Michael Castiau - Software engineer, embedded electronics design

Boosted ReVOLT! Dashboard Lets keep Boosted Rev Scooters on the road! Ok, for anyone new on here: read my first blog posts, or here is a quick recap: My Boosted Rev battery died I tried to make a Plug&Play custom one, but failed miserably due to Boosted over-engineering its product I switched to making a custom battery and using a Stormcore ESC And this is step 4: Make a custom printed circuit board that re-uses existing wiring to replace the Boosted dashboard. Main features: Uses the same wiring, no need to re-wire your Boosted Rev Connects with a VESC (in my case a Stormcore 60) via CAN-bus (only 6 wires) Uses the original Boosted Rev dashboard emplacement and lens Digital speed interface Digital battery state of charge interface Light sensor to automatically switch the front and rear lights Brake lights NFC reader for keyless start. Present a NFC tag or your NFC enabled phone to unlock your scooter. When not authenticated, the scooter throttle is deactivated and the scooter will

Boosted Rev Upgrade - The 'Wev' update - but different (Stormcore 60+, ReVOLT! Dashboard) If you have been reading my previous blogposts, you'll notice this is the third post in a series where I initially wanted to replace a dead battery on my boosted Rev. Here's a short recap: Although I am delighted in the build quality of the Boosted Rev, my battery died because of intensive use (which is to be expected after 500-800 charge cycles for any Li-ion battery) I tried to tear the battery down to replace the cells, only to have a locked and completely useless BMS. The cells however were new, so it would be a shame to throw those away Because the Boosted ESC requires an original working Boosted BMS, without my battery, the ESC will not boot up and my whole scooter is rendered useless I am absolutely delighted about the build quality of the Boosted Rev, this thing is SOLID! (and looks good being so). Between buying a new scooter and replacing the insides of the Boosted I chos

 In my previous post, I documented a complete step-by-step guide on how to replace the Li-ion cells inside a dead Boosted Rev battery. This ended in a complete failure... Boosted did everything to prevent a rebuild or replacement of it's battery, here's why: 1: Everything is glued By everything, I mean everything. Even the screws are glued in place. You cannot use heat to loosen up the glue due to the presence of the Li-ion cells. Overheating a cell could trigger an exploding cell. The cells themselves are glued, the cables are glued in place....  I succeeded to tear everything down by having lots and lots of patience, having a Dremel and using chemical solvents to loosen up the glue. Even then, there is a ton of residue still present and the original casing is rendered useless because I had to slice it open from both sides. 2: Replacing cells 'locks' the BMS As you may know, Li-ion cells are managed by a BMS (Battery Management System). This circuit board is responsibl

 Boosted Rev Battery Replacement - Teardown and and failure READ UPDATES! For downloads, refer to  https://github.com/MichaelCastiau/boosted-rev-battery-replacement UPDATE:   The rebuild of the original battery ended in a complete failure :( Boosted has made it absolutely impossible to even replace the Li-ion cells inside it's battery. Read dedicated article for more information. About 2 years ago, I bought a Boosted Rev scooter. A powerful, robust, reliable scooter that I use almost daily. Heavy usage, that is. I use it as I commute between home and work, when going for groceries, visiting friends... I am very impressed with the work the engineer team pulled off with this product. It has very smooth acceleration curves, feels very solid and I haven't had a breakdown.... until now. Over the course of the last year, the battery capacity has reduced drastically. I now have less than half the initial capacity. (Although it's sad to have less capacity, this is expected behaviou