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The born of Airwheel S8 — circuit design


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Since Airwheel S6 inaugurated the age of dual ride mode of self-balancing electric scooter, Airwheel S8 has made improvements in various aspects. The core element for an electric scooter to operate normally is the chip and cell. As an electricity-assisted vehicle, Airwheel S8 complies with the physical laws. Riders control S8 to go forward, accelerate, decelerate, and brake, etc. by leaning forward or backward, as S8 is controlled by center of gravity. The importance of chip and cell is manifest.
 
electric scooter with seat for kids
For those scooter players who have a good knowledge of tech and are proficient in refit (even though refit of self-balancing electric scooter is vehemently opposed), they know better that the inner structure is fairly complicated. Actually, the working principles of electric self-balancing scooter are clear and easy to understand. The circuit system belongs to the Hardware system. For the detailed circuit design, it can be analyzed as the following figure.
double-wheels electric scooter

The single chip is the core control module, followed by the driver module of electric motor. The following figure is a sensor module, with the accelerometer and gyroscope two parts. The whole working mechanism is as follows:

electric walkcar

After disassembling the base of Airwheel S8 self-balancing scooter, you will find there is only a battery, providing power for the scooter. That explains the size and weight of the battery. Airwheel S8 saddle-equipped electric scooter installs a branded lithium battery of 260Wh capacity.

Taking part the platform on the motor, we will see the hard core of self-balancing electric scooter, including charging circuit board and rotation direction sensor. The circuit board at the reverse side of charging port connecting the main control board provides electricity. The main control board of Airwheel S8 sitting posture self-balancing scooter can be seen as the brain to control balance and process command.

Adopting double 32-bit microprocessor chips to take charge of two gyroscopes, Airwheel S8 keeps riders and the scooter itself safe with double insurance. Even if one chip fails, the other balance chip system will immediately take over the work, to complement to each other as well as to ensure security.
Sitting-posture electric scooter

Complicated in inner structure, yet simple working principle. It mainly relies on battery to provide power and on gyroscope to realize self-balance. So far, self-balancing electric scooter has been widely applied to personal transport and daily entertainment. Please note that to ride intelligent electric scooter expertly requires practice and patience.

 

saddle-equipped scooter

 

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5 hours ago, Lisny Abby said:

Adopting double 32-bit microprocessor chips to take charge of two gyroscopes, Airwheel S8 keeps riders and the scooter itself safe with double insurance. Even if one chip fails, the other balance chip system will immediately take over the work, to complement to each other as well as to ensure security.

So the S8 actually has a redundant MCU and gyro/accelerometer-chip... interesting. How about motor-drive, are the motors dual-winded and there are two separate drivers per motor (ie. reduncancy throughout from MCU/gyro to motor bridges to motors)? Or is it just the MCU / gyro-part?

Based on experiences we've read (mostly about unicycles) in this board, I'd expect the bridges to be more prone to failure than the MCU or gyro-chips...

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3 hours ago, esaj said:

So the S8 actually has a redundant MCU and gyro/accelerometer-chip... interesting. How about motor-drive, are the motors dual-winded and there are two separate drivers per motor (ie. reduncancy throughout from MCU/gyro to motor bridges to motors)? Or is it just the MCU / gyro-part?

Based on experiences we've read (mostly about unicycles) in this board, I'd expect the bridges to be more prone to failure than the MCU or gyro-chips...

I assume it's similar to the ninebot, which is heavily based on the segway boards. Each wheel has it's own module with 2 inverters, the MCU appears protected by opto isolators and there's a large fet on the bottom, I think it may disconnect one of the inverters if there's a failure so the wheel doesn't lock. 

The funny thing is despite having this component already made ninebot opted not to use it instead making the completely unprotected mosfet burning faceplant machine that is their one wheel control board

I don't know why airwheel doesn't just stick in in their EUC if they have something similar either.

Any pictures of the S8 board? I want to see.

3-140F4100IUT.jpg

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On 6/7/2016 at 6:04 AM, esaj said:

So the S8 actually has a redundant MCU and gyro/accelerometer-chip... interesting. How about motor-drive, are the motors dual-winded and there are two separate drivers per motor (ie. reduncancy throughout from MCU/gyro to motor bridges to motors)? Or is it just the MCU / gyro-part?

Based on experiences we've read (mostly about unicycles) in this board, I'd expect the bridges to be more prone to failure than the MCU or gyro-chips...

That is a good sign if true.  At least it is a start in the right direction.

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On 2016/6/7 at 10:28 PM, lizardmech said:

I assume it's similar to the ninebot, which is heavily based on the segway boards. Each wheel has it's own module with 2 inverters, the MCU appears protected by opto isolators and there's a large fet on the bottom, I think it may disconnect one of the inverters if there's a failure so the wheel doesn't lock. 

The funny thing is despite having this component already made ninebot opted not to use it instead making the completely unprotected mosfet burning faceplant machine that is their one wheel control board

I don't know why airwheel doesn't just stick in in their EUC if they have something similar either.

Any pictures of the S8 board? I want to see.

3-140F4100IUT.jpg

More pictures is coming...

http://www.airwheel.net/images/airwheel-S8-8.jpg

http://www.airwheel.net/images/airwheel-S8-7.jpg

http://www.airwheel.net/images/airwheel-S8-6.jpg

 

http://www.airwheel.net/images/airwheel-S8-5.jpg

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