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

I agree. I had a faulty remote just like yours. it did exactly the same thing to me a number of times and was replaced quickly by evolve.

What you probably didn't realise was that you were slowly squeezing the trigger more and more but getting no more speed. then the signal gets through and bang. Full Gt power. shoulder out of joint!

 

Thanks for your input. The remote has always been wonky like that. But it comes and goes.... So nothing like that with the remote you have now? Would be great to give this board 100% confidence, very timid now on acceleration. I only feel comfortable until I need to stop and then its anxiety time again.

 

Get a new remote, you'll be 100% sure again. I wouldn't ride it for now. I thought it was my Bluetooth speaker when it happened to me. but was assured it was just dodgy remote.

 

Hey dude, my second day with my board I experienced what sounds to be exactly like your reported issues. I live close to the distribution center so I drove up with my board to have them take a look. It ended up being the remote so they replaced it on the spot. Since then it's been perfect. I also did have to pair the new remote the proper way, but it's been solid since. I would have USA send you a new one.

 

Hello,

I just bought my Bamboo GT 3 weeks ago (in Germany), and thankfully, it's did not happen to me yet.

is there any way how to check if I have the new remote without the problematic controlling issue?

Thanks,
Shai

 

The signs I had were:

a) twitchy / non-linear acceleration / regen curve. Choppy.
b) board keeps going after you let off the remote acceleration input.
c) board fails to regen/slow down after you give remote regen input, feels like its barely slowing you down then nothing. Sometimes nothing and everything.
d) Board takes off full force without user giving input to accelerate board.

I've had times where it seemed like the board would not go the full 22/23mph in GT mode with the 83's on flats, it will top out at only 19 max and feels odd since you know the board can go faster.. Then after shutting things down and bringing them back up online again, or sometimes it comes back on its own, the board decides to go 22/23mph

 

In my view it looks like an isolated event and might be something with the electronic and that could always happen of course. Still, good to have Evolve provide support to find out what has happened and identify to make sure it does not affect others.

On the side of the remote I do feel a kill switch would be a needed feature (you easily push the lever by accident when putting on a backpack or when putting down the remote). I know in most cases turn it off when I stop for a moment to avoid this. Also a smoother acceleration especially with Fast and GT would be ideal.

 

Wow Dude.....What happend in your case?
You sound really butt-hurt at Evolve for some reason, care to share why?

Must have been bad since you are dissing them in such a way.....And you have a GT?



Let us know why you feel this way please.

Cheers Kenneth

 

Thank you wiztecy,

I meant to ask, consider that it didn't happen to me yet if there any serial number batch or some of ID Number on the remote or board that will tell me that I have the defective remote & not the new one?

 

Nothing to trace it down like that via serial number. I can say I had the updated / latest firmware changes (2nd rev) for the remote. Well, I put my Carbon GT on the shelf, awaiting Evolve's response to my request for a new remote based upon feedback form the group here. Riding my MetroBoard as my daily commuter now. At least I have 100% confidence these boards won't do something random and stupid. Been riding them for 4 years, two of them with bluetooth remotes, and those boards did behave unexpectedly or unsafe like the GT. They had dropouts, but that will happen with bluetooth remote. But they didn't take off on their own and had a clean power curve that was linear and predicable. My later 2 Metroboards use IR, and I described those above. Again, predictable. They have dropouts under high light intensity situations, but it won't rocket the board out of control.

 

from what I can tell, they won't replace the old remotes for the new ones, they have new remotes from the latest production onwards, but you cant get them to swap your older version. Even though it is meant to be only software that has been changed, they have no way of updating the old remotes yet, so if they were to ship out new remotes to customers they would lose money. I it were me, I would be swapping them all over to ensure no one has issues, not making them fork out another $120, these boards cost thousands of dollars already, keeping customers happy should be easy done with quality service.

 

I agree 100% on a quality experience / happy customer part of a company that's essential for me. Ilan who owns MetroBoard wants to ensure this, he responds always prompt, fast, and polite. His troubleshooting process makes logical sense and he wants to ensure that safety above all is #1 priority. Hence when you look at ratings / review on his website from past customer's they're all 5 star and stating exactly what I said. Hence why I bought 4 boards from him and will continue in the future. I support these types of professional and responsible companies. The market over time naturally removes the companies that customer's don't approve of. Sorry for being so pro-Metroboard, but a happy customer is a happy customer. This is the best type of advertising you can have.

 

Evolve responded promptly this morning to my mail regards to my urgent request to swap out my remote for a new one. They've already shipped it out, and once I receive it I'm sending my back to them for RMA/Investigation.

Very pleased with their response.

With this latest response it gives me high confidence in the company and their customer service.

Once I get the remote I'll do some testing / comparison and provide my results. I'll work with the moderators to put a better title on this thread and have it to bring to other rider's attention if they also have symptoms of this one off problem with the remote.

Thank you Evolve and all the members of this group who contributed.

 

By the way, I talked to my RF engineer at work and finally got to discuss with him this entire issue contained in this thread and the remote. He said he does not rule out bluetooth interference that caused my board to take off like that either. We may never know what the root issue was. He said that the BT protocol can have some other device talking on it, and by chance, send garbage to some other BT host, and with this garage, then gets translated into a command being accelerate full throttle. This had me thinking why some board companies use encryption for their remote. Its not to lock down proprietary code so you can't hack it, what it is doing is adding an extra level of security to the rider. This encryption needs a key, only that key unlocks the message that translates into throttle commands to the board. So it is highly unlikely that some random interference would have this key in order to send the throttle commands. The receiver on the board would just throw it away as a junk packet.

 

Evolve´s Customer Service is really great. Im happy to hear they responded fast, and shipped you a new remote.
This is one of the reasons I choose Evolve, Its so important to have good customer support, when bying a so expensive product.

Have a great day and stay safe
Cheers

 

For those that are interested, I found the frequency range our GT remotes run at. Here's some information showing what else runs on that band:

2.402 GHz to 2.47 GHz Wireless Frequency Explorer

 

Because I'm a techie, I'd be interested in seeing what the protocol looks like, if it's open, but I'd hope it isn't...

I remember Boosted being caught out on this... The board should not just have a really low chance of accidental interference being a problem, but be protected against deliberate attacks.

 

My short story:

New board (Bamboo GT) yesterday - yes its as much fun as I hoped it would be - I experienced the same thing as others in this thread - sketchy laggy remote (this was about 30 mins into my first ride was perfect before that - got to fast mode and felt really good then)...- stuck acceleration for 2-3 secs (after letting go - so with neutral trigger) - then went for the brake and then when it finally let go of the "stuck throttle" and actually slowed down too much brake was already set on the trigger so got tossed off pretty hard - did the "fast run of shame" and hit some new clean pavement so just some minor road rash and achy bones - got up and went again

I have the new remote and find the up/down gear feature really useful - cant imagine it any other way.

For the first part of the ride I left my iphone in the car - thats one of the nice things about this set up is you don't need to take a smartphone to adjust settings etc (I had already seen this thread so new that some glitchyness could show up) - I actually like the sensitive throttle (when its working the way it should - predictable) - used to flying RCHelis - where a few mm move on the stick matters but once used to it great and second nature.

For the second half the ride I had my phone on me (not sure if it made a difference or not) - but I can't help but think this is due to interference in the bands its using. - BUT I would much rather see just drop out and coast instead of "repeat last command, repeat last command, repeat last command - oops it was acceleration).

I went again last night and before I left the house tested it - again some weirdness - delays and lag and choppy throttle.

Re-paired the remote - seemed a bit better till I got outside my house and still odd.

Left the house and went to remote area and worked much better - spent about an hour an 10K riding around on some isolated rural roads in the moonlight (with full gear this time) - real nice - mixed it up between slow, eco and some fast - was real "ready" in case something happened but apart from a bit of minor "stickyness" in the throttle map it went fine.

Looking back on it and if it happens again I will just "ride it out" - leave the trigger neutral - deal with the speed but stay on and stay riding until it calms down - don't touch the trigger while its doing this, that's what messes you up once it regains control.

I plan to get the suspect remote serviced / replaced but may just purchase a brand new latest gen one in the mean time so I can keep riding - and also pick up an AT setup - most of my riding will be on less than perfect pavement and paths but sure was nice yesterday on the new pavement - what a blast !

(btw this is one of the best forums I've seen - great platform and features and lots of sharing of good info in this cutting edge new sport)

 

New remote showed up yesterday, just took my first spin on the GT with it. Benchtesting I could see dramatic improvement in smoothness, choppyness is gone. Still a bit cautious feeling it out... On the 4 mile trip only thing I hit that was odd is that the board would only top out around 19mph again. I accelerated gently up, went to neutral and repeated that 2 more times while riding downtown. It finally reached the normal top speed.

So far things look and feel good!

 

also may want to check out your remote setup for wheel size and T (if you haven't already done it) - I noticed mine was off when I first go it so speeds were low - I think the std street setup is 83mm and 32T) (can't remember if you mentioned yours is AT or not)

good to hear the new remote improved the situation !