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My 84-volt Nikola Triumphs, Tribulations, and Failures


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9 minutes ago, Nils said:

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:

Oh, I'm getting lots of stoic practice in :thumbup:

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2 minutes ago, Jim Martin said:

Just got my replacement board in the mail, it doesn't have the jumper cable shown in the pictures going from the Red to the connection next to the lift switch.

IMG_0865.JPG

Ug. Each board is "a little" different. Who knows, maybe the black jumper cable shouldn't be installed and that's my problem :facepalm:

I would talk to Jason just in case. Unless you are equipped to fabricate you own cables/connectors, you're going to need that cable. Unless you don't (see above) :D

Still haven't heard anything from @Jason McNeil.  Let me know what you do and if it works. Another data-point is useful.

 

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11 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Ug. Each board is "a little" different. Who knows, maybe the black jumper cable shouldn't be installed and that's my problem :facepalm:

I would talk to Jason just in case. Unless you are equipped to fabricate you own cables/connectors, you're going to need that cable. Unless you don't (see above) :D

Still haven't heard anything from @Jason McNeil.  Let me know what you do and if it works. Another data-point is useful.

Hmm, yes something is off somewhere. As you said in your earlier post "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". What did he ask about the existence? That the connections were OK? Whether it existed? Obviously we now have one board that shipped without it. Would be great to hear from people with Nikolas and the new board such as @Patton250 whether their fans work, and ideally if anyone would feel up to opening their wheel and post a picture of a working assembled board. Though you said Jason would create a video, that should definitely help as well.

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3 minutes ago, Nils said:

Hmm, yes something is off somewhere. As you said in your earlier post "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". What did he ask about the existence? That the connections were OK? Whether it existed? Obviously we now have one board that shipped without it. Would be great to hear from people with Nikolas and the new board such as @Patton250 whether their fans work, and ideally if anyone would feel up to opening their wheel and post a picture of a working assembled board. Though you said Jason would create a video, that should definitely help as well.

Just got home. I’ll start soon

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9 minutes ago, Nils said:

Hmm, yes something is off somewhere. As you said in your earlier post "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". What did he ask about the existence? That the connections were OK? Whether it existed? Obviously we now have one board that shipped without it. Would be great to hear from people with Nikolas and the new board such as @Patton250 whether their fans work, and ideally if anyone would feel up to opening their wheel and post a picture of a working assembled board. Though you said Jason would create a video, that should definitely help as well.

Jason literally wrote, "On the question about the fan activation, do you have the small black wire going from the connector on the lower right to the daughter board on yours?"

This could be interpreted two ways :lol:

I assumed the implication was that the cable should be there. But who knows. I'm tired of continually opening my wheel (at least we have proper machine screws now) so I'm going to wait for further word from someone. We're just about to start our 4th of July holiday weekend, so I may not get any additional information for another 5-days.

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1 hour ago, Jim Martin said:

Just got my replacement board in the mail, it doesn't have the jumper cable shown in the pictures going from the Red to the connection next to the lift switch.

 

1 hour ago, Marty Backe said:

Ug. Each board is "a little" different. Who knows, maybe the black jumper cable shouldn't be installed and that's my problem :facepalm:

I got tired of cocking my head and twisting my neck trying to understand this little jumper wire debacle. 

Marty’s Board 

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Jim Martin’s Board

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1 hour ago, Marty Backe said:

I would talk to Jason just in case. Unless you are equipped to fabricate you own cables/connectors, you're going to need that cable. Unless you don't (see above) :D

If the jumper wasn’t included and is required   @Jim Martin could purchase a 2mm JST-PHR header connector plug kit from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07D241T3M/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There appears to be 50 female connectors in the kit so if my math is correct he would have enough to fix 25 boards. :shock2:

48192131312_8e4c490ecf_b.jpg

 

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8 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

In my Nikola down time, I painted it (no more white and black pedals). And I removed the crappy plastic imitation grip tape and replaced it with proper 3M Safety-Walk ($7) grip tape.

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Looks awesome! It expect you will be painting each of your god zillion wheels every other day once you retire. ;)

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24 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

In my Nikola down time, I painted it (no more white and black pedals). And I removed the crappy plastic imitation grip tape and replaced it with proper 3M Safety-Walk ($7) grip tape.

IMG_0537

 

Looks.. stunning :shock2:

Literally a sleeping beauty :lol:

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26 minutes ago, Patton250 said:

 OK here we go. It’s 94°F here in wonderful Tampa Florida. I took the Nikola out for a ride for approximately 10 miles and the temperature never went above 43°C .  You can hear the fan running. Anyway I assume it’s the fan.   I hope this is somewhat helpful. 

That is very helpful. Thank you. I have to assume that I received a dud control board. Really bad luck :(

Thanks again :cheers:

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6 minutes ago, Kens said:

Looks.. stunning :shock2:

Literally a sleeping beauty :lol:

You're a real wise-ass <_<

:D

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24 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

Looks awesome! It expect you will be painting each of your god zillion wheels every other day once you retire. ;)

Only the ugly ones that Gotway still manages to produce. They really need to retire "that guy", whoever he is :lol:

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5 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

In my Nikola down time, I painted it (no more white and black pedals). And I removed the crappy plastic imitation grip tape and replaced it with proper 3M Safety-Walk ($7) grip tape.

IMG_0535

 

IMG_0537

 

@Duf I would like to get this press-fit version of the stand, but it's not listed on your website. Is it possible to order this, or did you stop making it? I'd like to get this blue and black one if possible. 

 

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5 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

In my Nikola down time, I painted it (no more white and black pedals). And I removed the crappy plastic imitation grip tape and replaced it with proper 3M Safety-Walk ($7) grip tape.

IMG_0535

 

IMG_0537

 

Wow, that was the perfect use of this down time! This really looks luxurious!

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5 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

In my Nikola down time, I painted it (no more white and black pedals). And I removed the crappy plastic imitation grip tape and replaced it with proper 3M Safety-Walk ($7) grip tape.

IMG_0535

 

IMG_0537

 

did you paint the inside of the shell?? looks great :) why the hell cant they switch to black pedals already.. almost all of their wheels are all black, why no black pedals???

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1 hour ago, Rywokast said:

did you paint the inside of the shell?? looks great :) why the hell cant they switch to black pedals already.. almost all of their wheels are all black, why no black pedals???

Thanks. All I painted was the two white outer bands that you can see on the stock Nikola. I didn't touch the translucent side panels. And painted the pedals of course.

Yeah, KingSong black anodizes their pedals. Time for Gotway to do the same.

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55 minutes ago, Marty Backe said:

Unintended Range Test

I took the Nikola for a 3+ hour ride this afternoon. The temperature hovered at ~60-degrees the whole time. So I certainly can't ride the wheel wherever there are hills, but it'll due for flatlander riding.

I managed 43-miles with ~20-percent battery remaining. I did have to baby the speed to make it back. So my initial impressions are that this wheel is not a power miser, i.e., it consumes power at a noticeably higher rate than the MSX or other 1600wh wheels.

Here I am visiting the Queen Mary

IMG_20190703_184546365_HDR

 

What made you decide to take it out after all?

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9 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

In my Nikola down time, I painted it (no more white and black pedals). And I removed the crappy plastic imitation grip tape and replaced it with proper 3M Safety-Walk ($7) grip tape.

Looks fantastic! What type of paint did you use for the parts?

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28 minutes ago, Arbolest said:

What made you decide to take it out after all?

It's been almost 3-weeks and I really wanted to ride it. I figured if I'm not hitting any hills the temperature won't get too high, and I was right.

The Nikola is such a nice riding wheel.

1 minute ago, Nils said:

Looks fantastic! What type of paint did you use for the parts?

I use RUST-OLEUM Ultra spray paint for all my wheels. High Gloss Black for the shell and Flat Black for the pedals.

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1 hour ago, Arbolest said:

I managed 43-miles with ~20-percent battery remaining. I did have to baby the speed to make it back. So my initial impressions are that this wheel is not a power miser, i.e., it consumes power at a noticeably higher rate than the MSX or other 1600wh wheels.

43 on flat terrain and slow down on return... that's not really impressive!? :huh:

How far would you get with the MSX under the same conditions?

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In the end, the manufacturer decides how much power the wheel is allowed to draw for accelerations. There's no real natural state or upper limit, so it's a balancing act between instant torque/zippyness and (too) quick battery depletion.

Maybe it's too early to tell, but could it be the Nikola simply draws more power by design so it rides more dynamically? As opposed to a more delayed and sedate behavior that a factually 18 incher like it would have (how much bigger is a 18x2.5 tire diameter really)?

Marty (or anybody else), can you tell if this might be the case? Is the nice Nikola ride simply due to more instant oomph like a smaller wheel (but with the advantages of the bigger tire as well)? Did they just brute force in more power compared to wheels till now?

I wonder how the reportedly more torque-y 16X will do it. Will it also have less range than expected? Will they have limiters that make the wheel feel weaker as soon as a high power draw doesn't go away immediately?

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