by Burgerman » 14 Sep 2017, 11:44
Its not. Its gone back to invacare directly.
Its great for a lightweight user but brushless motors and a new heavy 190kg chair, (and 20 stone user) is a no go.
2 issues:
1. To make it steer, stop steering, when >> I << say so, requires some programming that no normal user will ever have access to. Or dealer. So even OEM programming wont fix that. Same with rolling an inch. You cant do it accurately, and you cant do it when you choose! Its all guesswork! It starts after you tell it, and stops rolling when it feels like it. So with all the tremor damping, rounding, soft start stop and smoothing removed, and with turn and forward acc and dec settings maxed out it is hopeless, still like driving a hovercraft. Quite how normal users get on with this arrangement baffles me entirely.
Fortunately the special version we have here allows an even more comprehensive set of tools/settings such as a turn acceleration / deceleration multiplier. And quite a few others. So that can be overcome. Mine now steers! And then it does turn, stop turning, and move 10mm accurately when you say so. So for personal use I can fix that. But it has another issue that is a real problem.
2. It has a ton of torque, and pulls 175A or more from the battery only once for less than a second. Checked in use with my clamp and a fluke logging meter as I drove. Try turn in space several times and you are out of luck. Itr rolls back power fast. Since this is more nose heavy and much heavier generally, than the old storm 3 it NEEDS this power to turn in place. So it pulls almost 200 battery amps while making only around 2/3rds the torque of a typical 4 pole. And this rapidly falls to around 30A. In just seconds. So you cannot drive. It literally feels like the battery is dead. Wait for 30 secs, and it gives a 1 second boost again and you are away! Until next time.
So it means maneuvering around my room was impossible. This isnt the stall detection, or the current rollback due to temperature its another rollback setting designed to protect battery and fuse/cables.
So I fired off a very tech email to the invacare brushless specialist with my findings. He replied that they needed to collect the chair. And that I would be refunded. No questions, no attempt to find a problem. There IS no fault. Its just not capable. And they obviously had this before. So I suggest its a good chair with these provisos:
a) You weigh 10 to 13 stone MAXIMUM. Ignore the 23.6 Stone claim. I am 3 stone less and it wasn't capable.
b) you move the seat back 3 or 4 inches at least.
c) You MUST do the programming mods I am talking about, and that will likely invalidate the warranty, or it will forever feel like you are driving a hovercraft.
It really does give a good smooth ride probably the best suspension on any chair I tried, and it is drawing just 2A at max speed with wheels off the deck. So range on the street should be enormous. But it doesn't have the torque (for long enough) for any serious weight or user that needs control.
The programming stuff applies to the storm 3 I have here too.