Wheelie Fun Bike Control Scheme is Over Complicated
Tldr; remove the second throttle and replace it with an analog brake sensor or bi-direction throttle to control regen.
During TFL cinco de mio sale a buddy and I made the trek down for the group ride and we had the opportunity to try the wheelie fun bike. I think it’s a really fun little bike with lots of power, but it’s not perfect. My main gripe is with the convoluted control scheme.
I asked if I could try the bike and after about 10 minutes of explanation from Nico about how to actually ride it I was able to get on the bike. He assured me that all these quarks are configurable in the app.
The control scheme has 4 inputs: twist throttle, front brake level, thumb throttle, and wheelie button.
The twist throttle acts as you would expect in normal riding mode, it controls the motor and accelerates the bike. The brake level is also as you would expect and just actuates the front caliper. The thumb throttle varies the amount of regen braking from the motor acting as your rear brake. The wheelie button you press and hold enter wheelie mode.
While in wheelie mode the front tire pops up, the control scheme changes, and if you let go of the wheelie button you go back into the riding mode / control scheme. The throttles do different things in wheelie mode. The way they had it set up for me was that the twist throttle changes the pitch to give you more angle to brake and the thumb throttle more to accelerate. And pressing the front bake in wheelie mode did not end the wheelie. This particular setup was especially confusing because when in riding mode the thumb throttle slows you down, but in wheelie mode it speeds you up.
My main suggestion would be to eliminate the thumb throttle entirely. It makes the control scheme more complicated than it needs to be. Instead it should have an analog sensor on the front brake level that varies the regen based on how far you pull the level (I’m pretty sure this is how Antic does it). Or a traditional dirtbike style rear brake level in front of the right peg that also has an analog sensor that varies the regen. Another option would be to use a bi-directional throttle and you can use it for both motor acceleration and regen as well as intuitively changing pitch angle while in wheelie mode. Although the bi-directional throttle is not my preferred control method it would be the simplest to implement because they are widely available and already supported by vesc.
I love to see small businesses win and hope that TFL considers my feedback.