Stormcore Resurrects Boosted

It has been barely two years since I got my pre-ordered Boosted Rev scooter, hoping to have this dream machine last for many years. Unfortunately the company went from boosted to bust (pun intended) right after. Well, I thought, the sky still did not fall, so I went shopping for some extra batteries and tires, as I expected them to degrade over time. The first replacement battery I got from China, and it arrived dead, while the seller disappeared. I tried to refurbish the battery and then together with the battery specialist I realized things were not that straightforward.

It turned out Boosted spent a lot of effort to make things unserviceable. At least not by 3rd parties. There were several protections implemented - the battery included a charging circuit - called Battery Management System (BMS) which locked up if disconnected from the cells. Replacing the BMS did not help, as the Boosted Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) could be unlocked only when the original BMS is in place. All that to decline the constitutional right to repair. Such practices should simply be illegal.

Scratching my head for a solution, I realized I was not alone with this problem. Several hobby projects started popping up on the Internet, attempting to salvage the scooters abandoned by the bankrupt manufacturer. And the most fascinating discovery to me has been the VESC. Totally unexpected.

ESC is the heart of an electric mobility device (a scooter, a bike, a board). It controls the motor (or motors), taking input from a user control, providing modulated power output and monitoring variety of sensors (temperature, hall, etc) and presenting a number of statistics like battery discharge, speed, distance travelled etc. The VESC Project is the most advanced and complete open-source implementation of an ESC. And there are tons of compatible hardware.

For my Rev resurrection project I picked up the Stormcore 60D+ ESC by Lacroix. Originally developed for electric skateboards, it is also a perfect ESC to drive a dual-motor scooter. And the most exciting part is it is a VESC, offering the finest hardware with the best of breed (and open) software. The only caveat is the Stormcore is not compatible with the original Boosted Rev dashboard (which turns the scooter on/off, displays charge and speed). People have tried adapting some open dashboards, but these attempts did not have the streamlined looks of the original dashboard. 

But it turns out every void eventually gets filled and to make things easy and complete, a custom, VESC-compatible Boosted dashboard (the ReVOLT!) is available now from Michael Castiau. Designed to be pin-compatible with the original (supports the throttle wheel, the brake lever, the front/tail lights) and offers far superior set of features.

I'm yet to run the refurbishment project (planned doing this during one of these snowy Winter days), but already I'm very excited to have this new (open) life breathed into the otherwise prematurely dead machine.