Evolve pairing/syncing problems on start up

Will update, they have the board but I haven't had any feed back, I'm pretty jaded and not sure if i cant trust their hardware again, i suspect it will go up on gumtree for cheap

 

^ Tell them you're not happy. How long ago did you purchase the board and when did you start notifying Evolve of the issue. If you kept them in the loop, tried to resolve the issue but have no success, I don't see why you shouldn't get a refund. These boards should be working 100% not 99% or 20% of the time you use them. Its not ridiculous to request that as a customer who's open to resolve the issue through their resolution process but has found that to have no success. Why should you eat the cost by putting your board up for cheap regards to an issue out of your hands and one you didn't create. I'd try to see if this "fix" resolves your issue, make a point to them and be straight with how you feel and that you're not happy nor do you have trust in the Evolve name due to faulty hardware/software.

 

Cheer and good advice, It is a concern, I loved the board and the brand seems to be holding up, so far can't complain about the customer service which as been good. I don't know much about the hardware they use, Bluetooth is supposed to have a 10m range so why they say to keep the remote below the waist etc is beyond me. I read other guys experiences on electric skateboards and they talk about smooth acceleration and braking, that sounds totally foreign to me, My Evolve gave me, delayed jerky random at best, only getting decent when at speed.

 

Its not Bluetooth - the link is based on an nRF24L01+ transceiver on both ends (similar frequencies but completely different protocol)

 

I have 4 other Electric Skateboards, 2 I bought back in 2012, and 2 in 2016 and NONE of them ever acted as dangerous as the Evolve GT I had and all ride with full user control as you'd want to expect. Electric Skateboards and their control mechanism should not be jerky, delayed, nor feel dangerous and out of control. A properly implemented design of an Electric Skateboard should have a smooth predictable acceleration and braking.

The customer support I had with Evolve was hit or miss, and at times like trying to pull teeth out of your jaw. I really wanted to have this board work but you can't make a design that's faulty due to RF interference work if the issue is not addressed and ignored when voiced to a manufacturer. Worse product I've ever had and worse pain I've received from becoming inured from one that was due solely on a product defect. I won't go on, I have a long thread documenting my terrible experience. Actually the whole experience has been documented on this forum, from where I was totally excited when I first received my board, to where I mentioned the drop-outs, jerkiness that you described, to the board taking off on its own and throwing me down to the ground dislocating my shoulder, working with Evolve, Evolve ignoring me, asking for an exchange/refund, getting a new remote that made the board even more dangerous, to asking to get my money back, waiting to get my money back, waiting to get my money back, and finally getting my money back. Yeeh.... not a good experience.

The issue you're having is identical to mine it sounds, you live in an area that is contaminated with a certain RF frequency that essentially interferes with the Evolve wireless communication. This has been addressed to Evolve back in November and still no fix nor do I see them ever doing one, which is sad.

An issue that will arise for existing board owners is when they sell their board. So what if the current owner doesn't have the RF interference and the board works as expected. Then they sell the GT on Ebay to a new rider who lives in an RF contaminated area like you and I. They then ride the board and it sends them into an intersection or gets them seriously injured. But you advertised the board as good as new or working excellent. They could possibly come back to you for selling a used board that was defective, and it would be you how would have to prove this board was fine when you rode it and a defect by the manufacturer.

Good luck and stay safe.

 

Thanks Mate for the extra detail, from looking around on the net and reading a bit more, I've come to the conclusion that this was an accident just waiting to happen. ie with the board and the remote. Sounds a bit knee jerk or harsh, but if Evolve offers a new remote or controller board I just don't think it's going to cut it, Like yourself, I know someone and have read multiple times of "Fixed" boards" only to have the same problem. I diffidently don't want the same hardware back, replacing same for same won't give me the confidence to ride on some of the hills I'm faced with (I live in a hilly area)

Damn, I never thought I would regret so much buying something I was looking forward to. I have started a list for possible replacement, the Boosted Gen 2 is up top at the moment... though they have some problems the remote connection issue doesn't seem one on them

 

They issued to be a refund, they couldn't find any issues but replaced the controller board as a precaution, I wasn't happy with that so they honoured a request for a refund. I have since placed an order for a Gen 2 Boosted Board

 

Happy Evolve gave you a refund and without any argument representing good customer service, making sure in the end the customer is taken care of. Well you gave it a shot, the board works well for some and not for others.

 

Hey Wiztecy, have you had an experience with the Boosted Board? I'm no longer going to rely on brakes but will need to make sure my board can when I really need it, Boosted apparently have upped the transmitter and reception power to help with dropouts on the Gen 2 .. do you have experience in this field?

 

Sorry to hear about your trouble - and especially injury - and frankly it could have been worse.

I have read a lot of posts about connection issues and followed with interest wiztecy's attempts to get to the bottom of it. I am a electronic engineer working with wireless communication system day in day out - also computer forensic investigations so I interrogate protocols all the time.

The theory of RF interference is a good one, and would explain the issue - however the frequencies used are frequently band and shared with bluetooth. It is a possible explanation but not proven - a simple experiment would be to take the board to a known area of no interference (p.s. there are power limitations on devices using these frequencies) - so anywhere miles from civilisation would be 100% clear.

Test the theory by trying the board in certain area of no interference - if dropout still occur this will prove it is not interference - if they don't - repeat until certain (as it can be intermittent)

If it is not interference, then it is hardware faults - either receiver or transmitter - and these can occur with any mass produced electronics in china or anywhere else. Solution there would be replaced remote and motor controller (and modified Quality control procedures to detect the issue before shipment).

Bluetooth is a very crowded band - and with boosted using bluetooth the probability of interference is theoretically greater - however these protocols are designed to get around this - time division multiplexing or frequency division multiplexing & encoding / checksums / asks etc or all including the evolve version.

I have experienced no connection issues at all in months of use - but have erred on the side of caution after reading all posts.
It would be a very useful exercise to conduct a poll to determine the extent of the issue.

Also for anyone experiencing the issue to stop using the board - and return it - as it does not effect them all.
I would remain sceptical of interference explanation until proven via experiment.

It is just as likely faulty component or a result of vibrations which could explain the random patterns and intermittent operation. One dry joint or weak connection could cause small dropout with dangerous effects,

 

In my case, which I also documented, I went about 7 miles out of town into farmland with the board (Carbon GT). No cellphones, no blue-tooth, only ocean and fields. The board worked without issue, no drop-outs. Coming back into town, the board acts up and is unpredictable.

Thanks for your input!

 

Sorry, but I don't have any experience with Boosted and I actually have a pretty good confidence Sanjay would get to the bottom of it and not allow drop-outs to keep on happening. Just watching how he handled the battery fire was professional and very on top of it.

I honestly recommend the Metroboard since I have four of them and they have been awesome all the way around. I've thrashed them pretty hard, abusive, and they keep on running. I run them in down-pouring rain since they're my daily work commuter board. Granted I sprayed conformal coating on the PCB board to protect the electronics from any moisture damage, but that was it. I also like the customer support MetroBoard has, nothing comes close to it. You always get a response back from the owner, Ilan, no later than 3 hours from your reply. Average response time is within minutes! If you do happen to have an issue he guides you through it in debugging and replacing the parts. I like that since I get to understand more about my board and become independent and not waiting for a 2 week to 4 week turnaround time such as what I seen with Evolve. Also Ilan keeps upgrading the board components making them better, I just purchased a 110Kv motor upgrade for my 40 mile range board. The original was 90Kv. The 90kv hit anywhere from 18-22mph. The 110KV can take the board to 24-26mph. And you can ride those speeds way longer than Evolve, I only got 2-3 miles of 26mph on my Carbon GT, it then dropped down to 24mph, then down to 22/23mph due to the horrible voltage drop. The remote he has available is the Infared Remote and also the 2.5Ghz RC style remote. I runt the RC style and love it since its been tested and refined from the RC hobby industry, not by just one company and a bunch of test subjects they sold the remote to as what I feel Evolve did. I also had my Trampa Street Carver / 2 in 1 built with the same RC remote since I'm very pleased and have been safe with it. As for Boosted, I see and have talked to people riding them and they seem to love them.

Would love to hear your experience once you get your Boosted and have ridden it for some time, please report back on how you like it!

 

Thats great you did that and good data.

The next step would be to cross compare and check if anyone else gets dropouts in RF quiet areas - if people do then that is data against RF interference. Collect all the data before making a conclusion - at least that is my approach in dealing with unknown intermittent operation of RF equipment - there are a lot of factors.

Remember we are dealing with an intermittent occurrence effecting only some boards - I believe that you had several weeks of no issues in the same built up RF zone. There could be several concurrent issues leading to the symptoms you and others have experienced - and by the way other people such as myself have not experienced - also within a capital city with plenty of power lines, cell towers, mobile phones - sub stations - tv transmission towers - etc etc.......it it was as simple as RF interference everyone would experience it from even their bluetooth headphones / cellphone.

My point is that while RF interference is a possible candidate factor for the cause - it is far from definitive - and may only be a factor. In fact the same symptom may occur for different reasons on different boards.......

It requires more data before being to conclusive.

I am on the side of sorting it out for everyone and getting to the bottom of it - and my point is not hostile to you or your experiences - so no need for the obnoxious "Thanks for your input!"

 

Here's another data point that for myself points to the GT not tolerating RF interference. I can induce RF contamination on my 2.5Ghz remotes if I place the internal wired antenna in a non-ideal location coupled with weak batteries in the RF remote. Same areas, exactly the same areas I've had the GT act up with horrible results, the RC remote with the Metroboard will gradually let off the throttle a bit and resume. Again I induced this by accident by not placing the wired antenna in an ideal location. The board was very rid-able, didn't act as a hazard, nor was it anything to be concerned about. But that was my own fault for the poor placing the antenna when I buttoned things up. I have the ability to move my transceiver in the battery box away from the motor controller (which generates EMF) as well as the antenna itself. You can't do this on the GT since its all coupled on the same board.

 

No Problems will write back! , everyone seems to love their Boosted , the shipping date to Australia is way later in the year luckily I have a trip to Hawaii in August so hoping to pick one up while there. the Clavical (Collar Bone) plate is working a treat, the pain seems to have gone and well on my way to getting back on a board when the Doc gives me the OK.

 

Just thought I'd post an update.
Check out this thread for actual pairing issues
Evolve pairing/syncing problems on start up
It talks about the right way to boot and then pair and also a document on how the remote should be on v2 protocol.
I did actually go to SkateHQ and tested against their demo board and remote to see which is the issue before sending this off to Evolve.
The first time, they said to send them the controller, then they just sent it back to me and said, they couldn't find a fault and didn't bother to follow up. Thanks Evolve.

After a few going back and forward with Evolve, at least we got to the root of my pairing issues.
The issue with my board was that
i) power switch light flashes about 4-5 times then goes out for a couple of seconds then back on.
ii) it also produced a very slight clicking sound/ on/ off each time it did do that.

(From experience), they say, they found that it was a power supply issue form the BMS to the motor controller, causing the motor controller to turn off and on and resulting in remote not pairing.