I feel like a newbie, well this is my first post at least....but have had my Vectrix going on second year now. I got battery pack beginning of summer and they seem to be good in that I get 30+ miles off of a charge. It seems consistent that if I ride it day in day out. It is 10 miles to work, and normally can ride back and forth before a charge. I had a full charge and rode it home, it rained so it set for 36 hours. Decided I should be good since had way over half the bars on the meter left. But battery light came on for last two miles of the trip.
Is it typical to loose that much battery that fast from sitting. I noticed before I got my new batteries, that it had issue with losing charge fast if it sit, but Vectrix guy said it is using power, and that is normal. Just seems extreme to me.
I believe my batteries are good, but worried about hurting them if bike has a ground issue or whatever.
I am in North Carolina, have NiMH batteries. And open to any words of wisdom on what I need to do to keep batteries and bike running. I love the bike, but do not want to be buying batteries anytime soon. I got the bike used, so blame the first set of batteries not lasting on that user not taking care of them. So, this set is on me, and hope not to learn how to care for them the hard way. So, look forward to anyone that can give me some advice. I have put on about 1000 miles this summer and batteries seem to be as good now as they were at first of summer. Oh well, thanks for any advice.
Hi,
Firstly you should look at installing The Lairds new software which looks after the battery pack a lot more than Vectrix's standard offering. It basically keeps the batteries at a lower temperature during charging but takes a lot longer to do it. No problem if, like you, it only charges overnight. Personally, I'd like the option to do a 'fast' charge if necessary - like the other day when I plugged in at work and thought the power was on but it wasn't and I only noticed an hour before I needed to leave.
As for the 'standby' power consumption, I don't have a figure but my V was in the garage recently for a week without charging and it was surprisingly low on juice by the time the mechanic drove it the 4 miles to my home. So, the standby draw must be fairly significant. Of course they may have gone for a jolly on it and not told me!
MW
Regards, Martin Winlow
Isle of Colonsay, Scotland
evalbum.com/2092
The standby power consumption is about 7mA. Some newer VX-1 have reportedly an additional board on the MC that reduces this.
The big issue is that the self-discharge is dependent on state of charge and the battery temperature.
The hotter the temperature, the faster the self discharge.
The fuller the battery, the faster the self-discharge.
The sudden lack of range has probably not developed just by standing for a couple of weeks, but is more likely to have built up as a gradual and cumulative effect due to under-estimation of self discharge rate by the charger software. Each day it charges to what it assumes to be full SOC, rather than to a voltage cutoff (like The Lairds software). Each day it looses more to self-discharge and riding than what is being replaced by charging. This does not become apparent until your Vectrix does the old disappearing bars trick. The red light comes on and the battery SOC will then again be synchronised with the bar meter (unless the battery capacity is permanently reduced, in which case you get disappearing bars all the time).
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!