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My 84-volt Nikola Triumphs, Tribulations, and Failures


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12 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

New Control Board Is In The House

...

New Nikola Control Board Layout

 

It seems like they also modified the DC/DC converter... you can see it doesn't use a high-frequency transformer anymore. Anyway, I can still see lots of possible improvements to this board.

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6 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

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

mamma mia what a a challenge.. obviously they forget to put a piece of paper or give u a link with some info on "which connectors" won't connect anymore 😜 hopefully you'll be able to solve this 

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14 minutes ago, Inductores said:

Wait wait wait! Don't tell me they just added an additional board to the old MSX board... Are you serious??? :facepalm:

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Why's that mean and why's it bad?

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7 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

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

The only possible reason I can think of is that they used a common ground cabling for the fan and the sound module. If the fan is not getting a ground atm, it can not function.

The fan may well cause noise in the audio system, to which a special grounding is often needed. But usually it calls for a separated ground, not common. Then again, most decisions Gotway makes doesn’t make logical sense anyway, so why would the electronics be any different?

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2 hours ago, Inductores said:

Wait wait wait! Don't tell me they just added an additional board to the old MSX board... Are you serious??? :facepalm:

012A01A9-B3BF-4EB1-AD50-8A0A67E3A449.jpeg.1edb0a78bc0eee52fd32f29368925041.jpeg.5e3b563187c1e25916ba7e0422ee56ec.jpeg

Yes, there is a new daughter board. This new board is actually substantially different than the previous board. It's not just a couple of tweaks.

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3 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

48187620582_eaf65626e1_b.jpg

 

This is perfect, and closer to the reality than it should be :D

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2 hours ago, mrelwood said:

The only possible reason I can think of is that they used a common ground cabling for the fan and the sound module. If the fan is not getting a ground atm, it can not function.

The fan may well cause noise in the audio system, to which a special grounding is often needed. But usually it calls for a separated ground, not common. Then again, most decisions Gotway makes doesn’t make logical sense anyway, so why would the electronics be any different?

This is probably the function of the black jumper wire that goes to the new daughter board. I need to open the wheel again to confirm the integrity of this wire on my board.

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3 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

This is perfect, and closer to the reality than it should be :D

Thanks but it would’ve been more realistic if I had a photo of a frustrated Marty. Seems like your always smiling for the camera. 

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9 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Still Not Working

I heard back from Jason. He asked about the existence of the black jumper cable between the daughter board and the motherboard. Sounds like this was a suggestion from Gotway.

Everything looks good on mine. I disconnected and reconnected the three connectors associated with the fan. No difference. I took a hair dryer and drove the temperature up to 65-degrees. Still no fan. Interesting that the wheel starts beeping like crazy at 65. This is the overheat alarm. But on all previous wheels this doesn't kick in until 79-degrees. Maybe it knows that the wheel isn't moving so the temperature alarm triggers at a lower value. I hope so.

So looks like I'm down and out until I get another control board :crying: So close, but so far.

Oh no

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Thanks Marty for the updates. We are all eagerly looking forward to you having  another go at Over-Heat Hill on the Nikola... once this new control board installation is resolved 

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11 minutes ago, Hansolo said:

It seems that on the new motherboard that the fan is flown in 12V. On the old it's in 5V, so if the fan hasn't been changed it may be grilled

No. The original motherboard uses the same 12-volt fan.

Regarding the fan, there was a big difference with this new motherboard. On the old board, it looks like Gotway is using a transformer to generate the 12-volts. On this new board, they have a daughterboard that is generating the 12-volts minus the transformer.

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14 minutes ago, Patton250 said:

Oh no

Still hoping that you can confirm that yours is running at a cool ~40-degrees Celsius.

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5 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

No. The original motherboard uses the same 12-volt fan.

Regarding the fan, there was a big difference with this new motherboard. On the old board, it looks like Gotway is using a transformer to generate the 12-volts. On this new board, they have a daughterboard that is generating the 12-volts minus the transformer.

Yes, of course I'm stupid it's for a Nikola...

I must change the motherborad on a MONSTER with a old to a new... So I must change the fan... That's why I thought of a fan problem

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38 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Still hoping that you can confirm that yours is running at a cool ~40-degrees Celsius.

I will test it this afternoon as soon as I get home. 

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12 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

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 ...

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

On the 84V Nikola, the cable that goes to the speaker module is not to be disconnected, else the fan will not power on even when the wheel temperature is above 60 Deg C.

Once wheel temperature hits 64 deg C, overheat alarm starts  beeping off & the pedal tilts back.

So no, definitely do not subject your Nikola to Overheat Hill without a working fan. 

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14 minutes ago, wongster said:

On the 84V Nikola, the cable that goes to the speaker module is not to be disconnected, else the fan will not power on even when the wheel temperature is above 60 Deg C.

Once wheel temperature hits 64 deg C, overheat alarm starts  beeping off & the pedal tilts back.

So no, definitely do not subject your Nikola to Overheat Hill without a working fan. 

I hope you're wrong about the Nikola overheating at 64-degrees. Wow, that would be 15-degrees below what every other Gotway overheats at.

You probably missed some of the posts above, but the new 84-volt control board no longer has a cable that will go to the speaker module. Doesn't exist. Gotway is using a different control board wiring harness.

Yeah, I'm not riding my Nikola anymore :(

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45 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Yeah, I'm not riding my Nikola anymore :(

Sorry to hear that. I had hope you might had been given a last stint on the KS16X on its test tour.:popcorn:

So you could compare it to Nikola. I guess that will not happen...

Right now. 😔

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3 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

So looks like I'm down and out until I get another control board :crying: So close, but so far.

Argh, I feel for you! Hopefully the next board will "just work" :( But look on the bright side, you couldn't ask for better conditions to practice and level up on your stoicism :ph34r:

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