Hey folks.
So, i'm riding my zapino a fair bit more these days (yippee!). I've only had it about 2 months, and previously had only been riding it to two locations (3.2 and 3.9 mi each way respectively) and charging it in between each ride.
Yesterday, i went from home to location 2 (3.9mi) and back, and then immediately from home to location 1 (3.2mi) worked an entire day and then rode home (3.2 mi, total 14.2 miles). I ride it in the "unlimited" setting and pretty much have it going full throttle for most of all rides. On the last quarter mile or so of the ride, the throttle started acting funky. When i would apply the throttle, the scooter would accelerate normally, but after about 2 seconds, it would stop accelerating as fast and would accelerte much more slowly, and would not go faster than 25mph or so (almost as if i had flipped the limiter switch).
During the time it was doing this, i noticed that the battery gauge would dip into the red when first applying the throttle, but then after the acceleration slowed, the gauge would be in the yellow.
I didn't see where the gauge was (under load or at rest) before this acceleration issue started happening.
One other note is that I bought the scooter used, and he only put 150km (yes, 150, not 1500) on it. he said he took good care of the batteries, though i don't know exactly what he meant. I looked at the batteries are the green silicone type.
My question is: Is this behavior (acceleration cutting out) normal when the pack gets low? If not, is it an indication of another problem?
Thanks.
...alex...
Not sure about the gel batteries, but on my xb-600 with SLA batteries I experienced the exact same behavior with a low battery pack. I also later found out that 1 of the batteries in my pack was also very under charged causing it to kill the pack faster. My advice to you would be to test and charge each of your batteries individually and go from there. Just one battery in the pack being lower causes this odd behavior. It gets to a high discharge point well before the rest of the batteries causing the "pack" to also be low, but when the current draw from the pack is much lower (going at slower speeds or not accelerating) it seems to be able to handle it better.
Dave ; Tennessee
XB-600.
Hi Alex, this is normal behavior for the Zapino. When the pack gets low, the controller forces the scooter into governed mode to try and get you to your destination. I ride mine ungoverned as well. I am probably full throttle about 80% of the time depending on how I hit the lights on my commute. My Zapino goes into governed mode around 18 miles or so. My commute is only 15 miles, so it is not a problem unless I try to run some extra errands.
I just tested my range yesterday to see if I will be able to ride my scooter from my shop to the rally in Palo Alto. I started feeling the cut back around 18.6 miles. I found an 18.4 mile route that I think will work. I am going to look for an opportunity charge point along the way just in case. I am bringing my bank charger to the rally if you want to see it in more detail.
Apparently there is a charging area behind the auditorium. I'll be around all day, so give me a call if you want to meet up. My mobile is 408-593-9653. I hope to see a lot of Zapino's there to compare notes with.
Hope to see you there,
Dan
Great! This is exactly what i wanted to know.
See you on saturday.
...tango...