My second EV, as of yesterday

Not sure if this should be here or the "other EVs" section, but yesterday I took delivery
of a new stand-up e-scooter. This is one of the many brands made in China and marketed
through various US-based distributors. First thing I had to do was fix the front wheel,
because some kind of powdery crud had gotten trapped between the rim and tire bead
and prevented the !tubeless! tire from sealing right. Then, on any of these units, a thorough
pass to check and tighten fasteners is always recommended, as the assembly QC is less
than stellar as a rule. Finally comes a bunch of fiddling to set up the "cockpit" aka the
positions of stuff on the handlebars, and it's finally ready for some road tests and getting-
used-to.

The "cruiser" boasts a monster [on that scale] battery, 30 Ah at 52V nominal for a total of
about 1.5 KWh, with a best-case range given as 60 miles! Various reviewers have youtubed
their range tests and come pretty close to that. My pack arrived at about 48V and maybe
two out of five "bars", which I ran out to 41V and barely moving this morning before putting
it on for a first full charge. The pack is an OEM LG unit said to contain 21700 type cells; I
have not verified that as all the works are deeply buried in the scooter deck. No idea what
sort of BMS it would have, if any.

One downside to all such toys is that the steering is quite squirrely, and taking a hand off
the bars at appreciable speed is a definite no-no. That makes it difficult to hand-signal for
turns until speed comes way down, if at all. It has tiny little rear-facing directionals which
are essentially invisible in daylight, and too low down for car drivers to really notice.

The other irksome issue is that the trigger "throttle" is a speed control rather than a power
control, and is rather nonlinear. That means the thing wants to take off with near-full torque
as "go" is first applied, only backing off when a certain motor spin rate is reached. This
makes control rather lurchy, feeling like the scooter is trying to yank itself out of my hands
on any acceleration. I suppose I can get used to it and learn the right predictive body lean.
It's not like the US distributor has any hope of getting offshore designers to provide control
algorithm improvements for download. The "controller" may not even be able to modulate
output at all, only switching frequency.

I'm still trying to figure out if this is practical transportation or a death-wish. It is fun to tool
around on, but acute attention and an absorptive, bent-knees stance over rough patches is
needed despite the reasonable sprung suspension.

Upside, it can easily be carried around in the Kona! In fact, after the Kona goes into the
body shop next week, the scooter might be the perfect way to get back home.

_H*

 

My annoyance with the "throttle" response on this thing is building, especially after its
mild attempt to kill me yesterday. I did attempt an improvement, but it's still squirrely
AF and is nigh impossible to regulate smoothly at low speeds. I'm going to be griping
hard at minimotorsusa.com, who imports this stuff for numerous product including their
own. Pushback to the Chinese sources needs to happen; this is ridiculous behavior.

_H*

 

More on the throttle problem, I did a further hack that actually does make a marked
improvement in the "edginess", that some of the electronics folks might appreciate.

_H*

 

30-ish MPH on the flat with a high battery charge, but I keep it in mode "2" which gives me
a pretty solid 25 under most conditions. It feels a litttle too squirrely faster than that; its
steering geometry, like many scooters, needs more trail and/or a steering damper.

_H*