The lights are on but no-one's home

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Paul
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Last seen: 11 years 4 months ago
Joined: Monday, March 24, 2008 - 23:05
Points: 104
The lights are on but no-one's home

My Vectrix failed the other day.
Condition prior to fault:

Friday, 4.30 pm
Wet day
Vectrix had been charged during the day including the 1/2 hour delay from right brake lever/ turn off routine.
Bar graph indicated a full charge.
Upon starting, battery and service lights came up.
I turned everything off with the key to try and reset the alarm lights
Then I turned it back on, the dash lights came up as described below and no further control was possible.

Fault description:

Dash lights on
bar graph up, indicating no charge
odometer and clock up and working ok
key has no effect, cannot turn anything on or off.
Boot light will come on/off with the seat as normal.
no other lights or displays will change regardless of any input to any of the switches or levers etc.
Plug in to charge has no effect

Left the bike at work over the weekend and it was in the same condition on my return Monday.

Remedial: take many panels off to gain access to big battery plug on top of batteries.
Perform a hard reboot and put it all back together again.
Right as rain.
I suspect the damp atmosphere caused the service/battery lights to come up and my response of turning off caused a software conflict which locked everything up. Disconnecting battery to power down the CPU allowed the program to re-boot.

Mik
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Last seen: 8 years 1 week ago
Joined: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 15:27
Points: 3739
Re: The lights are on but no-one's home

I've never seen anything like it!

Usually plugging the charger back in will sort out a "hanging" software issue.

I never had any problems due to moisture, it has been very wet for 2 summers. Things go mouldy in the garage around the Vectux, it's so humid! And I've quite often had it parked all day in heavy rain outside, and driving in downpours galore. Never a problem due to this.

The electronics "hanging" usually happens to me if I do silly stuff like: Turn key on > realise that sunnies are in the glove box > turn key off to open glove box halfway through bootup sequence.....

Or: Turn charger on, then turn power off accidentally and back on within a few seconds.

Basically interrupting a boot-up or boot-down to/from driving or charging status.

That is a real bummer having to disconnect the main battery connector to reboot!

Did you use an ICL to reconnect it? Otherwise you might be in for an unannounced fuse failure whilst riding along happily one day!

This information may be used entirely at your own risk.

There is always a way if there is no other way!

jethro
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Last seen: 10 months 2 weeks ago
Joined: Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 13:30
Points: 48
Re: The lights are on but no-one's home

When the lights are on and nothing else works it is either the ICM or the charger, usually the ICM. As Mik states reconecting the batteries without some form of inrush current limiter can cause the main fuse to fail

Paul
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Last seen: 11 years 4 months ago
Joined: Monday, March 24, 2008 - 23:05
Points: 104
Re: The lights are on but no-one's home

No, I didn't use anything to protect from inrush current.
Cross-fingers, no problems yet..............

Paul

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