Slartibartfast Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 I ride a KS16s and ran the wheel pretty low yesterday. When I got home I immediately put it on charge however the little green light on the brick didn't come on, and didn't turn red when I connected the other end to the wheel and sure enough... in the morning the wheel hadn't been charged at all. So this morning I decided to open up the brick and see if a fuse needs replacing or something but I can't workout how to get inside the thing. Anyone know how to inspect these things? There are no screws or click tabs or anything. Pretty much looks like they've welded the entire thing shut. What can I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LanghamP Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 I cannot help you into actually getting into the brick, but I will say I've had two Kingsong and one Gotway chargers stop working on me. I do not like the way the rest of the working chargers seem to get unsafely (?) hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted July 1, 2018 Author Share Posted July 1, 2018 Thanks Langham. What did you do when they stopped working? Did you have to get them replaced under warranty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 If the wheel's still under warranty, that should cover the charger too. That charger looks different than mine (the surface is all smooth, except for "wavy lines" going in the middle), but if there are small silicone/rubber "dots"/pads in the corners under the charger, there could be screws hidden beneath them. Not sure if there's much you can do, unless you can figure out what broke (I don't remember if there even are fuses in the chargers) and replace broken parts. Also bear in mind that the mains power-side capacitors might still hold charge, that can be as high as the peak value of the mains (320V for 230V RMS mains used in many European countries, about 170V for 110V RMS mains), don't stick your fingers in there unless you can discharge the capacitors safely first (they will discharge on their own over time, but that might take a good while, like days or more). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted July 1, 2018 Author Share Posted July 1, 2018 Thanks, looks like it will be a warranty issue then. That's a shame as we don't really have any retailers here in Australia so I had to order mine off eBay. On the whole the person I ordered from has been good to deal with but there not an official store or anything and to date they've only ever sold 5 items, only one of which was a wheel. Hopefully it won't take them too long to issue a replacement as I use the wheel every day. That and the fact that it's now sitting there with a completely depleted battery, which is never good for such batteries. As for the "brick" itself, there are indeed 4 little feet in the corners of the underside however there are no rubber pads and certainly no screws beneath them. Looks like this was intended to be a "once sealed, never to be re-opened" kind of device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve454 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 Can't tell from the picture, but is the cord that plugs in to the wall removable from the charger like computer power cords? Never had a Kingsong, but both my ninebot E+ and S1 chargers use computer type wall power cords. A couple of times the E+ charger did the same as yours, when plugged in it stayed green and would not charge. I thought the charger was bad, but found that the power cord was not inserted in to the charger all the way. It had backed out very slightly from moving the charger around. Once I pushed the cord all the way in to the charger, it went red and started charging. Anyway, hopefully it's just a bad connection. Mine looks like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrelwood Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 These chargers cost about $15 at Aliexpress/Ebay, and they indeed burn out easily. I think I have now burned through three. I'm a tinkerer and ofcourse opened them up to fix them, but wasn't motivated enough to do more than a superficial check. There is a specific resistor that tends to burn, but it is not the cause of the issue. I suspect a transistor nearby. More work than I was hoping to do for a cheap 2A charger. But definitely double check the power cable if it has a separate one. And the outlet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted July 2, 2018 Author Share Posted July 2, 2018 Well, it dose indeed have a separate power cable, an "AC cable" with a "figure-8" type socket. Today I sought a replacement just in case and when I plugged it in was amazed to see the device spring to life again! I had a close inspection of the original cable but can not see anything wrong with it but yup, it looks like there must have been something wrong in there and the replacement seems to be going great guns now! Thanks for you help. I am once again a happy wheeler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Well, it would seem my optimism was but short lived as even with this new cable the charger has stopped working again. I did manage to get a few chargers out of it but today the light on the charger is no-longer coming on and the wheel itself is not charging at all well. When I plug it in, if I have the wheel itself turned on the lights on the wheel seem to indicate that it's charging for a bit, but quickly stop, then start again. It seems to charge for a second or so but then stops, only to start again shortly after. Using the Kingsong app I connected to the wheel to see what it said and like the lights the indicator in the app also seems to show it charge for a second then stop, then charge, then stop. I left it on charge like this for a while. After an hour I checked it again with the app and discovered the charge had gone from 75% to 74%, so I switched the wheel off hoping it would charge better while not powered on. All this is happening without the indicator light on the charger coming on at all. I've contacted the seller again to seek a replacement charger and they tell me the charger's not covered in the warranty and that I will need to pay them $50 for a replacement. Does that sound normal? It seems completely ridiculous to me but is it normal for the charging unit not to be covered? I would have thought it would be reasonable to expect a charger to last longer than a few weeks and that a defective charger would be covered by warranty but the seller seems to think otherwise. Am I out of touch? In any event the seller tells me it is going to take several weeks to get a replacement charger in, so it looks like I'm going to be out of action for a while. Most disappointing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoinPostal Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 On 7/1/2018 at 3:44 AM, Slartibartfast said: Thanks, looks like it will be a warranty issue then. That's a shame as we don't really have any retailers here in Australia so I had to order mine off eBay. On the whole the person I ordered from has been good to deal with but there not an official store or anything and to date they've only ever sold 5 items, only one of which was a wheel. Hopefully it won't take them too long to issue a replacement as I use the wheel every day. That and the fact that it's now sitting there with a completely depleted battery, which is never good for such batteries. As for the "brick" itself, there are indeed 4 little feet in the corners of the underside however there are no rubber pads and certainly no screws beneath them. Looks like this was intended to be a "once sealed, never to be re-opened" kind of device. Get a hold of Jason at ewheels.com I’m sure he can hook you up with a new brick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrelwood Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 It does sound like the charger is a bad one. It is up to the seller’s terms or your local consumer laws wether the charger is included in the warranty. But even if your laws dictate that all accessories are included (or referring to expected lifetime of a product), it’s too easy for the seller to ignore them. So in the end, what the seller does is up to the seller. Unfortunately. Just to make sure, I would unplug the cable from the charger and inspect closely that the socket is in order. No bent or dirty pins, and no cracks in the plastic. Then double-check that the charger is suitable for your local power. Then insert the power cable carefully but with determination, as deep as it goes. Then try different outlets, and yet another power cable. Further than that you’d need a multimeter and some knowledge on electricity (to keep you from electrocuting yourself). Edit: $50 is a rediculous price for the charger. They cost less than $10 at Ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shad0z Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 i think you discharged the battery too low so it cant recieve a charge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 Thanks guys. Well, I took the wheel out to fetch dinner last night and then left it on charge overnight with the wheel itself switched off. After 12 hours it appears to have charged a little but not much. Hopefully just this small amount of charging each night will be enough to get me through till a replacement arrives. 10 hours ago, GoinPostal said: Get a hold of Jason at ewheels.com I’m sure he can hook you up with a new brick. I have send a message through the website but I'm not confident they'll be able to serve me that well in Australia, but we'll see. Also the listing price of 150 USD for replacement charges (of which they are currently out of stock) doesn't bode well, but we'll see. 10 hours ago, mrelwood said: It does sound like the charger is a bad one... I've certainly done my best to diagnose the problem by checking cables, wiggling confections and alike but alas nothing I do seems to be working. 10 hours ago, mrelwood said: Edit: $50 is a rediculous price for the charger. They cost less than $10 at Ebay. Are you able to point me to a link? I've been searching but haven't been able to turn up anything. Unfortunately all I can find in the 67v range are units from China costing in excess of 50 AUD (about 40 USD), and they will take over a month to arrive. What should I be searching for? By the way, the plug sockets look like this: And the specifications printed on my current charger are these: 7 hours ago, Shad0z said: i think you discharged the battery too low so it cant recieve a charge I don't think it is the battery as the light on the charger itself won't even come on whether it's connected to the wheel or not. While I have run the battery low a couple of times the wheel tilts back when it reaches a critical threshold and I've always put it on charge again with in the hour once depleted, at least that was till the charger died. In any event the battery itself is covered by warranty but as I say I don't think the battery itself is the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrelwood Posted July 8, 2018 Share Posted July 8, 2018 4 hours ago, Slartibartfast said: Are you able to point me to a link? Here's the cheapest I found, but it is shown with an EU plug on a fixed cable. You'd have to replace the wall connector (~$3 at local electronic/hardware store). Comes from Hong Kong and does take a long time to arrive though, so as always, I'd search for a faster arrival and see if the higher price is worth it. "67.2V li-ion charger" is a good search term. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Li-ion-Battery-Charger-220V-67-2V-2A-50HZ-For-Electric-Self-Unicycle-Scooter/322519664507?hash=item4b17ab877b:g:QYIAAOSw14xWKMri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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