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

Evolve responded back fast, nice to see that. They believe the board has lost sync or the syncing got corrupted in the way it pairs, also with that, that the neutral point calibration changed as the result. They said you can't touch the trigger nor move the board (wheels) when its pairing or it will get messed up. I was under the impression that once its paired, its done. They also said to hold the left button on the remote down while its paring. I never did that. But he said to try his pairing suggestions and do some tests and give them feedback. But it looks like we have to stick to a very strict pairing process everytime we power up before we ride these boards.

Also to clarify, it appears that once it is paired you don't need to hold down the left button as you initially did. But you do have to never move the trigger as well as to never move the board (wheels) while the remote establish connection and pairs with the board.

My board was paired from the factory. But possibly I messed up the pairing / neutral calibration process during the week I've had it. Its easy to mess up as you can see, so be aware of this. Its odd that 2 miles into my trip the board went berserk. I'm not ruling out user error in terms of possibly messing up the pairing process along the way. But if its that easy to mess up, that needs to be locked down so the user can't corrupt the initial neutral calibration. Should be a setting in the remote, set it once. Alert the user if it needs to be set or something has changed between the last setting.

 

By the way, I don't see anything in the manual that states to NOT mess with the trigger or roll the board while pairing. Did I miss something? Here's the screenshot of how to do the pairing:


I think I'll throw the AT setup and start hammering this board on some grass, its softer if I fall Have to see if I can get this issue to reproduce. I was wondering since the trigger is so sensitive that possibly I flinched my finger? But then what explains the board not shutting down while in full acceleration after I let off the trigger. Calibration does not fit that picture. If the trigger was not calibrated correctly, wouldn't the remote be off the same amount that the calibration is off from the start to the end of the ride? Not 2 miles in? Same with the board not shutting down.

I got back in the saddle of the Black Stallion tonight, Put it in GT mode, was a bit cautious on take off but accelerated hard and held 21 mph home. No issues to report. Still cautious.

 

You won't see anything more in the manual, the stock one provided was very poor, full of mistakes and pictures of actual gen 2 boards not the GT, the new one is one I actually did because I thought users could do with better info. I really think that they should do constant updates through the company and let people know about these things, or else how is one to know the best way to pair or what to do if they have issues!, you don't want a new user to pair the wrong way and end up in your situation, to make a post only takes a few minutes if that, perhaps they should employ a social media person who can keep up with good feedback.

 

Is it possible the remote was damaged or the trigger action changed somehow when you took it apart and filed it down in various places?

 

Evolve really needs to look into this, the problem seems to be related to the new 'improved' remotes. My Bamboo GT, with old style remote, has been perfect over 6 weeks of use. My new CGT, with new remote, suffice it to say is having dropout issues. Will update further in the near future.

 

Problem with mine is not in the pot, it's with the remote actually losing complete bluetooth connection with the board for a moment (less than 1/2 sec.), randomly.

 

The problem is, once it gets to evolve.

The problem is, once it gets to Hq, they just don't give a ****. They only care about SELLING.

 

I was thinking that, but I ensured the trigger was protected, not moving, and locked forward or back before I did that. I also ensured there was no side to side motion happening that would work down the trigger.

Now if there was a pot issue, that could possibly engage poor solder joints with any type of pressure. Normal riding and a fall would be worse on that trigger than what I did with sanding the finger U.

 

Right, but in my case with the start of the ride I would have noticed the board acting funny immediately. That its giving more throttle than normal. But when you have the night before where the board failed to shut down partway into my ride, and then the same thing happens but worse on the morning ride where its accelerating full throttle, something is amiss.

Being in QA and talking to other skateboard manufacturers and my reputable hardware engineers as well as my own QA experience, saying my issue is a calibration issue is BS.

I'm very surprised they didn't say, lets send you a new remote, you can send back the old one for diagnostics. That's the proper way to do an investigation on a product where a customer has noted in their opinion serious safety issues.

Also we all know the remote is dangerously touchy when its working properly. That's horrible for safety and I personally would not release any product that has such poor response on a highly powerful board.

 

Thanks for taking the time in creating that manual for us. Very helpful.

I too am finding spelling mistakes when I get customer support replies from Evolve. I'm not picky on that, people do make mistakes, but they have to understand the position they're in. They need to be professional, concise, and know the technology they're producing inside and out. I'm not confident on their troubleshooting skills at all and has me worried a bit. But for right now I'm trying to follow their suggestions. I just don't want to end up breaking an arm or shoulder next time to find out what they suggested wasn't even close to fixing the issue, I already know that there's zero relation to my issue. But I'll give feedback and escalate this higher with my impressions as the customer of an Evolve GT electric skateboard.

I'm really surprised only one person Evolve contacted me after my email about what I feel is a serious safety issue. They gave me a big write-up on how to properly pair the remote, something that was not documented to do since the whole calibrating the remote part was never relayed to the customer. I replied back asking if I may have permission to post these steps on a forum and didn't hear back. But that was towards the end of the day on Friday. I'll wait for a response on Monday. And if they give me permission we can add it so custom GT user manual that was created.

 

I took the remote apart to see solder joints all look good. I'll see if I can put the pot on the oscilloscope on Monday or sometime next week to ensure there's a clean signal from the inputs/outputs. Blew some compressed air into the pot in-case there was some loose solder that could have caused a short.

Ever wonder why the trigger moves side to side all sloppy? Well its because that trigger is a 4-way pot/trigger not a two way as you'd think with its up/down motion. Don't know if that has any functionality or not when powered on with the board and moved side to side....

 

There's honestly something faulty with that pot just bench testing it. I hit the accelerator to go forward, let off, and it's still accelerating for a couple seconds. Also when I go to accelerate, its like there's a flat spot and then all the input i requested from the throttle is executed. Could be the way all these remotes work and its different when riding? But that's not right in terms of proper control.

 

I dedicated moving the pot around, 4 directions and such. Seems like I'm getting a smoother signal from the trigger to the board. No delay when throttling down on the bench tests and acceleration is smoother too. We'll see, this may have fixed it.

Might be a good thing to benchtest / throttle your board before riding so ensure you have a smooth input from the remote. Something I'll be doing now on.

 

Why is nobody discussing the RECEIVER? Yes, the pot may be not great and too touchy, but that has nothing to do with a complete loss of bluetooth signal.

 

Because my issue in this thread is not about cut-outs. The issue I'm having is not a bluetooth interference issue, its issue relating the trigger locking a signal or sending a signal it shouldn't which as I mentioned most likely surrounds the pot. Having a 4 way there is a little interesting. There's a separate thread on bluetooth cutouts. Add your experience / comments that relate to it in that thread. Everybody's feedback / experience helps to make this board better and safer:
Carbon GT cutout/connection issues

I might go fine a compatible pot that has more tactile resistance than the current one. I'm still going to put it on the scope to see if the triteness of the trigger is from the pot or the way they're running the controller on the board and singing out the signal to the motors.

Here's a two way axis joystick pot so you know what I'm talking about:

http://www.digikey.com/product-deta....medium=cpc&&gclid=CNGy__rwo9ACFROOfgodXWgIhg

 

Great, anxious to see your findings. Would love to have a control that had a). longer throw, and b). a much smoother / more linear gradation of power.

 

I didn't fix it Went out again and gracefully accelerated the throttle. It all of a sudden gave a fast surge of acceleration, something I didn't want or request.

So I also benchmarked the board free wheeled. I could reach top speed of 24mph in all the modes. Seemed like each mode accelerated the same. When I get to the top of mode, GT, I can't toggle back down.

Are all the remotes like this?

I went out for another test ride to see how the modes react, and eco limited acceleration as well as top speed to 11, fast a bit higher, and GT full 22mph. So it seems you need to have weight on the board to get the effect of the limiting feature of each mode. But then the remote ended up acting crazy again as I described above.

I honestly don't feel safe on this thing, the remote is not concise with its feedback. I really want this thing to work and ultimately keep myself and my fellow electric boarders safe. That needs to be priority #1 of any company.

 

I'll report back to Evolve on Monday with my results, hopefully get them to send a new remote so I can see if the issue goes away which I believe it will.