Trying to buy a PowerVelocity Controller

BobBob

100 W
Joined
Sep 4, 2020
Messages
195
This is probably not a terribly interesting post for anyone else and is simply another way that I am trying to get a response and purchase a PowerVelocity 15 Kw controller for shipping to the UK.

I contacted them on the 7th march and got a response the same day that they "have shipped a lot to the UK" - great.
Said I was deciding between the sensible 7Kw and bonkers 15Kw and was advised the next day to go for the 15 Kw - great.
Went on the website to buy it but was unable to.

Asked "how do I get your website to accept my UK address for shipping? " on the 10th March - no response

Emailed again on 12th march - got a response on 17th march that "We can send a PP invoice." which I assume is paypal but didn't get the PP invoice or anything

Started a thread 22nd march on the PowerVelocity forum "Trying to purchase for UK delivery" - no response - 5 posts

Emailed them again on 22nd March saying I'm still trying to make the purchase - no response

PM-ed through ES

Emailed again on 24th March - got a response "I am traveling at the moment. I will get back you in a couple of days. You can pay with a card, there should be no problem with that" - OK, fine, 2 days is bearable.

Emailed again on 26th March and got some helpful technical advice etc back on 27th amounting to "yes, 15Kw is best" but no way to make the purchase.

I replied on March 28th "Let me know what you think but more importantly please give me a way to buy it !"

Got an April 1st message of "I have 15kw in stock but need to make new Bluetooth modules. I hope to make a few over the weekend and let you know how to pay. " Happy days

Replied back on 2nd April "This weekend you say? Great, can't wait."

7th April - emailed "still waiting"

13th, 20th, 27th April more emails saying "I'm still waiting" and have had no response

I've also gone on the website and messaged that way - no joy

Committed the sin of cross posting on the PowerVelocity 25Kw FOC thread :(
Feeling slightly guilty but want my ebike and have been waiting nearly 2 months

if i was a more diplomatic sort of chap I might find a better way to get their attention without annoying them. The product looks good and I look forward to reporting some awesome performance if can just buy the bleeping thing
 
You're probably ordering the wrong controller. My observation, yours may vary, is that the fastest responses appear to be to questions related to the latest and greatest "next-gen" controller, and other posts appear to languish for longer periods, or maybe receive a hasty response that doesn't fully address the questions. You might notice while navigating the site, that several of the links to the old/existing controllers are broken. It's almost as though there's no interest is selling, or supporting them. Maybe change your subject line :shock:

PS. Others have mentioned that being very persistent may help, so you may need to just keep posting and emailing. A lot of people don't have that tolerance level.
 
So you are having all this trouble with them, with simple things and yet you still want to buy from them.
I could only imagine what would happen to try and get a response from them if something were to go wrong in any aspect after the controller is dropped off at their mail delivery provider. Yet you still want to buy from them.

Seems to be the norm behavior from them, going all the way back to 2018.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=92501&p=1353285&hilit=powervelocity#p1353285


https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106983&p=1566964&hilit=powervelocity#p1566964
 
Have you searched for others' experiences with this vendor?

Maya Angelou: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
 
I went through similar about 2 years ago, to get the 7kw to Netherlands.
It took time, never went how it was told it was going. (I.E. It had been sent - it had not etc).

At that time I believed the hype of their controllers.
Mine did arrive. A nice 7kw brick.
I have never been able to get it to work and posted about it here.
The build quality of the circuit board is really bad.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=105551&p=1544179#p1544179

Not saying buy from them, not saying do not buy from them. Just saying my personal experience.
 
Thanks everyone.
I'm surprised that there's no-one chirping up that they're great
The response on the thread about this controller seems pretty good with a few teething problems, mainly on the BT. https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=85156#p1245133
People seem to complain about the kellys, the Sabvotons FETs etc.
This seemed a winner but i'm less convinced now, still looking for a better alternative that does the voltage and doesn't either cost double, weigh double or both - yeah, I know, you'll say there's a reason and heat sinks are good etc
 
john61ct said:
Have you searched for others' experiences with this vendor?
Seems pretty mixed for all the controllers and I've read qulte a bit, but there's a lot to read
 
Santacruz said:
Mine did arrive. A nice 7kw brick.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=105551&p=1544179#p1544179
I went through this with my IPS e-unicycle and am on my third controller.
The UK seller was a good guy and the middlemen were selling him badly repaired second hand kit as new.
Shame PV didn't sort yours though, they seem to have a bunch of problems with the BT module but that board doesn't look good.
Pretty dissapointing, particularly for the cost. I would have expected a better PCB.
For comparison, my unicycle control board, mounted on a alu heatsink with built in BMS and self balancing circuit from 5 yrs ago
1.7 Kw 6 fet though so only a baby
PCB.jpg
But despite a half decent PCB, they fall over on the manual assembly tasks
FET not fixed.JPG
 
markz said:
So you are having all this trouble with them, with simple things and yet you still want to buy from them.
I could only imagine what would happen to try and get a response from them if something were to go wrong in any aspect after the controller is dropped off at their mail delivery provider. Yet you still want to buy from them.

Seems to be the norm behavior from them, going all the way back to 2018.
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=92501&p=1353285&hilit=powervelocity#p1353285
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106983&p=1566964&hilit=powervelocity#p1566964
Hi Markz, as always thanks for all the references :)
They do seem a bit sporadic but also have some return customers singing their praises
Having a backup plan seems a good idea so a second controller first might be the way to go, now, lets think, two cheap controllers in series do you think for high voltage?
 
E-HP said:
You're probably ordering the wrong controller. My observation, yours may vary, is that the fastest responses appear to be to questions related to the latest and greatest "next-gen" controller
PS. Others have mentioned that being very persistent may help, so you may need to just keep posting and emailing. A lot of people don't have that tolerance level.
Maybe if I feign interest in the newest and then change my order at the last minute
 
BobBob said:
E-HP said:
You're probably ordering the wrong controller. My observation, yours may vary, is that the fastest responses appear to be to questions related to the latest and greatest "next-gen" controller
PS. Others have mentioned that being very persistent may help, so you may need to just keep posting and emailing. A lot of people don't have that tolerance level.
Maybe if I feign interest in the newest and then change my order at the last minute

OK, but let me know what strategy works later, when you are no longer a potential customer and need something.
 
E-HP said:
BobBob said:
Maybe if I feign interest in the newest and then change my order at the last minute
OK, but let me know what strategy works later, when you are no longer a potential customer and need something.
Yeah, I reckon patience and persistance but who knows, maybe buy some accessories but money doesn't seem to be the problem or he would have taken mine.
I reckon he's genuinely busy with the lockdown and a bunch of orders
I expect to want more than one controller, at least a second for my partner when she comes round to the idea, and commonality makes sense.
Failing that I was looking at a couple of spare electric unicycle controllers I have lying around and wondering whether the abiility to pull a 20 mile wheelie might be fun. It would certainly be nice to have a front wheel to land on when you fall over for a change
No chance with full suspension - will have to be a hard tail for the clown project :)
 
Changed your wording for you. :wink:

Kinda like how some praise BMS Battery and others loath BMS Battery.

BobBob said:
Hi Markz, as always thanks for all the references :)
They do seem a bit sporadic but also HAVE SOME return customers singing their praises
Having a backup plan seems a good idea so a second controller first might be the way to go, now, lets think, two cheap controllers in series do you think for high voltage?
 
markz said:
Changed your wording for you. :wink:

Kinda like how some praise BMS Battery and others loath BMS Battery.

BobBob said:
Hi Markz, as always thanks for all the references :)
They do seem a bit sporadic but also HAVE SOME return customers singing their praises
Having a backup plan seems a good idea so a second controller first might be the way to go, now, lets think, two cheap controllers in series do you think for high voltage?
Thanks, yup, that makes more sense, I've edited it in the original to avoid confusion.
There are certainly some strong opinions on the forum and some interesting stuff in amongst it.
Just had a good chat about spokes with Chalo
 
Sales PowerVelocity <sales@powervelocity.com>
Tue 11/05/2021 21:15
I am sorry. Extremely swamped these days. I guess you can go with another controller.


Response from PV after around 10 weeks and 20 emails / messages etc
What a waste of time
 
john61ct said:
BobBob said:
What a waste of time

But not a surprise right?

Maya Angelou: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

Not a surprise by now, but still irritating

They took the time to reply to the original emails, and told me thay had one in stock and were just getting the BT ready.
Must have spent twice as long answering questions a they would have by posting me one, but never took my money.

Unfortunately, I bought the motor to suit a 120-150V controller, with the best copper fill of the range at 4T but the lower voltage controllers need the 3T and there'l little choice at 120V and programmable (there are a few non programmable which seems a step too cheap

There's a YKZ120150 for £230 BT programmable, 13" (340mm) long 60-120V 150A batt 450A phase https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002095335029.html
or
Kelly KDZ12401 £520 18-136V 400A burst https://www.kellycontrollers.eu/kdz12401
or
build myself a BESC https://vesc-project.com/node/655?page=1#comment-7513
 
Santacruz said:
Then you have to think about the after sales service.
I wasn't expecting any.
It sems there's nothing decent available to buy in the UK so I have limited chance of vendor support.
 
Vlad yes I've dealt with him I bought the first 18 fet controller and it had 2,000 watt Regen. I tried to use computer and reprogram it as that was too much region but as I had a 72v 20ah A123 battery no BMS so it could take the Regen. When I try to reprogram it it died. So this was when he first came to endless sphere. It was only 3 months old so he replaced it as he got better with his controllers.
And in the meantime I bought a 15 fet PV controller with Bluetooth. So now I have an 18 fet and a 15 fet Bluetooth PV controller. At his shop for 3 years now and for some reason he doesn't want anything to do with them. So both controllers are sitting on a shelf. He did give me an option for his new controller but with not many details and he wanted $300 more. Which didn't sound bad but that is more controller than I'd ever need. I think the price for his new controllers is $599 USD starting and the price goes up with higher voltage then the 100 volt.model.
.
 
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