Jeff Oswald Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Hoverboard – from dream to reality; but unfortunately, this cool technology has been in news for all wrong reasons. There were reports of hoverboard blasts from different corners of the world. But still, hoverboard have its edge; reason is simple – kids absolutely loves this product and there is no stopping them. Do you think hoverboard technology is going to stay for many more years or are we actually waiting for something bigger than this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gimlet Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Unicycles are inherently better in their abilities but unfortunately there is a small learning curve to riding them. If a 60 year old codger like me can manage it in a few days I would think that only people with inner ear/balance problems would be excluded but unfortunately the general perception is that they are difficult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Oswald Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 Everything is good in hoverboard. But I am talking about hoverboard blast. May be, due to battery or something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMo Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Broken bones from a hover board fall in not good. So many people have been hospitalized just by being off balanced with these hoverboards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Oswald Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 And.. In two cases, only because of electrical issue, Hoverboards got explore. In first case, when Hoverboard was charging in the bedroom, it got fire and produced a loud bang. The two people in the house escaped through a first-floor window to avoid the blast. This was the first occurrence reported on October 11, 2015 . Second one happened in the same month. A family from Kent had experience similar kind of problem that produced considerably more damage. This time Hoverboard was charging in the Kitchen when it began flaming. Nearly $40,000 is resulted in this explosion in damages, though no one was injured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlowMo Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 They are mainly due to cheap batteries and cheap chargers. The problem is most people go for the cheapest they could find so they got products whose manufacturers cut costs on almost every parts to get some decent profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Oswald Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 I agree. Battery is the issue but cheap hoverboard is also a big reason. The London Fire Brigade’s spokesperson told about these two incidence that, "Our concern is that cheap versions of the product are available on the Internet and people are buying them without knowing how safe they are." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lefteris Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 And who says that they didn't tamper with the insides of the boards..!?! that's a good question!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehoverboarder Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 I don't think there will be many more cases of burning or exploding batteries for these hoverboards. I mean unless you buy it off a website of some unknown brand or non labelled board, chances are slim this will happen to anyone buying a board in the year 2016 and upwards. Amazon for instance removed all the cheap non-tested knockoff boards in mid December 2015 so now you have a very small variety of boards. All of which (or at least more than half) have a 1 year warranty and trusted battery from Samsung. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McNeil Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 In any comparative assessment of the boards vs Wheels, the boards are in at a clear disadvantage in that there is a critical angle of lean in which the hardware in both batteries & motor isn't up to the job of supporting the rider. As the Wheel diameter increases (e.g. Wheels NOT Boards) the torque available is higher since the hub motor has more magnets/poles around perimeter (there's surely a formula out there that represents this). Wheels are also helped in that the power output of a 'good' Wheel is several times higher than boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisny Abby Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 In my opinion, although the kids liked the electric hoverboards, but it does not suitbale for them.After all, electric speed, once the motor, wheel problems, is not a good result, is not it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Posted March 5, 2016 Share Posted March 5, 2016 On 4 February 2016 at 10:21 AM, Jeff Oswald said: Everything is good in hoverboard. But I am talking about hoverboard blast. May be, due to battery or something else. More and more electric vehicles are using Li Ion batteries, and everything from eCigs to laptops also do, so the fire problem could have happened to any of them, it was Hoverboards simply because with any fad, you will get unscrupulous people faking and cutting corners. That should now be passed (hopefully) and can be forgotten as yesterday's problem. However, I would question if what we currently know as Hoverboards in their current form have any future at all? As @Jason McNeil says above, they have too little power to safely keep a rider upright, especially over anything less than a perfect flat surface and their method of steering is seriously flawed, making them swerve readily over any bump or imperfection with a real tendency to throw the rider sideways. They are potentially dangerous on anything less than perfect smooth surfaces. Absolutely brilliant for dance moves on a stage but little else. Jeff, Have you ever tried an EUC or other options like the Ninebot Mini (http://www.ninebot.com/ninebot/ninebot-mini/) or Onewheel (http://rideonewheel.com. To be honest, I'm amazed the Skateboard generation haven't leapt on the Onewheel type boards (pun intended ?), they have the potential to be so much more like the back to the future Hoverboard and should be a lot less flawed in operation and way more fun. I personally think "we ain't seen nothing yet!" Different concepts in personal electric mobility devices are appearing all the time, everything from powerful electric conventional skateboards, through electric bikes and scooters to electric Unicycles and even a thing like a tea tray with casters! All of them have way greater potential to be practical and fun than the Hoverboard. (Well OK - not the tea tray :-)) For my money though nothing comes closer to a perfect machine than the Electric Unicycle, that's why they are the main focus on this site. Where else do you find a machine powerful enough to get you seriously from A to B on woodland trails as well as roads, at good speeds whilst being small enough to go in the shopping trolley or locker at work, whilst being huge fun and exciting to ride and not breaking the bank in the process? How much simpler and smaller can an individual mobility device possibly get while meeting all those criteria? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vernon S. Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 On 2/22/2016 at 10:57 AM, Jason McNeil said: In any comparative assessment of the boards vs Wheels, the boards are in at a clear disadvantage in that there is a critical angle of lean in which the hardware in both batteries & motor isn't up to the job of supporting the rider. As the Wheel diameter increases (e.g. Wheels NOT Boards) the torque available is higher since the hub motor has more magnets/poles around perimeter (there's surely a formula out there that represents this). Wheels are also helped in that the power output of a 'good' Wheel is several times higher than boards. This seems very one sided. Even the cheapest hoverboards produce alot of power. I have seen much bigger people get on the hoverboards and the board not loose any speed due to weight. Weight may drain the battery faster on the hoverboard but it doesnt lose speed. Also, from what I understand the wheels are more difficult to learn to ride. With the boards anyone that can walk and weight at least 30 lbs can get on the board and learn to to completely control the boards within 10 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwin_rm Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 They need to rename that thing. Problem is, the kids of this generation have not seen Back to the Future! Those of you with kids, please make your kids watch the movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve454 Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Hoverboards are probably better suited for small people with good balance who don't have far to fall. EUC's are stronger and more suited for adults. Yes they are harder to learn imho. I envy those people who ride pavement for miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 There's no reason why people can't enjoy both hoverboards and EUC's. I first bought a hoverboard to try out the self-balancing tech as I've always loved the Segways when they came out, but I never had a chance to ride them. That's what got me hooked. I then got a generic EUC which was a nightmare to learn how to ride, but it finally clicked after several months of practice on and off and with persistence. I bought the larger wheeled hoverboard after that as it looked more off-road worthy. They are all fun to ride, but the EUC is just that much more versatile over various terrain conditions so I like it the best now. It's all basically the same tech underneath so I think of them as a family of products, some suited maybe more for younger kids to play around with while EUCs are more like bikes that you can do more with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyiu00 Posted May 9, 2016 Share Posted May 9, 2016 One place that hoverboard is better than EUC is in places so crowded where there are "human traffic jams". Even better is something with a seat like the Airwheel S6/S8 that you can sit and wait for the jam to clear. In a stop and go traffic condition, a EUC rider will need to bend down to roll his EUC, or use a stick to drag it along. If electric vehicles are allowed in crowded shopping malls, big convention centers, large airports, city halls, etc., hoverboards will have more advantages. The learning time for hoverboard is also much shorter because the rider can learn by balancing it first in a steady position, but this is not possible on an EUC. A lot of people here mentioned that hoverboard is unsafe, but how safe it is really depends a lot on the riding speed. On a hoverboard, you can ride really slow, but you cannot do that on an EUC. But since EUC is harder to learn, psychologically, the learnt one tends to value it higher. The personal electric transportation era is still evolving. It is too early too tell what is the best for all kinds of situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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