The Runaway Wheel
Gene Honnette
holy crap. yeah, that is not normal behavior. You should be able to lift it and it should spin up to a max level and beep. THEN it will stop on its own, just as it did on its side. Actually, if the trolley lift sensor works, it shouldnt spin at all, but they can be iffy sometimes. I've never had that happen on any of mine. Is it a new wheel? Can you power it up on its side and connect eucw or darkness bot to it?
if you've had it for a month without this problem and its just NOW happening, its more than likely in need of service. Locksong used to have a speed limit that would raise once you reacehd certain mileage, perhaps its related to that? I would use eucw and check ALL the speed settings and see if the wheel responds. The firmware has a max speed that you cant turn off, so i fear the app speed settings wont change your issue. You can also update the wheel firmware thru eucw and hope that a reset gets it back to good. I would suspect its a software, firmware glitch, but im just tossing ideas here. If you can turn it on and recalibrate it too, that wont hurt. Again, these are simple maintenance and update suggestions. Please take no offense if none of it helps.
The most important thing: did the wheel reach its maximum shutdown speed - and the CPU failed for some reason to trigger its shutdown routine. Personally, I would be afraid to ride a wheel whose firmware has bugs
There are two things at play here. 1 the lift sensor. If it doesnt beep when you pick it up while NOT moving, the lift sensor didnt disengage the motor. It happens and you have to learn to come to complete stop before lifting. That isnt something I worry about much. The other more serious complaint, is having to do with top speed cutout. Lift it while its barely rolling (to ensure lift sensor doesnt stop it) and lean it back or forwards until it spin freely. Keep leaning it a bit and it should eventually beep. You neednt lean far, just dont lean it the other way or level. Hold it tightly, but its not a big deal. Try it with an 80lbs 60mph sherman! If you simply cannot get it to max out and stop itself, tilt it on its side by lifting on the OUTTER edge of the pedal. Keep your hands free of the rim. DO NOT set it down on the tire while moving.
At some point it did (app showing 70Km/h), doesn't mean top speed was there all along. It could have been at the end, triggering the power off. The minute might also have been twenty long seconds.. To me this is much more likely (EUC took a while to speed up due to angle) than an undiscovered FW bug
One hand on the handle and the other on the outer edge of pedal hanger. If you keep your fingers in check, you should be able to lift it, tilt it and set it down sideways pretty easily. If you lift from the hanger and use the hand on the trolley to merely stabilize, the lift sensor wont engage. The 5 beeps at max speed is what its supposed to do. DId it now slow to a stop once it did that?
I think a software change is due here: I don't see why the wheel should disable the disengagement switch when lifted by the handle while the wheel is turning. If you jump you don't hold and lift it by the handle.
Yeah, its not operating properly if it doesnt stop itself. Sounds rideable but heed the beeps. Did it beep at 35km/h even tho it kept spinning up to 70 w/o stopping? I'd carefully ride it a bit and try to find an ios device. Seba will be around soon, he's a really reliable chap! I'm betting your fw is just too old for eucw to properly connect in its entirety. You may be stuck using softuner or the KS snafu of an app until you update properly. If you can wait a day or two, I'd wait on seba or some other genius around here to help. It IS good that it stops when you tilt it back, means the gyro is working. Can you set the alarm and tiltback really low to see if it engages while riding? I rarely ever hit tiltback anymore, I've learned to not ignore speed beeps.
There is NO WAY it would be safer if the lift handle could shut off the motor while moving. Trust me on this one... YOU DO NOT want ANYTHING to be able to simply disengage the motor in motion. They call that the dreaded cut-out. If i was trucking along at 25mph(40kmh) and the lift sensor farted or a good bump engaged it, I could easily lose a jaw or perhaps tumble off a mountain. Okay, it could go better than that, but not by much. It's a VERY valid reason the power button and lift sensor are ignored while in motion. Its much better for a trolley to be finicky and NOT activate, than a trolley to be finicky and activate. Fwiw, I've been known to lift my trolley handle mid point while riding. My droid device is strapped to it. If i were in an emergency stop and coming up short as I headed for a kid or traffic, I'd be likely to grab the handle and yank back at my own peril. It sounds much more fun than it would be.
Fwiw, I've been known to lift my trolley handle mid point while riding. My droid device is strapped to it. If i were in an emergency stop and coming up short as I headed for a kid or traffic, I'd be likely to grab the handle and yank back at my own peril. It sounds much more fun than it would be.
Oh, ok. So your wheel DID update to the newest? If that's the case and eucw shows you're running 2.07, I am at a total loss. Don't fret, Im part of the lowest common denominator here for intelligence. Im sure someone will help you get it sorted soon.
There's another point which is unclear - the wheel's temperature readings. They tend to gravitate around 0 and 10 degrees Celsius, which is clearly not true, as the ambient temperature is over 24 degrees these days. Any idea about this? (I worry that the wheel doesn't read its temperature correctly and might overheat.)
I flashed it through some of the apps: the original kingsong, eucworld or wheellog or maybe the apple darkness bot... Yes, in retrospective, I see I should not have approached a fw update so lightly, like, here's a prompt asking update, let it roll, but alas...
Of course, it pops up a message that there's a new app version 3.6.18, which is nowhere to be found, cause in play store the version is 3.6.16. So yeah, no credible info from nowhere with this not so cheap Chinese devices. Frustrating. Annoying.
Dear Tom and Ray: I had my tires rotated in Las Vegas. One week and 926 miles later, the right rear wheel fell off while I was in northern California. The Dodge dealership where my Ram 1500 was taken said the most likely cause was that the mechanics in Vegas did not adequately tighten the lug nuts when they rotated the tires. But the shop that rotated the tires won't accept responsibility. They say that if it was something they had done or failed to do, the wheel would have come off immediately and that I never could have gone for a week -- and definitely not 926 miles. Is one week and 926 miles a reasonable time and distance to travel before the wheel would come off if the lug nuts had not been adequately tightened? Who is to blame?
Tom: If they had forgotten to put the lug nuts back on entirely, then, yes, the wheel would have fallen off much sooner. But if they just didn't tighten the lug nuts enough, the vehicle could go 900 miles before a wheel fell off.
Ray: I'll tell you exactly how it happened. How do I know? Because I've done it! All shops use a pneumatic wrench to tighten lug nuts. And they all have torque adjustments on them. So you can dial up or dial down the amount of torque (twisting power) on the wrench, depending on what kind of job you're doing.
Tom: If someone turns the torque all the way down, it would be obvious to the mechanic that something was wrong, because the wheel nuts wouldn't tighten at all. But if the torque was turned down just part of the way, for example, to tighten a chassis bolt, the guy putting on the lug nuts might not notice that. And if he didn't think to check the torque setting, your lug nuts wouldn't go on tightly enough.
Ray: Then, the wheel starts to wobble very slightly, and that wobbling loosens the nuts a little more, which makes the wobble a little more serious, which further loosens the nuts. And after several hundred miles, bada bing -- your wheel falls off.
Tom: I'd say there's a 99 percent certainty that this is what happened. And if I were you, I'd get a letter of opinion from the California dealership, and take it, along with this column, and give the guys at the Vegas shop one more chance to pay for the damage and any expenses you incurred because of it. Remind them that they're lucky nobody was injured. Also, remind them that they have insurance for exactly this sort of mistake (all legitimate shops have what we like to call "bonehead insurance").
Ray: And if they refuse to pay up, sue them. Get a few more corroborating opinions from honest mechanics, take this to small-claims court, and you'd win hands down. Good luck, Phillip. Don't let them get away with stonewalling you.
What's not to love about Alienation BMX? We've had a close look at a number of products from their range over the past couple of years, including the Bullitt and Royal hubs and the Moto, Ratchet and Backlash grips. Each item we've looked at has been absolutely flawless.
There are so many BMX companies, old and new, that will just run with the herd. Alienation isn't one of them, they are a true innovator. They take a fresh new approach with everything they apply themselves to. And they never seem to rush anything either. For example, I first noticed them mentioning a Clutch hub, that would be dead silent instant engagement and easily changed from right side drive to left side drive by just removing the clutch system, flipping it around and putting it back in. That was about two years ago and I'm still waiting to see them, but I'm sure they'll be worth the wait.
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