I'd love to have a new firmware with some extra features. What do you think? Would this additional features be useful? please vote.
FW 1 - Enable permanent display of voltage and temperature by pressing the M button (or any other) for some seconds.
Why do I want this feature?
1.1 when the battery is in good condition, the display range and bars work ok. But as soon as the battery starts to get minor damage, the display gauge becomes quite useless: The display can show 6-12 bars left, est range 50 km but real range may be only 5 km. The only way to control the real range is to check the voltage every 5-10 km. For me it is quite stressing to check the voltage at 90 km/h in the middle of a hi-way.
1.2 The temperature helps us in detecting possible cell reversals/problems. Permanent temperature display can help in knowing if something is wrong "on the fly", and if necessary, slow down or stop to cool down and to prevent further warming/damage.
1.3 Even with a good battery, sometimes the gauge display gets out of sync. it is very useful to control the voltage to know if the remaining 5 bars are "real" or not.
FW 2 - Enable a setup to choose a slow charge mode.
Why?
It is no secret that the pack lacks ventilation. Imagine that you are in hurry: ok, the 10A program will suit you perfectly. But if the vectrix is going to stay parked all night long, the best way to avoid unnecessary heating is to charge it at slow speed (3A).
FW 3 - Enable a setup to choose a 80% charge mode.
The last 20% is the most difficult to charge, during the CC program the battery heats up. Sometimes we don't need full charge. For short commuting trips during hot season, a charge to 80% level would be perfect, and may help in extending the useful life of the battery.
FW 4 - Enable a setup to activate an EQ charge.
Before a long trip that requires a deep discharge, the rider may be very interested in having all cells in well-balanced condition.
Less is more, if you want to have a mass market product, the firmware should hide all the complexity. It should use all parameters available such as temperatures, batt status, driving habits etc. to determine the best charging scheme. Including fully automated cooling pre and post charging.
You want access to an expert mode. But I would ask for less work for the user.
Once you go EV, Gas is history!
You're right, kingcharles, I would be wonderful if the vectrix makes all choices for you. But how?
But imagine for a moment you drive an intelligent self-refilling gas car. You have a 30 mile driving habit. That car, according to your driving pattern, decides to pump gas for about 50 miles... But tomorrow you need to do a 400 mile trip. Then you realize that you have no way to tell that "intelligent" car that you need more range...
Every time the people pumps gas inside the car , they are making some these "complex" decisions... The vectrix will never know if the owner needs full capacity by next hour, or if there's plenty time to automatically precool 3h and then charge it slowly.
What do you think?
Back to the topic:
FW 1, 2 and 4 would be great features, 3 I´would not need as I charge with a timer.
Another nice feature would be an option to choose between sporty and economy mode during the startup sequence of the scooter.
We all controll the used energy via the throttle, but it would be great if the maximum peak and continues power output could
be limited with a economy/range mode.
Greetings Mike
+1 for the eco button
Once you go EV, Gas is history!
@R
The firmware should be designed such that it takes maximum care of the batteries and requires minimum/zero involvement of the user. For the very hot environments the firmware should decide if it is sensible to keep cooling with high ambient temperatures and should adjust charging speed. EQ charges could be done based on ambient temperature rather than just hours of operation.
For very cold environments maybe the fans should not even start or only intermittent.
As you can see temperature control alone can can already help a lot.
The design should also be such that after a charge the batteries will always be full.
My driving habit remark was more towards the calibration/reset of the bar indicator, it should do that automatically also without the user having to do a deep cycle. My 5 euro AA NiMh battery charger can do a deep discharge cycle run. So maybe that option can be built in also (might require different hardware though).
Another option is that the firmware can give indication that calibration/reset is required and that you can read in the manual that you need to accept this special cycle by pressing a button and leave the bike plugged in for 24H. The firmware than leaves the lights on until below a certain voltage en does the rest.
I agree that an override function could be included. Maybe like pulling the left brake lever when switching off the bike to do a fast charge. (with clever firmware, pre cooling settings would no longer be required :-).
Other than that zero intervention of the user should be required.
Once you go EV, Gas is history!