Making Begode wheels safer: PWM tiltback with custom firmware

[taiguy]

1 hour ago, chuvisco said:

What firmware are you on? I’m on GW2014503 and thinking I might be in the same boat. 

Same. eWheels 50E LiTech, November delivery.

[chuvisco]

4 minutes ago, taiguy said:

Same. eWheels 50E LiTech, November delivery.

Ah, yes, same here. @Freestyler please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help get PWM tiltback for this firmware. I’ve heard Begode is responsive in providing firmware so maybe we should contact them and ask them to publish it. 

[Unipilot69]

I have the same firmware but with the 40t cells.  Perhaps the different firmware is for the LiTech charger board configuration. The Masters are a trainwreck as far as hardware and firmware configuration.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Unipilot69

[Jerqfase]

I'm in kind of an semi-unique situation, but I'm hoping someone can help. I did a motor swap to convert my EX.N Torque to an EX.N Speed using a custom firmware from Freestyler. Now that I've updated the EUC World app and it can flash Freestyler's firmware, I'm attempting to push the latest C30 firmware to my wheel, but the wheel turns off almost immediately when the update starts. This is similar to when I tried pushing the stock C30 firmware using the Begode app. Does anyone have experience with this?

The tiltback is awesome, BTW. Waiting to get the latest firmware before posting my findings, but my initial assessment is as such: You are a god, @Freestyler.

Thanks!

[btl]

Hi,

i have a Master V1 with a replaced Mainboard and Battery connector Board, but still the original 33V Batteries. The set of Display, Battery Board and Mainboard has been sent by Begode and is not a mix and match by me.

The Stock Firmware my Master runs on is GW2014804. When i switch to custom firmware channel, EUC world offers CF2014803, but after flashing this Firmware the wheel keeps beeping. It switches off an on, balances as usual and the light can be turned off and on, too. But it keeps beeping. The same happened when i flashed GW2014803 with the Begode App. *804 seems to have something that *803 lacks or vice versa.

Is there something i can do? Is it a setting in EUC world? Or do i just have to wait for CF2014804 to materialize?

The Morsecode its beeping is "-.    " , so long, short, pause, long, short, pause, repeating.

 

Greetings,

Stefan

Edited January 31, 2023 by btl

[Ben Kim]

I have one wheel T4 that spins 105 PWM, and another EX20S that spins 101, is it safe to say I can bump tiltback to 85% PWM on the T4? I find it beeps later than 80% anyway. 

[Freestyler]

On 1/26/2023 at 6:24 PM, moarmoto said:

Thanks for this amazing work.

I just bought an extreme bull commander (will be shipped soon)

From what I gather,

1) EBC does have black board and interfacing with it is technically possible

2) EB hasn't released original firmware nor any subsequent updates

3) so there is no baseline from which you could implement the enhancement to alarming using PWM.

 

 

On 1/27/2023 at 9:41 PM, chuvisco said:

Ah, yes, same here. @Freestyler please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help get PWM tiltback for this firmware. I’ve heard Begode is responsive in providing firmware so maybe we should contact them and ask them to publish it. 

 

On 1/31/2023 at 12:43 PM, btl said:

Hi,

i have a Master V1 with a replaced Mainboard and Battery connector Board, but still the original 33V Batteries. The set of Display, Battery Board and Mainboard has been sent by Begode and is not a mix and match by me.

The Stock Firmware my Master runs on is GW2014804. When i switch to custom firmware channel, EUC world offers CF2014803, but after flashing this Firmware the wheel keeps beeping. It switches off an on, balances as usual and the light can be turned off and on, too. But it keeps beeping. The same happened when i flashed GW2014803 with the Begode App. *804 seems to have something that *803 lacks or vice versa.

Is there something i can do? Is it a setting in EUC world? Or do i just have to wait for CF2014804 to materialize?

The Morsecode its beeping is "-.    " , so long, short, pause, long, short, pause, repeating.

 

Greetings,

Stefan

 

Begode never released firmware for commander, master GW2014503 & GW2014804.

What I suggest for all you is to ask Begode directly to add the firmware in the app.

That's what a fellow member did and got them to post the hero c38 firmware.

The beep code above indicates a bms communication problem, so you have a stronger case to make them post the latest firmware.

If anyone wants to read his firmware he can message me for instructions, but be aware that one wrong click in the software program can accidentally erase your whole flash memory.

 

On 2/1/2023 at 6:31 AM, Ben Kim said:

I have one wheel T4 that spins 105 PWM, and another EX20S that spins 101, is it safe to say I can bump tiltback to 85% PWM on the T4? I find it beeps later than 80% anyway. 

You know me. I'll never suggest a pwm limit higher than 80%

 

In other news, Begode has posted the commander pro firmware!

Edited February 5, 2023 by Freestyler

[chuvisco]

1 hour ago, Freestyler said:

Begode never released firmware for commander, master GW2014503 & GW2014804.

What I suggest for all you is to ask Begode directly to add the firmware in the app.

Thanks, @FreestylerI just emailed asking them to publish GW2014503. I would also be comfortable reading the firmware off my wheel, understanding the risk. 

[Chiway Black]

On 1/26/2023 at 3:24 AM, Cerbera said:

What are the chances of bricking a Master if I do this ? Just thought I'd check...

Briefly bricked my shit. Wheel would only turn on while holding the power button. After holding the spin kill AND the power button to keep the wheel on, I was able to finish the firmware update.

[Cerbera]

58 minutes ago, Chi-Way Black said:

Briefly bricked my shit. Wheel would only turn on while holding the power button. After holding the spin kill AND the power button to keep the wheel on, I was able to finish the firmware update.

Hmmm. I bet I wouldn't be so lucky. Righty - thank you - I'll be leaving my current working firmware as it is then. 

[Chiway Black]

14 minutes ago, Cerbera said:

Hmmm. I bet I wouldn't be so lucky. Righty - thank you - I'll be leaving my current working firmware as it is then. 

It's apparently a known issue and fix (holding the power button). I personally wouldn't hesitate to update my wheel again this way but I definitely understand the caution.

[Cerbera]

1 hour ago, Chi-Way Black said:

It's apparently a known issue and fix (holding the power button). I personally wouldn't hesitate to update my wheel again this way but I definitely understand the caution.

Yeah, I have read about a couple of people who have managed to rescue it that way. But not everyone. Some people still have a bricked Master a month afterwards, and they say they have tried everything to get it back. As far as I know, my firmware is only doing one thing wrong, which is misreporting my temp readings to EUC World. I can live with that !

Edited February 7, 2023 by Cerbera

[Freestyler]

On 2/5/2023 at 11:42 PM, chuvisco said:

Thanks, @FreestylerI just emailed asking them to publish GW2014503. I would also be comfortable reading the firmware off my wheel, understanding the risk. 

Good news. Firmware is published! I will port PWM tiltback on it in a day or two!

[Seba]

15 hours ago, Chi-Way Black said:

Briefly bricked my shit. Wheel would only turn on while holding the power button. After holding the spin kill AND the power button to keep the wheel on, I was able to finish the firmware update.

Have you bricked your Master doing upgrade or downgrade with EUC World app or Begode app? I'm asking, because @Cerbera's question was related to EUC World features.

[chuvisco]

1 hour ago, Freestyler said:

Good news. Firmware is published! I will port PWM tiltback on it in a day or two!

Awesome! I did get help from Jason at eWheels to ask Begode to publish it. He was also interested in joining the effort to ask Begode to build in PWM tiltback as a native option. 

[moarmoto]

On 2/5/2023 at 4:42 PM, chuvisco said:

Thanks, @FreestylerI just emailed asking them to publish GW2014503. I would also be comfortable reading the firmware off my wheel, understanding the risk. 

Is that for the commander?

I actually sent them an email 2 days ago asking to put it on the app and they simply said no, it's not in the app lol...

 

edit...

nevermind, I see that it's for master.

would you be able to reach out to Jason at wheels for getting in touch with Begode for publishing commander firmwares? It seems my direct email request as an insignificant consumer didn't work.

Edited February 8, 2023 by moarmoto
Correction

[Bizra6ot]

On 1/14/2023 at 8:20 PM, Freestyler said:

After gathering so much feedback from many people on different wheels, I guess it's time to increase the hardcoded value to 80% for wheels that go up to 105% and 75% to wheels that go up to 98%. (in other words, leave the default PWM limit as it is in the stock firmware)

@Freestyler  Any news about this, did you have time to make the changes? 

Additional question for you,  @RagingGrandpa @Chriull or anybody, is there a reason/explanation electronically or otherwise why the pwm range is based on 105/98 instead of 100%?

Edited February 11, 2023 by Bizra6ot

[Seba]

1 hour ago, Bizra6ot said:

is there a reason/explanation electronically or otherwise why the pwm range is based on 105/98 instead of 100%?

PWM signal is usually produced using special peripherial called a timer. Timer is a kind of counter with some additional circuits like registers, comparators etc. Timer is feed from a clock that generates pulses with fixed frequency. These pulses are then counted by the timer and compared with a value stored in one of the registers. After the counter value will match the one stored in a register, microcontroller pin that is used to output PWM signal will be set. Timer continues to count the clock pulses until its value will match another register. When both values are equal, timer will be cleared, PWM output will reset and everything starts again. By changing the value of second register you effectively changes frequency of PWM signal and by changing value of first register you will change ratio of PWM signal. Note that none of values has to be multiply of 100. If the value used to set frequency is, for example, 120, to get 50 % of PWM you have to set 60 in first register. Of course we can make a calculation to scale it to a range of 0..100 %, but I assume that it's impossible due to a firmware contrains.

Of course what I described above is just some general idea and there are many possible ways, as it all depends on a real hardware used to generate PWM. For example, STM32 microcontroller (broadly used in most of our wheels) has advanced timer unit with multiple channels and modes that are designed specifically for PWM control. But the idea remains the same - you have a TIMx_ARR register to scale the clock signal (thus setting the output signal base frequency) and TIMx_CCRx registers used to set PWM ratio of generated signal.

[Chriull]

2 hours ago, Bizra6ot said:

@Freestyler  Any news about this, did you have time to make the changes? 

Additional question for you,  @RagingGrandpa @Chriull or anybody, is there a reason/explanation electronically or otherwise why the pwm range is based on 105/98 instead of 100%?

 

[DOS]

Hello, maybe this is offtop in this thread, but please tell me )).. I'm designing a custom EUC based on Begode Nikola 100. And I have to move the controller (black 100v) up. I would like to change the firmware of the controller to Begode EX-N because it is the Begode EX-N that has the controller on top. I'm afraid that the Begode Nikola controller will not be able to work correctly in the upper corner. Is it possible?
 

Spoiler

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f4lCvCJTdYtLPmoP6ZbW7UopBtjiHY0h/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qqENdic9Qxte7LXXvGm61E9N5qHVq6fy/view?usp=share_link

 

[Zrex90]

@Freestyler @Seba 

Hi Freestyler, Seba,

I have a begode EXN and I'm using with success the PWM Tiltback firmware you did. It helps a lot in terms of safety.

As I live in France, I was using a Flic button connected through EUC World to switch my speed to 25 km/h quickly to get align with the local regulation. By using the Custom Firmware it doesn't switch anymore when I push the Flic buttom. Do you think it's feasible to have such feature, having both of best world ?

Thanks in advance.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Zrex90

[Gingomx]

@Freestylermay I have updated host and port information to get the firmware? Thanks

[RolluS]

On 2/16/2023 at 8:37 AM, Zrex90 said:

@Freestyler @Seba 

Hi Freestyler, Seba,

I have a begode EXN and I'm using with success the PWM Tiltback firmware you did. It helps a lot in terms of safety.

As I live in France, I was using a Flic button connected through EUC World to switch my speed to 25 km/h quickly to get align with the local regulation. By using the Custom Firmware it doesn't switch anymore when I push the Flic buttom. Do you think it's feasible to have such feature, having both of best world ?

Thanks in advance.

Salut,

Which EUC World version do you use?
With 2.30.2 on my Begode T4 that works. Anyway, there is no speed/power bench available at police/gendarmerie to test our wheels. I don't think the regulation mode make any difference. If you're catch speeding, you're catch speeding.

Also, I don't think the tiltback speed is reported via the app (I didn't checked because I don't play with that, but it wasn't on MCM)

[Freestyler]

On 2/8/2023 at 6:54 PM, moarmoto said:

Is that for the commander?

I actually sent them an email 2 days ago asking to put it on the app and they simply said no, it's not in the app lol...

 

edit...

nevermind, I see that it's for master.

would you be able to reach out to Jason at wheels for getting in touch with Begode for publishing commander firmwares? It seems my direct email request as an insignificant consumer didn't work.

I recently got a hold of a commander firmware. It seems that commander boards were never released with wireless flashing capability, so that's a good reason for Begode not providing firmwares in the app, because there is no way for regular consumers to flash it. (it requires a cable)

On 2/15/2023 at 10:55 PM, DOS said:

Hello, maybe this is offtop in this thread, but please tell me )).. I'm designing a custom EUC based on Begode Nikola 100. And I have to move the controller (black 100v) up. I would like to change the firmware of the controller to Begode EX-N because it is the Begode EX-N that has the controller on top. I'm afraid that the Begode Nikola controller will not be able to work correctly in the upper corner. Is it possible?
 

  Reveal hidden contents

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f4lCvCJTdYtLPmoP6ZbW7UopBtjiHY0h/view?usp=share_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qqENdic9Qxte7LXXvGm61E9N5qHVq6fy/view?usp=share_link

 

Ex.n board is also mounted on the side :O

On 2/16/2023 at 9:37 AM, Zrex90 said:

@Freestyler @Seba 

Hi Freestyler, Seba,

I have a begode EXN and I'm using with success the PWM Tiltback firmware you did. It helps a lot in terms of safety.

As I live in France, I was using a Flic button connected through EUC World to switch my speed to 25 km/h quickly to get align with the local regulation. By using the Custom Firmware it doesn't switch anymore when I push the Flic buttom. Do you think it's feasible to have such feature, having both of best world ?

Thanks in advance.

Nice catch. With dynamic tiltback enabled, you cannot set a custom tiltback speed.

Seba could get around that by first disabling dynamic tiltback and then setting the tiltback speed.

Edited February 17, 2023 by Freestyler

[84z0r]

1 hour ago, Freestyler said:

I recently got a hold of a commander firmware. It seems that commander boards were never released with wireless flashing capability, so that's a good reason for Begode not providing firmwares in the app, because there is no way for regular consumers to flash it. (it requires a cable)

But did you find a way to get the commander firmware? If so, can I flash it if I get a cable?