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

Do GT's not lightly brake on disconnect like Gen2's?

 

Evolve sent a confirmation email yesterday they received my board and looking to the issue. I do appreciate that they keep the customer informed like they do. Lets cross our fingers that they can reproduce the issue and come up with a full-proof resolution.

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This is to inform you that we received your board today and it has been forwarded down to servicing for testing and repair.
We will keep you posted by email as soon as your repairs have been completed, as well as shipping confirmation for its return back to you.
Kind regards,

Evolve Skateboards USA

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So far they can't reproduce the problem.... I actually knew this was going to happen, reproducing interference problems relates to the exact environment where the issues occur and difficult to replicate even in the exact controlled environments as is. They said the board works fine and is smooth. The Evolve USA site is in a warehouse so I believe they don't get as much RF interference around an industrial site as compared to a city environment or neighborhood with people running all types of RF gadgets. I'm going to push them to swap out the controller if they are unable to reproduce it which I suspect they won't reproduce it. And if I get the board back and I still have issues I just will not be able to ride this thing nor come around to ever trusting it again. I'll let them go through their troubleshooting process and keep positive vibes up.

I also passed on to them that possibly the Carbon Fiber battery cover may be filtering and reducing the signal.

Here's a video showing how CF acts a a filter to the signal. You can see the guy measures the strength of the signal then puts the CF tube over the antenna and you see a significant drop in RF strength. I don't know what the heck he's saying but I can understand the screen and what he's doing. I just talked with my battery engineer and he said they did what? Put the antenna inside the carbon fiber box? I said yes. He said someone didn't understand that carbon fiber filters the radio signals. So if I do get my board back and its still acting up you know what I'll be doing! Off with that battery box carbon fiber cover, I'll be making my own out of plastic, and trying that out.

 

I'm not surprised either - I have done some more research regarding the nRF24L01 (will post links in the other thread) - here's some quick points

- the nRF24L01 has been so copied that most of the chips in circulation are counterfeit ones (not original Nordic Semiconductor ones that work a lot better)

- most of the copies were based on a release of the original chip that included an errata in the documentation ! (the ACK state bit is the opposite of what the good release actually features) - this affects communication and reliability

- long story short - these "fake chips" require a lot more power and are unstable because of it (diy types solder in a capacitor across VCC and GND to smooth this out) - they are also much more prone to interference

 

Evolve shouldn't be using copied chips and I'm sure Nordic Semiconductor would not like nor allow it. My hardware engineer says much of this also can be due to poor antenna tuning or lack of it. We've seen that here with our bluetooth devices we produce and moving the antenna, making it different lengths, and where its located greatly affects its signal strength.

 

FYI: Here's the thread of Jason talking about the Enertion Raptor and how the Carbon Fiber is known to block the radio signals:

"The LID itself is made with Carbon Fiber, this is known to block radio signals, After a trial of pure CF I ended up going with CF & Glass because I was worried it might block the signal."
Enertion Raptor | First Batch Problems & Solutions

 

I tried to take of the lid on my board after reading this post. And I actually managed to pair my remote for several minutes this time, but it was behaving super strange. When I pulled down the trigger nothing happened before I had it down over 50%, Then the wheels started to spin in really fast speed. Even in Slow mode the wheels would spin super fast. Started at 13km/h And straight to 36-40hkm/h.(bench test).

So seems like the lid can block signals.

Still Im really puzzled why this happened at all. The remote was great for 4-5 rides, and then suddenly won't pair anymore?

Really hope a new remote solves the problem. Have to say Im a bit worried this would happen in the field.


So my nightmare came true.......


My remote was shipped out from Evolve, Tarifa wearhouse Today. So going to ride all weekend. And hope that this will just be a bad memory. Cant tell you guys how much fun this board is. Ahh well, I guess you know if your on this site
Actually thinking of getting a spare board. So I won't have any downtime if something happens again, Don´t know what to do whit myself whit no board to ride, and the weather is so awesome, 23 Degrees and not cloud on the sky.

Big thanks to Andy and Mark at Evolve UK. Fast and awesome customer service. Really a pleasure to deal whit those guys. So my next board is going to be a Bamboo GT. I know Im in good hands bying from them

Cheers Guys.

 

Just happened to me. I haven't had any connection issues so thought I was immune. I am pissed and want to warn others. If you don't think it will happen to you, it is just a matter of time. Period.

No matter what the cause, there is a simple effective solution. Program a softer start. My board just kicked out from under me under full GT power. Like a rug pull. You have no time to react. You'll end up sitting on your ass all embarrassed and bruised. Worst case, your board and your body will be damaged. Worse still the out of control flying board will hit some kid and severely hurt him.

Evolve is a severely defective product with severe liabilities. If it were only the rider getting hurt is one thing but allowing the general public to get missled by an out of control board is negligent.

 

sorry to hear it

did you see any other weirdness or warning signs before it happened / (lag with trigger, ignoring braking / something felt not right) / or it just took off all of a sudden ?

when did you receive your board ?

 

Another Thrown Off the Evolve Board Thread

Here is a follow-up post. No, no other issues or warnings, previously till this occurrence.

 

Just got word back that my board has been shipped and on its way back to me. They did some testing, replaced the motor controller and indicate the board is much smoother now. I'll take it easy and will see how it does and report back. Still happy to see that Evolve has been responsive in communication. Lets hope this fixes the issue(s).

 

There's another board with the transceiver attached that sandwiches together with the motor controller board - I wonder if they replaced both ?
- one board is the motor controller with dual ESC (and all the power connectors for the two motors and battery pack)
- the riser board (or second board attached to above) contains the transceiver and higher level functions - I think the BMS etc.
(also has uart and hall sensor connectors)

Also if they really did only replace the motor controller that points to a noisy ESC creating RF Interference (messing with the transceiver) or dirty power supplying same (a small capacitor in the right place can do wonders to smooth out ripples in power to chips etc)

 

Found this video today:


Start at 3.40 mark.

It looks like a new remote is coming soon. We probably need to fork out 100 euros, if we only want the remote, but if its a wast improvement and fixes all the bugs we have in the current one its worth it Imo.

 

It depends what they base the radio transceiver on (in the remote and the board) - curious to see if they go with different radio tech or continue to use the nRF24L01 (cheap and cloned - sometimes badly)

 

Curious if they swapped mine out for that one.... we'll see soon. I emailed Evolve USA to see if they did these changes to my remote, and if not, to please do them for my safety. I hope the comply with this request. I actually stated to Evolve that they need to soften the throttle / brake curves, but Brandon indicated that the way the board is having so much torque, is why its like that and why it isn't silky smooth like the Gen2. I call BS on that one, any DIY guy understands you have full access to soften these curves. So I'm pushing them to still address mine for that I DID get HURT bad do to the remote madness which has been a known issue for some time.

By the way, riding in flip-flops in the video above in my opinion isn't the brightest idea.... I don't recommend

 

I agree - the throttle and brake curve's will be totally programmable like the popular VESC in the Diy community - which is why I would be also be interested in the DIY solution for my next performance board in the future - similar to programming a drone - with a Naze32 or Dji NazaM flight controller (but easier as there is less to configure) - there is also all kinds of things they can do with ramping and a bit of delayed response when board speed is close to zero where you feel it the most. Looking forward to trying other makes in 2017 - Boosted - Acton and others to see how they do it and how the board feels. Fun times - Evolve GTs have so much potential but this remote thing needs to be sorted.

 

Ok, got my board back. Appears the remote reaches its top speed in a sense, still need to do 100% charge on the board to confirm. I can only reach 21/22 mph with 80% charge on 83mm wheels. Before to get the 23/24mph I had to do 100% charge and balance overnight.

As for the rattle in the rear that sounds like a bunch of black beans shaken in a glass jar, its STILL there. Evolve did nothing to address that. Not happy. So I'm going to pull off the motor / belt covers here soon to debug. I wish I could bill these guys for my time. Anyways they didn't do anything there.

As for the left motor being hotter than the right which I told Evolve to look into. Well no word on that, and STILL the left motor is hotter than the right. So they did nothing there.

As for the remote, no drop outs. But that's what I said before with the new remote, I need at minimum 2 weeks riding everyday to assess this. But with the "nothing done" with the above issues, I have limited confidence that my remote / controller issue is fixed. We'll see.

As for the remote sensitivity, I don't know why is so freakin sensitive. At times you get instant torque at the wheels at 1/8 throttle and you have to let off, other times you need to go over 1/4 throttle to get the board to go anywhere. Same with regen, I had to go almost 1/4 to 1/2 of the trigger's way towards the back to get any stopping power. And its not consistent! Some times its less, sometimes its more. Very bad.