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Need help troubleshooting InMotion V5F/Solowheel Glide 2


TylerB

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So I got a Solowheel Glide 2 (aka InMotion V5F) off of eBay about a week ago. Its quite beat up but worked just fine until today and now it won't power on.

Yesterday I had a pretty decent crash but was able to turn it back on and ride home without issue. I charged it to full upon returning and unplugged it overnight to avoid overcharging. This morning when I went to turn it on it started up for a split second then immediately died. Now the power button does nothing. I held the reset button for a while and got nothing. It also doesn't light up or respond when plugged in to the charger although the charger turns red to indicate its working.

In tipping the wheel around I can hear that something is moving inside, my hope is that I just jostled something loose and can fix it myself as without a warranty I imagine this thing is basically totalled if I have to send it in.

This is my first wheel and I have no idea where to start with troubleshooting. I would appreciate any ideas on how to go about opening it up or if anyone has any first hand experience working on this model.

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Welcome to the EUC world. I hate when this happens! I would try to get my money back. You have been riding for a week, it is time to upgrade to a better wheel anyways. The batty life for these smaller wheels should be less that 5 years. The batteries are too small on these smaller wheels and take a lot of abuse.  The bigger wheels are worth the money. I did the same thing when I started. I bought a cheap wheel on eBay and ended up sending it back because it would not turn on. Then I bought Kinsong and Gotway wheel. No regrets!! 

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@RockyTop as much as I would love my money back I think I'm realizing the issue was most likely my own fault.  In reading more about EUC's and particularly the Glide 2 I think I was just pushing it too hard, frequently hitting the tilt back warning and riding aggressively.  The previous owner bought the wheel used from InMotion and was upfront about putting it through quite a beating before it got to me so who really knows how old the battery is.  My wheel is spinning quite sluggishly which I've read indicates a MOSFET (sp?) failure usually from overworking the EUC.  Is that something that can be fixed with a power cycle or would a new board be required? I have an electronics savvy friend going to take a good look at the inside within a few days but I'm already considering just buying a nicer wheel.  I was hesitant to drop a bunch of money on a new hobby but after my first week with that wheel I feel bit with the bug, these things are just too cool!

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You should be able to repair the wheel. You can replace the MOSFET or the board. Most MOSFETs are usually silver soldered, not tin soldered. (harder higher temp solder) The wheel is worth repairing but it is more of a dance wheel. See @pico's  highly skilled displays. ........ Lacking such skills, I would use a wheel like that to commute from the living room to the kitchen if not for the lady with the vacuum cleaner. She said that I have revived my last warning :angry:

The important part is that you caught the bug before the wheel gave up...... (slow evil laugh) 

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You would get the part number off the MOSFET. Order a new one and replace it. The Silver solder is the hard part. It takes a hotter iron. Back in the 90's Chevy messed up and used regular solder on their windshield wiper control board. The connection would heat up and the windshield wipers would stop working. (You don't want that happening on your EUC. ) I repaired many of those boards with silver solder. It is not very fun unless you are set up for it. If you live near a fair sized city, I would just drop the board and parts off at the local electronics repair shop and have them do the soldering. You are looking for an industrial board repair shop or a serious electronics shop not a Radio Shack style store that sells phones.:facepalm:  In a city of 400,000 we have at least 3 such shops.  The most that I have ever had to pay for a repair is $40. Tell them about your EUC. They usually go easy on pleasant individuals and make money on industrial businesses.  They are nerds. You might infect them with the EUC bug. 

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Hi i had V5F  motherboard to reapir after crash, in my case there was nothing to do, evrerything was burned, crash was so hard that pcb touch to radiator and shortcut few connections, MCU died, motor MCU also died, your case is different, you was able to turn on wheel after crash, first disassembey wheel and do some photos of PCB, first chceck fuse on pcb, if fuse was burned chceck shortcuts on all mosfets next chceck radiator if you see that pcb touch to radiator you have pcb to replace, there's nothing you can do. Motor in this wheel have also bad construcion.

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On 5/15/2020 at 7:14 PM, RockyTop said:

You should be able to repair the wheel. You can replace the MOSFET or the board. Most MOSFETs are usually silver soldered, not tin soldered. (harder higher temp solder) The wheel is worth repairing but it is more of a dance wheel. See @pico's  highly skilled displays. ........ Lacking such skills, I would use a wheel like that to commute from the living room to the kitchen if not for the lady with the vacuum cleaner. She said that I have revived my last warning :angry:

The important part is that you caught the bug before the wheel gave up...... (slow evil laugh) 

over here in HK on the congested pavements, your  MSX KS18, KS16, are suitacases that you push around as they cant manouvre in crowds and you would be putting your foot down or being a pedestrian nuisance....You would spend a lot of the time walking.

The V5 however will get you through the congested areas and then to anywhere within 22-28km... door to door, mounted.

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On 5/17/2020 at 8:12 PM, evil696 said:

Hi i had V5F  motherboard to reapir after crash, in my case there was nothing to do, evrerything was burned, crash was so hard that pcb touch to radiator and shortcut few connections, MCU died, motor MCU also died, your case is different, you was able to turn on wheel after crash, first disassembey wheel and do some photos of PCB, first chceck fuse on pcb, if fuse was burned chceck shortcuts on all mosfets next chceck radiator if you see that pcb touch to radiator you have pcb to replace, there's nothing you can do. Motor in this wheel have also bad construcion.

I would do all the above, but first you test battery voltage, maybe something has shorted it is discharging it.... also I would do this swiftly as the batteries don't have protection and will discharge until they die...

It must have been one hell of a crash, I've slammed my V5 many times, but it has the cover that gives it a lot of protection....

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4 hours ago, OneLeg said:

over here in HK on the congested pavements, your  MSX KS18, KS16, are suitacases that you push around as they cant manouvre in crowds and you would be putting your foot down or being a pedestrian nuisance....You would spend a lot of the time walking.

The V5 however will get you through the congested areas and then to anywhere within 22-28km... door to door, mounted.

Nah, I do just fine in heavy crowds. I ride my MSuper v3+ (18 inch wheel) on a daily basis at a college during class change with no problems never having to put my foot down.  Anything smaller than a 16 inch is just ...... bothersome to me. It seems to me that the smaller wheels are more maneuverable at the coast of being twitchy. The larger wheels give me more time and stability to maneuver even it crowds. I prefer larger wheels. I think it is all what you get used to. 

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Share some photos of motherboard HQ, i will see and tell you what to chceck.

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Thank you everyone for your replies! My wheel is currently with a friend who offered to look into it for me, whenever he sends me pictures of the board I will upload them here. In the meantime I got stir crazy and went ahead and pulled the trigger on a new King Song 16S so I at least have that to look forward to. Hopefully the V5F is still easily repairable but in any case I'll probably be looking to sell it.

Edited by TylerB
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actually the KS16S and the V5F are similar kind of beasts in terms of acceleration rate. If you ride a V5F you will find many unicycles are unresponsive. Good choice, enjoy!

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That's good to hear as the quick acceleration of the V5F was my favorite part (and likely what led me to overworking it).  I plan on bringing the speed limit of my 16S down a bit in the app so that I can cruise at max without worrying about overworking the motor.

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On 5/25/2020 at 12:11 AM, TylerB said:

That's good to hear as the quick acceleration of the V5F was my favorite part (and likely what led me to overworking it).  I plan on bringing the speed limit of my 16S down a bit in the app so that I can cruise at max without worrying about overworking the motor.

Only if you are very heavy you can overwork the motor. It is a beast.... I borrowed the 420Whr version and I hammered it, I could get about 22km range out of max on flat riding around Bang Kok. Love the torque and top speed.  Noisy though...

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