Vectrix Summer Heat Performance

Well, besides the fact that the heat kinda fried mine,

I noticed as it started to warm up the fans would be on more often, and if the bike was really hot the fans would stay on for a moment after you turned the key off.

But that was in moderate temps, as soon as it gets back it'll see some hot days.

I'm in Southern Arizona, where we've been having prematurely high temperatures lately--105 F and above. I get the ol' "bathot" light the whole ride home from work in the afternoon. When it get home and plug in for a recharge, the fan comes on for a while, presumably to get the batteries cool enough so that recharging can begin.

The other morning, though, when I was ready to ride to work, I saw that the battery hadn't been charged. I'm wondering if at the end of the cooling cycle the battery was still too hot, and the recharging logic just decided to give up. The next day, though, after similar conditions, it charged without any problem.

One thing I notice while riding in such hot weather is that when I use the regenerative braking, I have to twist the throttle a lot farther, to the point of having to change my grip to get another bit of twist in. Maybe it's the heat affecting the resistance of the motor?

I don't think that you'll find my answer very useful, Mr. Mik.

I live in the Seattle, Washington, USA area, and this part of the world doesn't get too hot or cold. Our high temperature for 2008 year-to-date was around 85°F. The high recorded temp yesterday was 69°F. Typically, we'll get about a week of days at or above 100°F. Usually, summertime high temps are well below that. It's my understanding that the body of seawater called the Puget Sound significantly moderates our climate.

From what I understand of battery chemistries, NiMH and otherwise, I'm living in a climate that is fairly easy on them. I've never had the BATHOT indicator come on except during the light test phase at system startup. When charging, the cooling fans run, and I usually hear the fans run when I come to a stop after climbing hills, but that's about it.

I've been riding my Vectrix to work every day since I got it back last Wednesday from Vectrix Corp., and it's been running without problems. I ride it less than 25 miles (40 km) round-trip distance every day, and there's an outlet at work that I park near and plug into every day. I imagine that I should do some battery conditioning, a la your "rock" technique or something similar - I, too, live at the top of a very steep driveway, which I would have no hope of pushing a dead Vectrix up! It is only 100ft. long, but there are hills all over the place around the area that I travel and live in, so I'm not inclined to push the limits of Vectrix's battery capacity very far.

Regards,
Dave

Having only owned my Vectrix for about 2 months now I haven't had any experience of the winter temperatures we get here in central Scotland, but I have been monitoring temperatures of the batteries, air temperature and when is the best time to charge the bike for optimum use.

My bike is used for commuting a 35mile round trip to work, fairly flat, 6miles each way @ 50mph the rest @ <30mph.

I have never had the BATHOT display or the cooling fans while I have been riding the bike, even after a 20mile blast on a warm evening, so I'm obviously operating my bike in a much cooler climate than others.

With me it's trying to keep the temperature in the batteries that is the problem, Ni-Mh batteries like to be charged @ 0-40°C, normal operating @ 20-60°C, so after my ride home I plug the bike in on a timer to charge it fully just before I need it the next morning, that way the batteries are around the 20°C for the ride to work. On the way home the temperature is warmer so they heat up again quite quickly. I've been able to extend my range by at least 5 miles by doing this, I think.

So far I'm getting just over 7miles per kW of electricity, how does that compare with others?

My bike is used for commuting a 35mile round trip to work, fairly flat, 6miles each way @ 50mph the rest @ <30mph.

How much mileage do you have left after that 35 mile trip?

My bike is used for commuting a 35mile round trip to work, fairly flat, 6miles each way @ 50mph the rest @ <30mph.

How much mileage do you have left after that 35 mile trip?

Anything from 4miles/2bars to 13miles/4bars depending on riding style and weather(wind)

Mik,

I can't quite remember what the needle indicated at the time, but it wasn't its normal behavior. I do recall that instead of the "CP150" code, it displayed something else, starting with "SF", maybe. The left display was counting down from 15:00--I should have stuck around to see what happened after that. And, yes, it was displaying "bathot", but I didn't notice what the actual temperature was.

If the phenomenon repeats itself I'll take notes...

Ron

Mik, you were correct about the "tr". I was planning a trip to San Francisco yesterday, so I must have had "sf" on the brain.

I got home yesterday after my usual 20 miles with "bAthot" and plugged in right away. It started trying to charge, showing "CP147", then immediately went to "tr147", counting down from 15 minutes. When it got to the end of the 15 minutes, it started another 15-minute "tr" countdown.

After 4 "tr" cycles, the display went to "CC149", and the clock started counting up from 01:00 hours, with the needle at 30. At this point the battery temperature was displayed, at 45C.

I went back and checked after a couple hours, and the display was now showing "EC151", and the clock was counting down. The needle was at 14, and the battery temperature was 39C. When it got to the end of the countdown, with the charge indicator showing 3/4 charged, the process stopped and the power shut down.

I immediately plugged it back in, and the display went to "CP150". Apparently it started a successful charging cycle, because it was showing a full charge the next morning.

It was an interesting exercise, but of course in the future I'll just let it sit a couple hours before plugging it in, and avoid the whole issue.

Ron

So it seems we need to find the best / easiest way to cool the bike after riding before the charge. It seems the built in cooling cycle is not sufficient.

Could you force air into the inlet ports for a time, I have a strong fan that could do this, just need to direct it into the ports.

I will be much more helpful when I actually have my bike, I can only speculate at the moment.

That's a good point. I'll just have to make sure to go back a few hours later and unplug and plug it in again, to trigger the "real" recharge.

And the battery will spend more time in a very hot state, therefore aging more.