Got thrown off the GT, board took off without my command, petition to Evolve to fix remote

Noticed that on my leg of the sprint, was doing 36mph! Wait, that was km/h! I didn't allow my batteries to balance so I only hit 22.4 mph. Its also around mid 50s out, so the battery can't push out as many amps as compared to a hot day. Should be getting 24mph when pack i balanced and running the 32 tooth setup with the 90mm ABEC clones.

Don't know what is the default, when I jumped into the wheel selection screen hit the wrong button so scrolled past the default. Didn't care since I had to cycle around to the correct configuration anyways.

 

Actually, you are getting less power at cold temps. This is why cars have a harder time starting in the cold.

 

Right, less amps = less power, the cold is like a kink in a water hose.. If you want to race anything with batteries you want to have the pack heated.

 

oops, I read your statement wrong.

 

I just had my first accident on my GT carbon with the AT setup. I was in ECO mode cruising down the sidewalk when the board started slowing down then it would go back to the speed I was at. Then I was trying to slow down applying a slight amount of brake but nothing was happening. So I applied a little more brake and it locked up and threw me off. I landed on my left side hard. At first I thought I might have broke my ribs but I think they are just bruised. I think this needs to be addressed because it looks like there is sometimes a connection issue between the board and remote. My remote and board were charged. The board was at 83%

 

that sucks and I (and others) know your pain

when this happens I think the best thing to do is leave the remote alone, coast to a stop if you can then get off and shut everything down and reboot and leave it alone for a good 30 seconds before you try again

but if you see any "weirdness or unexpected behavior" again then simply stop riding - shut it off and look into service

were you in a busy area with many wifi or strong electrical sources ?

were you carrying a smartphone / other bluetooth devices as the time ?

was this with the latest remote with the gear up / down feature?

The OP of this thread had his replaced (mine is on its way) - he has found it better so far.

I think the worst part is its unpredictable - things are great until all of a sudden they're not

edit: try the resyncing (re-pairing) process if you haven't already done so - some have had success with that and service will recommend it

 

Ride home was just as smooth, new remote working well. If you have any glitchyness call Evolve to figure out what is wrong.

Here's an interesting article talking about RF interference, electric boards just stopping and throwing the rider off. Hacker's started looking to see if they can hack the bluetooth and found many boards have a flaw, no BlueTooth encryption. Believe Boosted now runs encryption since they were the focus of this article a year back:

Hackers Can Seize Control of Electric Skateboards and Toss Riders

 

Would love to know it is encrypted...

 

even if its not encrypted - is there not some sort of encoding? (ie: the first few bytes of the packet from the remote identify which device the command is target at) - just guessing... we may not want to go into too much detail here... (and the data may not be sent in packets of course - will research more)

 

the article explains it well - one method - a DOS (denial of service) type attack that just fills the remote bt spectrum with data (but then the board should just ignore it)

 

Well unfortunately the choppyness came back, jolting throttle behavior and choppy braking where nothing is there then its all back on. A soon as I felt that coming on I let it roll and then slowly try to slow. This was downtown. I had a dropout as well.

This really sucks. I want this thing to work and to be safe but its not happening. I honestly don't feel I have total control of this thing, even with the second remote. If the board worked as well when I first road the board with the 2nd remote then that would be great but its not, there is no consistency with the trigger and the motor acceleration/deceleration. And with all the torque/regen the board has it becomes dangerous and untrustworthy to ride.

 

I have all the exact same symptoms as you on my carbon gt at. With the latest remote, I am sending it back, but it sounds like the problem may lie in your board which may be the same in my board. The choppiness is rideable but extremely dangerous!

When it works well it's great but when it's not....

 

that's really too bad - I had a weird thing yesterday when the board and remote booted up - but the remote showed no battery percentage - it would still operate the board - but it was set to slow and the board (on its back) still spun up the wheels like it was set to fast. turned both off - booted up again and it was fine ... (my replacement remote on its way)

I agree and still think it has something to do with outside interference. I think all the times mines been glitchy has been closer to greater sources of wifi or power lines etc (in a more urban area). I don't think its happened once in remote areas (not wearing smartphone etc) but as we all keep saying this unwanted noise should be filtered out better. Was hoping the remote swap would do it for OP, easier to ship than board.

 

Thanks guys, seems like there's still hope. I'll contact Evolve again to see what they say. I don't think I'd need to send the entire board back, a simple controller swap should be the only thing that needs to be done right!?

But if the board is sent with the remote they can test the whole system. Problem is that if they're in an area that does not have the same amount or even type of interference that matches my environment, then they'll never will hit it to verify their fix works since it will be working totally fine for them most likely.

Might be best to have them send me another controller and see how that performs in my environment. I really want to head up and ride in San Francisco with the GT but I have Zero confidence in it there the way it is now since interference will be even greater there.

 

Another video showing that Evolve needs to fix these remotes. Scary part is that nobody was touching any remotes in this group of riders but the GT was accelerating on its own. Not good:

 

I was on this ride in the video, the issue was where we could control others boards, we have had rides since that day, and still get it to happen, as a group we now get all riders to stand together and each turn on their board and pair the remote one by one, then we get them all to test the remote to check for any cross connections before we head off. It sucks this can happen, but if you keep an eye on it its ok. If you are getting jerky acceleration with your remote/board, and you have tried a new remote swap and does not fix the issue, send the board back and get them to replace the motor controller board, same thing happened to me when i got my carbon GT, get this done ASAP, as if your board acts oddly, or drops out you can seriously hurt yourself.

 

Thanks W_Jordan! I sent Evolve an email so awaiting what they say about the controller swap. I don hope this fixes it, otherwise I'm going to ask for a refund. I love this sport and this board, but non are worth risking your life or having permanent injury you have to live with for the rest of your life.

What I don't understand is that the one or two boards in the video showed them accelerating (upside-down for test purposes) without any trigger movements. What's that about!?

 

they didn't accelerate by themselves, they were both being controlled by 1 remote, during the pairing process they must have been using the same channel. Happened a few times now, so we get everyone to pair one by one. Best of luck with the refund, I heard they actually have a "restocking fee" which is a few hundred...

 

Ok. Hmmm, no way they can hit a customer with a "restocking fee" when their board has a clear defect that risks injury or death. Lawyers would have a field day with this if they tried anything like that. I can see if it was, sorry, I just don't like it. But its not, its hey, you're board is untested fully to protect customer safety and no product should be on the market if it risks a person's life. Its not working as designed at all.

But like I mentioned, I really want to see the board fixed and resolved not only for myself but for others as well and for future customers. One call from a lawyer running under a few minutes would have them drop the fee in an instant. Litigation costs would be way way higher and do you think they want to risk that? Especially for that they need to cover your lawyer fees if you win, which I wouldn't see why you wouldn't with so much evidence of a mass defect when you google this issue on the net.

Bottom line, if this doesn't get resolved to my satisfaction where I 100% confidence in the board and I try to return it to get a full refund and they decide to hit me with a "Restocking fee", that's ok, because that's when I'll be issuing them an injury, pain and suffering and risk of death fee that will be much more than their restocking fee. .

The only time a company should charge a restocking fee in my opinion is if a customer is abusing the standard return policy. Restocking fees turn me away as a customer from buying or supporting a product.