BuWizz - High Performance LEGO Power Functions Controller and Battery

[NoEXIST]

Yeah, the good thing is that we now know how much is 800mah lipo for lego

[Toastie]

1 hour ago, NoEXIST said:

800mah lipo for lego

At the nominal voltage, of course; 11.1V in the Buwizz case, 7.2V in the LEGO LiPo case.

Best,
Thorsten

[aFrInaTi0n]

Interesting, crawlers found a shop page which seems to not be listed for the public: https://buwizz.com/shop/buwizz-3-0-pro-replacement-battery/

Whats the expected price of the batt alone? 5€ + shipping? Fortronik and their products / services are really getting worse and worse reputition...

1. Charging overpriced 200 € for one unit
2. Doing advertisments with wrong capacities and also false statements of advertising free battery replacements
3. Delivering shitty software and bad support for this (see the tumbleweed rolling over the screen in the blogs)
4. Ongoingly giving promises for new features which are not hold / real bad communication with the community for updates
5. Even trying to rip out money for replacement-batteries

I find their public relations sooooooo embarrassing, seeing them doing bloody videos with super sports cars and other shit to waste plenty of money with to have a personal good life experience instead of working hard on their unfulfilled promises..

 

Edit: So I call Fortronik intentional liars to make it clear!

Edited January 17 by aFrInaTi0n

[HectorMB]

1 hour ago, aFrInaTi0n said:

Interesting, crawlers found a shop page which seems to not be listed for the public: https://buwizz.com/shop/buwizz-3-0-pro-replacement-battery/

Whats the expected price of the batt alone? 5€ + shipping? Fortronik and their products / services are really getting worse and worse reputition...

1. Charging overpriced 200 € for one unit
2. Doing advertisments with wrong capacities and also false statements of advertising free battery replacements
3. Delivering shitty software and bad support for this (see the tumbleweed rolling over the screen in the blogs)
4. Ongoingly giving promises for new features which are not hold / real bad communication with the community for updates
5. Even trying to rip out money for replacement-batteries

I find their public relations sooooooo embarrassing, seeing them doing bloody videos with super sports cars and other shit to waste plenty of money with to have a personal good life experience instead of working hard on their unfulfilled promises..

 

Edit: So I call Fortronik intentional liars to make it clear!

Cannot agree more...

[Maaboo the Witch]

I've always grappled with the name of this thing. How is it pronounced? Buh-Wizz? Boo-Wizz? Why is it even called "BuWizz"?

Meh.

[Methes]

I'm using the Beta app for controller support and tried hooking up a GUI button press to controller button press. All my selection in app for a controller button press shows are two sliders - one for drive, second for steering (that I have hooked up with joysticks). Cannot select any button to turn on the lights of the vehicle. Am I doing something wrong?

https://imgur.com/asKjQ0X[/img]

https://imgur.com/9kIJTv7[/img]

 

Edit: found out buttons are not supported yet in Beta :/

Edited January 17 by Methes

[msk6003]

Is one Buwizz 3.0 can support 4 PF XL motor for drive  with 1~2 C+ L motor for steering?

[Aurorasaurus]

6 hours ago, msk6003 said:

Is one Buwizz 3.0 can support 4 PF XL motor for drive  with 1~2 C+ L motor for steering?

You would have to stack the PF XL motor cables, it could do it, but you might be better off with two for best performance.

[gyenesvi]

9 hours ago, msk6003 said:

Is one Buwizz 3.0 can support 4 PF XL motor for drive  with 1~2 C+ L motor for steering?

It might work out if the FW overcurrent protection works okay in the Buwizz 3. According to Philo's website, a Buggy motor's stall current is around 3.2A (and I assume that a Buwizz motor has similar or slightly more), while an XL motor's stall current is around 1.8A. So two XLs stacked on one port would max in about 3.6A, slightly more than that of a Buggy motor, maybe equal to a Buwizz motor. But two Buwizz motors on two PF ports can already trigger overcurrent protection if the limits are not set properly in the Buwizz. It seems that limits around 2A (or 1.9A) work okay. So with that set, it might work out, having two XLs stacked on both PF ports. And if you are lucky, you only experience some earlier stalling (the overcurrent protection kicking in) rather than the Buwizz shutting down. I guess the steering motors don't add too much to it as they are only used temporarily while steering.

[aFrInaTi0n]

From my exp with chinese 3rd party XLs is, those are not having huge peak currents... more like being below 1A even under pressure... So as the others stated it could be a rough fit with 2x XL motors not exceeding the current limit of one PF port at the Buwizz.

[aFrInaTi0n]

Btw as the battery has a 5C rating, it can stand up to 5x the current of its capacity (4.4A as peak for short periods from the 11.1V/880mAh - so this "per one hour" would also be decreased by /5) - This can be seen as the overall limit of the battery to supply power to the ports (minus currents for the PCB and its ICs itself).

So this explains why the limits for the channels are kind of total BS, as they are suggesting all the channels can supply currents up to their per-channel limits - but the overall limit of the unit is not really part of the considerations imho.. Just think of two Buggy Motors pulling nearly 2A and a Servo pulling another 500 at a small peak - this may lead to shutdowns of the Buwizz already as it is exceeding the batts limit by 100mAh already..

So all the shutdown from before the new / adjustable current limits are from poor calculations / leaving not enough current for the PCB going blackout in high current situations (besides thermal reasons for single channels' IC being shut down).

Edited January 22 by aFrInaTi0n

[Toastie]

29 minutes ago, aFrInaTi0n said:

So this explains why the limits for the channels are kind of total BS

Oh yes, in principle - didn't we discuss this - uhmm - like 40 pages ago? When you look at the tech specs on the Buwizz website, it (still) just can't be. The electronics may be fine with their amperage/watt numbers, we are living in the 21st century. However, despite the marvels of chemistry, LiPo/LiIon structures can only discharge at a limited rate, which also depends on the size of this chemical power plant; after all ions/charges have to move within the chemical plant at these amperage rates as well, and chemistry needs a little more space to do that than - uh - physics in a copper wire. If you can get a 5C, 11.1 V, 800 mAh LiPo to discharge 4 x 3.5A = 14 A , we're done with the energy crisis. There is also the 6A/PF channel number on their website - this is all garbage, given that this poor battery shown one page ago has to do all the work. And they write that they use a "Lithium Polymer (LiIon)", which is one or the other. OK, Lithium is in both varieties.

Here is to Lithium

Best
Thorsten 

 

[aFrInaTi0n]

As I would have read all the pages here... can't be asked for that :P

[Toastie]

51 minutes ago, aFrInaTi0n said:

can't be asked for that :P

True.

My interest was raised when I saw these numbers for the first time, then I tried to chip in and then I quickly lost interest. There are much better science fiction sites out there .

Best,
Thorsten

Edited January 22 by Toastie

[dustblue]

10 hours ago, Toastie said:

True.

My interest was raised when I saw these numbers for the first time, then I tried to chip in and then I quickly lost interest. There are much better science fiction sites out there .

Best,
Thorsten

If someone else can produce a better battery than buwizz we would all feel much better. It's a niche market so I willingly end up with 8 pieces of BW3 shit. What else can I do? 

BTW when app update? I am waiting, tired of install a beta just to re-establish all the control profiles again after the final product is out. @Zerobricks Please don't tell me soon. In Buwizz dictionary soon is a very different word.

[Toastie]

3 hours ago, dustblue said:

If someone else can produce a better battery than buwizz we would all feel much better. It's a niche market so I willingly end up with 8 pieces of BW3 shit. What else can I do?

Hey, no doubts! Technically, the BW is so much better than anything else out there. For me, the thing is solely the numbers on their website regarding max. current/power delivery, that is all.

BW don't make these batteries, they are usually acquired from China. The current true numbers for this type of battery, particularly of this size and weight, is simply amazing!!!

And sure there are alternatives purely battery wise, this thing is rated at 11.1, 800 mAh, >50C<! I doubt that it fits into the BW3.0 case though - as said above, chemistry needs space/volume ...

Best,
Thorsten

[dustblue]

3 hours ago, Toastie said:

Hey, no doubts! Technically, the BW is so much better than anything else out there. For me, the thing is solely the numbers on their website regarding max. current/power delivery, that is all.

Oh sorry didn't pay attention to my tone, I just meant to complain about buwizz, you know when you have to pay for something but it's seriously overpriced:)

[NoEXIST]

4 hours ago, Toastie said:

And sure there are alternatives purely battery wise, this thing is rated at 11.1, 800 mAh, >50C<! I doubt that it fits into the BW3.0 case though - as said above, chemistry needs space/volume ...

This is a questionable thing, do we actually need to squeeze all the juice out of the motors or using a lower voltage battery with much higher current? In this case you can power more motors by one unit, so you're lighter, but you have to deal with less rpms. 

 

All 3s batteries with high current I found are slightly bigger, it possibly can fit big technic battery box form factor. (Btw, I didn't found a single 5c 3s battery. Isn't it somehow made specially for bw)

 

I always liked my bw2.0 and never had a problem with software as I'm always using BrickController2. But these captions about power under pictures of MOCs using 4 units are laughable.

[Zerobricks]

9 hours ago, dustblue said:

BTW when app update? I am waiting, tired of install a beta just to re-establish all the control profiles again after the final product is out. @Zerobricks Please don't tell me soon. In Buwizz dictionary soon is a very different word.

Please understand I am NOT the app developer, or the CEO, or some kind of a miracle worker like Scotty, so I can't give you an exact answer.

What I can tell you is that it takes a lot of time to test the app, since there are 3 controllers to support and a lot of different types of phones for Android (Samsung being the most troublesome from my experience) and of course also iOS devices.

We only have ONE person who develops the app and ONE person actually testing it on real-life models (yours trully).

As so I spent last few weeks mostly testing all the different devices, setups, models and I can definetly say that the update is now mature enough and will be published in the coming days/week (singular).

Edited January 23 by Zerobricks

[dustblue]

18 minutes ago, Zerobricks said:

Please understand I am NOT the app developer, or the CEO, or some kind of a miracle worker like Scotty, so I can't give you an exact answer.

What I can tell you is that it takes a lot of time to test the app, since there are 3 controllers to support and a lot of different types of phones for Android (Samsung being the most troublesome from my experience) and of course also iOS devices.

We only have ONE person who develops the app and ONE person actually testing it on real-life models (yours trully).

As so I spent last few weeks mostly testing all the different devices, setups, models and I can definetly say that the update is now mature enough and will be published in the coming days/week (singular).

Thanks a lot bro! I always appreciate your help here on this forum. Please don't take our disappointments with Buwizz personally. I think maybe an official responding account would lower your burden? Since you are the one responding to our questions regarding buwizz constantly, it would become a habit for us to call for your help when needed, since there is no official representor for buwizz here, in this official(kind of) buwizz thread...

 

I know there is the customer support, but honestly asking questions here and you respond here would actually be more efficient, for buwizz, since many of us would have the same kind of questions.

Again thanks for your helps!

[Toastie]

2 hours ago, NoEXIST said:

do we actually need to squeeze all the juice out of the motors or using a lower voltage battery with much higher current?

Absolutely not, this entire high power or amperage stuff is nothing I am interested in - chemistry-wise such rapid discharging (and then charging them with maximum current a charger can deliver) is never a good idea. It works, but usually limits the lifetime of the battery severely, as adverse irreversible chemical side reactions inside that thing are induced. See, I still live (happily) in PUp City hub world.

However, these high discharge rates may have prevented the observed "power outages" to happen - resulting in repeated BW shutdowns, but that has been taken care of by other means, as I understand.

Best,
Thorsten

[aFrInaTi0n]

Quote

Dear BuWizz fans,

We released a new version of the BuWizz app with added support for gamepad controllers:

• Sony DualSense (PS 5)
• Sony DualShock 4 (PS 4)
• Xbox Wireless Controller (from 2020 onwards)

As of now, the Xbox controller is only supported on devices running Android 12 (or later). To learn more about this feature, you can check the updated app user guide. We will also release a new setup guide video soon.

https://buwizz.com/USERGUIDE.p...

We also added other improvements, including:

• updated battery gauge
• control labels on the Drive screen
• (Android only) BuWizz 2 firmware update option (for specific BuWizz 2.0 devices released with non-standard firmware)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Beta users, please remove all previous gamepad gauges (added in the gamepad gauges tab) that you may have in your profile, as they are no longer supported in this app version.

Thank you all for your support and feedback. 

BuWizz team

Again I am very irritated by design decisions... Why is there only support for DualShock and XBOX controllers?!

Android Game Controller Api Docs: https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/touch-and-input/game-controllers
Appli IPhone Game Controller Api docs: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/gamecontroller/

As far as I know, both are generic implementations which should work for all input devices which report themselves as controllers to the framework API.

So question is: If generic BT Controller support is a possibility on both platforms - why is the Buwizz App not offering generic BT Input support? Also will it be delivered later on & if so whats the ETA for that?

 

Follow up question: What about the other Features from the (stopped pipeline because of BT stack revamping needed..) - when can for e.g. a crucially needed Failsave Feature may arrive? Where is the already promised transparency to be naturally lived by Fortronik after the blogpost of being very sorry about not giving any updates for over 1y?

 

Edited January 26 by aFrInaTi0n

[Aurorasaurus]

24 minutes ago, aFrInaTi0n said:

As far as I know, both are generic implementations which should work for all input devices which report themselves as controllers to the framework API.

So question is: If generic BT Controller support is a possibility on both platforms - why is the Buwizz App not offering generic BT Input support? Also will it be delivered later on & if so whats the ETA for that?

I'm not 100% sure about this, im just guessing, but there probably is generic controller support. They have just tested those specific controllers and verified that they work, so they can be sure saying that those controllers work with the app, but not a generic controller. In some videos zerobricks uses a generic controller with a phone mount on top (I think its not main branded, anyway).

[mla2]

My generic Gamesir controller worked fine in iOS.

It's a shame the beta was allowed to expire already, the controller support is really a big step forward.

[aFrInaTi0n]

I was going with the statement from the BETA announcement of just the two controller types being supported and possibly being extended to further ones - but no clear information about that.

Would be nice if there are chances for other brands / products working too - may test a noname 3rd party + former Google Chromecast Controller the next days..