2nd battery on my KS14M not working?

[SpencerSprocket]

Hey Yall! 

Just got my KS14SMD (ks14m) and I'm in love. Bought it off ebay for only $350 as an open box from a trade show. Perfect shape, nobody had been on it I can tell. Spotless. Pretty sweet for my first wheel, already carving and working on going backwards. I'm a juggler and entertainer as a career and I will use it to ride back and forth juggling and such, no need for speed. Those days are over for me trying to keep my wrists in good shape for my career. This wheel is nice and nimble, not to mention bottom dollar. 

ANYWAYS, bought a 2nd battery from ewheels and installed it like I read I could. It is impossible finding guides for this process because this wheel isn't actually available in America. Taking it apart was easy, seeing the plug was simple. I made sure they were both around the same percentage, upgraded the firmware from 1.07 to 1.09. I expected the app to read the milage increased from 8.6 miles like ussually when fully charged to 12 to 15 or so ,but it didn't. I also expected the top speed to go up from 12 mph to 18, but nope. Beeps at the same time as before and cant change the settings any differently from before with 1 battery installed. 

I rode the wheel until it died to test it. the app was accurate to my ride and the same as the green LEDs on the side. (Oh yeah, mine has leds? I read this model wasn't suppose to? Also has XL pedals, dope). Now I'm charging it full and riding as far as the wheel will let me, but it's only about 8 miles or so, same as before. Again, app seems to be accurate to the power left. 

Am I missing something? I cant upgrade or down grade the firmware with the app, it says it's up to date. Do I update to the ks14m firmware and if so how? I'm switching from the Kingsong app, which is garbage, and euc world which seems nice. Why didnt adding a 2nd battery change anything? Any help? I emailed ewheels and thier response was to plug the battery in and ignore the app. I tried that and it's not working. I can tell I am riding the same distance regardless of the app. Anyone know the return policy? 

[Chriull]

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

I expected the app to read the milage increased from 8.6 miles like ussually when fully charged to 12 to 15 or so ,but it didn't. I also expected the top speed to go up from 12 mph to 18, but nope. Beeps at the same time as before and cant change the settings any differently from before with 1 battery installed. 

Afaik the wheel knows nothing about the second battery, so there cannot be a speed or range increase shown!?

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

but it's only about 8 miles or so, same as before. Again, app seems to be accurate to the power left. 

Is this the same as before (not the display - the real ridden range) - normally the range predictions are a bit overoptimistic!?

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

Why didnt adding a 2nd battery change anything?

It should just increase _real_ range - but nothing firmware or app related.

You did a range test at a well known route you ride often?

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

Any help?

Which voltage the app reports once the wheel is fully charged?

How are the cables from the battery packs?

There should be  red/black colored with thinner wires for charging. And a red black pair with thicker wires for discharge.

One of the pairs could already have a third cable (?blue?) for BMS synchronization for use of multipack?

Are both packs connected the the motherboard by an own connector or an Y connector? Or are they "daisy chained" from the charge plug to the charge input of first pack. His discharge output to the charge input of the second?

But honestly i cannot think by now of any disfunction that would easily render a whole pack useless.

Maybe for some pack configurations, in case your original pack was already in a bad/misbalanced state...

You, by chance know the maximum voltage reported after a full charge of your original pack?

Or you want to try both packs in the wheel each on their own?

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

I can tell I am riding the same distance regardless of the app

Ah - you already included the answer to my above question....

[Chriull]

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

Anyone know the return policy? 

As in the US afaik one has great consumer protection/return policies and ewheel is here continously reported for great customer service you should not have any problems!

But as written before i would take the chance having two battery packs at home to try them individually. Maybe your original one has already problems and shozld be replaced? Or the new one has probs- then you have a diagnosis/hint and maybe agree on an exchange with ewheels?

[philippe_kruse]

Did you figure this out? What instructions did you follow? I really like my wheel except for the range. But the instructions and russians or very short descriptions in french leave me wanting a bit more before I jump into it.

Also do you have the link to the battery you bought?

[SpencerSprocket]

Heres what I have found. 

The new battery is working, getting about 14 miles in range. 

No increased speed, but after an update the kingsong app is reading that I am going 18mph, but it's clearly off. On 2.02. A 3rd party GPS app confirms that the speed didnt actually change, but the reading on the app is now confused. Says I'm going about 30% faster than I am. Really annoying. 

The wheel doesnt know when its fully charged. It says 100% when 1 battery is full, then begins the other. I had issues trusting the lights on the wheel for an honest reading, but the only true indicator of a fully charged battery is the little light on the charger turning green. I noticed it was still red when the phone and wheel said 100%, after an hour or so, it turned green. When I ride, it will say 100% until about 5 or 6 miles in, then begins to show the use. Luckily, the percentage is actually correct when it gets low. 

I bought it from ewheels, but they have really bad customer service. One sentence replys with unanswered questions. I thought after spending $140 I would get more than "plug it in, it should work" 

So bow I am trying to see if I can load the firmware to make it go faster? Not sure.  The app says set fail when I try above 20kmh or 12mph. Been told this wheel can go 30kph, nobody seems to have done it yet. 

 

Love the wheel though. Going backwards and doing small spins with ease. Debuting it this weekend as the newest edition to my circus act. 

[Chriull]

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

Heres what I have found. 

The new battery is working, getting about 14 miles in range. 

No increased speed, but after an update the kingsong app is reading that I am going 18mph, but it's clearly off. On 2.02. A 3rd party GPS app confirms that the speed didnt actually change, but the reading on the app is now confused. Says I'm going about 30% faster than I am. Really annoying. 

Wow. 30% is the highest deviation i've heard reported from a KS wheel...

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

The wheel doesnt know when its fully charged. It says 100% when 1 battery is full, then begins the other.

No. Battery charge % is just taken from battery voltage. To get an accurate reading one have to let the battery rest (some 10-15min, up to an hour according to batteryuniversity.com).

So while charging too much charge % are shown, while riding too low charge %.

Charging of LiIon Batteries happens in two stages:

First stage: batteries are charged with constant current up to their max voltage of 4.2V per cell in series. (~67.2V in total for your wheel?).

At the end of this stage the battery is charged to about 85%, but already shows full voltage (while plugged to the charger - if one unplugs at this point and let it rest voltage will quite immedeately drop to somewhere about 4.05V per cell...)

Second stage: constant voltage/saturation stage.

While this stage the charger and battery stay constantly at the maximum voltage (4.2V per serial cell) and charging current decreases. Once charging current decreased below some threshold the charger shows by the green led that charging is finished. As reported here many charger have this threshold too high and one can charge for another 0.5-1 hour.

This brings the battery from the ~85% to full 100% charge - one see's that by the reported voltage after letting them rest for some time.

See https://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/18317-battery-faq/ for (much) more details.

 

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

I bought it from ewheels, but they have really bad customer service.

Sorry to hear that - seems you had really bad luck according to the reports here...:(

9 hours ago, SpencerSprocket said:

So bow I am trying to see if I can load the firmware to make it go faster? Not sure.  The app says set fail when I try above 20kmh or 12mph. Been told this wheel can go 30kph, nobody seems to have done it yet. 

Who told you this wheel can go 30km/h?

The wheel knows nothing of your second battery and there is no setting to tell the wheel.

I found https://ecodrift.ru/2017/12/28/obzor-monokolesa-ks-14m-interesnaya-novinka-v-byudzhetnom-sektore/ - there they write that one has to "force update" the wheel ?with the soft tuner/engineer app? to a KS14D. On ones own responsability without guarantee.

... and this article is from 2017 - forcing a "wrong" firmware on a board not designed for it can fully destroy it - so you should double and triple check before trying such a step!

[Macroplanner]

Hi can anyone advise how to "force/flash" the KS-14D firmware onto a KS-14M wheel?  Do we need to download the firmware first?  And then how to install it?  Thanks!