Vectrix Collaborative Handbook

A book page to discuss any of the original Vectrix Inrush Current Limiters.

If you happen to have knowledge about, or access to some of the various Vectrix Inrush Current Limiters (ICLs), then please share!

It appears that there have been at least three different (?official?) Vectrix Inrush Current Limiters.

A book chapter to collect pages related to wheels, tires, brakes and suspension of the Vectrix VX-1.

How to change tires on a Vectrix.

How to replace break pads on a Vectrix.

How to adjust the suspension on a Vectrix.

Much info is already on VisforVoltage, if you have a bit of time you may want to help by concentrationg it into the appropriate section of the Handbook.

It's finally working....

Fast or slow and quieter, during parking, plugged in or riding!

Schematic might follow one day - when I've got time.

Here are some pictures of the inside of a Vectrix VX-1 charger (Thanks to The Laird!):

(Click to enlarge)

For anything to do with the motor of the VX-1.

Maintenance, repair, etc.

The Vectux Manual Battery Management System (M-BMS) is a handy device.

I do not recommend to build one, though!

Much more details about the entire M-BMS, for the Rotary switch Array and about how it was developed can be found on Endless Sphere: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6853

The M-BMS works because I have capacity tested all cells individually and arranged the worst ones in order of capacity at the positive end of the string. Therefore I can quite reliably predict where I need to focus my manual monitoring efforts.

The M-BMS allows individual voltage monitoring of the 13 worst cells and of a few good cells (for comparison). It also taps into the 12 stock battery temp sensors of the Vectrix and allows monitoring of temperature at 6 additional locations in and around the battery.

It allows individual recharging of all 13 weak cells, either with auxiliary battery packs during riding or parking, or with an external charger. It allows charging from a single cell up to 18s cells.

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(After removal of the battery housing cover) the M-BMS also allows for charging of all individual 8s and 9s modules of cells with an external charger. That could be useful after periods of non-use, or repairs, to balance the battery prior to charging with the on board stock charger.

Each added tab consists of a 20A fuse directly at the cell, then 30A rated cable to the top of the battery pack. Connectors on top of the pack allow for the 8s and 9s module charging or discharging, and divide the tabs into monitoring cables (for each tab, with 15kOhm resistors in line) and recharging/discharging tabs (for the 14 cells at the positive end of the string and tab 102-028, without resistors but with an additional 10A fuse within easy reach).

That allows safe monitoring of the full pack voltage of up to 153V (due to the resistors limiting current) and limits the maximum voltage at the low resistance connections (which are easily accessible) to a relatively safe 40V.
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How it works in practice:

On the right side of the switch box one can select either the entire string voltage (102s), or first 27s, or last 27s, or any of the 12 modules of 9 or 8 cells, or groups of 5s cells, 3s cells and individual cells.
And on the left are three switches that allow to select one of 18 temperature sensors in and around the battery.

It only makes sense because I have analyzed each cell, and the low capacity ones are all located at one end of the series. It's more of a learning device than a useful BMS for any other rider...

I can very efficiently identify the cell which starts to reverse charge first, by monitoring voltage drop under load, first in larger groups, then by quickly "zooming in" on the offending cell.
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Here you can find the schematics:
http://visforvoltage.org/sites/default/files/Vectux%20M-BMS%20Switch%20Array%202009-05-10.pdf
http://visforvoltage.org/sites/default/files/Vectux%20M-BMS%202009-05-10.pdf

Anything related to the Vectrix VX1 lights, brake light, rear light, indicators can be collected and discussed in this chapter.

To save time, I just copy here what I wrote on Endless Sphere a while ago:
(See: https://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10068&start=0 for details and much extra information!)

There have been quite a few failures of the Vectrix VX-1 rear light and brake light.

Some say this is due to owners putting stronger globes into the front light, some say this explanation makes no sense. (The stock front lamp is a 35W/35W H1 globe, both filaments can be turned on simultaneously whilst riding.)
Apparently a 55W/65W front lamp will break the rear light.

I have my doubts about this explanation, particularly because my first Vectrix arrived with a broken rear light. I was also told that there was some fault found in the rear light itself that causes the failures, but I know no details about it and do not know if it is correct.

What I do know for sure is this:

A 4WD with a careless driver is quite capable of breaking the plastic cover of the rear light whilst nudging you over the line at a stop sign! I tested it myself!

Luckily, it was so gentle that the light (and I!) still works, and that allowed me to get a close look at the innards of it:

Which, in turn, might provide some answers about the failures NOT involving 4WD's!

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Pictures instead of a thousand words: (No time to write up much at the moment):

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Here is some information I have been asked to post anonymously (slight edits done for anonymity):

Hi mik, I have been reading the voltage forum and feel that there needs to be some sort of realistic responses to some of the questions asked. The problem being that I need to remain anomous at this stage and so are asking if we could work together on this one where I can relay information to you and you can then post it from your secret source so to speak.

The issue with the taillight is a switching transistor that is blowing out. We are still working on this to ascertain wether it is incorrectly rated or more likely a cheap part with little quality. (out of china). I pulled apart several tail lights and found that there seems to be a common fault with the taillights that are failing. As for current draw from the headlight blowing the taillight, “I don’t think so”. That is like saying “that by turning the light on at the front door caused the light at the back door to blow”!!!

Replacing the headlight with HID should not be a problem, the only thing that I could see as an issue is that the ICM could get confused due to the fact that it most likely reads the bulb resistance to check that the bulb is in fact working. With HID’s this would give an incorrect reading, as with a higher wattage bulb hence the flashing lights on the dashboard.

On last point on this issue is that the Vectrix is designed with some pretty fine tolerances and changing things around could cause stress on the wiring and switching transistors that control the circuits. They are not like you normal bikes or cars where the switch controls the current flow, with the Vectrix the switch sends a signal to the ICM and the ICM then switches the circuit. So please be careful and keep this in mind when modifying things.

Welcome to the world of cutting edge electronics, it wont be long before all vehicles will be built like this, its just a case that the Vectrix is leading the way at this point in time. To all the Vectrix owners, you are leading the way to a brand new world, some will fight it most will embrace it, but the change is here to stay.

Thank you.

A “Recharge after BALPOR” is the charging event following a Battery Low Point Reset (BALPOR). I made up these terms due to the complete lack of explanation in the official manual. I feel there is a need to give these worrisome and recurrent events some sort of name which makes them more recognizable.
You can search VisforVoltage for numerous previous discussion of these terms and events.

The “BALPOR” consists of the sudden disappearance of the remaining bars on the right hand side battery charge display (the “hourglass” shaped 17 segment LCD), and the remaining range display also drops to zero.
For example, 5 bars (along with about 20 fictitious remaining kilometers of range) will disappear in one hit, about 10 seconds after the battery telltale started to be lit.
If the throttle remains pulled open when the battery telltale is lit, then the current draw continues and the voltage drops below the acceptable level, which is programmable and different in various firmware versions. The BALPOR is caused by the faulty assumption of the stock electronics that there is still charge left in the battery, when in fact some cells (or all cells) are empty. This causes a rapid voltage drop during the reverse charging of the already empty cells, which finally convinces the stock BMS that the battery is empty. The signal to reset the gauge and the range indicator to zero is sent, this is also known as the disappearing bars syndrome, and the stock BMS now believes that it has an empty battery which is ready to receive a full charge.

This sets the stage for the “Recharge after BALPOR”, which is one of the more damaging events in the life of a VX-1 battery, but not necessarily the worst.

The “Recharge after BALPOR” behavior is due to one of the three VX-1 charger safety cutoff mechanisms in action, namely the high voltage safety cutoff. Another descriptive term for it would be "C/3 overcharging with 15min cooling breaks".
(The other safety cutoffs are capacity cutoff and high temperature safety cutoff. These safety cutoffs terminate or delay charging if either the battery temperature is too high, or the voltage is too high, or the battery is believed to be already full.)

The charger behavior during a Recharge after BALPOR will look very similar each time, but there are two distinct scenarios that may be occurring on the inside:

Scenario 1: The BALPOR occurs very close to a recharging point and driving stops immediately after the BALPOR. Only a little bit of reverse charging is inflicted on the low cells, and the high SOC cells keep the remaining charge. But the BMS assumes that they are all equally empty.
The charger then pumps about 11A through the battery in CP mode, trying to put 30Ah into the high SOC cells which still had about 8Ah left in them at the beginning of the charging process. The safety voltage cutoff has to stop a disaster when the full cells have reached such a high voltage that the total string voltage reaches 153V (or 148-153V, depending on temperature).
153/102 = 1.50V/cell on average.
If the cumulative battery voltage reaches the safety cutoff voltage (shown in the middle instrument cluster display) before 16/17th are reached on the hourglass display, then the charger eases off for 15 minutes, and then repeats the 11A cell abuse again, up to another three times, until either 17/17th are reached or the cutoff voltage level has been reached 4 times.
By then the overcharged, good cells are beginning to get quite hot, but they will still have to put up with a C/10 charge lasting 1 hr following this, called the CC charge stage.
Once that is over, the bad cells will probably have caught up and all are full and hot. The stock BMS does the EC charge stage for 1 hr.
Depending on how large the discrepancy between real and perceived SOC of the battery cells is, the hourglass charge display may show less than full at the end of all this. This happens for example when the whole battery is actually full, but the electronics believe the battery is empty, like I have seen after fuse repairs. If the state of charge (and along with it, the voltage) of all cells is very similar, then only little damage occurs, because all cells will get 4 very short C/3 charges until they are all at 1.5V. Even cells with permanently reduced capacity will not get damaged much by this, but only if they have the same State of Charge (SOC) as the good cells when it occurs.

But even in this first scenario they will not usually reach full SOC at the same time. The good cells have remaining charge, maybe about 8Ah or so, when the BALPOR occurs, and the low capacity cells are empty and hot from the reverse charging event prior to the BALPOR. These “Permanently reduced Capacity Cells” (PREDUCCs) are initially unable to efficiently absorb charge due to their deeply discharged state and their high temperature. Meanwhile, the good cells are cool and soak up the charge current well without heating up. This further increases the SOC discrepancy between the cells as the “Recharge after BALPOR” progresses.
If there are, say, 13 PREDUCCS in the 102 cell string, and their voltage might be 1.4V when the average of 1.5V is reached, then you can calculate the following:
102-13=89 ; 13 * 1.4V + 89 * XV = 153V ; (153-18.2)/89 = 1.5146V per good cell instead of 1.5V. That does some damage to the still good cells, causing premature aging.
So in summary: The first scenario causes moderate overcharging of the many good cells.

The second Scenario is much worse, and much more likely:

The BALPOR happens, unexpectedly as it usually does, whilst still a few km from the intended destination with the recharging point. Getting there in crawling mode uses up the remaining charge in the PREDUCCs at low current rates, until they get reverse charged even at the reduced current which the BMS still allows. They heat up more than in scenario 1. The good cells find nothing wrong with it all, they can easily supply the low current requested by the crawling scooter.
The severe problem will occur during the following recharge because the stock BMS still plans to perform a full 30Ah charge as soon as it gets plugged in. It again incorrectly assumes that the whole battery is empty and balanced.
If the amount of "empty but rechargeable capacity" of the good cells exceeds the total rechargeable capacity of the PREDUCCs, then this results in a much worse SOC imbalance compared to the first scenario, because the fewer weak cells must produce a much higher voltage rise each, before the BMS notices it as the overall voltage reaching the safety cutoff value.
The severity depends on how many Ah were drawn from the battery after the BALPOR. The more, the worse!
As I said, this is unfortunately the more common scenario, and it happens whenever a VX1 that already has PREDUCCs is regularly ridden until empty. It results in total destruction of the PREDUCCs over a relatively short time period (maybe a few dozen to a hundred charges).

Here is how the second scenario destroys the already weakened cells:
Assuming the same number of PREDUCCs in the 102 cell battery as in scenario one, i.e. 13, the voltages now add up like this:
Safety cutoff 153V is the voltage at which the stock BMS will stop CP charging.
Voltage of the 89 good cells when the PREDUCCs are already full is again presumably about 1.4V per cell.
==>153V = 13 * XV + 89 * 1.4V
==> 153V - 124.6V = 13 * XV
==> 28.4/13 = 2.18V per PREDUCC!!! And the BMS believes they are all at 1.5V!!!

That really gets them cooking! These already damaged cells will be heating up rapidly and possibly start to vent oxygen and hydrogen through the safety release valve on top of the cell, further reducing the cells capacity.

The effectiveness of the temperature safety cutoff mechanism during the second scenario depends on sheer luck: If the few PREDUCCs among the 102 cells happen to be located away from the temp sensors, then their rapid heating will go unnoticed. If the worst PREDUCC happens to have a temp sensor on it, then the worst over-charging will be prevented due to the detection of the steep temperature gradient occurring in this cell.

A chapter to collect and discuss information about the charger of the VX-1.

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Here is a description of the standby-power-consumption problem: http://visforvoltage.org/forum/2547-vectrix-reports#comment-12252 of the charger.

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This post http://visforvoltage.org/forum/2547-vectrix-reports#comment-13640 has a description of the charging stages with early-2008 firmware.

Various threads are listed below which are mainly concerned with charger and charging stages in different firmware versions.