vag72 Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 Just ordered for my younger daughter 12" IPS A130 unicycle.The most important is the weight and size as she is only 7 and 14" is a bit difficult for her to drive. But she is quite experienced with unicycle already. Any users of this model here? Pros-cons, reviews, any upgrade-mods recommendations prior to start using it?
Gimlet Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 With her size and weight it should be fine as long as she doesn't get so attached to it that she tries to ride it when she's grown up. Of course that's a long way off and it would depend on how long the wheel lasts.
Jason McNeil Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 It looks like a reasonably good entry-level light-rider eWheel. The 12" should provide more torque than on a 14", I'm receiving a sample of the A130 next week, will report back then on just how good (or bad) it is.
vag72 Posted July 17, 2015 Author Posted July 17, 2015 it would depend on how long the wheel lasts. She is an ordinary child and with the ordinary way children treating stuff like bicycles, toys etc... I would give that wheel maximum 2 years life period. It looks like a reasonably good entry-level light-rider eWheel. The 12" should provide more torque than on a 14", I'm receiving a sample of the A130 next week, will report back then on just how good (or bad) it is.Will be waiting for your review, thanks. So far my choice is mainly based on that short review:https://youtu.be/vx4HzV_jszc PS: How to insert videos here instead of a links? Edit by esaj: For some reason, I couldn't get the ordinary www.youtube.com -type link to work, but now youtu.be -link works (they didn't at least in earlier forum software version). So maybe they fixed the youtu.be -embedding to work and broke the existing youtube.com -embedding?
vag72 Posted July 17, 2015 Author Posted July 17, 2015 I tried to edit 1-st message with the way you suggested but it does not work.
esaj Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 I tried to edit 1-st message with the way you suggested but it does not work. Yeah, it took a few tries from me, and this time I got the www.youtube.com -link to work, but not the youtu.be -version... I blame the forum-software, it seems to be pretty finicky with the link embedding. The way I've got it to work was, when editing the post, first delete the entire old link with it's row, take the video link from youtube, then enter it on it's own line (with no spaces on end), hit enter at the end of the link and wait a few seconds. If it doesn't embed within, say, 10 seconds, try again, possibly changing to other type of link (www.youtube.com vs. youtu.be)...
John Eucist Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 Yeah, it took a few tries from me, and this time I got the www.youtube.com -link to work, but not the youtu.be -version... I blame the forum-software, it seems to be pretty finicky with the link embedding. The way I've got it to work was, when editing the post, first delete the entire old link with it's row, take the video link from youtube, then enter it on it's own line (with no spaces on end), hit enter at the end of the link and wait a few seconds. If it doesn't embed within, say, 10 seconds, try again, possibly changing to other type of link (www.youtube.com vs. youtu.be)... Sounds exactly like my experience.
vag72 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Posted July 18, 2015 Found a brilliant detailed review of A130 vs Rockwheel GP14:Bingo!
vag72 Posted July 31, 2015 Author Posted July 31, 2015 Received at home. Nothing to add to above yet. Simply a good lightweight wheel.
Milo Dorigo Posted October 15, 2015 Posted October 15, 2015 Hello,I'm currently looking to buy this exact EUC. Are there any complaints or things I need to know? Thanks -EDIT:It will be my first EUC.
RichieV Posted October 15, 2015 Posted October 15, 2015 As luck might have it, I just picked one of these up. I wanted a small lightweight wheel for very short distances and this looked like it might do the job; the motor specs looked low but my purpose for this wheel was never for heavy duty tasks so I decided to take a chance. Unfortunately, I discovered that indeed the wheel is not sufficiently powered for my needs. I find that it wobbles back and forth precariously while I'm on it and I'm always nervous that I will overpower it to the point of shutoff.To be fair, the wheel was never intended for someone like me. I am a full size adult at just under six feet tall and weigh 190 lbs. (181cm, 88kg), and the wheel is targeted at kids. I am curious how some of my smaller female friends or how my nieces and nephew will fare on it.The wheel is solidly built. I can't fault it for its build quality. Actually I can't fault it for anything, really. It would be unfair for me to knock a product for failing to do something for which it was not designed.So I can say that if you are similar to me in size and weight, this wheel is not for you. If you are of a smaller stature, then it might suit your purpose but only for short distances; the battery is pretty small. In all, I would put this wheel in the "toy" category albeit a well built one. I think I will relegate mine for training smaller people or perhaps I will gift it to my niece and nephew.
Milo Dorigo Posted October 15, 2015 Posted October 15, 2015 As luck might have it, I just picked one of these up. I wanted a small lightweight wheel for very short distances and this looked like it might do the job; the motor specs looked low but my purpose for this wheel was never for heavy duty tasks so I decided to take a chance. Unfortunately, I discovered that indeed the wheel is not sufficiently powered for my needs. I find that it wobbles back and forth precariously while I'm on it and I'm always nervous that I will overpower it to the point of shutoff.To be fair, the wheel was never intended for someone like me. I am a full size adult at just under six feet tall and weigh 190 lbs. (181cm, 88kg), and the wheel is targeted at kids. I am curious how some of my smaller female friends or how my nieces and nephew will fare on it.The wheel is solidly built. I can't fault it for its build quality. Actually I can't fault it for anything, really. It would be unfair for me to knock a product for failing to do something for which it was not designed.So I can say that if you are similar to me in size and weight, this wheel is not for you. If you are of a smaller stature, then it might suit your purpose but only for short distances; the battery is pretty small. In all, I would put this wheel in the "toy" category albeit a well built one. I think I will relegate mine for training smaller people or perhaps I will gift it to my niece and nephew.Well, since I'm only 55kg and I'm going to use it for just that (short distances and kinda as a toy) I think this will be the perfect wheel for me. Thanks
vag72 Posted October 16, 2015 Author Posted October 16, 2015 Just came back from the real world so sorry for my late reply. As it is already mentioned above, the wheel more intended for kids or teens or not tall adults. Driving it With my 185cm is more complicated than 14" wheels I have in my garage. My elder daughter (18, 170cm) also noticed the low pedal height. One more to the cons - big size pedals, even bigger than on some 14" wheels. These pedals are a pain when you try to do rough turns. But my younger daughter absolutely loves this wheel.
trya Posted December 5, 2015 Posted December 5, 2015 I just purchased IPS A130, wanted to share my first impressions. I wanted a small wheel for quite some time, was looking at Gotway M10 - but this one is no longer available. Suddenly came across this wheel for some funny $209 with 4 days UPS delivery in US - could not resist, made the impulsive purchase on the spot Here is what I think after riding it for the first time: Brief specs (from seller's site, as this wheel is no longer listed on IPS website): wheel 12", battery 130Wh, motor - 500W, weight - 8.5kg, mileage - 15 km, max speed 16kmh Here are specs revisions based on my "feelings" (mostly derived from my past experience with Airwheel X8): - battery could be even less than 130, drove up to the continuous beep and raising pedals to total riding impossibility - about 4.5 miles (7.2 km), though it was rather cold (45F) and a small portion of the ride was spent on stunts and some pendulum experiments (high battery load, and possibly partially unrecorded mileage). - the motor is definetely not 500W, clearly weaker, I can "overpower" the wheel easily while leaning aggressively, tried this using a very amplified "pendulum" while holding the railing (on my Airwheel I usually can't overpower it, or I really have to try hard - but Airwheel is 800W) - The weight is as stated, 8.6kg on my scale - mileage is less than claimed, my weight ~ 165 pounds - speed: surprisingly higher than stated (based on GPS - I reached 19 kmh) - and I didn't push it beyond the first warning beep, pedals are starting to rise very gently, just before the beeping, and pedals are raised just to the level of being noticed, unlike Airwheel, where pedal ride up to the state of disomfort somewhere starting from 10-12 kmh) - pedal size is really big. On one hand, for a ride - this is very comfortable, on the other hand - for very sharp turns this is bad, pedals easily touch the ground at a relatively small incline (again, this is compared to X8). - wheel is quiet, but at the very start of the movement (from 0, the 1-2 mph - its is buzzing) Oddities: charging connector is unique, with 4 pins. Conclusions: The wheel is definitely not in the "transport" category, but rather - sport, tricks and fun. Advantages: light, very nimble, quick, agile and responsive, and cheap! Disadvantages: weak battery and motor, low and big pedals. Subjectivly: I enjoy it very much! This is a nice wheel for "playing" close to my house and even inside it Besides, for my wife (120 pounds) who is not really eager pushing her riding to extreme - this wheel is ideal
esaj Posted December 5, 2015 Posted December 5, 2015 8 hours ago, trya said: Oddities: charging connector is unique, with 4 pins. I think I read somewhere that older IPS models use something other than 16S packs (might have been 13S or 14S?), so I guess that's why the connector is different than "usually" too, so people won't try to put a charger with too high voltage into it... If you need to replace the charger for any reason, make sure to get the correct kind (correct voltage and not too high current).
zlymex Posted December 9, 2015 Posted December 9, 2015 I owned this A130 for a couple of weeks as the first prize of the local IPS store ceremony. It's a good wheel except the speed and the torque were too low for me so I gave it to the son of one of my friends. He is very happy about it and soon became more skillful than his father riding a Lhotz.
trya Posted December 9, 2015 Posted December 9, 2015 3 hours ago, zlymex said: It's a good wheel except the speed and the torque were too low for me from my perspective, the battery size is probably the most limiting feature - I can squeeze at most 10km from this wheel, even when I ride in a most gentle way on a plain good pavement. The speed was not really an issue for me, as this wheel is surprisingly faster than my Airwheel X8, I can push it to 20kmh (haven't dared to push more, as it starts beeping). The torque is rather weak (I compare to Airwheel X8), but is enough to even train various tick (although I'm trying to be careful not to overload it with some very sharp movements).
zlymex Posted December 9, 2015 Posted December 9, 2015 2 hours ago, trya said: from my perspective, the battery size is probably the most limiting feature - I can squeeze at most 10km from this wheel, even when I ride in a most gentle way on a plain good pavement. The speed was not really an issue for me, as this wheel is surprisingly faster than my Airwheel X8, I can push it to 20kmh (haven't dared to push more, as it starts beeping). The torque is rather weak (I compare to Airwheel X8), but is enough to even train various tick (although I'm trying to be careful not to overload it with some very sharp movements). That's true. I didn't mention the week battery because I added a 200Wh external pack.
trya Posted December 9, 2015 Posted December 9, 2015 @zlymex - this looks as a great upgrade! Have you shared somewhere on the forum the components you used for the battery, connectors, the way to assemble it all, etc? I'd appreciate the info and references. Thanks!
zlymex Posted December 10, 2015 Posted December 10, 2015 On 2015/12/10 at 7:21 AM, trya said: @zlymex - this looks as a great upgrade! Have you shared somewhere on the forum the components you used for the battery, connectors, the way to assemble it all, etc? I'd appreciate the info and references. Thanks! Thanks, I'll just put the procedure below. 1. Open the case 2. Find two pieces of wires(1mm^2 roughly) and carefully solder to the charge socket 1=positive, 3=negative (the socket already uses 2=positive, 4=negative for charging) 3. Solder the other end of the wires to the battery output wires. It's better to put a 15A car fuse in series. 4. Prepare external batter pack as usual. I use 16 Panasonic NCR18650B. Better to make purchase off-shell with BMS inside. 5. Buy a pair of 4-pin plug/socket, use two pieces of wires to joint pin 2 and 4 for charge. 6. Solder the external battery to the plug: 1=positive, 3=negative. 7. Attach the battery pack to the wheel by double-sided adhesive tape and string . The photo shown is for my IPS122, which I also added external batteries the same way. 8. Plug the new plug to the wheel only when their voltages are equal(or less than 3V in difference). Afterwards, there is no need to unplug except for measurement, examine or repair purposes. Use the new socket to charge internal and external batteries at the same time.
trya Posted December 10, 2015 Posted December 10, 2015 @zlymex thanks for the thorough description! This looks doable. Am I correct that this way you get two battery packs connected in parallel? Does the size of the external battery pack matter? You indicated that mixing 200Wh external with the native 132Wh is ok. Can you still use the visual light indicator of the remaining power after upgrade? I.e. would it still show solid green until 66% discharge and blinking green until 33%?
zlymex Posted December 10, 2015 Posted December 10, 2015 56 minutes ago, trya said: @zlymex thanks for the thorough description! This looks doable. Am I correct that this way you get two battery packs connected in parallel? Does the size of the external battery pack matter? You indicated that mixing 200Wh external with the native 132Wh is ok. Can you still use the visual light indicator of the remaining power after upgrade? I.e. would it still show solid green until 66% discharge and blinking green until 33%? That's right, the size or capacity does not matter so long as the paralleled cells are the same type(4.2V fully charged). In fact, In fact, I've added two external packs for my IPS 122 for over a year. The indicator works great as well owning to the fact that they show the status according to the voltage. Internally, Batteries of IPS 122 are China made 32 cells, 2.0Ah each, making a total capacity of 240Wh instead of 260Wh.
playdad Posted December 10, 2015 Posted December 10, 2015 Zlymex, That's some awesome handiwork right there. Good info too. Thanks! Now you just need to update the WH value in your sig!
SlowMo Posted December 10, 2015 Posted December 10, 2015 @zlymex I see a seat post attachment. I was looking at one of those. Are they fun to use?
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