Xima Lhotz IPS 191 suddenly won't power on :(

[nute]

@Marcus Matos did you ever get your problem fixed?  It turned out i needed a new battery and a new main board. The latter was $100 however as my wheel was only just out of warranty they gave me a free board if i paid for the battery. 

They have just arrived in the mail so currently putting it all back together. Frustratingly a couple of the connectors have changed so just awaiting advice from IPS on what to do. 

[esaj]

On 5/13/2017 at 2:32 AM, EvenOdd said:

The MOSFETs all tested pretty inconsistently with the multimeter. I had four test the same that I think were good with checking all three pins. I had four that all read 0 on all pins, and four that didn't read (OL) on all pins. I'm assuming that's bad and that they should probably read the same across the board. Is that correct? 

I don't know too much about electronics beyond what I read on the internet, checking voltage/resistance, and some poor but usually sufficient soldiering abilities.

It depends on which pins you measure, but usually having 0-resistance (or very low resistance) between two pins is a sign of a dead mosfet. Of course there could be something in parallel with the mosfets, which may make diagnosis difficult. In a typical three half-bridge -configuration, all the mosfets are the same type, and should measure the same, as far as I know. If you still want to go ahead with replacing them, easies solution is to replace them all (assuming they're the cheap variety), but if you want to try and find only the broken ones, for "typical" N-channel mosfet pinout, you should get something like this as resistances:

(Positive probe -> Negative probe)

Gate -> Source:  Infinite

Gate -> Drain:  Infinite

Source -> Gate: Infinite

Drain -> Gate: Infinite

You may briefly see a high resistance value going up shortly, until it goes beyond the meter maximum limit ("infinite"), as there's some stray capacitance between the gate and other pins. If gate is directly connected to either drain or source, the mosfets' dead (gate insulation is damaged).

 

Drain -> Source: Very high (megaohms)

Source -> Drain: Depending on meter, possibly lowish (continuity/diode check should show a small voltage drop over)

Drain -> source won't probably be infinite, but very high, megaohms or tens of megaohms or something, there's small leakage there that will give you some values. Measuring the gate could leave it charged near the threshold level, allowing some current to flow, if the gate is floating otherwise in the circuit, which could show up as a lower resistance (but shouldn't be anywhere near short-circuit, 10-100k's at minimum?)... If the drain -> source -connection is shorted, the mosfet's likely dead, N-channel shouldn't be fully open on its own. The latter one (source -> drain) measures the body diode, although depending on the circuit in the actual board, it could also measure separate flyback diodes nearby. 

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by esaj

[EvenOdd]

Has anyone had luck sourcing a board? I have not heard back from IPS in over week after sending several emails. Very frustrating.

Edit: Just heard back. Seems to be moving forward. I will keep updating as this process happens for anyone else who may run into the same issue. 

Edited May 24, 2017 by EvenOdd

[nute]

Hope this saves your problem. I found IPS customer service very helpful although on occasion they can be slow to answer emails. A couple of times it was 4-6 days before they responded. 

When my new board arrived the connector for the battery was reversed. Luckily I had a new battery too and the connector gender on this was also reversed so they fitted OK. They have also changed the design of the lighting control board since i bought my original wheel. The connectors on the new main board will not fit the old light control board. I never used the lights anyway and not connecting the light board makes no difference to the operation of the wheel in other respects. 

[EvenOdd]

17 hours ago, nute said:

Hope this saves your problem. I found IPS customer service very helpful although on occasion they can be slow to answer emails. A couple of times it was 4-6 days before they responded. 

When my new board arrived the connector for the battery was reversed. Luckily I had a new battery too and the connector gender on this was also reversed so they fitted OK. They have also changed the design of the lighting control board since i bought my original wheel. The connectors on the new main board will not fit the old light control board. I never used the lights anyway and not connecting the light board makes no difference to the operation of the wheel in other respects. 

Thanks for the reply! I told IPS over email that I want the board and asked how to proceed with payment. That was 7 days ago. I sent another follow-up email. Just a waiting game at this point. If you don't mind me asking, how did they have you pay and how long did shipping take?

[nute]

I think i paid by card, but i must admit I'm not sure now. 

The sent it by UPS as the package also contained the battery. Yueyue sent me the tracking number but it didn't show anything for about 5-6 days until the parcel got to the Netherlands, from then it to another day or two so maybe a bit over a week in total. The board came complete with the aluminium heat sink box so it was simple to fit.

I hope you get a reply soon. I have to admit i sometimes went 3-4 days without a response which was a bit frustrating. I guess she has lots of other things to do than answering our awkward emails. Overall i did find IPS very helpful especially when i was trying to diagnose the initial problems and i was constantly asking daft questions. 

[EvenOdd]

Long post incoming...

Just want to give an update on my wheel in case anyone else runs into a similar issue and also provide a timeline so that you can form an expectation on the time it may take for your issue to get resolved. HUGE thanks to @IPS Malta for offering support and contacting IPS on my behalf to help get the ball rolling even though I didn't purchase from him. If you are in the market for an IPS wheel, I highly recommend reaching out to him, he goes above and beyond and I'm not sure that my wheel would get a second chance without his help. IPS is lucky to have resellers like him. The process was a little painful, but I am confident that IPS will learn from this experience and improve. One thing to note: I think there was a holiday in China which may have contributed to the delayed response times you see in the timeline, so I can't say for sure if my experience is the norm or not.

Timeline:

May 8, 2017: I contacted IPS on about my wheel dying.
May 9, 2017: I got a reply from IPS with some troubleshooting instructions. Turns out my board was bad so I replied the same day that I needed a new board.
May 12, 2017: I did not hear back yet, so I sent another email to follow-up.
May 16, 2017: I finally received a reply, they wanted my SN so they could figure out the exact board for my needs. 
May 17, 2017: Sent IPS my SN.
May 22, 2017: Didn't hear back yet, Sent a follow-up email.
May 24, 2017: Heard back from IPS with Price. Replied the same day and asked how to proceed with payment.
May 29, 2017: Didn't hear back yet, Sent a follow-up email.
June 5, 2017: Received email with instruction to proceed with payment.
June 7, 2017: Received tracking #.
June 19, 2017: Received new board.

Installation: 

New boards looked very similar to the old ones (Main board and light/bluetooth board) and all the connectors matched what was previously there. Once installed, the wheel powered on as normal, but I noticed that I could no longer connect to it using Kevin's app or the XIMA app on my iPhone. After contacting to @IPS Malta and IPS, I was given instruction to download the IamIPS app. Apparently IPS updated their boards and they are no longer compatible with Kevin's app or the legacy XIMA app. The IamIPS app worked! I could connect...but my SN, model, and battery capacity were blank. Also, I was limited to 20km/h. After some research, I found that I needed to program the board to the wheel. I found the info I needed in this thread: 

Basically, you need an android and have to install an app called IPSutils then write a code to the wheel so that the board knows what wheel it is installed in. It was fairly simple and the thread referenced above can provide the information you need.

Result:

The wheel seems to be operating as good as new. It actually seems better than before. The ride used to be very soft and you had to lean pretty hard to accelerate and stop. Now, the wheel is much stiffer and more agile. I am very happy with the way it rides!




 

Edited June 22, 2017 by EvenOdd

[IPS Malta]

Glad you have it resolved. As always IPS is getting better and better in general. Nice to see you enjoying your wheel again

[nute]

Glad it worked out for you and all is working again. 

Have to say i found IPS pretty helpful, when they were talking to me, but like you there were times when a few days went by with no response from them. I don't know how many staff they have and obviously they have recently been developing the new wheel. 

When i had the initial problem they could not have been more helpful in guiding me through getting it all apart and testing  the various parts, sending results back and forth etc. They had a lot of patience with all my daft questions...

[Sampsonb]

I have the same problem.

I think my charger has stopped working. I notice the end that plugs into the wheel, getting a little loose, and then I saw a small spark. I took the end apart, and it appears that two connectors still have a good solder connection.

When I plug it into the wheel, the light on the charger stays green.

The wheel doesn't appear to do anything anymore.

I suppose it could be the wheel, but my history with these sorts of electric scooters and skateboards tells me it's the charger.

Does anyone know of any way I could test the charger?