Our temperatures here are once again inching up toward 100 F, and I'm wondering if my batteries are going to make it through a second summer. After my workplace charge the other afternoon, the battery temperature showed 50 C.
I went out to the Vectrix at noon today, after it was done charging, planning to program a delay long enough to make the cooling fans run until I was ready to leave work. Unfortunately, it seems that since the battery was fully charged, the firmware decided it didn't need to do anything.
Can anyone think of a way to force the cooling fans to run for a period of several hours?
Thanks,
Ron
So I made a stop halfway home (at 10 miles of a 20-mile commute) and thought I'd do some cooling there, using the programmed delay. Strangely, though, the fans still didn't start up. When I got home, it did finally work as expected. I wonder what it is that keeps the fans from running--if it was the firmware detecting a full charge, as I originally thought, they should have run at my mid-commute stop.
Have a look at this:
http://visforvoltage.org/blog/mik/4644#comment-33173
I would also take off the black plastic cover and put an insulating liner in between the plastic and the battery cover.
Are you charging outside in the sun?
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
Mik,
Yes, unfortunately my workplace charging is done under the open sky. I do use a motorcycle cover, but I wonder if that just traps more heat.
As for the ABCool, I think I won't begin the process of Mikification until Vectrix goes under, taking my warranty with it. I suspect when and if that time comes, you can have a nice second job cranking out upgrade kits for the rest of us.
Thanks,
Ron
make sure your cover isn't blocking the intakes for the battery cooling fans!
I'm not sure why you want to do this.
The Vectrix engineers spent a lot of time and money designing the system.
It works!
The bike senses the battery temp and applies the fans when needed.
If your fans went off, it was because the battery temp was cool enough.
When you start to ride, the bike gets some air movement in the battery trays.
If needed the fans will cool the battery while riding, or even after you finish your ride.
If you plug it in after a hot ride, the fans will cool the battery to a predetermined temp before charging.
The system will charge the battery and cycle cooling/charging as needed to keep the battery from overheating.
Scott Silverman
Fleet Sales Manager
Criswell Automotive & Powersports
Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA
(Washington DC Area)
When you are at work, if you just charge the scooter to the end of the cp stage, aprox. 8 mins per bar of charge, the charger at the end of cp will do a 15 min cool down, dials off fans still running. During the cool down period, unplug the scooter. Now turn scooter on with key, set left brake delay for all the time you will be at work, then hold left brake, turn key off. Plug scooter back in, if battery temp is above 22c then the cooling fans will run.
Tony
What happens if the ambient temperature is above 22degC? Will the fans run "forever"?
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
The fans will run during this delay until either the temperature is within 3 degrees of ambient or the temperature reaches 24 degrees C. The delay will continue even if the fans turn off. Once the delay expires the charge will start
Good point! The cutoff for the fans may not be 22c which I had experienced, but dependent on ambient temperature and battery temperature. Even so, in the original post azvectrix stated ambient temperatures of 100f/38c, battery temperatures of 50c. Using the pre-charge cooling delay, the fans would work for the delay period specified, e.g 3 hours, that should get the battery temps down.
Tony
Thanks for the advice, Tony--I shall try that. Presumably interrupting the charging process isn't going to leave me undercharged, is it?
Thanks,
Ron
When I charged the vectrix today it started off with a half full battery, 16c battery temp, ambient temp about 16c. Within 5 mins of charging, battery temp was 14c, after just over 1 hour it droped out of cp charge (cutoff seems to be at 145v) and was in the 15min cooling cycle when I unpluged it. The battery temp after about 30 mins rest was 16c, battery voltage 142v, full fuel gauge.
Tony
You are trying to make the suffering desert dwellers jealous, heh? HAHA!
It's starting to heat up around where I live again; yesterday was relatively cool under a thick dust storm, though! Millions of tons of topsoil flying off towards the pacific...
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!