My Bike died

Last friday i came back from work, had about 70% charge left on the bike, last monday i was preparing to go to work and the bike was dead. charge 0, tried to charge again but i am not sure if it didn't charge or lost the charge again overnight... so they are going to pick it up soon... for the time bein, i am back to commuting on the train :-(
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Sad to hear that, but now you can tell the people on the train where you have been...

I doubt it could loose the charge overnight without something getting very very hot.
The energy would have to go somewhere as heat.
Unless the fans were running all the time pumping the heat away.
Can you check the scooter whilst it is charging?
If yes, then have a look if the battery supposedly fills up at all and then empties again.
Check what battery temperature is displayed in the left display at beginning and end of charge, and what battery voltage at beginning and end.
If it says something over 135 (=Volt) then your battery is not really empty.
You could also check again after a few hours of cooling down after charging and by turning the charger on again to get another battery voltage and temperature readout.

Do the electronics etc come on like normal when you turn the bike on?
Does the motor run at all, even the slightest little push?

Good luck with it, keep us informed please.

Mr. Mik

It happened once to me, and another two times only partial charge. Apparently it stopped recharging at some point for no apparent reason, maybe a very short electricity breakdown from the grid caused the charger to think somebody had switched off the light: it had to do with the software. Had no problems since last update (let's cross fingers). Are you still commuting by train or has the problem been solved in the meanwhile?

Regards

Okay so this was on Saturday, May 31st.

I returned to the bike which had been sitting in the hot sun in a parking lot for several hours. I am not sure of the exact tempurature but it was pretty warm. Probably 83-90 degrees F.

After traveling a couple hundred yards and waiting to turn left in stand still traffic. I think i went to make a slight throttle input and got nothing. In a unknown order: the bike learched slightly (throttle short?), the horn beeped, and then the repair light came on. The throttle was dead.

Having learned from previous throttle failures, I whipped out my screw driver and attempted to correct the issue, via the throttle position adjustment (as advised by Vectrix in earlier issues.) No luck.

I think a connection might have failed like last time but I can't say for sure. The issue was not intermittent like it had been before, it was just dead all the time.

My experience with Vectrix is suffering.

Thanks, Tangentstar.

That sounds like a whole new fault! If I understand you correctly then the display and light were still working.

Did the Vectrix behave as if the emergency-off switch on the right side was off? (I'm not suggesting that was the cause)

As in: No READY displayed, not even blinking?

Mr. Mik

Yes, that's pretty close.

When the fault happend, I got the yellow wrench of doom, but I don't remember if it said throttl on the left or not.

All reboots after that take about 5-15 seconds longer.
After the needle goes up and down like normal theres a delay befor the headlight and light indicators light in the display.
All reboots, give no sign of error except for the delayed boot. No error message, no yellow wrench.

The bike will not go to ready or pre-ready.

When you look at the throttle calibration, the needle holds at 80 regardless of input and sensor adjustments.

Hope this helps!

"The yellow wrench of doom"! ROTFL! I'd suggest you let it copyright!

:) :)

Hope you'll get all sorted out to your complete satisfaction .

Haha,
Thank you, I have a fancy for that phrase. Recalls to the 'Blue Screen of Death'!
However Hopefully I wont ever have to use it again, although I most likely will :( .

I hope my bike will be back next week, with a fresh batt pack! :D

I'm interested in getting a Vectrix and would be interested to know how you are getting on with your repaired bike MrEdLancelot.

Do you think all new bikes have already this upgrades installed or would we have to go through the whole procedure and we get 'old' bikes? My nearest repair shop would be 350km away and I don't want to tow the bike that far away because they didn't upgrade it for the new bikes, only for problem ones.

You're lucky. My nearest repair shop is 350km away in another country. I doubt they will come to collect it in case of repair. Although I know that by EU regulations, the seller must arrange and pay for the transport in case of warranty repair.

I'm intending to go and see them on Friday (27 Jun) in Winchester so I'll ask the question about the problems and whether the upgrade is done prior to delivery on new bikes.

Went for a test ride yesterday, and I must admit is was a great experience, interesting RG Vectrix are selling them cheaper (£5,167 inc reg and del) than Vectrix (£5,600) themselves.

With regards to the query regrading upgrades being incorporated into new machines the guy from vectrix said that the changes were being included in the new bikes. Just got to find some money now so I can place an order.

I've had my bike back for over a month, had an upgraded battery pack and and upgraded software, not a problem since then, I'd recommend vectrix, I know a lot of people had problems, but this is a new technology and there are come teething problems as with everything, with mine they all seem to be sorted now.

From reading about all of the teething problems you guys experienced, I am glad I waited until after the recall before purchasing. I hope they got it right now. My first day riding my Vectrix was everything I had been hoping for.

As for the recall, what exactly was included in it? I understand that the software was updated and some wiring chages were made for better connectivity in the battery pack. Was the battery actually upgraded in any meaningful way in terms of power?

We can only speculate really...

Myself and others that I know of did not receive any documentation of what they did.
What we have heard is the sketchy word of mouth Vectrix gives us.

For example I was told by the head director of service in the US that my bike got a new battery.
I asked him to not do any of the breakin process.
That was respected, as my bike arrived with less than ten more miles on it.
How ever on my first full discharge I got over 42 miles... Which is suspicious to me.

So... is that good or bad?

Well,

I guess if I really did get a new battery thats good.
But if I didn't and I was told that I did, it doesn't help my opinion of the company at all.

Not too mention that every time it gets worked on it sufferes damage?
Any one else have this happen with recall work?

That's why I always try to be present at repairs/regular check-ups of my vehicles.

I had a similar experience when stopping for a left turn this Wednesday evening. No response from the throttle, so I glanced down and saw the yellow wrench of doom and a "CANbu5" message in my estimated range LCD. After pushing the bike to the side of the road, a reboot cleared the condition and I haven't been able to reproduce the problem in the last 48 hours.

I'm guessing that this is an issue with the Controller Area Network (CANbus), but I haven't found any documentation to interpret these diagnostic codes. If it happens again, I'll take better notes...assuming I'm not in the middle of an intersection again.

I had a similar experience when stopping for a left turn this Wednesday evening. No response from the throttle, so I glanced down and saw the yellow wrench of doom and a "CANbu5" message in my estimated range LCD. After pushing the bike to the side of the road, a reboot cleared the condition and I haven't been able to reproduce the problem in the last 48 hours.

I'm guessing that this is an issue with the Controller Area Network (CANbus), but I haven't found any documentation to interpret these diagnostic codes. If it happens again, I'll take better notes...assuming I'm not in the middle of an intersection again.

I got the "CANbu5" error at 300miles (bike one week old), now at 1700miles (3 months old) and have not had the error again.

I was riding along doing around 40mph in traffic on a flat straight road and had been for a few minutes. Then no power, nothing, looked down saw the spanner and coasted to a stop, regen braking did not work either, switched off and on again, everything seemed back to normal so I rode home. Then phoned Vectrix.

Vectrix told me "This is caused by a loss of CANbus communication between the ICM and the motor controller. Typically it indicates a loss of the throttle signal. When the MC detects this it turns off the motor. It may have been a fluke or perhaps a momentarily force of throttle beyond it's valid range during either hard regen or hard acceleration. Check if the throttle housing is loose on the handlebars."

I put mine down to a fluke, it's been fine since.

I had a similar experience when stopping for a left turn this Wednesday evening. No response from the throttle, so I glanced down and saw the yellow wrench of doom and a "CANbu5" message in my estimated range LCD. After pushing the bike to the side of the road, a reboot cleared the condition and I haven't been able to reproduce the problem in the last 48 hours.

I'm guessing that this is an issue with the Controller Area Network (CANbus), but I haven't found any documentation to interpret these diagnostic codes. If it happens again, I'll take better notes...assuming I'm not in the middle of an intersection again.

The same thing happened to me one time while waiting at a traffic red light (yellow wrench of death) I didn't notice until the light turned green, then I look like an idiot not moving while everyone is waiting behind me.

A quick reboot cleared the error and I have not had anything happen since then. But I am now in the habit of checking my status while waiting at traffic signals.

Hi Guys,
Yes, I have experienced the yellow wrench of doom myself.

Riding home from work during peak hour traffic in the centre lane, all power was lost, no matter how the throttle was turned.
Fortunately, I was able to coast into a side street (lucky break in traffic) where I commenced frantic diagnostics.
LCD display showed CanBUS, "GO" symbol had disappeared & wrench had now disappeared, so I attempted numerous recycles of the kill switch - no joy.
Switching the key off & on also did not restore the "GO".
My patience finally allowed me to leave it switched off (via the key) for about 45 seconds & when I switched it on again I finally had my "GO" going.
Needless to say, I was somewhat tentative on my continued journey home but had no further problem.

I sure hope that this does not turn out to be a continuing problem, as I value my sorry *** a bit too much to be left without power in the middle of traffic.

If anyone knows what combination of events are likely to produce this outcome, please let me know.

Strangely enough, this happened to me again yesterday when stopped at an intersection. It's been about a thousand miles between occurences, but the problem definitely hasn't gone away.

There must be some kind of software glitch. If Vectrix's software keeps some kind of log (which would be very welcome), skilled engineers should have no problems reproducing the problem and finding a solution.

If the main fuse goes, does it manifest itself as (obviously) no drive, then no lights, not able to charge and the speedo sticks at whatever speed you were doing when it blew?

If so, a nice start to the year for me is that mine is now sitting in the carpark at work in that state, awaiting pickup. I'm pretty sure it's the fuse, definitely not the kill switch, I'm too old a biker to be caught out by that one ;-)

Oh well, time to crank up my old ICE bike for a while!

Gutted dude - mine did the CANBUS thing again when accellerating up a sliproad to a motorway, just a jolt and carried on. Seems to be getting mroe frequent, not sure whether its something to do with the cold weather - its usually around 0 - 2c at the moment.

Well I got no warning, it was as if I'd turned the ignition off, except for the speedo sticking at 40kph.

I was hoping a "reboot" would make it carry on, but there's no life present, not even when I plug it into the mains. If it is the fuse, it's a shame there's no reset, like the breakers I have in my house, especially as it seems that it's a big job to change the thing.

I don't know about the temperature thing. It lives in a non-freezing garage both at home and at work, so only spends 1:30 per day in the open and it only does 24 miles a day, never at top speed because it's all town work. It's a pretty pampered thing, maybe I should be treating it meaner! :-)

Well I got no warning, it was as if I'd turned the ignition off, except for the speedo sticking at 40kph.

I was hoping a "reboot" would make it carry on, but there's no life present, not even when I plug it into the mains. If it is the fuse, it's a shame there's no reset, like the breakers I have in my house, especially as it seems that it's a big job to change the thing.

I don't know about the temperature thing. It lives in a non-freezing garage both at home and at work, so only spends 1:30 per day in the open and it only does 24 miles a day, never at top speed because it's all town work. It's a pretty pampered thing, maybe I should be treating it meaner! :-)

Yes, that's a blown motor controller fuse. I've had three of them, now I use a different brand.

If you plug the Vectrix (with blown fuse) in to charge, you will hear a few relay clicks and the light in the boot flickers occasionally after a minute or so. The battery cooling fans might also come on for a split second every now and then, but it just gives you false hope....It's dead until the batteries are removed and the fuse is replaced.

I believe the fuse might be rated too low at 125A.

I find this uanounced failure in traffic quite dangerous, hence the : http://visforvoltage.org/forum/2977-open-letter-vectrix-corp