not stuart little
They for sure help a lot with making moving easier! I have them on quite a high setting so it takes me minimal effort. I wanted to use my arms to move my chair because it’s good to move as long as you can, but I don’t have the strength for a regular chair. You can tweak settings so they aren’t as sensitive and you won’t tip over. That’s what I have setup on the “1” setting.
It is indeed important to not lift the chair by the push rims. My husband (I don’t lift it) grabs the bar behind my backrest and the front bars where the front wheels are attached. It is important not to clamp them in-between anything in the car. I have silicone covers on the rims and in our old small car we took the wheels off and just carefully put them down, push rim downwards. Nothing on top. They still work. Just be gentle.
I have an aversion to rain and wetness LOL and I can advice some gloves to use when it’s wet to prevent slipping hands on the rims. Also a random tip: I use some small leg warmers on my coat sleeves so I can wash them regularly and my coat stays clean.
The brackets I’m not sure off. I didn’t put anything together myself so unfortunately I can’t help you out on that.
Don’t apologize for the questions, it’s hard to figure out everything in disability world and finding someone who uses the exact same wheels can feel like winning the lottery, lol.
When you get the app working (and the remote option unlocked), the little hat icon is the learning mode:
You can always use my older app trick to unlock all the features and if you need help I can add you on signal messenger to help out more in detail. On/off can be done on the wheels, but it will turn on to the last used setting (1 or 2). If you have the remote, you can use that to change the modes. 1 is indoor use and 2 outdoor.
General wheel tips:
Most people in my disability community use the smart drive and always have issues! It’s why I didn’t wanna make the change, also the manual bit when the smart drive isn’t on is still too hard for me. But my wheels are like 20kg now which also suck. Anyway, I keep hearing my friends say the same about the smart watch and then it breaking and others recommending letting them build a button on the chair for the drive because the watch KEEPS BREAKING. I have so many strong feelings about all of this honestly.
I may have had a mental breakdown when I still hadn’t found a cute backpack after 5 years, that I truly loved and was my style. Lol.
The irony that I absolutely despise Amsterdam and try to avoid that city at all costs since it’s once of the least accessible cities in this country in my experience. If I do have to go I absolutely need my husband to go with me to push me around which is dehumanizing and makes me feel like a burden. The cobblestones are an attack on my joints as well.
It’s why I often say my disability isn’t making me disabled but society is.
Sure thing: invacare is the company, the wheels are Alber e-motion M25. Their argument is the wheelchair is usable without the add ons, which I not only disagree with but why are these wheels 8k if they have an app only usable by upgrading? The older model is cheaper and doesn’t have an app which works in the same way then.
I am curious if something will get out of this! It’s difficult to explain but there’s so many hoops I have to go through, I literally can’t contact invacare myself. I have city council to grant me an indication of what I need, a company that delivers the stuff to me and does maintainance (but theyre extremely lacking), then there’s a company that imports the invacare stuff and deals with the company that deals with me.
We truly need to get some hard rules down in the Netherlands. I’m tired of it all.
Yea the fun stuff is that it’s actually manually operated but it straight up blocks at the 6km or the 8,5. The 8,5 is decent enough but even when turned off the wheels feel ‘blocked’ so I can’t do a quick running contest with my husband. Not the wordt but at 6km it’s just average walking speed which means I can’t take a sprint when crossing the road.
Fun fact: it was stuck in 2,5km/h for months before I finally figured out the manufacturer manual because the actual wheelchair company didn’t know how it worked.
I’ve rode one of these badboys on my honeymoon in Colorado and I’ve felt incredibly American as an European hahahah
That’s why I updated the post with the link which version does work, just in case. There probably aren’t a lot of disabled pirates using this specific model wheels and that’s why there’s no solution on the Googles. I truly wish I was smart enough to learn all this crap just to start a community of helping people hacking their accessibility tools.
And here I am in the Netherlands, taking trips to the Midwest sometimes and crying everytime because it’s so accessible and the ADA and what not. All from a tourist perspective, which is just… I can get into a restaurant and use the sidewalks.
I am blessed to have a ramp. And now I’m realizing I say blessed when we’re just human beings living our regular human being lives trying to get out of our house. I hope the regression will be a slow one for you and remember: a wheelchair isn’t something to be ashamed about. Ambulatory wheelchair users exist so if you feel like you can profit off of one, so you may take a longer hike in the mountains or whatever, don’t feel ashamed.
This is the play store link and honestly: wow. You offering to pay is making my head spin. That’s incredibly kind of you. However I truly don’t want to buy it overall since it’s tied to the wheels, which I don’t own, and I might get other wheels in 5 years and then… I can start over. It’s the principal that I get a device with “cruise control” so I can cover more distance on my own but then the cruise control alone costs 100 bucks.
I’m in a country where people assume disabled people are taken care of. Quite the opposite.
Thank you for the detailed reply! Details:
I did find the mechanic manual a few years back so I could get into the “professionals only” menu and I was able to tweak the push sensitivity which my provider couldn’t figure out ironically. The packs however are a different add-on. The only thing I can find online are people asking if it’s worth the money, or people who bought it. Not really a popular hacking device it seems.
It sucks that I’m not technical enough to open up the wheels - i also find it a bit scary since I literally need this thing everyday and my provider is already neglecting their customers.
You need to add your own “plugins” (sources) which sites you wanna search, and you’ll still get result info to choose which torrent you want to download. You need to have python installed (don’t worry, it’s available on windows and mac as well) and you can find a list of plugins and more instructions here
I thought it was reversed after they got major backlash? Apparently not