Hi,
My bike died today. I was in Melbourne CBD and was at a set of lights about to take off, when I turned the handled my moved about a meter, and a "chunk chunk chunk" grinding sound was heard . I stopped. tried to reverse (fortunately no one was behind me) and the same sound was heard. then nothing. No flashing lights on the console. Turned on/off. health checked okay, and still no yellow wrench. So I pushed it up onto the foot path, called RACV and got a tow home.
That I was able to push it, would seem to indicate its not the brakes and the rear wheel still turns freely.
Any idea's? think it might be the planetary gear box?
Secondly, is this the type I think I have to get a true specialist to look at in Australia? or something that I can get a regular motor bike shop to fix?
I really hoping this is something easy-ish to fix, and not significantly expensive.
Any advice would be great
-Randy
I've never seen a failing vectrix engine or gearbox. The gearbox can be misaligned and make unbearable noise, but it will spin correctly.
In my opinion, maybe:
1- Failing IGBT. One phase of the controller is not working properly.
2- Problem with the encoder. The controler cannot locate the exact position of the engine, and is sending the waves out of "sync", making these "chunks".
Further explanation/videos will help to find out the problem.
okay, it sound and felt like (what you feel coming up from the rear of the bike) teeth jumping in cogs. (like when I used to play with lego and wouldnt have the cog's completely aligned properly.).
then when I said "then nothing" I meant now it makes no noise at all. even when I turn the throttle, and try to feel vibrations on the motor thing I dont feel anything. no "chunking sound" or anything is occuring now.
That help ?
-Randy
update : just went out side and rolled my bike backwards up and small incline, in hopes of possible "roll starting".. Didnt work. but I did notice as I was rolling it back wards (I had kicked the started and put it into GO mode) the "R" reverse indicator came on.... so something is still sensing down there...
dont know if this info helps in diagnosing it.
If on restart it didn't sort itself out, then it sounds like a lost phase.
In which case, are you comfortable opening up the bike?
If so, pull the rear battery out, and inspect the 3 main wires coming from the controller.
If you have lost a phase one of the connections will look burnt (hopefully you won't see this)
If not, you are nearish where Vectrix Australia is located, they may be able to send someone around to look at it.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
Thanks for the advise.
I will flick an email off to V. Australia tomorrow.
Well I would be comfortable in opening my V, given I dont even have a garage or carport to work under while do this work, I think I shall leave it to some professionals.
-Randy
I've found that very helpful so far *cough*
Maybe they'll get back to me one day and fix my scooter.
Cyde, try this:
Try the same technique you used to calibrate the encoder (throttle at full speed, right leverpressed, and turn on), but use the left brake instead. The motor (wheel) should spin forward slowly and smoothly. This tests the phases of the MC w/o any encoder feedback. If this doesnt work, then the problem lies with the IGBT (or MC). If it does work, Then it is likely an encoder issue.
The fact that the wheel didn't spin during encoder calibration leads me to believe there is a phase problem. The test above will confirm.
BTW.. wheel must be off the ground.
Okay.. thats for the advice. just tried it, and nothing happened. a little bit of a high pitched whine, but soft. like a mozzi you just hear fly around you, but cant quite spot it.
anyway.. will book it in tomorrow to be fixed/repaired.
-Randy
The same symptoms happened to me a few weeks ago with 30,500 kms on the clock.
I also thought it was gearbox - stripped that all down, but found it was good.
The clunking noise is evidently the motor 'hunting' . . . trying to do the job with only 2 phases instead of 3.
It transpired that a motor power supply cable had worked loose on the Motor Controller board ( bottom right hand side of the board ), causing arcing, causing the terminal post to melt off the board ( non-technical description ).
Initially, I was looking at around Au$2K for a new board - if I could get one.
However, an auto electrical mate was able to repair the board / terminal post. We have re-installed the board and the bike is running sweet. We have secured the three cables with electrical ties to the aluminium cover where they pass through the rubber grommets, in order to reduce flex / vibration transmission to the MC board. I would respectfully suggest this simple modification to all Vectrix owners.
The up-side of this event was that the gearbox got completely stripped, thoroughly flushed and cleaned, and oil changed.
Boots
Boots, very interesting advice.
Can you post pictures?
It's probably similar to my motor controller problems, which were caused by over-tightening the phase cable posts.
I removed the damaged part of the board altogether and then fixed the post directly to the IGBT box underneath the board.
See pictures starting from here: http://visforvoltage.org/forum/3635-vectux-part-2-open-source-vectrix#comment-20561
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
of course!!
sorry boots, I should have recognised that failure mode when I saw your controller,
oh well, I will have to remember it for next time.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
Update time -
Got the diag software, and confirmed (after trying to do a re-sync of the MC) that something was wrong which wouldnt be fixed by flashing the firmwares.
2 weeks ago Vectrix Aus guys (great guys) picked up my bike for repairs. 2 days later they dropped it off, and yes working again. The replaced the MC board (expensive). And its all working. (originally they replaced the motor but that didnt fix it).
I got the old board, and you cant see anything obvious that caused the problem (like the other person who posted his pic's showing that the mounting pin burnt out). There is one strange thing on the board the VA guys pointed out (I will post pic later) that they dont know what it would do or if it was cause.
But since the replace some strange (good) things have happened. My usage of the bike I now get WAY better range that before the board was replaced. While previously on the old MC I would be lucky to get 32Km on a full charge with the RED Battery light starting @28km and still have 6 or 7 bars left, and by the time I reached 30km I would be slowed down to 40km/hr or slower.
Now I have gone (and for the last 4 days without a problem) 35km, no red battery light, still with 6 bars left, no speed slow down at all. Almost like it was brand new.
I expect the Lithium upgrade kit to arrive from WA next week, and I am taking a week off work the week after to do the upgrade (taking my time, not forcing it over a weekend as an unknown person doing the upgrade). [thanks Matt for all the work getting it together!].
That'll be them, alright! :-))
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
Hi Cyde,
The old software (BCR 20xx and MC 2014) has a lower low voltage limit, meaning you are able to discharge your nimh battery further, hence the greater range.
If your nimh battery was marginal, it also means you get more power, but otherwise its the same.
This come at the cost of greatly reduced nimh battery service life.
since you are running lithiums shortly, thats not really going to be an issue.
I still suggest changing over to the newer firmware versions, acceleration is the same, but top speed is higher
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km