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Ips 121 controller replacement


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Hello all!  I have a pair of ips 121 20kph wheels, one of them has a faulty controller. The gyro goes into over lean even while fully upright. with the impossibility of finding a genuine replacement board I was wondering if there is a aftermarket that would work. I have seen threads pertaining to the micro works controllers, these all seem to be built for 500w motors. I believe the 121 has a 1000w. What would the gurus do in this situation?

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When you turn on the wheel does it behave the same as your working one except that it has an extreme tilt?  If you try to roll iit by the handle in either direction does it roll in the that direction under power like normal?  Before ordering a new board, try contacting IPS at that email Juryen postd and contact @fabio70mi to get the procedure for calibration to try if it is working normally otherwise.  Is it still under warranty?

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Actually it rides perfectly fine for about 45 seconds, then it gives mega tiltback and irratic behavior. Setting level it will kinda jitter. I bought it used, the guy I got it from also bought it used.  No hope of warranty.  I'm kinda hoping there is a solution that could gain some speed, I'm getting pretty bored of 10mph cut outs. 

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Oh that doesn't sound like a simple calibration problem then.  EUC jitter syndrome (EJS)  is likely a more serious problem than a calibration would solve I think.  Have you checked all the wiring inside to make sure everything is sound?  Any worn or damaged wiring?   I wonder if MOSFETS going bad might cause jitter.

One simple thing to try is to swap battery packs from the good IPS to the faulty one to see if it could be a battery issue.  That should be easy enough to try first.  If the problem is the same that would narrow it down to control board or wiring.  If it works for 45 seconds the electric motor should be fine I would think.

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1 hour ago, The lonely wheel said:

I'm kinda hoping there is a solution that could gain some speed, I'm getting pretty bored of 10mph cut outs. 

Isn't 12mph the max? I think the difference in the + model is you can use the app to set the top speed to 30km

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I wonder if it's possible to purchase an IPS 121+ control board with BT and connect it to a regular IPS 121 wheel.  Are the motors the same in each model?  I think @Jason McNeil said the IPS control boards are standardized so does that mean they use the same board in all of their wheels and just program specific limits and characteristics to match the motor?  That would make a lot of sense in terms of economy and production efficiency as why re-engineer the control board for each different model if the only thing that changes are maximum speed, tiltback chacteristics, and maybe a few other items. 

Or is there a possibility of adding in a BT daughter board into an IPS 121 control board?  I wonder if someone were to open up the boxes and compare the IPS 121 to the IPS 121+ what differences would there be.  I can't imagine they would design a whole new board just to accommodate BT?  Or maybe they did?   I'd be curious if plugging in an IPS 121+ control board to a regular IPS 121 motor would work...

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6 hours ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said:

I wonder if it's possible to purchase an IPS 121+ control board with BT and connect it to a regular IPS 121 wheel.  Are the motors the same in each model?  I think @Jason McNeil said the IPS control boards are standardized so does that mean they use the same board in all of their wheels and just program specific limits and characteristics to match the motor?  That would make a lot of sense in terms of economy and production efficiency as why re-engineer the control board for each different model if the only thing that changes are maximum speed, tiltback chacteristics, and maybe a few other items. 

Or is there a possibility of adding in a BT daughter board into an IPS 121 control board?  I wonder if someone were to open up the boxes and compare the IPS 121 to the IPS 121+ what differences would there be.  I can't imagine they would design a whole new board just to accommodate BT?  Or maybe they did?   I'd be curious if plugging in an IPS 121+ control board to a regular IPS 121 motor would work...

We are thinking exactly alike!  I have visually checked all wiring and the control board, nothing Is jumping out at me.  I'm an instrumentation tech, so I'm no stranger to termination and electronics inspection.   Here is another symptom...  charging the wheel is not possible unless the power button is turned on, the pack showed full charged while riding, resting pack voltage is 60,5v. I have swapped chargers between the wheels and it's always the same problem. Part of me thinks these problems stem from the BMS portion of the controller?  Could a bms fault trigger major tilt back?   The crazy thing is, there are times when I can ride this wheel 3-4 miles without any problems, other times I can death grip the wheel and ride thru the tiltback(very slowly) and it will suddenly be normal again. 

 

Yes the top speed is 12mph, beeping starts at 10 and anything above 10 can cause a shutdown if you hit the wrong surface condition, loose dirt, pot hole, small curb ect

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When it comes to one wheel vehicles, reliability is critical, and a shakey, undependable wheel doesn't still confidence when going at speed.  I'm no BMS expert, but it could be that or maybe a dying cell(s) in the pack.  Did you try swapping battery packs to see if it still has the problem?  I wonder if the voltage may be showing a normal reading but under load it may not be able to provide as much current as it normally would if some cells are going bad.

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On 6/2/2016 at 9:33 PM, The lonely wheel said:

Hello all!  I have a pair of ips 121 20kph wheels, one of them has a faulty controller. The gyro goes into over lean even while fully upright. 

Where did you buy it? Was the Wheel ever normal, or did it arrive like this? 
IPS calibrates the boards at the factory, on the 121 (not +), once an orientation is 'burned-in' that's it. I'm told that on power-on, it goes through a micro-calibration, but that's just to set it to the pitch set at the factory.
Most EU pedals are not perfectly level out of the box (KS, GW, Inmotion, even 9B1), but these can be modified in an App. 

11 hours ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said:

Are the motors the same in each model?  I think @Jason McNeil said the IPS control boards are standardized

Changing from a 121 to 121+ is probably not just the CB but the motor as well, recall that the 121 is configured for torque—I need to check with the factory contact about this. While the boards might be physically the same, the newer ones have a BT module & different firmware for each model Wheel.  

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well, Fabio hooked me up with the calibration procedure.  Unfortunately that did nothing for my wheel.. I have also swapped out battery packs and had no change. It's odd to me, but you can pretty much set a clock watch to the error beep.  It will come at the same time if your riding or the wheel is stationary. 

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Does the calibration method work?  It's handy at least to know you can calibrate the IPS121 for others out there if needed.  It sure would have saved @fabio70mi some headaches along with @Jason McNeil maybe if the procedure was well known.

Too bad it didn't do anything for your wheel.  I had a feeling that it wouldn't help, but I thought maybe the battery swap might work narrowing it down to a bad BMS maybe.  It sounds like you may have a mosfet going out soon as maybe it takes 45 seconds for it to heat up and go out of spec (?).  I don't know whether gyro or clock timing chips go out of whack that commonly.  I think there are like 12 mosfets in IPS control boards.  Can you check to see if there are signs of any heat scoring near any components?  Did you open up the control board?  

If you have some component cooler and with the case open you could try spraying individual mosfets to see if it stops the jitter to narrow things down.  If it's just one mosfet burning out a simple repair could solve the problem.  Otherwise it could be a $150 control board replacement from IPS.  Are the control boards easily swapable?  One other thing to test might be to swap control boards to verify the motor is problem free.

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The calibration linked above was very simple.  I tried it with the wheel standing up as well as the recommended horizontal.. I honestly believe that it makes no difference. 

 I have opened up the board and inspected for heat or other damage, none to be found. i am of the impression that the bms is built into the controller as all balance leads go to it. 

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