BuWizz - High Performance LEGO Power Functions Controller and Battery

[dustblue]

Could you sell an upgrade package, with a better battery cell? More C and bigger mAh, I personally would love to buy it(I hope you would price it reasonably because everyone buying it would already be a buwizz custormer, I suggest you don't make profit on it but use it to sell more buwizz 3) . If you cant fill it in the existing case of buwizz 3, you can also include a higher case shell, so a bigger and more powerful buwizz 3, that would be exciting.

@Zerobricks

[ITSDEEKAY]

Hey guys, 

I'm considering purchasing my first Buwizz unit. Comparing the 2.0 vs 3.0. Both are able to run in ludicrous mode and possibly running two buggy motors with one battery unit? With the new app unit, does anyone know if the 2.0 can run on remote control?

[dustblue]

1 hour ago, ITSDEEKAY said:

Hey guys, 

I'm considering purchasing my first Buwizz unit. Comparing the 2.0 vs 3.0. Both are able to run in ludicrous mode and possibly running two buggy motors with one battery unit? With the new app unit, does anyone know if the 2.0 can run on remote control?

If you are buying for functions and you don't use PU motors then 2.0 is ok. If you are buying for power then go with 3.0. 

2.0 can only push 1 full load buggy motor, 3.0 can push 2. You can also get this in the specs. I use 4 buwizz 3.0 in my 8 buggy motors moc.

And in my limited experience with 2.0, it's much more easy to trigger current limits and respond much slower than 3.0, so you better don't mix use those two.

Only issue of 3.0 is the price, it's severely overpriced for the little poor battery cell inside.

[ITSDEEKAY]

8 hours ago, dustblue said:

If you are buying for functions and you don't use PU motors then 2.0 is ok. If you are buying for power then go with 3.0. 

2.0 can only push 1 full load buggy motor, 3.0 can push 2. You can also get this in the specs. I use 4 buwizz 3.0 in my 8 buggy motors moc.

And in my limited experience with 2.0, it's much more easy to trigger current limits and respond much slower than 3.0, so you better don't mix use those two.

Only issue of 3.0 is the price, it's severely overpriced for the little poor battery cell inside.

Thank you for the response. This is definitely something I need to consider before selecting my options. 

[pankov]

On 10/14/2023 at 12:06 PM, pankov said:

1. Exporting a profile in controller mode looses the non controller screen layout when imported afterwards - it's just a blank screen

2. Renaming a profile doesn't change the name in the main list until the app is restarted

@Zerobricks or someone else,
did you manage to replicate/confirm these or is it something that I'm doing wrong on my end?

[nelsoma]

Hello, new member here.  I have read back about 20 pages on this thread looking for an answer and didn't see one so hopefully someone will know the answer.  Also a big shout out to everyone that had a negative experience but kept with it until some of these more recent updates!  It was a rollercoaster of a backread.

Preface: I know next to nothing about Lego motors but want to build a MOC with some motorized features.  It is not a vehicle it is an elevator.  I know from reading that the Powered Up motors have the ability to give some feedback if they become stalled. (I believe)

1) Can I use the Buwizz 3.0 to run the motor for a predetermined set of time and/or stop when the motor gives feedback that it has stalled?  (would then have another button to run in reverse for similar time period or until stalled)

2) If the above isn't achievable what would everyone recommend? Could I do 1 motor and 2 proximity/distance sensors so that as the platform goes up and down there is a sensor that the Buwizz uses to shut off the motor?  If so what sensor?

Elevator will have a similar drive mechanism to this: 

 

Thanks!

[gyenesvi]

@nelsoma, why do you want to use a Buwizz for this? You don't need a small high performance rechareable battery for an elevator MOC I guess, furthermore Buwizz is not really programmable with your own code. You'd be better off with a Lego Technic 4-port PU hub. That you can code with the PU app, and probably can detect stalling, or even just program it to run for exactly a certain amount of rotations, which just moves the elevator all the way up/down.

[dustblue]

11 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

@nelsoma, why do you want to use a Buwizz for this? You don't need a small high performance rechareable battery for an elevator MOC I guess, furthermore Buwizz is not really programmable with your own code. You'd be better off with a Lego Technic 4-port PU hub. That you can code with the PU app, and probably can detect stalling, or even just program it to run for exactly a certain amount of rotations, which just moves the elevator all the way up/down.

agreed，just buy a set of 42160 you get everything you need plus some good parts. I bought 4 sets just for the motors.

[nelsoma]

Thanks for the quick reply.  As stated I know almost nothing about Lego motors.  I saw Buwizz as something with increased range and endurance (low priority in this MOC), additionally I didn't know that a non Mindstorms control app existed.  I didn't want to go full Mindstorms and if Buwizz gave me most of the control (along with Brick Controller or whatever that app is) along with better battery life (and easily rechargeable) it had some appeal.  But based on your responses what I want should be achievable with stock Lego items which is a nice bonus.  I'll take any other questions over to an appropriate threat and I again I appreciate the response.  Thanks so much!

(strange, I clicked to multi quote but for some reason I am not getting what I want, will reread instructions, it is likely user error ;) )

Edited November 13, 2023 by nelsoma

[Doua]

Hi all,

I'm having what I think is a firmware issue with Buwizz 3. I have messaged support, but figured I could also ask here.

I received my Buwizz 3 yesterday, let it charge and tested it by swapping the Control+ battery box of my 42099. Everything worked perfectly, easy to set up controls etc. All super.

Knowing there's a beta version of the app that allows you to use Xbox controllers, this morning I opted in to the beta in the Play store, downloaded and installed the beta version on the app.

On starting the app it told me the Buwizz unit needed a firmware update, fair enough. The update failed a couple times. I restarted the Buwizz and app to try and fix it as suggested in the app, to no avail.

After a couple tries, the app was able to see and connect to the Buwizz; however, I cannot run the motors anymore or do anything really (change LED colors etc.).

When going into the "Manager" on the app, and selecting my Buwizz, at the bottom it shows "checking device firmware" for a long time (1 minute), then shows this:

If I click "update firmware", it fails at the step where it checks Buwizz battery (saying battery is too low, and cancelling the update).

If I load a profile, it does the same thing "checking device firmware" for 1-2 minutes, then shows the Buwizz connected but I cannot drive motors / change LEDs etc.

To me that seems like something's wrong with the Tajnik firmware, as a result I can't read battery status, and so can't update the firmware. Nordic firmware seems fine which is why I can see and connect to the unit.

Any help appreciated!

EDIT: With Brickcontroller2 everything is fine, I am able to use Buwizz to control PU motors.

EDIT 2: fixed it by deleting all app data and cache, uninstalling / resinstalling the app (beta version). Now everything works perfectly. Off to made cool RC lego cars now :D

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Doua

[FriedlS]

@ZerobricksIs the ps5 controller only supported in the buwizz beta app (ios)?

Btw. the beta version works pretty well with ps5 controller, buwizz 2.0 and iphone 13mini. The lag is acceptable for me. Looking forward for the possibility to change the modes via ps5 controller 😊

Edited November 23, 2023 by FriedlS

[Zerobricks]

20 hours ago, FriedlS said:

@ZerobricksIs the ps5 controller only supported in the buwizz beta app (ios)?

Btw. the beta version works pretty well with ps5 controller, buwizz 2.0 and iphone 13mini. The lag is acceptable for me. Looking forward for the possibility to change the modes via ps5 controller 😊

Yes, currently controllers are only supported in beta. As soon as the gearbox and mode switch buttons are supported, the stable version will be updated too.

[StudWorks]

My BuWizz 3.0 with BuWizz motors is still overloading constantly when I play with my buggy, even after the current limiter update with the current limit levels set to stock. The pic below shows my motor currents on the app, wish this issue could be fixed. :(

[Zerobricks]

Maybe reduce the limits to some 1,75A?

[gyenesvi]

46 minutes ago, StudWorks said:

My BuWizz 3.0 with BuWizz motors is still overloading constantly when I play with my buggy, even after the current limiter update with the current limit levels set to stock. The pic below shows my motor currents on the app, wish this issue could be fixed. :(

Is the stock level 2A? Did you try setting it explicitly to 2A? It definitely seems to be exceeding 2A, so it's either not set there, or the limiting mechanism is allowing it to go above 2A quite a bit (about 10%). Would be great to know which.

Edited December 1, 2023 by gyenesvi

[StudWorks]

1 hour ago, gyenesvi said:

Is the stock level 2A? Did you try setting it explicitly to 2A? It definitely seems to be exceeding 2A, so it's either not set there, or the limiting mechanism is allowing it to go above 2A quite a bit (about 10%). Would be great to know which.

Yeah, it’s 2A. Pic below shows my current limits, currently (LOL).

The BuWizz likes to overload easily when I’m steering AND accelerating.

[gyenesvi]

4 minutes ago, StudWorks said:

Yeah, it’s 2A. Pic below shows my current limits, currently (LOL).

The BuWizz likes to overload easily when I’m steering AND accelerating.

So it's set to 2.1A and it goes up to 2.2A, that's only 5% overshoot. Until how much does it go up if you set it exactly to 2A? Does it actually shut down the Buwizz unit? You only said it overloads the motors, what does that mean?

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by gyenesvi

[StudWorks]

20 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

So it's set to 2.1A and it goes up to 2.2A, that's only 5% overshoot. Until how much does it go up if you set it exactly to 2A? Does it actually shut down the Buwizz unit? You only said it overloads the motors, what does that mean?

 

Yes, it shuts down the BuWizz unit and I have to awaken it by inserting a plugged-in charging cable.

[dustblue]

On 12/3/2023 at 1:09 AM, StudWorks said:

Yes, it shuts down the BuWizz unit and I have to awaken it by inserting a plugged-in charging cable.

This is really absurd. I have a 6 BW3 moc and everytime I out play with it, the most time I spent was inserting a plug into every dead battery, why cant you get rid of it? @Zerobricks Why keep annoying your users by this rule which has no sense at all??

[Zerobricks]

3 hours ago, dustblue said:

This is really absurd. I have a 6 BW3 moc and everytime I out play with it, the most time I spent was inserting a plug into every dead battery, why cant you get rid of it? @Zerobricks Why keep annoying your users by this rule which has no sense at all??

As mentioned many times before, the battery has an integrated protection and it will turn off when triggered. The battery protection will trigger when the current consumption is too high (over 7A) or if the voltage drops too low. Now there are many conditions which can cause these things to happen, mostly when consuming a lot of power, but cold temperatures can cause the battery to shutdown sooner. From my personal experience, cold temperatures require more current limitations/gentler play due to 2 reasons:

• First, as usual the batteries perform worse due to their nature
• Secondly the resistance of all the motors are lower (unitl warmed up) causing higher current consumption

Again, I would recommend lowering the current limiter values.

I would also like to mention that ever since the current limiters were implemented, this issue was more or less solved for most users.

[aFrInaTi0n]

@dustblue lol really? Wouldn't have wasted that much of money into such a cumbersome project..

Here we are again - since the 1y-overdueed version released in beginning of the year, N-O-T-H-I-N-G happened to fix the obvious bugs!
"blabla the BT stack had to be exchanged" - cool, this is done since a year? Now it is taking you one year to work on a controller integration? (may be overdue also as a feature, but there are more severe bugs to fix first!) Still no updates for the outage issue, no failsafe, NO NOTHING.

I am not mad at Zero but at Fortronik d.o.o. for their ongoing and persistent lies! (I may remind of the bold statement of "faulty batteries will be exchanged by us for free" which was just a lie and the best option one may get is a 20-30% coupon to buy a new complete Buwizz 3 unit..... Are they f***ing kidding us?).

Edited December 4, 2023 by aFrInaTi0n

[gyenesvi]

5 hours ago, Zerobricks said:

I would also like to mention that ever since the current limiters were implemented, this issue was more or less solved for most users.

How long has this been out as non-beta for both Android and iOS? I just realized it is out for iOS. Also, it is possible, that many users, like myself, are still using BC2 for the controller, and they will only move to Buwizz app once the controller support is out, and they will only be able to really test it out then. Unfortunately BC2 does not seem to develop further to incorporate this setting, so those who are using it still have the problem. So yeah, controller support would be good to have sooner than later.

Edited December 4, 2023 by gyenesvi

[Zerobricks]

1 hour ago, gyenesvi said:

How long has this been out as non-beta for both Android and iOS? I just realized it is out for iOS. Also, it is possible, that many users, like myself, are still using BC2 for the controller, and they will only move to Buwizz app once the controller support is out, and they will only be able to really test it out then. Unfortunately BC2 does not seem to develop further to incorporate this setting, so those who are using it still have the problem. So yeah, controller support would be good to have sooner than later.

Current limits have been out for several months, I think for some half a year now. Controller support is currently in beta, yes, but it will be released in public version as soon as buttons and speed modes are also implemented.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Zerobricks

[dustblue]

controller beta is not working now(says expired), emailed customer support twice with no replies. anyone knows how to make buwizz app working again?(with a controller) @Zerobricks

[nerdsforprez]

Hello Everyone.... quick question... I researched online but was unable to find an answer, and  my memory does not serve me well.  

 

Can anyone remind me of the distinction between these two BuWizz models?