now that I can see my % left on the batteries I have an idea how far I can travel. Or so I thought..

Because that's my second "issue". I haven't tested it properly, but I feel that the % fall slower at higher percentage than at lower. Again I haven't tested it, but it feels that way. And because of that I've 2 times now miscalculated the power left and run out of juice half way through my daily commute (and with my cargo-bike that sucked big time!).

Oh! One more thing. At around 394 km / 244 miles I got error 500. It came after I stopped and I didn't noticed it before removing my Intuvia so not sure if the error appeared when I was biking or after I stopped. I turned if off then on, and the error was gone.

500

Internal error in the drive unit

Restart the system. If the problem persists, contact your Bosch eBike dealer.

I'll keep posting updates as I ride more. I know I sure was looking for a lot of info before chipping my bike so it's nice to share with ppl who are concerned. I'm riding probably in the worst way you can do. Daily commute and pushing it to max speed as much as possible.

My updated score 8/10

 

[luluna]

I am considering a Volspeed for a Cargo line motor, but I am wondering if it's not a good idea.

I am in the USA where 20mph / 32kmph are acceptable as Class 1 and upto 28 mph / 45kmph is acceptable as Class 3. With the Volspeed having a max of 28 mph, I like the idea of being able to toggle between Class 1 and Class 3.

My main concern is that the system is not robust enough to handle 28MPH?

When I look at the motor comparison chart, it looks like the only motors that go up to 28 mph are 7.1 lbs. The lighter motors that weight 6.3 lbs all max at 20 mph.

My initial thoughts before I noticed the weight difference was that the Cargo line should be especially robust given the purpose...but now I'm not so sure.

Anyone have any insights to the physical differences between a 7.1 lbs motor and a 6.3 lbs motor?

 

[Flo]

Why do you have cargo if you want speed ? Does not appear to be so safe for that speed. Is just my opinion.

 

[Flo]

dongles dont kill motors but they do have bearings inside of them and over time they will wear out dongle or not.

i had a gen 2 motor that had thousands of miles on it and i hammer the crap out of my bike but all it needs is new bearings and a new transfer gear and will be good as new.

even the orignal 400w batt is still working but way down on range after all the years and my bike is geard to 35mph

Bosch Cx Performance gen 4 is on speed pedelecs who has 45km/h speed limit. And i have the same motor on my ebike fs and has 25km/h limit.
It's normal to do a periodical service check and also normal to have a faster wear when you pedal with high speed for long distances. I have 8000 km in 1 year and a half and no bad sound in the motor. And volspeed v3 was instaled almost from the beginning.

 

[luluna]

Why do you have cargo if you want speed ? Does not appear to be so safe for that speed. Is just my opinion.

That is a fair opinion. The bike I'm buying (well, bought - no take backsies now, lol; it is being delivered in the next week or two) is the Tern GSD. I chose a cargo bike for the option to carry a passenger - but the majority of riding will very light loads (maybe at most 20lb of groceries and another 10-20 lbs of gear such as locks and bags).

In reality, I'm probably rarely going to exceed 20MPH - I am mainly interested in avoiding the sudden loss of assist when reaching 20MPH. It sounds like from the reviews that districting bikes make hitting the limit smoother / more natural.

 

[Flo]

That is a fair opinion. The bike I'm buying (well, bought - no take backsies now, lol; it is being delivered in the next week or two) is the Tern GSD. I chose a cargo bike for the option to carry a passenger - but the majority of riding will very light loads (maybe at most 20lb of groceries and another 10-20 lbs of gear such as locks and bags).

In reality, I'm probably rarely going to exceed 20MPH - I am mainly interested in avoiding the sudden loss of assist when reaching 20MPH. It sounds like from the reviews that districting bikes make hitting the limit smoother / more natural.

I understand now. I have a full suspension ebike with holes for rear rack and 80% from my bike rides is with big lugages with groceries. Get a dongle, man, and do what you want with the bike you have. But ride carefuly. I just suposed that a cargo bike is not so stable at high speeds. It's a weird situation when you need more speed and the motor won't assist you after 25km/h. Sometimes i need speed to solve my problems, to get faster from point A in point B. Life is to short to think to much. Just ride safe !

 

[da21]

The only downside (so far) with my volspeed 4 is having to leave the bike on at the end of the ride, which I understand is needed to foolproof the software against the dreaded error 504. This can be a bit of problem when I am out for a long ride, because it can take over 30 minutes for the bike to switch off, and I cannot use that time to recharge the battery while I am having a coffee/lunch break.
Other that that it just feels great to be able to go over the 25 km/h limit when needed, and it actually makes my rides safer (get out more quickly from a dangerous roundabout, get away from a lorry, etc...)

 

[luluna]

The only downside (so far) with my volspeed 4 is having to leave the bike on at the end of the ride, which I understand is needed to foolproof the software against the dreaded error 504.

Oh! I didn't know about that...I had thought that only the Speedbox needed that shutdown time, but it makes sense to apply the same precaution to other devices. Thank you!

 

[da21]

you can use a bad ass dongle on gen 4 motors.

Bosch Slim Adapter

The Slim Speed Sensor is found on bikes with Bosch motors, especially on the so-called Smart System. The speed sensor is either integrated in the rea…

www.badassebikes.com

i did ask in the bike shop when i had to get a canshake for my bike and asked if they had any 504 errors reported and said no and sell alot of bosch bikes as one of there biggest stores.

so they have yet to release that firmware update in the uk but it is coming somewhere down the line with these gps displays with computers in them tracking you everywhere and the speed your going

Bosch mid drive with vesc controller

Hi All, new project time. Bike: Corratech e-power e28 hybrid, bosch mid drive, alfine igh and hydraulic rim brakes. problem: controller is bricked by wrong one time initialisation code, now gives error 500 slution: gut controller and install enerton vesc foc box controller. I will start...

endless-sphere.com

I did have a badass dongle, and got 4 Error 504 at short distance from one another... that is the reason I am now trying volspeed 4, which I am told should be less prone to that.

 

[da21]

after 3 504 errors it should have gone in to limp mode and need the dealers software to reset it i have had my bike with a gen 2 motor on the software and spinning the back wheel it could not detect it when it was plugged in.

indeed, the first three times you "just" need to ride for a couple of hours to get rid of the limp mode, but the fourth time I had to take it to the dealer. The thing is, it does not happen immediately, so you install the dongle and you think that it is fine, then a few hundreds km later you get error 504....

 

[da21]

what display do you have ?

purion

 

[Jack___]

The only downside (so far) with my volspeed 4 is having to leave the bike on at the end of the ride, which I understand is needed to foolproof the software against the dreaded error 504. This can be a bit of problem when I am out for a long ride, because it can take over 30 minutes for the bike to switch off, and I cannot use that time to recharge the battery while I am having a coffee/lunch break.
Other that that it just feels great to be able to go over the 25 km/h limit when needed, and it actually makes my rides safer (get out more quickly from a dangerous roundabout, get away from a lorry, etc...)

Pretty sure there is no power down time on volspeed v4?

 

[da21]

Pretty sure there is no power down time on volspeed v4?

maybe that's right, but the instruction do tell you to leave it on, so that it can "work out the distance properly"

Pretty sure there is no power down time on volspeed v4?

Maybe there isn't, I don't know, but there is this instruction in the manual:

"Is the total mileage correct even after removing the module?
Yes, the total kilometres measured by the motor control unit are not changed by the tuning. This is ensured by a compensation function in the tuning module that works continuously in the background. However, before removing the module, the bike should be left at a standstill with the speed mode switched on until it switches itself off. This ensures that the compensation function has correctly adjusted the mileage."

and someone told me that this "compensation function" is what the volspeed 4 software does to prevent the Bosh software from recognising the tuning. I would be delighted to be wrong, of course.

 

[luluna]

Just placed an order for the Volspeed - hopefully I can get away with it error free! Thanks everyone!

 

[Growmac]

maybe that's right, but the instruction do tell you to leave it on, so that it can "work out the distance properly"

Maybe there isn't, I don't know, but there is this instruction in the manual:

"Is the total mileage correct even after removing the module?
Yes, the total kilometres measured by the motor control unit are not changed by the tuning. This is ensured by a compensation function in the tuning module that works continuously in the background. However, before removing the module, the bike should be left at a standstill with the speed mode switched on until it switches itself off. This ensures that the compensation function has correctly adjusted the mileage."

and someone told me that this "compensation function" is what the volspeed 4 software does to prevent the Bosh software from recognising the tuning. I would be delighted to be wrong, of course.

I read that as being applicable if you wanted to remove the dongle, not if you were turning the bike off after riding it. My distance ridden appears to be correct (comparing to Strava) and I've just been turning it off once I'm done.