Sunday 29 March 2020

do charger sparks harm the scooter?

Some time back I did an article about sparks between the charger plug and the battery (usually heard as a distinct "TICK" on plugging in the scooter) when plugging the battery in (see this blog post) which makes me wonder if this is actually related to an issue that manifests for a number of Wide Wheel owners.

The issue is that often settings are lost (almost randomly) (in my case) it seems when the scooter is powered down. I may have had the mode set to Power but when powering it back up its soon clear (from the lack of acceleration) that its in Eco mode. Also sometimes the Cruise Control randomly goes to off as well. Now my dual has never done this but my single has done it from pretty early on.

Today in a testing run I powered my Widewheel dual up and it was in Eco mode. Interestingly after a run yesterday I goofed with the power supply and didn't turn it on first, there was a loud snap and I cursed lightly.

My theory is this. The massive surge (which is big enough to cause an electrical arc) may be enough to damage something on the control board.


nothing is visible on mine, but the damage may be something inside a component.

I don't know if this is something on the new Widewheel Pro ... which has a different circuit board.

Let me know if you'rs goes from "no problems" to "randomly losing settings" after an accidental charger spark.

2 comments:

luca lorenzo baldini said...


hello,

I own a 2019 dual as well.

it also happens to me that I switch it on and the settings are gone: sometimes I find it being on Eco mode and sometimes I find it with the Cruise mode engaged (my usual setting is ludicrous mode on and cruise mode off); but this is happening even when I don’t experience any arc from the charging port (I learned to plug the charger on the wall first and then to the scooter, doing so I experienced no shocks anymore).

This loss of saved settings may happen, say, twice a month, and then not happening for weeks, it’s very random.

Hope it helps, by the way I love your blog.

luca

obakesan said...

Luca, have you ever plugged in the charger and got that "snap" sound because the charger was not plugged in and turned on?