FTW

NOBODY on this forum will be quitting their day job given the prices of all these new wheels. Some of us are already applying for second/third jobs. “Don’t do drugs” they were always telling me in elementary school. Where were the teachers with the foresight to tell me to stay the hell away from high-power one-wheeled gyroscopic devices? Where is their sage guidance now as my mouse hovers over the myriad of pre-order buttons?

@emmanuella did you connect the DarknessBot app to your wheel first? If it connected and didn’t pop up the window, did it let you access the functions and see info about your wheel? If so, try pressing the “lock” button in the app and see if it unlocks it. If that doesn’t work, it might help if you post a little more info about your situation.

I have the same problem, my serial has letters, how you put those in the pin? It let's me add only numbers... I wrote my serial number out in another app and copy and pasted it into that window in the DarknessBot app. I probably should have put that in my instructions. 😁

Sorry if it sounded like I was pointing the finger at you Null, as that was definitely not the case (I was very happy that you started this thread!). It just surprised me when doing extensive research here on the forum after my wheel got locked this morning to find so many people referring to KS’s habit of locking wheels bought direct from China without finding anyone posting about having actually encountered this problem (and there may well have been some cases before today, I’m just saying I saw a lot of rumors and no actual proof in the threads I found). As we found out from Jack King Song’s post above, it was KS responsible for this problem, but it was after all a “glitch”... or at least those of us who purchased our wheels direct from China better hope it was a glitch! 😁

Just to add a little more clarification, my 18XL was locked out of the KS app AND DarknessBot app (and I didn't have access to an Android phone or I would have tested it with EUC World also). I first encountered the problem this morning BEFORE I connected to ANY app, as my gyros never enabled after turning my wheel on (i.e. it would power on, but it was "limp"). That's when I tried opening the KS app and immediately got the error message "The vehicle has been locked, whether to contact customer service?" right when the app opened up, and then as soon as I closed the error message the wheel would power off. I then tried connecting with the DarknessBot app, and it would pop up an error message window that says "The device requires pin code" (and this is where you should enter your serial number to unlock the wheel), and if I canceled out of it I could access the app, but no information would show up for the wheel, and I couldn't change any settings for the wheel. I posted screen grabs of these messages along with an explanation at the below thread:

After unlocking my wheel using the instructions from Seba I just posted above, I reconnected to the KS app several times and so far it's not re-locked the wheel. Again, I think this might have been some sort of weird glitch where the wheel somehow gets locked when not connected to an app, especially since there are only a few of us who've actually run into this problem (and if KS was locking wheels of people who bought direct from China, there would be a LOT more people running into this problem right now). It also just doesn't seem logical for KS to lock wheels not bought through official channels, as it's the suppliers who should be punished (and KS could easily stop selling their wheels to them if they wanted to!) and not the end users. I'm curious where these rumors of KS doing the locking started from (maybe an official reseller who wanted to discourage people from buying direct from China??), and I really think these rumors shouldn't be perpetuated here on the forums unless somebody has solid proof that KS is actually doing this. I'm all for supporting local resellers, but some of us have very valid reasons for ordering direct from China beyond just saving money (though I will admit that is an added bonus!).

@Purplecycle - Seba solved the problem and posted instructions in the thread I started this morning about this issue on my 18XL. Here they are (and I've added on my instructions for doing this with the DarknessBot app, as Seba's instructions were for the EUC World app): Seba's Instructions (using EUC World app) Use EUC World app to connect with your wheel. Open settings and select "Wheel settings". Tap on "Password". Select "Clear password" and enter your EUC serial number as a password. Tap OK. My Instructions (using DarknessBot app, and based off my personal experience using Seba's advice above) Use DarknessBot app to connect with your wheel A window will appear after connecting that says "The device requires pin code" Enter the serial number of your wheel in this window The app should now connect to the wheel, but the gyros will not be enabled Go to the 'Lock' function and unlock the wheel The gyros should now be enabled and you should be good to go! Based off my experience doing this with the DarknessBot app, I'm guessing EUC World users may have to unlock their wheels using the lock function in EUC World if the gyros don't automatically enable after following Seba's instructions above. Thanks again Seba for solving this problem!!!

Just to be clear in case anyone else comes across this thread with the same issue, here are the instructions for using either EUC World or DarknessBot apps to unlock your wheel: Seba's Instructions (using EUC World app) Use EUC World app to connect with your wheel. Open settings and select "Wheel settings". Tap on "Password". Select "Clear password" and enter your EUC serial number as a password. Tap OK. My Instructions (using DarknessBot app, and based off my personal experience using Seba's advice above) Use DarknessBot app to connect with your wheel A window will appear after connecting that says "The device requires pin code" Enter the serial number of your wheel in this window The app should now connect to the wheel, but the gyros will not be enabled Go to the 'Lock' function and unlock the wheel The gyros should now be enabled and you should be good to go! Based off my experience doing this with the DarknessBot app, I'm guessing EUC World users may have to unlock their wheels using the lock function in EUC World if the gyros don't automatically enable after following Seba's instructions above. Thanks again Seba for solving this problem!!!

@Seba SAVED THE DAY! He posted the below instructions on the thread I started about my 18XL getting locked this morning, and I was able to unlock my wheel using the serial number of the wheel. To me this suggests that KS is NOT the one locking the wheels, but that there may be some glitch (that Seba seems to have dealt with before?) with KS wheels where they can lock themselves outside the app. Whatever the cause, I'm just happy my wheel is unlocked again, as I was not looking forward to a lengthy argument with my Taobao seller and/or King Song. Seba's Instructions (using EUC World app) Use EUC World app to connect with your wheel. Open settings and select "Wheel settings". Tap on "Password". Select "Clear password" and enter your EUC serial number as a password. Tap OK. My Instructions (using DarknessBot app, and based off my personal experience using Seba's advice above) Use DarknessBot app to connect with your wheel A window will appear after connecting that says "The device requires pin code" Enter the serial number of your wheel in this window The app should now connect to the wheel, but the gyros will not be enabled Go to the 'Lock' function and unlock the wheel The gyros should now be enabled and you should be good to go! Based off my experience doing this with the DarknessBot app, I'm guessing EUC World users may have to unlock their wheels using the lock function in EUC World if the gyros don't automatically enable after following Seba's instructions above. Thanks again Seba for solving this problem!!!

@Seba IT WORKED!! YOU ARE A SAINT!!! I have an iPhone (otherwise I'd be using your EUC World app!), so I had to use DarknessBot, and I entered my serial number in the window that pops up in DarknessBot that says "The device requires pin code" (I attached a screenshot of this in my original post above) and it let me in the app. The gyroscopes did not activate immediately though, so I went to the 'unlock' function in the app and unlocked it, at which point the gyros engaged and my wheel was up and running again. YEEHAW! Next time I'm in Poland the beers are on me Seba! 😁

By the way, there is another thread posted today that has more responses and information about this issue that I'm linking to below:

Also, I just took a quick look through King Song's official Facebook page and noticed the attached post from June 19th. It doesn't list my seller in the post, nor does it threaten to lock wheels sold by unofficial sellers, but it's the only thing I've seen directly from KS addressing this issue.

Thanks for the reply Bruce. That's very reassuring, and I hope my seller will be able to sort this out with King Song directly ASAP. Still have to wait for them to wake up in China though... 😁

I'm the one who wrote the second linked post above. I had no idea about region locking until after this happened this morning, and I had very good reason to buy through a Chinese seller since I used to live in China and had money left in a bank account there that I was unable to transfer home without going in person to my bank in China, but I was able to transfer the money electronically to the seller to pay for the wheel (win-win situation in my book). King Song knows the seller (English name is Smart Ride, and they sell on Taobao - where I bought from - and AliExpress, and they are located in Shenzhen where King Song is based) openly advertises that they ship the wheels abroad, and yet KS gladly sells wheels to them and doesn't seem to try and restrict this on their end. I've already reached out to the seller, but have to wait until it's morning in China to hear back (if they even reply). Aside from that, I know King Song has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/kingsong.international/ and if I don't hear back from my seller or they don't offer a solution, I'm going to contact them to see what my options are. Anyone else run into this problem? In researching it, I'm noticing that people seem to have been posting for a while about KS locking wheels shipped abroad by Chinese sellers (and I'm kicking myself for not seeing these posts earlier), but the first thread linked above is the only post I'm finding aside from my own where somebody's wheel was actually locked. I'm also wondering why my wheel worked fine for almost two months before finally getting locked if this has been going on for a while. This is incredibly frustrating, especially since I just came to Colorado to spend a month with family and was planning to ride nearly every day, but after only two days of great rides my wheel is now locked. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

This just happened to my 18XL this morning as well (and I haven't upgraded the firmware since I got the wheel almost 2 months ago, but I do use the KS app), and I posted about it here: I had no idea about region locking until after this happened this morning, and had very good reason to buy through Chinese seller since I used to live in China and had money left in a bank account there that I was unable to transfer home without going in person to China, but I was able to transfer the money to the seller to pay for the wheel. King Song knows the seller (English name is Smart Ride, and they sell on Taobao - where I bought from - and AliExpress) openly advertises that they ship the wheels abroad. I've already reached out to the seller, but have to wait until it's morning in China to hear back (if they even reply). Aside from that, I know King Song has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/kingsong.international/ and if I don't hear back from my seller or they don't offer a solution, I'm going to contact them to see what my options are. Anyone else run into this problem? In researching it, I'm noticing that people seem to have been posting for a while about KS locking wheels shipped abroad by Chinese sellers (and I'm kicking myself for not seeing these posts earlier), but this is the only thread I've been able to find where someone aside from myself has had their wheel locked. I'm also wondering why my wheel worked fine for almost two months before finally getting locked if this has been going on for a while. This is incredibly frustrating (especially since I just came to Colorado to spend a month with family and was planning to ride nearly every day, but after two days of great rides my wheel is now locked), and any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!