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Hurryup special reverse Ego powerhead

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#41 ·
The big issue I saw with the Ego in your video was that it was cutting out on a regular basis when you were going into remotely thick grass. That's not right.

I use my batteries when growth slows. Right now if I attempted to go all battery on my route I would need at least 5 batteries. 1 tank in the gas trimmer is equal to about 4 2ah batteries.

Weekly maintenance or not, the spring growth is too much for any of the battery units imo. The time loss and extra work trying to use them isn't worth it.

I think the ryobi is fine and it seems your ego is either malfunctioning or it was really hot and needed to shut down. The ego I ran was flawless for a battery unit.
 
Discussion starter · #42 ·
And the ego is my preferred trimmer right now, but the stress test showed it a little weaker. Once I eased off on the cutting intensity it handed that mess decently. I’m going to test the Kobalt 80v with 20” out before and after a modification, if I can work with it’s sensors.
 
#46 ·
What a mess. Brand new ego and you've already dissected it and ruined the usefulness of it. I saw the post on facebook, the video comparison of the ego and the ryobi that you shared is showing a hacked ego that's not operating like normal ego's do.

I recommend buying something and giving it a go as is. Don't get me wrong, i dig the ingenuity and research, but we're just mowing lawns and trimming grass and it's just a wee little trimmer. I think the ego would hang with the ryobi all day but you have to run them both stock in order to compare.

It's great info to share how to reverse these units as I'm sure some pro's insist on it and lefties more so. Good stuff to try out.
 
Discussion starter · #47 ·
rippinryno said:
What a mess. Brand new ego and you've already dissected it and ruined the usefulness of it
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I’m sorry man but how is the usefulness ruined? If anything it’s more useful to me now. That was a test on an abandoned lot I found, I’ve been using the ego reversed all day yesterday and so far today and it’s a wonderful mod, for lefty’s. No, it’s not stock, and been tampered with and a few extra connections added. The theory behind the two motor electronics is still that a non sensored motor will perform with less torque and less speed, I noticed the slower speed before I ever opened it up. I think we all agree that residential grade string trimmers are not brush cutting tools.

rippinryno said:
operating like normal ego's do.
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In your experience does your ego ph1400 powerhead perform better than in the video?
 
Discussion starter · #48 ·
I can easily take the switch out of the circuit and solder it to be more conducive then the original connection and revisit the test if you feel confident that I’ve created so much resistance in the added circuit. My personal opinion is the unsensored motor has inferior capability to a timed and sensored motor, but that opinion is only an opinion.
 
Discussion starter · #49 ·
Here’s the video again, the ego is spinning in the factory direction. While this doesn’t rule out the possibility of additional resistance in the circuit, it’s not comparing it with the altered polarity. I don’t want to be spreading false information and I’ll be thinking about testing it again with no additional wiring.
 
Discussion starter · #51 ·
@rippinryno , so you got my gears turning on this topic. I’ve been looking into the ego products and found a motor wattage spec on a rear motor straight shaft trimmer and it’s 1,200 watts. I looked further into the parts diagrams for that model and my powerhead. Both the motor and electronic controls are the same part numbers.

So, when planning my modification I chose a 20 amp rated switch assuming that the powerheads motor was around 500-800 watts. This finding that the powerhead might or is 1,200 watts the 20a switch very well might be adding enough resistance to trip an overload in the circuits protection system. In the spirit of contributing to the forum accurate information I will be thinking of ways to retest the unit with the same 20” of .095 in a difficult overgrowth along with the Ryobi.

I’ve mentioned before that I find a member such as yourself who critiques questionable claims as a value to the community. We shall see in due time if you’ve caught a flaw in my findings. I’m finding it very difficult to nail down wattage ratings on the Ryobi and while it’s a surprisingly strong unit for what it is it would be very surprising to find a wattage rating over 600w. On the same token the new makita 40v powerhead is rated at 1,000 watts so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Ryobi might in fact have a 800-1,000 watt rating. Of course we’re talking about makita in the same discussion as Ryobi but it is a possibility that the Ryobi is running some decent juice through its veins.
 
Discussion starter · #53 ·
I ordered a 16 amp @125v switch with a rating of 2,000w. I do believe you brought to light a possible problem in my mod, causing higher resistance then anticipated and very likely a failure of the switch if the ego is really pulling well over 600w, if not double. I’m not gonna lie, I’d love for you to be correct here and lead me to getting better performance from what I’ve currently demonstrated. I mean, I don’t even need more power than what the ego has done the last two days but it’s always nice to remove stress from a system. 👍
 
Discussion starter · #54 ·
I picked up a Kobalt 80v string trimmer off marketplace for a hundo and put it against the Ryobi, the Kobalt didn’t hold a candle to it lol. I tested both with the trimmer attachment I use on my Ryobi so apple’s to apple’s here, just figured I’d mention it. Kobalt is going back on marketplace…
 
#55 · (Edited)
Hurryupelectric said:
I picked up a Kobalt 80v string trimmer off marketplace for a hundo and put it against the Ryobi, the Kobalt didn’t hold a candle to it lol. I tested both with the trimmer attachment I use on my Ryobi so apple’s to apple’s here, just figured I’d mention it. Kobalt is going back on marketplace…
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Grateful that you are doing R&D for us.
 
Discussion starter · #56 ·
sjessen said:
Grateful that you are dong R&D for us.
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One thing I would like to accomplish is show some of the “never electric” crowd that certain electric trimmers can actually pull their own weight. But I’m also surprised and learning that the voltage number on the product box isn’t necessary an indication of what it’ll do when pushed. For goodness sake’s, a Ryobi string trimmer is cutting down 2’ tall muck effectively enough where I could have legitimately knocked down that whole area.
 
#57 ·
Hurryupelectric said:
One thing I would like to accomplish is show some of the “never electric” crowd that certain electric trimmers can actually pull their own weight. But I’m also surprised and learning that the voltage number on the product box isn’t necessary an indication of what it’ll do when pushed. For goodness sake’s, a Ryobi string trimmer is cutting down 2’ tall muck effectively enough where I could have legitimately knocked down that whole area.
Click to expand...
And, both of my gas unit run very poorly when temps get above 80 or so. Ok once warmed up but difficult to get up to speed. Almost a vapor lock situation.
 
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Hurryupelectric
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