Begode App (and firmware) - summer 2023

[EUCzero]

Completely new Begode app with many new functions and many bad translations of these functions. Let's find out what they all really do:
(I will update this post when experince by you all roll in)
PLEASE TAKE THIS INFO WITH CARE. DO NOT TREAT ALL THIS AS FACTS AS I DO NOT HAVE CONFIRMATION ON EVERYTHING YET!!! 
So help me with testing and commenting. After a while it will become facts.
 

• Mode setting (soft/Medium/strong): How soft or hard should your pedals feel on tilting forward or backwards when accelerating or braking. Be aware that this setting is different on all models and even firmwares on the same EUC. So Soft will feel like Medium on another EUC.
  • Soft: Pedals will (slowly) dip forward when acceleration. And dip (slowly) backwards when braking. Many feels this will assist in better accelleration and braking. Some also say it will become too easy, and give you a higher risk of over powering your wheel and cut out.
  • Medium: Like soft just less. My guess is that this is the most popular setting. 
  • Strong (hard): Minimum dipping. Often used for technical offroad riding when you need precise torque. Many 
• Alarm setting: 2 user defined speeds for the beeper to alarm. Set to any speed you want the beeper to warn you about high speed.
  • first alarm: Beeper beeps ##. Speed triggered. Turn on or off.
  • Second alarm: Beeper beeps ##. Speed triggered. Turn on or off.
  • Third alarm: Beeper beeps ##. Power alarm. PWM triggered. Turn on or off.
• Tilt back speed: Choose a speed where the EUC should start tilting back the pedals to warn the rider about the speed. Some wheels have a aggressive tilt back, so always test on a low setting first to check if you can ride the tilt back without falling off.
• Power alarm: PWM. An alarm telling you when you reach a certain % of maximum available power. Will change depending on battery voltage, uphill/downhill and other factors as well. Normally set between 75-80%. This is what is also called the "third alarm", and the last warning before the EUC cut out. General advise, never push beyond this alarm. Continues beeping, and always on full volume even with the volume set low.
• Power alarm tilt back (on/off): PWM. A function that adds tilt back to the Power alarm (PWM). User @Freestyler made a special Begode Firmware with this function. Thanks to him finally Begode implemented it as well. THANK YOU @Freestyler!!!
• Pedal turning Angle adjustment (0-9): 4 is neutral. Lower or higher will make the pedals dip forward or backwards during long turns.  (I think it will give more or less pedal dipping while doing long turns)
• Horizontal adjustment (0-9): Adjusting the forward backward tilt without having to recalibrate the wheel. 4 is supposed to be neutral.
• Operating mode (race mode/offroad mode):
  • Race mode: Current mode. (buzzing sound while standstill) .XXXXXX
  • Off road mode: Voltage mode (normal old) More tourque. Stiffer pedals. Flat pedals while jumping?
• Maximum speed reminder: Sound alarm (beeper) at user set speed.
• LED setting: EUCs with colored LEDs can have different modes. On some wheels the back light will be affected.
• Volume setting (0-9): Volume on the beeper on non important beeps. Eks turn on and off beep. Most important alarm is not affected and still on max volume.
• Maximum allowed tilt angle (low/medium/high): How much can you lean the EUC sideways before shutting down. This is a function that shuts down the wheel if you fall of. So beginners should have it on low (aprox 45 degrees sideways). If you do ride tracks with steep side berms you should put it on High (aprox 70 degrees sideways).
• Calibration settings: If your wheel feel weird and tilts when turning it might need a calibration. Typical if the EUC is tilting forward turning one direction, and tilting backwards when turing the other direction. Hold the EUC perfectly upright and perform the calibration following the instructions in the app.
• Milage statistics: What it says. Total milage on stored on your controller board.
• Unit conversion: Choose between imperial or SI-units (miles or km).

 

 

 

Edited August 25 by EUCzero

[EUCzero]

future info...

Edited August 26, 2023 by EUCzero
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[Charg1na]

Howdy Zero, this is the most helpful explanation for the app i have seen - thank you!!

Is anyone able to pass on what the difference is between "race mode" and "Off road mode"?  

[Planemo]

'Alarm Setting' are the 2 (pre-80% PWM) alarms that can be set by the user dependent on speed. Most riders will have them both off and only rely on the 3rd (PWM) alarm.

'Pedal turning angle adjustment' is indeed the amount of forward (or backward) dip the user wants when turning. I'm not sure why anyone would want this but YMMV.

@Mike Sacristan did a good walkthrough on one of his vids for the settings:

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Planemo

[eezo]

I don't have any way of proving this, but I think the Pedal turning Angle adjustment caused me to crash when going through a sand patch and so I've turned it off. I had it set to 4 (which is the midpoint I believe). It was really nice for low speed cornering, but I think it's dangerous. To be clear, what this setting does is cause your wheel to accelerate in corners to keep the pedals up. This is important to understand.

For the crash, I was riding across a grassy area at about 15mph. I hit a sand patch and my wheel started do a fishtail action. Nothing too severe, and nothing that I haven't recovered from before. I started braking to try to reduce the wobble, but I wasn't really slowing down at all. I think what happened was that when I first hit the sand patch and my wheel tilted and turned, the firmware thought I was turning, and the pedal assist kicked in. Kicking in means accelerating the wheel, so I was trying to brake while the wheel was accelerating, which sent me into a major death wobble. I think each wobble was also detected as a "turn" by the firmware, and so the wheel accelerated to keep the pedals up. The result was that one fishtail was rapidly amplified into an unrecoverable death wobble that I ended up crashing from.

I highly recommend everyone set the pedal assist to maximum and practice some low speed 180 turns (< 5mph) to feel just what this setting does. I think it dangerously takes control away from the rider.

[Planemo]

Couple of Q's re the Begode app. I am a bit worried that my FW is the one which can brick your wheel if in race mode and use the lift switch. I doubt I will ever use race mode but knowing me I would switch it one day just to try it and forget about the lift switch issue...

So... 1. Do I need to register etc with Begode before I can change firmware?

2. What FW should I pick? It seems theres bloomin' loads of them.

3. Should I even use the Begode app or go with EUCW? And if EUCW, do I still need to register with Begode?

4. Anything in particular I need to worry about when doing the proceedure? I hear that shutting down all other apps and using airplane mode is a good idea?

Cheers

[eezo]

36 minutes ago, Planemo said:

1. Do I need to register etc with Begode before I can change firmware?

2. What FW should I pick? It seems theres bloomin' loads of them.

3. Should I even use the Begode app or go with EUCW? And if EUCW, do I still need to register with Begode?

4. Anything in particular I need to worry about when doing the proceedure? I hear that shutting down all other apps and using airplane mode is a good idea?

Cheers

1. To update it with the Begode app, yes, the firmware update is gated behind the "Me" tab which requires registration.

2. The latest / highest numbered firmware for the EX30. Make sure you're on the latest version of the app (which I believe is 1.0.15). If you're seeing loads of firmwares, I think you're probably on a older version of the app. It should look like the attached screenshot. 

3. If EUCW has the latest firmwares loaded, you could use that, but I don't know that it does. For my comfort level, when it comes to running firmware updates, I prefer to use official methods in case something goes wrong.

4. I didn't do anything special on my Commander Pro, just put it on its side, turned on, paired with app, ran the update.

Edited September 6, 2023 by eezo

[Planemo]

Thats great info, thanks! Obviously I was hoping not to have to register but hey ho. I did wonder where the FW screen was, I couldn't see it anywhere and I did tap on 'Me' but it didn't show anything except 'register' so that makes sense.

I was sent a screenshot of the FW from the previous owner and it shows date of 20230818, ref EX30_GW2025006 so I think it's been superseded a few times now.

Cheers!

[eezo]

Just now, Planemo said:

Thats great info, thanks! Obviously I was hoping not to have to register but hey ho.

Registering is the least of the data security issues that exist with the Begode app. After registering, make sure to go into your profile settings and turn OFF location sharing.

[Planemo]

On 8/29/2023 at 8:00 AM, Charg1na said:

Howdy Zero, this is the most helpful explanation for the app i have seen - thank you!!

Is anyone able to pass on what the difference is between "race mode" and "Off road mode"?  

I'd like to know what the actual differences to the ride are too, anyone know? Apart from race mode being bloody loud of course!

[Planemo]

2 minutes ago, eezo said:

Registering is the least of the data security issues that exist with the Begode app. After registering, make sure to go into your profile settings and turn OFF location sharing.

Won't that turn it off for everything though? I need it for EUCW/Maps etc. Or can I just select it OFF for the Begode app only?

[eezo]

Just now, Planemo said:

Won't that turn it off for everything though? I need it for EUCW/Maps etc. Or can I just select it OFF for the Begode app only?

That setting transmits your location data to Begode's servers where they store the last reported location for every rider who has the app installed. It's unrelated to wheel functionality.

[Planemo]

Sorry I think I mis-understand. Do you mean go into my profile settings within the Begode app and turn off location sharing? I wouldn't want to turn off location sharing on the whole phone

 

[Planemo]

2 hours ago, eezo said:

It should look like the attached screenshot. 

Yep. Got the same now. I updated the app, latest version is now 1.0.18. And it shows the same EX30 FW upload date/version number as your screenshot. Cheers

Somewhat alarming that the Bio page even has a place for your signature....so it could have your location, birthdate, gender, email, phone no. and signature. Scary.

[Planemo]

22 hours ago, Bizra6ot said:

On the race mode, if one leans forward, it will accelerate quickly and greatly

22 hours ago, Bizra6ot said:

As for the off-road mode, you will get more torque and power

These two statements contradict each other.

I have yet to read of any conclusive difference between race mode and off road mode. It just seems that some saying one is better than the other. Why?

I will be comparing both myself soon, but I'm a bit confused as to why no one has been able to quantify it yet.

[RagingGrandpa]

1 hour ago, Planemo said:

no one has been able to quantify it yet

Hmm, but I did quantify it?

• Freespin speed does not change with Race Mode vs Offroad Mode.
• Stationary pull force is some 7% higher in Offroad mode. 

[Planemo]

I didnt know about the 7%, so thanks for that. But knowing that now it kinda begs the question..why would anyone use race mode? Some people say 'you really need to use race mode!!' but dont say why...

So the choice of which mode to use seems far from quantified IMO, even with your '7%' data (which I am grateful for btw)

Maybe race mode works better once the wheel is actually moving?

But given the noise of race mode, the fact it has less static torque and no more freespin speed it doesnt sound like its selling itself. I clearly need to be educated..

[pioneer]

Can anyone confirm whether the bricking issue has gone or not with the latest firmware (27 Aug 2023)? I've actually been a bit stupid, updated to that latest firmware (i.e. from 27 Aug 2023) and tried the motor kill button at my own risk with no issues. However, I haven't tried switching the modes with this firmware which also could cause the bug, according to the reports, I only switched the modes on a previous one from 16 Aug 2023 with no issues.

Edited September 22, 2023 by pioneer

[Planemo]

I've updated to the 27th aug version and switched from off road to race which went fine but I'm too scared to push the lift switch lol

[pioneer]

2 hours ago, Planemo said:

I've updated to the 27th aug version and switched from off road to race which went fine but I'm too scared to push the lift switch lol

I did push the lift switch once with 27 Aug firmware, but found it not very useful even for parking, I prefer to turn the wheel off, park and turn on again. Just because when using the lift switch, it beeps a lot and I don't like it.

Edited September 22, 2023 by pioneer

[Planemo]

I have my beeps set to volume 2, seems pretty good in general. I did start with level 1 but it was barely audible. Same here though, I rarely use the lift switch but it would be nice to know in advance if it is going to detonate my mobo. If yours worked OK I guess I should just try it. I often find that wincing at the same time usually helps (like cutting the red wire instead of the green when colourblind)

[pioneer]

1 hour ago, Planemo said:

I have my beeps set to volume 2, seems pretty good in general. I did start with level 1 but it was barely audible. Same here though, I rarely use the lift switch but it would be nice to know in advance if it is going to detonate my mobo. If yours worked OK I guess I should just try it. I often find that wincing at the same time usually helps (like cutting the red wire instead of the green when colourblind)

You'd better update to the today's update first that has just come. I'm told the motherboard issue is fixed there but haven't tried yet.

[Planemo]

1 hour ago, pioneer said:

You'd better update to the today's update first that has just come. I'm told the motherboard issue is fixed there but haven't tried yet.

So it wasn't fixed on the 27th Aug version?! I thought that was the whole point of the release!

[pioneer]

3 minutes ago, Planemo said:

So it wasn't fixed on the 27th Aug version?! I thought that was the whole point of the release!

That's what I'm told, actually by a Begode employee.

[eezo]

The "maximum speed reminder" beeps -- what's the beep pattern for these vs the PWM "3rd alarm" beeps?