Gyrocopters Flash 3.0 Scooter Shutting Off Refusing Power On Until Battery Reset - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 06, 2024, 03:34:29 pm
content: Hi everyone,I bought my kids a Gyrocopters Flash 3.0 scooter last year... worked fine all last summer/fall (we put it away for winter) and most of this spring. A couple weeks ago (after full charge at home) rode to work (about 7km) then charged it up again at work for the ride home. I started riding home and within a few seconds it completely shut down and the single button on the entire scooter was unresponsive so I could not turn the scooter back on.When I got home I took apart the bottom and inspected the wires (see video below), unplug the battery to check voltage, later plugged it back in. I went up to the display to look if maybe something happened to the button and as I was messing around with it,I managed to turn on the scooter. So I assumed it was the button, but then later realized the button was fine, it was probably because the battery was unplugged/plugged in.I took the scooter again for a test ride, after 5 minutes it happened AGAIN. Got home, unplug/plug in battery again and reset it. Then went on another test ride and put it through a lot of hard accelerations, stops and really pushing it to see if I could duplicate the fault... but it kept working at least for the 10-15 minutes I was testing it. Brought it back home and the next day tried to turn on the scooter and it wouldn't turn on!Then I unplugged battery and plugged again, worked again. Since then I haven't used it but just turning it on and off whenever I pass by to see if it is still responding, and it has been ok.I reached out to the company IMGadgets who sold us the scooter, but they only warranty for 90 days. They asked me to send them the battery for testing, and if needed I can buy another battery for $199 on this $369 scooter. I don't see how the battery is at fault since every time I've unplugged and replugged, the scooter is functional again... unless something on the battery is cutting out or sending a signal to the controller to cut off, but then why can't it reset? Alternatively, some flaw in the controller causing it to seizing up.... So when I remove any power by disconnecting battery and power it up again, it resets it.Note that this scooter has NO OTHER BUTTON except the soft-button on the display (which you have to hold down for 2-3 seconds to turn on/off the scooter and activate various features like headlight and switch from ECO to SPORT mode). There is no MASTER SWITCH. If you look at the video, you'll see the controller is KCQ-YB-HFZ-PRO-V2.0. Production date 2022-08-17, software version KCQ-12646-6. Other parameters listed are Voltage: 36V, current limit 15A+/-0.5A, Low voltage protection: 30.5V+/-0.5V. Breaking method: linear brake, Start method: sliding start. Rated power 350W. Adaptation motor 8.5 inch motor, Speed: 20/25 km/h.What I'd like to do before anything else (so I can further test) is find a way to be able to easily reset the controller without getting the entire bottom of the scooter off. I was thinking of installing a master switch directly on the battery to controller power cable. It would need to be able to handle the max battery voltage/current expected, and I would mount it externally so I can easily flick the switch on/off if it dies on me again. I'm wondering if one of the wires on the controller (many of which are unused) also allows for this function... But I have no documentation on what the controller wires do, except for the ones connected up I can infer their function.Any advice would be very appreciated. Thanks!Here is that video so you can see a bit more of what's happening... don't let the title fool you, I thought I fixed it but then it failed again so still unresolved.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 06, 2024, 05:33:35 pm
content: Quote from: edy on June 06, 2024, 03:34:29 pmThe controller may be monitoring the battery's discharge rate overall or of individual series cells and shuts down the load if a threshold is hit. When you disconnect and reconnect the battery that value may be cleared so the device starts again. Indeed maybe the battery gone bad over the winter. I'd perform battery maintenance during winter, I do that for my trade tools' batteries.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 06, 2024, 06:04:34 pm
content: Ok thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to need some cables/splitters in any case that allow me to test the voltage under load using my multimeter probes, as I have no way to hook in once the battery is plugged into the controller. I should be able to get an extender cable that will let me get over from the battery to the controller but that I can expose the wires in the middle and allow me to touch with the multimeter probes and check the voltage on the battery under load. I can usually start the scooter by spinning the wheel (it is programmed for "sliding start") which will trick it into thinking it is going 5 km/h, then I hit the throttle and it will then start up. However, it's usually just free-spinning, not much resistance. I may have to put something on the wheel to try and slow it down and make the motor torque out a bit more to see if it can handle it.