I have been complaining about strange battery lights on this site for more than a year (http://visforvoltage.org/forum/8757-flashing-battery-light)
With just about a month until the two year anniversary of the bike and no answers coming from Vectrix I started panicking and started calling Vectrix.
In the early days before winter I was talking to Dana at Vectrix regularly, until I got a message from him saying that he thought the pack was bad, and a week later he asked for my address in a message, but I never heard from him again.
I emailed and voice-mailed. In my panic of the warranty ending I spoke to the receptionist who conneted me to Dana. Turns out, I am no longer waiting on him to come to California, I am no longer waiting for his west coast guy to come visit. They have set up dealer service again. I called the SF dealer in the Mission and they told me they couldn't handle another one as they have three of these bikes and are waiting for a tool from Vectrix to get the bikes going again. I called the Berkeley store in Rockridge and they said Vectrix had not even sent them any diagnostic equipment.
The SF store laughed that the Berkeley store was in worse shape then them. With much cajoling they called Vectrix and when I called a week later they had received the tool and booked me an appt.
I took it in last week and showed them when I got there the flashing battery light and they checked it in. I called them the next day and was told that they had test rode it and then looked at it on the computer and one battery ran ambient + 5 degrees, while the other ran 129 degrees. I offered to bring my copy of the original purchase but they seemed uninterested. I know my dealer had taken delivery of my 2007 only a few months before I got the bike in 2009 so perhaps they have a record.
I have no idea what is next but I thought I would let people know what my experience is, I'll post the ongoing news here
-Randy
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You now have a good excuse to upgrade your NiMH pack to Vectrix LiFePo pack :-)
Ask them about it.
Yes,our CHL 50AH LFP battery is the best choice to be replacement battery.
dear CHL guy,
I don't mean to be rude, but your constant advertising is a bit out of place here.
I understand that it must be difficult to start a business such as yours, but you shouldn't be concentrating on us Vectrix owners, but on manufacturers.
On this forum, most of us are regular visitors, and we are a relatively small group.
We've all read it dozens of times by now, so you don't have to repeat yourself all the time.
Of course, if your posts would contain usefull information of any kind (except that your cells are the best), they would bother much less, and maybe even help build trust (it's called marketing :-) )
I speak for myself, but I guess I'm not the only one who thinks this way.
turok
"doing nothin = doing nothing wrong" is invalid when the subject is environment
As long as Vectrix is owned by GP there is little chance of them using any other battery than GP's.
So trying to sell to stranded NiMh owners is the best bet for CHL at the moment :-)
Once you go EV, Gas is history!
Honestly, if he can come up with a battery where 42 fit into the current bay we would be set. The 45A version of the GB Li battery is thinner than any bother brand and sized so that 42 fit exactly into the battery bay.
Thanks for your advise,our business is not difficulty,our production even can't catch up with orders.
But I do like vectrix,it is the best scooter I ever test.I think with CHL batteries,it would be much better.
Small update, still don't have the bike back, but the 3 other Vectricies that were in for service had been there since before the winter so I am kind of expecting it will take some time. Getting nervous about the warranty as it is about to expire, and I hope to have the new battery fixed under it.
Called to check the status and was told two weeks ago that they had ordered the battery; told one week ago that they had been unable to get the order thru using the website provided by Vectrix, emailed the parts order to Dana and hoped it would ship in the next couple of days; and then this week was told they got the battery in and hoped to install it this week. They were not sure the warranty status yet, so this may be interesting, hope they don't get it in and then want $4000 for it when I could just shunt out the bad cells to get it performing better.
All in all, I miss my bike and will be happy to get it back, but would be thrilled if it came back with some new range and speed.
-Randy
______________________
I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev
If your problem started and was reported during the warranty period, the repair should be covered by the warranty, even if done outside the warranty period. If they buck that, get legal assistance.
if it does go to a small claims court, I'd just take the money.
You could then either buy a lithium battery
or
buy a get together with the 3 other owners,
invest in a west mountain radio CBA III and a nimh charger and capacity test every cell in every pack.
you should be able to assemble 3 x batteries composed of all good cells.
then with the money you make off making the good batteries, buy a *really* big lithium pack :)
in all seriousness, I hope it works out for you.
It may even be worth while buying a second Vectrix second hand while your's waits in the shop...
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
It's my understanding that if you didn't make a warranty claim =before= Vectrix went through bankruptcy, you may not be able to make a claim, and you will not prevail in Small Claims (or any other) court.
I know a lot of y'all are hot to get LiFePo or other Li-technology battery packs up and running, but some of us would just like to be able to take our existing NiMH pack and replace the few dead / dying / weak batteries and replace them. I'd like to see more effort on getting rock-solid instructions for doing that since it requires a lot fewer changes to everything else.
I will probably do a video of that at some point, as I will have some more nimh batteries on hand.
Basically:
you ride to red battery light.
remove the battery
dismantle it so you can get at all the cells.
Then use a load of around 10A, on a row or two of cells at a time.
any cell thats reversed fails and needs replacing.
cells below 1V could indicate either reduced capacity, or just memory effect.
I normally just leave those ones in there unless the bike is unusually hard to get hold of (it turns a 1 day job into a fortnight long job).
I have a video up already showing how to remove and dismantle the battery.
but there is one on the to do list showing how to replace individual cells without compromising the strapping.
otherwise you have to deal with whole 8 or 9 cell blocks.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
OK, next update. The battery is in the bike and the dealer confirmed that I will NOT be paying for it, well, $400 labor. This week the issue is that the bike won't charge with the battery in. So they sent to Vectrix for their "Special Charger" that brings the batteries back online. Seems that when I originally asked if the dealer could take my bike in, they had 3 Vectrix that had been waiting the winter for such a charger. When I pushed them to get up and running, they pushed Vectrix to send them the charger, and got those three bikes out while they were troubleshooting mine. But they sent the charger back when they finished those three. Now other bikes have been brought in with the same won't charge when plugged in issue with then ending of winter (we have crazy weather in SF) so they have asked for the charger again, but there is only ONE for the entire country my dealer says.
CRAZY. But at least there is progress...
-Randy
______________________
I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev
Hi Randy,
you may as well take your bike back:
The special charger just has to be a low constant current supply.
so make one:
get an extension lead, cut the female end off, wire in a rectifier bridge with a light globe in series, and connect to your battery.
that'll bring the charge on the battery up safely.
btw - don't leave the battery connected to the bike while it is flat.
If you hold the battery flat, most of the cells in your battery will develop high self discharge and not be usable.
I am seeing this quite regularly now.
Holding your batteries flat for days with the MC's 7mA constant discharge has very different consequences to merely having the battery voltage fall below the chargers start voltage.
batteries with that failure mode generally need complete replacement.
The 3 other bikes that have that issue are already there by the sound of it, if they are already needing their voltage bumping up in the same winter.
It takes over 20 weeks to self discharge from fully charge to so flat the charger wont start for a good battery
In cold weather (under 5 deg C), this is closer to 30 weeks as the batteries self discharge is lower.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
I hope the guys at the shop know that, and when I get it back I will never let it go flat. They said they thought it may also be the fuse, it was a 125 amp. We'll hopefully know this week. But what is the best advice to keep the new battery healthy? Has anyone put battery balancers on the Vectrix?
-Randy
______________________
I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev
Maybe last update: Got the bike back and it seems to be behaving like new.
Called for my weekly status update and they said they were gonna call me, the bike is ready. When I got to the dealers the bike was only half charged, but I was gonna be late to work if I waited the charge cycle out. Rode it home (under 62 MPH) and still had charge when I got there. Plugged it in with the right-brake half-hour delay on charging. Took the car to work, One Last Time, figuring that I would come back for the bike at lunch if it finished charging. It had, but the wife told me that the Red light was on or flashing and the message bAthot was on the display. I raced home to see it, but by the time I got there it was idle. Drove the bike to work after lunch (under 62 MPH, still cautious) and got the flashing Red light and just as I pulled into the garage the bAthot message came up.
But getting off the bike I heard something I had never heard before. Fans running when the bike was off. Perhaps that is the normal behavior, but I have never in two years of battery problems heard that. The guys at the dealership didn't fix anything but the battery and updating the software to go 68 MPH. I have heard people (who probably don't have helmet laws) say that the fans can be heard when starting driving. At the end of my shift I drove home with what previously might have been too little battery by the indicator on the dash, just over 50% of the bars. But when I got home and was down to 3 bars I realized I should ride in circles until the red light comes on solid and then charge it overnight. It almost took another 10 miles for that to happen, 33.5 miles from the earlier charge, w/o another issue.
This morning the charger kicked in after my programmed delay and did the CP 152, CC 153 and EO 154 charge cycles taking it from 19℃ and 119 volts to 22℃ and 147 volts using 5.75 KWHs. The most I ever recorded it taking was 6.08 KWHs and that was likely when I left it plugged in and the thing kept drawing power after it was fully charged.
I did notice that the bottom edge of the black plastic in front of the passenger foot rests now have screwdriver pry marks in them. Is that mandatory when you take the bike apart, is there no clean way to do it?
I asked them to see if the bike rode otherwise fine and they said it did, but I still have what feels like bearing drag when I am turning.
-Randy
______________________
I also own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiev
This can be due to a worn rear tire. Eventually you will get the vibration and noise whenever you do not go perfectly straight.
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
I'm not sure, but I suspect that the 68 MPH firm got some updates in the code... Maybe this is the normal behaviour with the 68 MPH firm.;-)
I think the screwdriver marks are from either not having/reading the manual or just not looking at what is needed to take it apart. Definatley not a requirement to dismantle the bike. As my late father said - if its not coming apart easily you're doing something wrong, take another look !