BagelBrigadier Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 i recently bought a cheap EUC off craigslist. after i picked it up, i had a blast learning it for a couple hours, driving up and down my hilled driveway, and eventually had to plug it in to charge a couple times. the last time i plugged it in to charge, 2 of the 4 LED indicator lights were lit, and i let it charge for 20ish minutes. when i took the EUC off the charger and turned it on, the LEDs came on like they always do, indicating that it had a full charge. when i stepped upon it, however, the EUC seemed to have lost its ability to maintain balance or to move forwards or backwards at all. i took it apart and inspected the inside, not really knowing what to look for, and therefore didn’t find anything standing out to me as wrong. i theorize it could be a battery problem, as i know now that you shouldn’t ride down a hill with a full battery, which i did on one occasion or 2 prior to the last time i plugged the EUC in. when i roll the wheel forwards or backwards, whether the power is on or off, the wheel feels a persistent bumping. any help in diagnosing this problem would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelBrigadier Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 also just found out i was charging the battery incorrectly, i had the wall outlet plugged in before plugging the other side of the power cable into the EUC. maybe i have a false battery reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 If the motor resists turning while the wheel is not powered, the mainboard might have blown one or more mosfets. Confirm by unplugging the motor power cables from the mainboard, if the motor turns freely after this, then the mosfets have likely blown. Sourcing a new mainboard might be difficult, as the "generics/nonames" (off-brand wheels) have a lot of different boards among them (" Replacement boards for "NoName" unicycles are almost impossible, there are at least 50 different types.", according to 1RadWerkstatt), so finding the correct type might be very difficult (if the motors are similar enough, it might work with board from another generic). You could try replacing the mosfets (although if you don't own a soldering iron/know how to use one or know someone who could do it for you, probably not worth going down that route), the parts aren't really expensive, the cheap mosfets used in these wheels could probably be found for something like $1-2 per piece. But there might be other damage too, at which point it becomes more difficult to trace and fix the problem(s). 20 minute charge time also sounds really low, either the battery is really small or lost most of its capacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelBrigadier Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 13 hours ago, esaj said: If the motor resists turning while the wheel is not powered, the mainboard might have blown one or more mosfets. Confirm by unplugging the motor power cables from the mainboard, if the motor turns freely after this, then the mosfets have likely blown. Sourcing a new mainboard might be difficult, as the "generics/nonames" (off-brand wheels) have a lot of different boards among them (" Replacement boards for "NoName" unicycles are almost impossible, there are at least 50 different types.", according to 1RadWerkstatt), so finding the correct type might be very difficult (if the motors are similar enough, it might work with board from another generic). You could try replacing the mosfets (although if you don't own a soldering iron/know how to use one or know someone who could do it for you, probably not worth going down that route), the parts aren't really expensive, the cheap mosfets used in these wheels could probably be found for something like $1-2 per piece. But there might be other damage too, at which point it becomes more difficult to trace and fix the problem(s). 20 minute charge time also sounds really low, either the battery is really small or lost most of its capacity. i think it is a blown mosfet(s), according to your method of diagnosis. after disconnecting the motor from the motherboard, the wheel stops resisting turning. the mosfets on this board seem pretty hard to get to without very precise tools and a very precise operator (not me) so i’ll consider ordering a new motherboard, if i can find one that matches this board. on the bright side, i planned for this EUC to be just a practice tool anyways, as i got for just 100 USD. i may just upgrade to something that will last longer. thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shad0z Posted August 21, 2018 Share Posted August 21, 2018 14 hours ago, BagelBrigadier said: i think it is a blown mosfet(s), according to your method of diagnosis. after disconnecting the motor from the motherboard, the wheel stops resisting turning. the mosfets on this board seem pretty hard to get to without very precise tools and a very precise operator (not me) so i’ll consider ordering a new motherboard, if i can find one that matches this board. on the bright side, i planned for this EUC to be just a practice tool anyways, as i got for just 100 USD. i may just upgrade to something that will last longer. thank you! Buy a descent wheel! I can say thia enough, but cheap eucs are deathtraps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.