I’ve got a RideUnlimited Solo setup that I’ve been enjoying for a few years but with increasing frequency the remote is losing connection to the board. Seems to happen most frequently when I come off the power after having been full-throttle for a while but occasionally just cuts out mid throttle, breaking or even coasting. It automatically reconnects after 2-10seconds.
Prevously had a few issues with hub motor which were resolved after I dismantled it all and cleaned it up (which apparently I wasn’t supposed to do - whoops…) but just to be extra sure I bought another hub motor on ebay (bit of a risk but it turned up and was in decent condition as far as I can tell) and stuck that on. Same issue.
I’m totally new to troubleshooting this kind of thing. I tried to download vesc tool and connect up with that but no luck. I can connect via the old RideUnlimited app. All seems normal to me - no error logged, etc. Here are the versions I am on:
(I can post more screenshots from that app if it helps).
Any pointers appreciated. Although I’ve not done any DIY stuff with boards specifcally before I’m pretty hands-on and happy to take stuff apart, fiddle with electronics, etc.
There are a few people around here who use that kit but it’s not super common. I’ll start trying to remember who and tagging them if they don’t answer after a couple of days
When you say it disconnects, is there a connection LED on the remote? And does it completely stop responding for the 2-10 seconds? Sounds kind of scary, hope there haven’t been any crashes
Yup that’s to be expected. VESC is a specific open source project, the developer publishes and updates it for free and anyone is free to use it (including building and selling their own ESCs with it) but the developer owns the name VESC. ESCs based on the project are the default in DIY, so that’s why you’d probably seen a lot of references to VESC, but many or most prebuilt boards don’t use VESC. They either use one of 2 or 3 big ESC brands like Hobbywing and Lingyi and stick their label on them, or develop their own. It looks like Unlimited developed their own, so it’s not compatible with VESC software, or hardware like remotes. Motors are pretty universal though, unless they’re really really weird
This is a guess, but because it happened more frequently after full throttle it sounds like it could be a battery issue. How long have you had the setup specifically, and do you have just one battery or is there a second you could compare it to?
When a lot of current is drawn from a battery, the voltage drops down a bit. If you’ve ever seen lights dimming when a big device switches on, it’s a bit like that. Older batteries have more voltage sag, and smaller batteries or batteries run closer to their max also sag more. If the voltage dips down a lot it might not be dangerous per se, but many devices connected to a battery will cut the power if voltage drops too low. This is intended to protect the battery (device switches off so it doesn’t drain the battery beyond the point it can be recovered) but if the battery isn’t performing as expected or the system is overly sensitive it can cut the power at a bad time
I’ll wait to see if others have a better explanation, but if it is a battery problem that’s both good and bad news. You probably can’t easily get another battery, but it could be repaired by replacing the cells inside
Yes, the little LCD in the remote just shows the ‘connecting’ icon. And yes it’s pretty terrifying if it happens at the wrong moment Has resulted in some loss of skin!
The voltage drop does seem possible but it’s weird it only happens when I back off the throttle. I had a slight uphill and a headwind today and was thus at full throttle for a few minutes. Didn’t cut out until the second I backed off the throttle. It also sometimes cuts out occasionally when I’m braking, which I’d have thought would actively help maintain voltage given it’s regen.
Unfortunately I don’t have a substitute battery pack.
Has resulted in some loss of skin!