Regenerative Charging Minimum Speed

[cba20k]

Curious about regenerative charging. I'm considering moving to a location where I would live at the top of a hill. This of course means starting my day with a good chunk of downhill riding. I am aware of the unfortunate habit that OneWheels have(had?) of shutting off when reaching 100% charge on regen and pitching forward and I'm not crazy about the idea of having to burn off charge in the morning before hopping on.

But then it occurred to me that if I go at a snail's pace down the hill, would that effectively prevent regeneration? I'm no scientist or electrical engineer but my simple brain suggests to me that rotating the wheel below a certain speed would not be sufficient to generate the voltage needed to charge, and thus, I'd stay upright.

Is this the case?

[tomfoolery]

@cba20k there’s a setting on the app to alert you when charging to stop at 90% to effectively keep you from overcharging. It would take some close monitoring bombing your hill at first to find out if you need to charge it more or less to have as close to a 100% charge by the time you reached the bottom. I don’t deal with too many hills so I can’t say for sure if going slow would help.

[Motoproponent]

Yeah, I live on a hill. I used to worry about the regen cut off. I would be really careful not to start my commute at 100%.

Then one day I was at the top of this tremendous hill. It dropped like 1000 feet over a mile of forward travel. At the top of the hill I was at 68% battery, at the bottom of the hill I was at 68% battery.

I dont think the powercore is a very efficient generator. The best thing to try is to look at the battery level of your board at the top of the hill (start at like 80% or something, just in case one or both of our boards aren't normal), then ride down it like you normally would. Look at how much the battery charge went up.

The board will cut out before it goes over 100%. For my commute the, hill at the beginning doesn't generate 1% battery. By the time I get to the stop sign at the end of my block I'm at 99%. I know I wont go over 100% so I don't even sweat it anymore.

As far as adjusting your speed to reduce the regen, remember that the regen is from the drag on the motor acting as a brake, not the rpms. The more drag, the more regenerated energy. So just ride at your normal speed.

[skyman88]

@cba20k

Regen comes down to speed. As @Motoproponent mentioned, if you go at a walking pace you won't really regen. I also live near a large hill, and I'll gain about 4% going down if I'm going at a decent pace. So I know that I can take two side streets to get to the hill and burn enough battery off to go right down.