eWheels S22

[gon2fast]

My eWheels 40t S22 just arrived. Initial thoughts - That is a big ass box LOL. I successfully executed the firmware update. The battery was very drained so it is currently charging. Next I am going to torque down the motor cover bolts, check tire psi and apply stock pads. I have some velcro sheets arriving later in the day, not sure if I will wait or rip the pads off later and do it correctly with velcro. Getting the charger cable in was a pain in the ass.

Other observations - 

Motor was produced in May of 2022 

The top edges of the battery box are very sharp (which is why I am going to install the stock pads)

I am not riding 6 miles at whatever crap speed - the S22 has an appointment with the treadmill later (i will pay one of my kids $20 to sit there and hold it LOL).

Suspension rebound seems slow out of the box - tinkering required 

Seems like a pretty solid wheel so far

[Tawpie]

24 minutes ago, gon2fast said:

the S22 has an appointment with the treadmill later (i will pay one of my kids $20 to sit there and hold it LOL)

Some have put it on a stand tipped ever so slightly and let it "roll". Might be tricky to get right, but treadmills and wheels haven't been known to get along very well. All the weight in one tiny spot etc.

Have fun with it!!! Really happy to see some are finally making it out, it's been a long wait.

[litewave]

37 minutes ago, gon2fast said:

My eWheels 40t S22 just arrived. Initial thoughts - That is a big ass box LOL. I successfully executed the firmware update. The battery was very drained so it is currently charging. Next I am going to torque down the motor cover bolts, check tire psi and apply stock pads. I have some velcro sheets arriving later in the day, not sure if I will wait or rip the pads off later and do it correctly with velcro. Getting the charger cable in was a pain in the ass.

Other observations - 

Motor was produced in May of 2022 

The top edges of the battery box are very sharp (which is why I am going to install the stock pads)

I am not riding 6 miles at whatever crap speed - the S22 has an appointment with the treadmill later (i will pay one of my kids $20 to sit there and hold it LOL).

Suspension rebound seems slow out of the box - tinkering required 

Seems like a pretty solid wheel so far

Congratulations!

So, your wheel shipped on Friday and was delivered in the following two days over a holiday weekend?

That's amazing, if so. Iirc correctly you're located in NV but not next door to Port of LA.

What date did you place your order?

Just trying to estimate if/when my wheel will ship. I'm supposed to be in the first batch (ordered August 2021) but Fedex tracking still shows "pending".

Thanks.

[Tawpie]

18 minutes ago, litewave said:

So, your wheel shipped on Friday and was delivered in the following two days over a holiday weekend?

I think @gon2fast doxed themselves. They simply have to be a FedEx district or regional supervisor. Or higher. 

[gon2fast]

1 hour ago, litewave said:

So, your wheel shipped on Friday and was delivered in the following two days over a holiday weekend?

That's amazing, if so. Iirc correctly you're located in NV but not next door to Port of LA.

What date did you place your order?

Just trying to estimate if/when my wheel will ship. I'm supposed to be in the first batch (ordered August 2021) but Fedex tracking still shows "pending".

the wheel was picked up by FedEx on Friday evening. Yesterday it went from Carson to Tracy (CA). I am just north of SF and the expected delivery window was between 9:50-12:30. The wheel was delivered at 10:00. 

My order was placed the day that KS announced the S20

BTW - did you respond to the last email from eWheels asking if buyers wanted to hold out on their first batch shipments? I responded on friday morning and got confirmation from Eric that my unit would be shipping that day.

[litewave]

Thanks - lucky you

I emailed Jason on Wednesday that I wanted to proceed, so I assumed my preference had been recorded.

I'll follow-up with them again to reiterate my request to ship asap.

Edited September 4, 2022 by litewave

[gon2fast]

Kids were not interested in cash so I did it the old fashioned way and putted around the neighborhood for a bit.

No motor noises detected so far. I took it up a grass embankment and the motor struggled a little bit, but nothing out of the normal. 

The tire is interesting. It was originally at 15psi so I pumped it up to 35 and it felt very responsive on all terrains at slow speed. Once I broke the speed lock I found that I did not like the way it handles carving at speed. It wants to stay upright and then dips hard when you finally get it to shift (very much like I hear about the 244). Most likely getting swapped out with a 340A when I service the sliders. I have a Pirelli Angel, but it is the 80/80. I would rather a wider version of the Angel for the S22 personally.

Otherwise i find the S22 to have a very smooth and predictable ride. the lower pads are crap and will be thrown in the recycling bin (with the instruction manual). Have no idea what the four extra plastic blocks are for. 

[gon2fast]

I forgot to mention, some of the motor cover bolts were considerably loose. Not to the point of falling out, but very easy to turn. I would say roughly 30% of the bolts required additional tightening. Probably means nothing...

[Tawpie]

15 minutes ago, gon2fast said:

Probably means nothing...

means you should check ALL the fasteners!

oh... the 4 extra plastic things are to provide support for the stock pads. They stick to the front and back of the battery case and thus help to make it look a bit cheesy.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Tawpie

[gon2fast]

3 hours ago, Tawpie said:

the 4 extra plastic things are to provide support for the stock pads.

Ah, trash for trash. Stock pads are for looks only IMHO. I will need to find a better solution this week. After a quick fire road ride I have come to the conclusion that the S22 is almost the same off of the line as my Monster V2. I am sure that can be improved upon with changing the position/angle of the pedals and getting some better/functional pads. Someone had mentioned that the S22 felt like a Sherman. I guess I can agree with that, but the S22 does not come alive on the top end like the Sherman. 

Have not noticed any issues/noises coming from the motor. I got it up in the high 20's a short while ago and it felt solid. I was riding through a shopping center parking lot earlier and the wheel started to beep. I did not have a phone on me and the wheel was not connected to the app so I found the beeping odd. KS wheels like to beep so I did not think too much of it. Connected it to the app when I got home and everything has been fine since then. 

 

[gon2fast]

Getting an error while charging (5019) - Right pack too hot. We are in the middle of a heat wave and it is over 100 degrees currently so I will chalk it up as the BMS doing its job (which is one of the main reasons I bought this wheel).

Error cleared and back to charging without issue. I let the wheel cool down for a bit and put a small fan on wheel when I reconnected it to the charger. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by gon2fast

[gon2fast]

4 hours ago, Tawpie said:

means you should check ALL the fasteners!

Good point, but not in the mood LOL.

[UniBlab]

1 hour ago, gon2fast said:

Good point, but not in the mood LOL.

Not in the mood?

 

 

[gon2fast]

Yeah, it was 111 degrees so none of those things sounded good LOL.

[gon2fast]

Velcro on with crap pads -

[gon2fast]

The charger/FW is still crap with balancing. Wheel turned off at 100% per the app. After checking the BMS tool and seeing that things were not done I plugged it back in and connected to the app again. Charger light was green as to be expected, but it showed the battery status at discharge so it obviously was not trickle charging. Maybe I am overreacting, what do you think -

Pack II

Pack I

Pack II (Cells)

Pack I (Cells)

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by gon2fast

[Chriull]

3 hours ago, gon2fast said:

what do you think -

Are two nicely balanced batteries! Maximum deviation 18mV - so just 0.4%.

Unfortionately KS firmware does not calibrate the mainboard battery measurement each startup with the (more accurate) BMS reported voltages.

So this discrepancy would be eliminated - they still could do so with future updates!

But still for now if some of the cells become weaker and it charges up to 4.2V until shutoff the other cells will be at avarage around 4.165 +/- 10mV, so some max difference of ~45mV or ~1% - which is still nicely balanced.

3 hours ago, gon2fast said:

The charger/FW is still crap with balancing. Wheel turned off at 100% per the app

Charging is turned off the first time the wheel reaches the voltages shown by the bms?

Once the motherboard first time measures 126V?

Can you log charging with euc world/wheellog? Does ks22 report charging current?

If this is right it would be real crap - an on purpose mistreatment of the li ion cells...

Fortunately it seems all this could be repaired with a firnware update.

[gon2fast]

9 hours ago, Chriull said:

Charging is turned off the first time the wheel reaches the voltages shown by the bms?

Yes. Nothing that I tried allowed the wheel to stay on while plugged into the charger once it registered 100%

 

9 hours ago, Chriull said:

Once the motherboard first time measures 126V?

IDK. Each pack was below 126V when it shut off at 100% charge

9 hours ago, Chriull said:

Can you log charging with euc world/wheellog?

Have not tried, but will give it a go later

9 hours ago, Chriull said:

Does ks22 report charging current?

The BMS tool displayed the amperage it was charging at, but I did not get past that. I will take a closer look as it needs to go back on the charger once it cools down.

 

9 hours ago, Chriull said:

Fortunately it seems all this could be repaired with a firnware update.

I am confident that this will be resolved via firmware update and possibly a replacement charger, but I think the 5 amp unit the wheel is shipped with is good.  

[gon2fast]

Was out chasing jack rabbits earlier. Might have caught up to one if I was on a Master LOL.

[gon2fast]

Just finished my second charge cycle, some observations - 

wheel was powered off when it hit 100% (no power & app dropped connection)

Pack 1 = 125.03V

Pack 2 = 124.79V

Pack 1 Cell Range = 4.176 - 4.163

Pack 2 Cell Range = 4.171 - 4.163

Status when connected to charger with green light = "in the discharge"

I do show a balancing_(Android)/equilibrium_(Iphone) status in the BMS tool, but none of the cells ever went into this "blue" state -

 

Will try monitoring with EUC World after my next ride.

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by gon2fast

[gon2fast]

I took the wheel out several times today and I am very glad that I went this route. It has the best suspension of any EUC so far and is more than fast enough for me. I will revise my previous statement about the S22 accelerating like a Monster V2. It is on par with the OG Sherman once you are able to put some weight on it. The plastic borders of the stock pads really discourage you from using them properly (they just cause pain). 

Thing to be Changed - 

Tire - it is great in the dirt, but i am done fighting with it in the streets LOL. Kenda 340A will be next

Pads -stock pads are for nothing other than appearance. they make riding the wheel harder LOL

Slider Lubrication - I can hear the suspension getting noisier as I have bathed the wheel in dirt over the past two days. Travel and smoothness are not affected at this point in time

Torque -
the torque is present, but subtle. I associate "high" torque with how my MSP behaves. It just rips from 0-30mph no matter what is in front of it. Not the case with the S22. Off of the line power is pretty tame. The irony is that I was able to easily navigate across a severely rutted field that is also full of loose dirt on the S22 with no problems whatsoever. I get maybe 15 feet out on my MSP HT and throw in the towel.

[Ksmack]

On 9/5/2022 at 12:18 AM, gon2fast said:

The charger/FW is still crap with balancing. Wheel turned off at 100% per the app. After checking the BMS tool and seeing that things were not done I plugged it back in and connected to the app again. Charger light was green as to be expected, but it showed the battery status at discharge so it obviously was not trickle charging. Maybe I am overreacting, what do you think -

Pack II

Pack I

Pack II (Cells)

Pack I (Cells)

 

What software/app are you using to monitor the bms? Will it work with the S18?

[NSFW]

On 9/4/2022 at 11:06 PM, gon2fast said:

 

Try moving the lower pad down and forward.

The front part should extend a couple inches beyond the front of the chassis, otherwise it forces your feet to be so far back that you need to have all of your weight on your toes just to maintain forward speed.

The front part should also be low enough that it sandwiches your shoe between the pad and the pedal. You should be able to pull upward with the front of your foot to help with braking, without lifting your foot from the pedal.

The notch in the back part is there to make sure your foot is in the same position on the pad every time you mount the ECU. Moving it down will help it do that job better.  Basically you want the padding over the top of that notch to meet your leg just above your ankle bone.

The S22's upper pad is kinda crap though, I don't think there is a right way mount it. That thing makes a wide chassis even wider, and it doesn't offer much support front and rear.

[gon2fast]

41 minutes ago, Ksmack said:

What software/app are you using to monitor the bms? Will it work with the S18?

It is the King Song application, but the smart BMS functionality is not available for the S18. There may be a tool in EUC World that allows pack/cell monitoring while charging the S18, but don't quote me.

[gon2fast]

12 minutes ago, NSFW said:

The S22's upper pad is kinda crap though, I don't think there is a right way mount it. That thing makes a wide chassis even wider, and it doesn't offer much support front and rear.

I will second that. I ended up removing the lower pads and flipping the upper pads while I was out earlier and it still felt like crap. The plastic borders are so painfully dumb.