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#16835
So it seems a rental scooter ES4 battery pack wouldn't work (properly) with a normal ES series scooter without flashing?

I suppose this is to prevent theft of the external battery? I guess that makes sense - could you share what brand of rental scooter the pack came from?

Is this a company specific problem (perhaps one particular company) or would all rental scooter batteries share this firmware that isn't compatible with consumer versions of the scooter?

I would assume then that if you purchase a normal one that is meant for consumer scooters that this wouldn't be needed and you only have to do something like this if your battery pack originated from a rental scooter?
#16838
Not sure if this is a double post - last post doesn't seem to have shown up after a couple hours? :shock:

Could you share which brand of scooter that battery came from? Do you know if all rental brands are flashing the boards to custom firmware?

I assume this is never a problem with normal external ES4 batteries directly from segway? This only happens to users with a personal scooter trying to use the rental battery?

And while we are answering my questions :lol: - does it matter which version of firmware a personal scooter is using compared to the firmware in the batteries (either from normal or rental batteries) - like if someone is on an older firmware ES2 and tries to use a newer (but non-rental) firmware external battery?

Thanks for sharing all your videos good sir!

EDIT: just an FYI - I got two externals off ebay (around 75 USD a pop) and installed them both (not at once) on my ES2 for testing - both of them had firmware 0.1.3.6 according to the segway app, and the testing scooter had 0.1.3.9.

I always reject to update the firmware for fear of it making it slower or some other negative "update" they have done, but as far as I can tell they both work flawlessly as far as speed and charging and everything, goes to 100 percent power, and shows 4 solid white lights when the status button is pressed on the battery.

One odd thing I have noticed - is that both external batteries do not have the red lights powered on that you see in all the promotional images - not sure if that is just because of me not updating the firmware, or if there is more to it. EDIT2: Oh wait - I did not know that those lights on the external batteries only glow when the headlight is turned on! Doh!

Anyway thought I'd share what I had going on!

Listing for the battery I picked up (be sure to select "includes mounting kit" or the option with the cage as well):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/External-Batte ... 2749.l2649

(if the link is dead, the seller is "likeasummersunday" and they seemed to have 3 available at this time)
#17220
Ok a bit more info.

The bird es4 external battery has the stock firmware, no need to flash. The pain with it though is instead of using a standard hex key size (like the consumer version of the external battery) it used a "security bit" type with a hole in the middle, also know as "tamper proof hex" to mount to the neck. The cage itself mounts using the normal torx tamper proof type to mount.

Only visual difference I can tell between a consumer battery and the bird one - is the "Powered by segway" with the little circle appears on the consumer version, while on the bird version it seems to just have the words "by segway" in a normal font there.

According to the segway app the firmware is 0.1.3.6 on this particular models external battery.

Only other difference I saw is the plugs that fit into the holes after mounting are longer than the ones I got with the consumer versions - about 3 times longer - and so they seem nicer in that aspect as it fits more tightly and is removed more easily with a small flathead screwdriver (while the consumer ones that are smaller easily flip over while you try to remove them with a flathead).

Hope this info helps you decide which to buy, and what to look for on the auction sites and such so you don't end up with the rental battery - of course in the case of bird it wouldn't matter aside from the fact it will probably be heavily used, but perhaps other rental brands with modified firmware also have the visual different on the sticker.

I am curious though if this is the same with 100 percent of the bird es4's or perhaps if it may be different in certain areas or certain models - but as far as I can tell they are stock.
#17967
MD_R wrote:
Fri Nov 08, 2019 12:33 pm
Ok a bit more info.

The bird es4 external battery has the stock firmware, no need to flash. The pain with it though is instead of using a standard hex key size (like the consumer version of the external battery) it used a "security bit" type with a hole in the middle, also know as "tamper proof hex" to mount to the neck. The cage itself mounts using the normal torx tamper proof type to mount.

Only visual difference I can tell between a consumer battery and the bird one - is the "Powered by segway" with the little circle appears on the consumer version, while on the bird version it seems to just have the words "by segway" in a normal font there.

According to the segway app the firmware is 0.1.3.6 on this particular models external battery.

Only other difference I saw is the plugs that fit into the holes after mounting are longer than the ones I got with the consumer versions - about 3 times longer - and so they seem nicer in that aspect as it fits more tightly and is removed more easily with a small flathead screwdriver (while the consumer ones that are smaller easily flip over while you try to remove them with a flathead).

Hope this info helps you decide which to buy, and what to look for on the auction sites and such so you don't end up with the rental battery - of course in the case of bird it wouldn't matter aside from the fact it will probably be heavily used, but perhaps other rental brands with modified firmware also have the visual different on the sticker.

I am curious though if this is the same with 100 percent of the bird es4's or perhaps if it may be different in certain areas or certain models - but as far as I can tell they are stock.
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