Open source the remote?

Excuse me for this, know there's a remote thread already.

Everyone has experienced issues with it, mine so far has been its fragility. Came off my board and dropped it, needed a new one at a £100 cost. Bit of a bite for what is supposed to be a rough and ready device.

Riding in the cold with the new one I've had crazy battery readings and various drains on battery life not to mention a change in performance overall. Even in mild winter weather the board has felt more sluggish than what I remember when first purchasing it.... thats not a remote issue though... problem was when I had no grasp of the actual battery level and was chucked off while on my way home when it actually drained, was aware of it being low and was riding slowly but I could have lost the board to an accident. It should warn you actively when the battery is nearly done. In the cold it can read 0% while in use and rise to 40% when not in use, it can continue on while at 0% for quite sometime as its obviously not drained, the reading itself being inaccurate.

Other devices vibrate when the battery approaches certain levels but with the sensitivity of the trigger I doubt this would be a good idea, that sensitivity itself being a bug bear at traffic lights and on not so smooth roads where the lack of suspension can lead to a juddery experience and a risk of depression on the trigger.

I see the call for Evolve to do something about the remote but feel the only way to resolve it is to open source the device. I'd like to see a complete overhaul, felt to express that here.

Tnks

 

Love my OSS, but would push for open protocol first myself.

Would love to know about the security and how the gears work specifically.

 

they are using two NRF24L01+ transceivers - cheap and easy to find on ebay - (I made a thread on this) - they are soldered on the main board in the remote and the motor controller on the board - that's the protocol that you would need to focus on - it's not Bluetooth unfortunately so no app connectivity either, maybe next gen - I really want the ability to be able to upgrade the firmware in the field (without shipping anything back to Evolve) when they release updates and fixes which they need to do - any eboard sold today should have this feature (Boosted does - not sure about the rest)

 

The higher level protocol. The one that does the gears and throttle position.

 

What gears are you talking about? The throttle position controls the current. The wheels and gear setting chosen doesnt influence the data sent by remote throttle position.

 

Ah... Should have been more specific. By Gear I meant Slow/Eco/Fast/GT using two buttons on the remote.

Seems remote sends "GearUp" or "GearDown" commands and these can get queued up and executed later, hence people ending up in reverse unexpectedly.

Clearly Evolve did not think sufficiently when designing the protocol and did not consider the queueing of gear changes people see in the wild.

If you had "EcoToSlow" sent by the remote, even if it was sent twice, it would not endanger the rider. While the NRF24L01 might not be great it is possible to make a reliable protocol on top of an unreliable protocol/medium...

 

^ Exactly ^

You constantly have to keep an eye on the remote, make sure that you have the Antenna and battery SOC % or else you may end up in huge trouble. The board does not let the rider know at all so they can take precaution. Put some bright sunlight out there and you can't see a damn thing on the remote, so you're chances of getting hurt jump up even more. Dumb to let the board jump into reverse while going forward, that alone would help protect the riders from a very loose control between the remote/board. If you don't see the battery percent and antenna on the remote, especially if the remote begins acting funny, get off the board IMMEDIATELY and repair the damn thing. After that you are usually good until the next interference hit. Sometimes you have to go through pairing 2 or three more times for things to work properly.

 

a haptic vibration in a future release of the remote would be great when "something isn't quite right" - the flat battery indicator right now is a good sign but like you said you have to look at it frequently - better to have eyes up front on the road

 

They should have implemented some sort of sound notification,which you can turn off at will.. so yeah, you wouldnt need to take a look at the remote

 

A high pitched sound is a simple, inexpensive and effective way to communicate to the user. It also could beep if the board has been activated for REV as well as low 20% battery level and ECO gear drops initiated by the board.

But if the remote to board communication was properly implemented, you wouldn't need any of the above since it would just work the way the user expected it to do.

 

Someone has to make ''aftermarket'' mod for this.. to include the sound notification
I assume it would need to ''capture'' the battery data, analyze it and then make a sound (through loudspeaker/buzzer) to notify the user.. could be made with a switch to be turned on / off..

Though would require some modification to the remote..

Actually, I think this should be better made on the board itself, as there's still some space left..Someone just have to tap into ''balance wires'' of the bms, take the voltage readings from there and attach some sort of external voltage monitor..

 

They really need to use a more expensive part than this for a $1500 board and this being one of the most important aspects for safety. Anybody who has ever used a Wiimote knows that the connection is perfect 100% of the time if you're in the same room - this should be the same way.

 

Ha i have a bunch of those NRF24L01+ aduino modules. Looks like a simple enough project to intercept the remote/board conversation and then do a bit of analysis, shouldn't be too hard to see whats going on. Anyone got a good pic of the board in the remote, and the receiver in the board? Saves me pulling mine apart..

 

check out my thread - I go into some detail on this - to make it easier you could order the exact board off ebay (that I think they are using) - see the link to my thread below - I'll also post the link to the board too:

Link to my nRF24L01 thread with pics
First Page on thread showing close ups

Link to boards on eBay