Trying to FIX a Faulty £39 Hoverboard from eBay (Self Balancing Scooter) 

For the protection of all us honest ebayers please report these guys! I’d have had my money back from about a dozen items in your videos so far! You’re too nice a guy vince! 😉

i enjoy your channel, because it shows, that somebody with no pro-skills and just interesse in diy , can fixup almost everything. you give the finger to the lazzy people

I have so much admiration in your ability to never give up. Perseverance. That's a trait I wish I had. But your videos inspire me. Really. I've only fixed a few things, and abandoned too many other things, but I may have to revisit. Try try again. Thanks Vince. You've inspired me to never give up, even in life stuff. Thanks, mate!

Definitely flood damaged, pretty sure you can get a refund from eBay since it wasn't in the description.

With brushless motors (three wire) you just swap any TWO wires to change the motor direction.

If I had bought that I would have returned it for a refund the second I saw the corroded wheels. The item received clearly did not match the photo or description of the listing. It was clearly false advertising.

I'm so glad that you're VERY thorough with these repairs!

Your positive attitude, tenacity and determination are amazing. Well done mate. 👍😎🇬🇧

My MATE Vince you are lucky to always be making videos of thing I have to fix! It's amazing how lucky I am I guess. Thanks again!

Great video series - doesn't matter what you decide to work on -- I'LL WATCH! Enjoy your sharing of your thought process while working on how to proceed. Also, how you correct where you might have been in error.

I would get myself an ESC (Electronic speed controller) and a wireless receiver/transmitter and build an RC car or a robot out of those wheels. Also... It would be a really good idea to have an ESC laying around if you are going to be troubleshooting motors.

I giggled so hard when you said "knobbily bits" only because when I worked at Sears Hardware (here in the US) 13 years ago, I had an English lady come in looking for new lawn mower tires because the knobbily bits had worn off them.

You are absolutely correct vince, typically if you drop a phone or anything electronic into water, it is the minerals and other things in the water that make it conductive and thus shorts out the circuits, you could literally drop your phone in pure water with absolutely no contaminants in it and the phone will be fine, as for if the wheel would work or not i should think so as long as the little board in it wasnt touched by water, the windings are enamel coated so they should be fine.

First off, this does NOT have Bluetooth as one other commenter led you to believe. It's a 433/868 MHz remote control so you can turn on/off the board - i don't know why you would like to do that, but it exists. The control mechanism is a follows: The rubber parts stick into an optical interrupter (the fork like black part on the PCB) where the rubber/plastic part breaks a light beam, telling the board that you stepped on. It has no pressure sensors at all. The actual control mechanism is an accelerometer in each side. It's a small square chip with no pins, probably an MPU5060 or similar. It measures the gravity, and when you tilt the board with your foot, gravity readings change and it runs the motor.

I really enjoy watching you work. I love doing this sort stuff myself. I learned a lot form just watching you fix it. I would like to see you do more on you fixing these. As well as other stuff. :P

HI Mate, great fan of your videos. Just here to say that you don't need to remember the color combination of those motors. If its moving in the wrong direction then just swap any two of the connections.

The damaged part on the board looks to be a photo-interrupter. This is the same sort of thing you used to get in old-style (ie. ball) mice. If it's a compatible type (which it probably is as these tend to be fairly generic) then maybe you could salvage the part from an old mouse. These are a transmitter (usually an infra-red LED) and receiver (phototransistor) pair, and they have to be put in the right way round otherwise they won't work. Most have a part number on them and a quick google search should turn up the datasheet which will have all the info you need to get the right sort of part. In my experience, pretty much anything can be repaired - it's just a question of how much time, effort and money it requires. Good luck Vince, and keep up the great videos!

use a old bath towel or piece of carpet too take screws and things apart on. On hard surfaces things tend too bounce roll fall off of and get lost. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the video👍On brushless motors you only have to shift two wires to change the direction of rotation..

Best to do by cleaning that corrosion on the circuit board is, to spray some alcohol on it and use a tooth brush, this has worked out for me on other stuff that ive fixed. Currently i need to fix my NAD Surround Reciver, but it will take alot of time to fix it as it has about 6 circuit boards. I also dumpster dive some times and i find alot of good electronics which still worsk or only has some bad components or leads. A few months ago i found a 1000W 48V scooter layin in my street, reason why they thrown it away was probably because the lead acid battery was dead. Ive tested the motor and lights and control board and its all good. It was also really rusted so i went and bought a multi tool to sand it down, also used an angle grinder to get the rust away on the bigger surfaces. You should try to get stuff for free aswell :P

Over a hour of Vince ill get the popcorn

Those two parts that look identical from both sides look like huge electronic speed controllers with a little extra on there, maybe accelerometer or gyroscope and some other unknown extras. My brushless quadcopter motors have a similar 3 connectors on them, one for each phase of the motor. Typically the brushless motors like the wheels use are water proof and can be simply rinsed out, with the bearings being the main part that can cease up from water or other damage. If you can clean out that other wheel and change the bearing, it may be salvageable. Corrosion is the other enemy of brushless motors though.. Honestly I'd try to get a refund. I understand it was a no refunds sale, but it was false advertising / lying when it stated over 100 pounds in spare parts and I think that would be grounds for some kind of money back situation. Great video!

Best RU-vidr out there when it comes to fixing things I swear XD

You can get an programmable module like a ardunio or something and make your own code for it, and wire it up to the motors and done, just a thought

❤ Waw great job Vince even though the outcome meant you had to right it off. Love watching your stuff cos I am an electronics service guy and I love the logic that you use in fixing stuff.

Hi mate you said the boards were. Water damaged,I used to fix mobile phones, when a board was water damaged I used to use a 50/50 mix of distilled water and white spirit and put that in an ultra sonic cleaner then blow dry the board and that in ,80 of cases fix the damage it may be worth trying for those motherboards

the item looks pretty new I think it's probably been in a shipping container that's got flooded with sea water I would give the eBay seller really bad negative feedback.

What do you do with the things after you’ve fixed them? Do you sell them? Do you keep them? Use them for spare parts? I must know

Well done, you kept with it and that is how you learn

This was awesome buddy. Really enjoyed cheers. Reminds me of how my dad used to take my broken toys apart and figure out how they work

Love watching ur videos. I loved taking things to bits when I was younger to try and fix

I stopped using eBay when it stopped being an auction site and turned into a scam site 15 years ago. Around the time eBay purchased PayPal. I buy from Amazon as they deal with scammers quickly and effectively.

I'm wondering if damage was caused during shipping. Somehow sea water contaminated the product(s). I worked for a contractor at a major car company, no longer trading. I reported that a number of cars had faulty windows that were not closing fully. The batch was designated for delivery to Japan. The policy was to ship them with "minor" faults like this, and distributors would correct faults at the destination and charge the manufacturer. Unfortunately, on the sea trip, although the exterior was coated with wax to protect the paint, sea water flooded the interior through the partially open windows. The lot had to be returned to the UK for major rectification.

My first thought was flood damage - which would explain the smell. Is the postcode area one that had been subject to flooding at the time?

Even my back is hurting when I watching you fixing the things on the floor Vince ! time to upgrade your workstation :)

Test it with a ohm meter, That might actually be a three phase motor possible either Delta or Star connections, Optic senser like what is inside a optical rotary encoder.

Just amazing, watching this and seeing what you where given for your money, I would have thrown that out. I need to rethink how I'm looking at thing. Thank you for the insight. I subbed and will keep watching for sure.

Thank you for this video, it was really great. And little question, What is the name of the little computer that you use at the end of the video to show ebay?

My wife brought home a Rumba a couple weeks ago. The thing was abused. It had water damage from someone cleaning it by exposing it to water, the one motor was no longer working so when I tryed getting it to go, it would only go in circles. The bottom brush was missing, the side brush was worn out. It was a mess once I opened it. Since it was a gen one, it wasnt worth repairing. I do have the battery pack that appears to hold a charge and the charger and station. I may list them on E- Bay. The rest went in the junk.

the connectors are called XT60 and are commonly used on RC devices at the moment that kind of motor seems to be a brushless outrunner of somekind the rusty one for sure is unusable but the other seem ok just by look you might try and use it for some other project of yours ^_^ (p.s. in a brushless motor just inverting 2 wires will change the direction of the spin)

hi you made tin's of money on things just a bad day in the office vince i been there so many times lucky all you buys are small money love the video still like me in my old days

I like your videos when you open the things that you get on eBay

I cant imagine how many intros you've started and then you open it and its the newspaper or something lol

The Antenna/Aerial module is most likely for a remote, this is so they can be locked and unlocked from been used. May also be for a remote speed controller.

Hi Vincent we purchased a hover board new and it wouldn't charge so we emailed as you do he sent through a replacement and it arrived sealed with charger and that won't charge either so where do we start charger works OK on the other 4 children's hoverboards

It doesn't take a lot of water to corrode the insides of device. A small puddle can sit sealed inside a housing for a long time evaporating, condensing on colder metal bits, evaporating again, repeated until water from the reaction is used up or has left the housing. Water damage is going to be a common fault in consumer electronic repairs I strongly recommend studying the science behind it and techniques to remedy it.

I love your mini tablet/laptop, what is it/where do you get one? :D loving the videos taught me alot and opened my mind to attempting my own repairs

1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth

Your patience level is GOD mode.

Bluetooth is not for audio, its a wireless network kinda like Wi-Fi. You can send audio via Bluetooth like Wi-Fi but on that thing its for battery level and so parents can lock it to slow speed, speedometer and such. The foot switch is an optical switch one side has a LED the other a light sensor, you push down it blocks light and it knows where your foot is. you where checking continuity on the sensors not the windings, Look up "sensored BLDC" and that motor wheel assembly is called a hub motor. I know its been a bit but if you have that board I can send you a optical switch, or a link to one.

that blue tooth board is for controlling it with your cell phone and i have saved stuff in this shape i used brass brushes and corrosion X it will stop the rust remove the rust and help stop shorting of the boards

At 1hr 20mins and 40sec what device were u using with the keyboard it’s cool can u tell me what it’s called 😄

I wonder if these are salvaged from a shipping container from a wrecked ship? It would seem to fit the water damage

Hey dude Vince, I really enjoyed the video. I was wondering which shipping company delivered it? All refuse to take parcels with lithium batteries

works in the same way as a ceiling fan & its sat on 2 sets of sealed bearings use vasline on the bearings & along the outer edge of the windings

That seller (or associated sellers) has sold a number of these (and has had corresponding number of complaints on the sales). He or his/her associates is/are still listing them! Clearly not mail order returns but more likely from a consignment of units from a water damaged ship's container bought as a job lot.

I just found one without the backcovers underneath. I dont see a power button, the battery has no juice. I dont have a lithium charger. I I need to try to turn it on, any ideas how? My lab power suppl.y is max 30v5amps

On the wheel you should pull the armature from the stator wheel there is only magnatisan keeping them together then you could clean the armature and stator with fine wet or dry and a drop off thinners then blow dry with air gun

I would try it but not if I had to pay for new batteries. If the power was off there is a chance you can get that wheel working but you really need another one in order to test things. Id power wash it out gets all the rust out then you can actually check things out. Rust on a PCB isn't a death sentence it can be cleaned and resoldered with no issues.

A quick tip, for Phillips head screws try to use the largest screwdriver head that will fit, it will be much harder to strip the screw this way.

Hi, I love your videos and I have been subbed for a little while and I think you should try to completely disassemble the boards and clean them with a toothbrush and distilled water, after you brush them down rinse them with fresh distilled water and after that rinse them with a bit of isopropyl alcohol and leave them to dry for a while. If the mosfets or any other chips arent blown I think they should work and you probably should replace the bearings in the waterdamaged wheel because the water had to seep in thru at least one of them and you saw what it did to the metal insides, they shouldnt be expensive at all. also sorry for all the mistakes Ive done in this comment because I have no idea how to speak english since I live in the Czech Rep.

brilliant video vince...i enjoyed every second.....thankyou for sharing

this is a great vid !....learnt plenty and spares!.....well worth the money

is that comfortable, doing all these repairs on the floor?

Hi Vince. Nice to see you struggeling..... good work... thats the way to learn it. I think that the opto-coupler sensors are only for safety.... you have to stand on it otherwise it will do nothing...the small wires to the motors are going to hall-sensors, magnetic sensors. If the motor is standing still and tilt the board a bit forward the hall-sensors detect that and the logic is steering the engine.... so.. i hope i gave you some usefull info. Suc6 with your channel.

@Vince that part that you broke looks like an optical sensor. Take a look at ITR9608. Should be easy to solder, though have a look if you can find the exact type of sensor (part number or similar)

what ,contraption' is it that lets you sit on the hoverboard? i want to buy that too.

1:09:00 you have put the wheel to far in so it is scraping the inside of the wheelhouse i did fix my brothers and his the 4 screws that attached the wheel to the bord was loose so first i did tighten them but then it made that scraping sound (probably why it did fling back the handle in 1:06:50) so i did take it apart again and loosen the screws and pulled the wheel out a little bit and then tightening the screws again and put it together and it did perform nicely :)

Putting my detective hat on I wondered if the same postcodes people were selling from all those years ago that you had observed have a connection with heavy rain and rivers bursting the banks or properties flooded with water from overwhelmed drains? People salvaged what they could and sold damaged goods. Just wondering!

Great vid 👍 I think a hair dryer, a few cans of wd40 and a few kitchen rolls. Think you may get lucky 😏

I really like this videos! Keep the great work!

I have a issue with my Segway as the right wheel sometimes doesn’t work and shake any suggestions?

Those sensors with rusted pins shown at the one hour mark i think are called transmissive photo interrupters. You should be able to find replacements from your electronic component supplier of choice. I cant help you with what exact part you need but replacing those should be a lot cheaper than a complete motor controller thing if the rest of the components are still working.

This motor configuration is called an outrunner, also used in RC airplanes for example.

What for Windows 10 tablet are you using?

Does it move? No Does it need to move? Yes WD40

my guess is it is a bluetooth module for a phone app for range and battery percentage

I have a phat ps3 that is broken do u want to buy it and try to fix it? It stuck in a firmware loop and the blu ray is broken.

really instructive and a proof that WD40 can do amazing miracles .Well done Vince

Take heart Vince. The tyres alone would get your money back or complain and get a full refund

Alot of these items are bought from catalogs or argos and because someone can't use it or did not like it They send them bk saying faulty so they get stored for months in boxes till the pallets can be sold in auction they are not protected well and get damaged a lot in warehouse

Sea Water? damaged in shipping?

Question Vince, don’t know if you had this happen with a Xbox, sometimes when I turn my Xbox on the light turns on for around 10 seconds then shuts off, after that it’s fine, turns on and works. I think it’s the hard drive because of the noises it makes. What’s your opinion?

someone might have bought it for parts, took the batteries out and resold it. those are some nice motor wheels Ive been thinking about buying a used one and make the wheels into a two wheel drive bike. theirs a video or two on YT where they drilled the hubs for spokes and made it work. though i think they used two or more battery packs. also WD40 is bad for bearings, it eats the grease out and will damage them.

Absolutely​ love these videos - best thing on youtube by far.

whats the little laptop you use in the video?????

Thoroughly enjoyed this video but that beeping was starting to give me a headache so ended up putting subtitles on, but very intersting 👍.

If I was you I would be doing some digging into the seller as soon as I seen the batters missing he could have removed them an he could be selling them on his eBay page. The seller knew what he was selling and he knew there was not £100 in parts get a refund and do some digging am sure you may find him selling the batters

I've got this issue with 2 new wheels. Hall sensor wiring is different so need to de pin and change them around.

Random question but what watch are you wearing? Another great video btw👍🏻

you should start making your own carts and sell them to people as add ons for their balance boards. Looks like it would be a much safer way to ride them

hi mate, the motor looks to me like a mini smart drive motor that is used in washing machines with a few modifications

Great learning experience Vince!

board can be reused after cleaning but i doubt will it run as new vince?????????????

Hello young vince :) Crackin video again man, I just love how you get disheartened and then all of a sudden your attitude changes and Mr Challenge appears and on you go :o) sorry to your readers as this is in two parts and most of the txt will disappear but, yes, definitely conned and swindled :-( ... I can probably tell you exactly what happened. Every day in the UK abandoned / lost shipping containers are auctioned off, loads of em and very often there's good money to be made. I have a mate who does this for a living and he's bought 40ft containers full of stuff like Lcd TV's, Consoles, computers at the top end, but also less value suiff like cleaning chemicals, canned goods, clothing etc. He once bought a whole container full of nuts and bolts of every size. He could have put them into blister packs and made a fortune but no time so he sold it to another guy at the site and still made a good profit. ... Unfortunately, every now and then a container ship goes down and eventually the cargo is recovered by salvage companies and that's how they get to the auctions, the goods first being transferred to clean containers so as to not give the game away. Also, some container warehouses have been flooded by sea water, (your damage was definitely sea water ) or subjected to fire damage as recently happened in Nottinghamshire and in China. In this case, I think a few guys and girls probably clubbed together, bought a container at auction, probably not too cheaply, and got their fingers burned because if the boards were that badly damaged, then it's safe to say whatever else was in there was probably knackered too so to try and get at least some of their money back, the're offloading via online auction sites rather than put the goods through the high street outlet that at least one of them will own. It's cheap stock, good profit, gast return when it works, when you get caught out like this, you struggle to break even. :o( or so I'm reliably informed ;-) Hope that helps to blow the mystery a bit for you, looking forward to the next one :o) ...

Do they really always beep everytime you move on them? 'cause that sounds like it'd be extremely annoying

I assume the antenna circuit board is for a key fob remote like you have with a car I think it had the ability to lock and turn off A lot of hoverboards come with one it's not the most useful thing but people buy the ones with the most features

Anyone know what the battery is for the segway/balance board.... thanks

Refurbing batteries is usually pretty easy. You might want to explore alternative batteries or refurbing an old scooter battery.

That black thing that came off your pcb is a optic sensor and they are very cheap. Maybe you could give it a try