![]() ![]() When the battery indicator light is green you’ve got enough charge, but I don’t know what the round light located next to it does. For safety, I usually position the board with the LEDs facing backwards when I’m on the street so cars and cyclists can see me. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for why they start flashing. Thankfully, these boards are ADA compliant (I’m talking about the yellow bumpy Armor Tiles on corners of sidewalks and along BART stations).īecause of the board’s lack of instructions, I don’t know what the blue LEDs on the front mean when they flash. You shouldn’t even be traveling that fast on this thing anyway. I would advise using a helmet your first outing, but once you get the hang of it and don’t want to be called a nerd anymore, you won’t really need it. Always bail backwards while going fast you may bail forward if you lose your balance going slow eat much unwanted pavement. Additionally, if there’s a gap in the pavement or curb that’s larger than 2 inches, be prepared to slow down or bail quickly. And since your balance is better in a lateral stance than a forward-backward stance while moving forward, you will fall harder or more often than if you were on say a skateboard. The gyroscopes aren’t fast enough to keep up with your momentum, so the motors overcompensate too late, making the board unstable. However, the simplicity of the system does have some caveats.Īt max speed, unless the surface you’re traveling on is perfectly flat and bump free, the rover board is sketchy. It can work with the LED lights facing forward or with the LED lights facing behind you. The board doesn’t have to start in a certain orientation to use, there’s no specific front or back. ![]() Tip one foot forward more than the other and that’s how you turn and pull off sweet ice skater spins. Continuing to push your heels down will generate backwards movement. ![]() Go heel heavy and it stops forward movement. Tip both toes down and the board moves forward. The board works on an axle system where the right and left wheels turn independently of each other, the antithesis of a differential. The motors will try to keep your first foot level when you hop on keep your foot flat, don’t put too much pressure on your toes or heels. Then bring your second foot up, like climbing stairs when you were 3 or 73. Use your dominant foot to step on and position it mid-foot. There are two pads that register your presence on the board. Unlike Segway operations, using the roverboard is more about tipping your feet forward and back as opposed to leaning your full body in. You just think about walking forward and it goes. There’s a moment of wobbliness, but once you start trusting the motors and gyroscopes it feels natural. But within 2 minutes, I had this thing down pat. The entire package was like Lindsay Lohan that one time – barebones.Ĭonfession time. Tough luck if the thing hurts you, it’s your own damn fault for falling on this thing.” The box I got didn’t even have a picture of the board on it. It’s like a big middle finger from China to the US’s legal system. Which is kind of funny because it shows how much China cares about liability. NO WARRANTY, NO INSTRUCTIONS, NO SAFETY INFO. The reason why these specs are approximate is because when I received my rover board, it didn’t come with a manual or any additional documentation. Max speed is 15 KM/HR or about 9 MPH (Avg walking speed = 4mph). When I do have to charge the board it probably takes about 4 hours to fully charge. I’m assuming that the guts of the board is all steel construction with a bonkers Tesla battery or something because it’s pretty robust and weighs a hefty 30lbs. Cool thing is I’ve only had to charge it once this whole week. I’ve been using it in real world conditions and realistically it’s only 5miles. They quote 10 miles (depending on your weight and incline of surfaces rovered on), which is a little wishful thinking, maybe in perfectly flat and smooth conditions can you achieve that figure. They all run on the same rechargeable battery and charger with a weird proprietary connection that I’ve never seen stateside. They also have, more or less, the same specs. A cursory search into Amazon or Google yields many names for this deelio – Rover Board, 2 Wheel Rover, Self balancing scooter, all bring you to the same product. There’s a factory in China that builds all of them and they resell them to different distributors.
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