Jump to content

My 84-volt Nikola Triumphs, Tribulations, and Failures


Recommended Posts

17 minutes ago, Nils said:

Just got word back from my Ali seller just now (Wheel Tech Store), and it seems they will provide a new board for me. They said as much previously in communication, but that depending on Gotway actually officially providing replacement boards for the Nikola 84V which Gotway has now agreed to. They said there's a wait time since Gotway has a backlog to provide all the sellers with new boards, which is reasonable, but so far the whole thing checks out.  Not a problem for me per se as I'll personally happily ride my verified glue-free Nikola in the meantime  without any worries, but it's still nice to see that the recall and action also applies to any wheel purchased over AliExpress or other sellers (and I certainly don't want to begrudge myself of these beefier MOSFETs or an extra PCB in any case no matter of the actual consequences :efefa07c43:).

So far, it seems a welcome change from my last V10F purchase last summer where Inmotion globally not only not responded, but when they did it was to point out that they might disable the Inmotion app for me since since the wheel was bought outside of ordinary sales channels. I don't really have any beef in this as I I'll happily buy the best wheel available from any manufacturer actually catering to my geographical position, but in my personal experience so far Gotway < InMotion when it comes to issue handling, at least for us non-local shoppers.

Will keep you all posted with any updates. and out of interest would love to hear the experiences of any other buyers with different sellers!

Good to hear. Thanks for the update. I'm sure this has been painful for Gotway but I'm really happy they are responding like they are.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

The most important part is to disconnect the battery connector first and then turn on the wheel to discharge the capacitors.

This makes total sense and yet I'd never heard it before in the context of EUC's specifically. Does this apply to all brands or only certain ones (perhaps based on their particular board designs)? When changing a v8 tire recently we had to disconnect the battery and then disconnect the motor leads from the control board and no-one said anything about turning the wheel on first after disconnecting the battery but before disconnecting the motor leads..

Edit: Oh I completely understand why. I was just so focused on following the directions for the disassembly exactly and they didn't include that as a step and so it didn't occur to me in the moment. Noted for the future.

Edited by AtlasP
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

New Control Board Is In The House

Just received the new board. I can tell you that this is a completely new board. They didn't just put new MOSFETs in (not that they could have fit on the old board), but in the details, everything is different.

The thermal transfer sheet does not have self-adhesive, but it's one large sheet that means there's no need for glue when assembling the unit.

On a more frustrating level (which we've seen in the past - nothing new here), the connectors are different. Actually, not different connectors (that would be really bad) but different locations. Of course I documented my existing board, but it's quite a bit different.

Fortunately I happened to come across this picture that Gotway posted to Facebook. With this information and tracing the wires in the wheel, I should be able to figure out what connector goes where. Let's hope maybe in 10-years we'll have proper documentation. It's like you go to your car dealer to get a replacement door switch and all they can sell you is one that looks similar but has different pin-outs, etc.

New Nikola Control Board Layout

 

woaw!!! good luck !!!!!!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Jon Stern said:

Don't forget to make sure your Light Blet is correctly inserted. There's nothing worse than a loose blet!

:roflmao:how about the bluetooh borad lmfao

Edited by Rywokast
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Jon Stern said:

Isn't Borad, this guy's brother?

 

E976FE46-037B-41CF-AC55-EA8A0F2A5228.jpeg

very niiiiiice!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Marty Backe said:

New Board Is A Fail

This is extremely frustrating and makes me pissed at Gotway all over again :furious:

As I intimated in my previous post, the board configuration is different. Well, the wiring harness is so different that it's incompatible with this board!!! You can imagine my frustration as I excitedly put the wheel back together and have this result.

Sure the wheel balances and almost everything appears to work. But the headlamp is always on.

On the old board, one wire attached to a connector that went into the speaker module (what's up with that?). And the other went directly to the control board. Now, both wires to the fan are pre-installed on the control board. The connector from the speaker module? Just handing there because there's nothing to connect to.

On the circuit diagram above, there's a connector for the light. I don't have any unused wires to plug into that.

I'll continue poking around, but wouldn't you think that Gotway would know they made incompatible changes and offer advice???

I'll update this post if I can figure something out, otherwise it's a plea for help to @Jason McNeil

That sucks, but glad you figured out how to make it work.  As long as you don’t burn your control board tomorrow we’ll be riding our Nikolas to the top of Mt Baldy. 

I’m still astounded by the level of ineptitude. 

Edited by Dzlchef
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Wheel Is Working, but ...

The fan never turns on. So instead of running at a normal ~40-degrees Celsius, the board is hovering at ~60-degrees Celsius.

The fan on this new board is already connected to the control board so there's nothing for me to do. I can't help but wonder if the now unused dangling connector from the sound module is still supposed to be connected to the control board, but Gotway neglected to provide the additional wiring harness cabling. I have a question into @Jason McNeil.

I can't imagine why one lead of the fan on the old board was going into the sound module.

But it's nice to have a running Nikola again. I took it for a ~10-mile night ride around town.

Debating whether to still take it to Overheat hill tomorrow ...

1 hour ago, Dzlchef said:

That sucks, but glad you figured out how to make it work.  As long as you don’t burn your control board tomorrow we’ll be riding our Nikolas to the top of Mt Baldy. 

I’m still astounded by the level of ineptitude. 

Not sure if I'll test the wheel tomorrow. See my commentary above.

Edited by Marty Backe
  • Like 1
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, who_the said:

Great job Marty, as stated we all owe you a debt of gratitude since we (hopefully) all will be getting these new boards.

My Nikola pegs at 36 degrees C. Wouldn't want to start Overheat Hill already overheated.

Thanks for being our alpha tester!

Yeah, 36-sounds about right. My earlier version of the wheel was super cool running like yours. Frustrating.

Congrat's on your wheel. For some reason I didn't think you were leaning towards getting one. :cheers:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I the only one wondering how they produced a new control board so quickly? How long does a board take to design, produce, test and ship? It's Gotway, so I'll presume they're leaving step 3 to Marty, but doesn't this board have to be from some other product? Hopefully a 100v Nikola, but perhaps a different wheel altogether, one wired very differently? 

  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Marty Backe No fan, no test!

They should rename the Nikola to Gotway Odyssey:D

2 hours ago, beast@tanagra said:

Am I the only one wondering how they produced a new control board so quickly? How long does a board take to design, produce, test and ship? It's Gotway, so I'll presume they're leaving step 3 to Marty, but doesn't this board have to be from some other product? Hopefully a 100v Nikola, but perhaps a different wheel altogether, one wired very differently?

The 100V Nikola was going to have a bigger mosfet board from the start, presumably this one. It is also very similar to the MSX board (at least on first look). Someone mentioned it also doesn't look too complex compared to the KS boards (which also manage the batteries in some way).

So Gotway can probably pump out "new" boards very fast by just changing the firmware and maybe doing some simple hardware change (if at all). They're very iterative there. I wouldn't see this quick change as a bad sign *knock on wood*. I'd bet it's just a 100V Nikola board with different firmware.

  • Like 2
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...