Vectrix drops out of "GO" mode while riding

I would like to hear about that as well : it occured to me three times on a brand new Li + ...

probably your throttle must be re - calibrated

you can find the simple procedure in the collaborative handbook (sticky thread)

Any chance you hit a bump and perhaps your sidestand spring is weak? This would allow the side stand to very slightly deploy, shutting the system down.

Agree.
Try to recalibrate the throttle. Highest value should be below 120. Over 120 the system halts.

@moccasin: I don't believe that this was the sidestand. It has to come to the outmost position in order to be detected as deployed. I tried this with my Vectrix since I had the problem too. I ride my vectrix for 6000kms now and I had this problem three times now. But in none of these situations the throttle position was twisted to full power....

My Vectrix lost power for 1/2 sec during riding yesterday. 10min later it failed to ascend the steep driveway, making a loud noise from the motor area and grinding to a halt. That's when I noticed the absence of the motor controller cooling fan noise. Turning the Vectux off and on again caused the fan to start at maximum speed, it took about 5-10min before it stopped running. Time will tell if something has fried.....

The lesson: If you lose power, reboot the Vectrix or at least check that the MC fan is running.

My Bike has done this for a year or so. Mine is caused by one or two (or more now days) damaged cells.
Under heavy discharge the cell goes to a high resistance (trying to cell reverse I think) and pack the voltage drops below the MC threashold. As soon as this happens, the cell recovers and it all looks good again.
It manifests itself usually two up, and on a hill with wide throttle settings. and I completely agree, it can be dangerous if you are not aware of it, it makes jumping the queue at traffic lights a real adrenaline (brown trousers) expierience.
I removed the battery and induvidually cycled the cells some time ago, it was good for a few weeks.
I find the throttle goes a but mushy just before it drops out.
And luckily for me, one of my dead cells is on a temp sensor,so on the up side, these cells are probably protecting the remaining cells form the vectrix software to some degree (no pun intended).
I could have shunted or replaced the offending cell(s) but it still has(had)some capacity, so the electron scrooge in me didn't have the heart to remove them but it is geting slowley worse. I am down to about 35KM range around town now days (130kg load).(I have aprox 20,000km over 4ish years)

My advice is, if you are going to the trouble of stripping and identifying the bad cells, change them.
There are plenty of good posts in this forum on how to do this and there are guys on this forum with good cells for sale at resonable prices from conversions etc.
These guys are also very knowlegeable, helpful and practical.

..Tony

I've checked the sidestand and the throttle. I've seen nothing wrong.
I hope it isn't a problem with a cell because it is a brand new li +.
It happened again this week. I'll tell my dealer, then. We'll see what he thinks.
Thank you all.

Mine has been doing the same thing since new, almost 2 months ago.
After several complaints to Vectrix Europe, and to my country (Portugal) importer MASAC, I've come to the conclusion whith MASAC that my throttle is to blame. The throttle goes out of calibration on its own, MASAC says it must be the magnet inside the throttle that is running free or close to it.
Today my Vectrix went 95km/h with no throttle applied, quite scary, but putting max regeneration reduced much of acceleration, then turning the kill switch on and applying brakes solved it.
Now I carry a screw driver and an hex wrench on the bike to re-calibrate it at every stop if necessary. I'm now suspecting it is the regenerative braking rotation of the accelerator that sets it crazy. I'm driving now since today at noon without applying any regeneration and seeing how it goes. So far so good.
MASAC sent a new throttle to my dealer today, so I hope within a couple of days I'll have this problem solved.
Reading your post I begin to wonder if this wasn't a bad batch of throttles being applied to the same batch of Li+ bikes...

I've checked the sidestand and the throttle. I've seen nothing wrong.

Forgot to ask: When you turn on the kill switch, and press the left break alone, what speed reading do you get?
You should get 43 km/h. Anything different from that means your throttle is not calibrated.
Search this site on instructions on how to calibrate it.
Bear in mind though: If your throttle has a severe problem like mine has, you'll need to replace it.

I don't agree. Calibrated at 43km/h my throttle gets out of range. I must calibrate it to 42 km/h or my vectrix halts at full acceleration (the nail goes over 120 km/h).

You may be absolutely right. It might be 42, or it might be 44, or it might be 42,5 km/h, I confess I don't know.
I said 43 km/h because that was what I read here in this forum, so feel free to disagree...

For me the speedometer sits somewhere between 40 km/h and 45 km/h, and since I don't have a digital (numeric) speed display I really can't tell where exactly it sits.

Anyway I don't see the relevance of this pin-point debate, as all one needs to do is to press the right brake at the same time and make sure both readings coincide, i.e. the needle does not move.

It is hard to tell but my throttle is calibrated to 43 km/h.

Anyway I don't see the relevance of this pin-point debate, as all one needs to do is to press the right brake at the same time and make sure both readings coincide, i.e. the needle does not move.

Nope.. in 2007 that calibration level was correct. But in 2011 the nail should be slightly below that mark. Nobody at vectrix updated the firmware with that new calibration level... ;-)

I was at my dealer shop today, and had my throttle magnet and throttle position sensor replaced.
Obviously they calibrated the thing at the end, with a laptop running a diagnostic software from Vectrix connected to the CAN BUS.

They really don't care about the speedometer reading, and in fact they said it is possible to have the speed reading correct and still get wrong values readings from the sensor.
The software shows the speedo reading and most importantly shows an integer value which corresponds to the position at that time. This is the value that needs to be right at rest position, the admissable threshold is not so big.

Don't ask me the correct value (I think it was 528 but I'm not sure), nor the admissible threshold.
My problem was that part of the sensor, the one holding the actual chip, was completely loose from the sensor cylinder.
Don't ask me why or how, to me it is a design fault that it can jump off the cylinder that easy.

You can see a couple of pictures on my forum here:
http://prius-pt.com/cafe/forums/p/3503/30005.aspx#30005

I had the same problem last year in the summer. My complete throttle assembly had to be replaced under warranty.
The Vectrix importer came to my office building to fix it. They spent at least 4 hours trying to calibrate it and get it stable but in the end they just replaced the whole assembly after consultation from the factory.
It was a nice day so many people outside.
I had questions from colleagues for weeks on what on earth was done to my bike with that laptop etc. :-)

The dealer shop technician took 3 hours to replace the whole thing and re-calibrate it, also with help over phone line from the importer.

The thing that drove me mad was that I was complaining for over 1 and a half month, and only now I got the throttle assembly replaced.

Even now it was an importer call, not Vectrix Europe call, as they have a memory dump taken from my bike which is now almost a month old and never got back to let us know (me or the importer) what strange or erroneous codes they saw there. Miserable support from Vectrix Europe when it comes to after sales.

My bike was dropping out of go 3 or 4 times in short rides at first, then began accelerating on its own (throttle too much in advance position) to the point that one day it got 95 km/h on a straight with my hand completely off the throttle. Had to do maximum regeneration (which only reduced acceleration) and apply brakes to avoid getting spun out of a bent. Completely crazy, and all of this was reported, and Vectrix just ignored me.

I'm thankful to my importer, although it took too much time to react to the lack of response from Vectrix, and VERY MUCH thankful to my dealer shop which was always very helpful and just waiting on instructions on what to do next. I'm terribly disappointed with Vectrix Europe after sales support, which is simply incompetent, ultimately irresponsible, and might as well not exist that we wouldn't notice.

So far, around 100 km done after work was done today on the throttle, and no problems found thus far. Let's hope it's fixed for good.

I think if my bike ever did "Had to do maximum regeneration (which only reduced acceleration) and apply brakes to avoid getting spun out of a bend" - i'd use the kill switch - its what its there for !

Cheers

Chris

Oh, I see I did not mention that part. Yes, I also did apply the kill switch before applying brakes.
Sorry for not mentioning this, but it's the second or third time I tell the same story on several places and I'm starting to take shortcuts telling it.

The problem after turning the kill switch on (activating the kill) was that I could not bring the bike again to READY mode. You can't get READY if the throttle rest position is not reading as at rest. Lucky me I was already carrying the screw driver in the bike to tune the throttle at every charging stop.

That is sounding really annoying.

All this stuff that happens with this Scooter and the lack of support in Aus is what's making me not have the faith in sinking $6k into a lithium conversion. *sigh*

Pity....it would be an awesome vehicle for me with that range.

Oh, I see I did not mention that part. Yes, I also did apply the kill switch before applying brakes.
Sorry for not mentioning this, but it's the second or third time I tell the same story on several places and I'm starting to take shortcuts telling it.

The problem after turning the kill switch on (activating the kill) was that I could not bring the bike again to READY mode. You can't get READY if the throttle rest position is not reading as at rest. Lucky me I was already carrying the screw driver in the bike to tune the throttle at every charging stop.

Use copy and paste - and improve the description each time you provide it for the greater good.

This sort of malfunction is a potential killer, like the 125A fuse failures. Eventually they might fix the problem, or loose all market clout because the Vectrix throttle design is IMHO really the only discernibly different (??patentable??) part of the Vectrix. If the throttle causes even a few malfunctions here and there, I believe it would be impossible to defend the patent legally if someone else comes up with a similar design that is less likely to cause runaway acceleration.

A sensible throttle design would require to push the throttle forward to accelerate - and if it breaks, it cannot possibly get stuck in the full power position.

Tell me one thing KingCharles: Where do you live? I mean I would like to know what part of Vectrix did go to your office to solve your problem last year's summer.

I would like to know for how long Vectrix has been in knowledge of this problem, has known the solution, and still has not taken any action to solve my problem which was exactly the same.

Were you talking about Vectrix USA, Vectrix Europe, Aussie Vectrix... what?

One more request this time for all of you if you don't mind: If you know of anyone else who had this very same problem about an uncalibrated throttle causing the GO to drop out, please let me know.

I've seen a lot of threads about uncalibrated throttles, but how many did require replacement, and how many can argue that Vectrix knew about the problem?

It was Escini, the importer for the Benelux region

I have exactly the same problem, and I'm waiting for this throttle assembly for 4 weeks now.

I think it will come from escini too.