I've taken ownership of a Vectrix that sat unused for several years; sadly, the prior owner died -- an early EV & sustainable living advocate -- a huge loss.
The bike is in great shape, except the battery is dead. I've dismantled it to get to the battery and found a pack voltage of 3.7 volts (no typo -- 3.7). The individual cells I can get to are at 0.1 volts or less.
My questions:
- Of course I'd love to recondition the pack without dismantling it. Several members have had good luck recharging packs that were <100 volts. But I also read that dead NiMH cells can be severely damaged if they reverse polarity while charging. So it sounds like pack-level reconditioning is out in my case, correct?
- If so, does that mean I have to recondition each cell individually? I've seen references to RC chargers that can do 10 to 14 cells at a time, but if all my cells are dead, I'm guessing no charger is smart enough to recondition them in series.
- If I need to do them individually, I want the best charger to recondition them well. Recommendations?
- Finally, if I can eventually get the pack back up above 100V, I've seen a few references to reconnecting the battery in such a way to avoid damage via some inrush current... can someone explain that in detail, or point me to a definitive thread on the subject?
Thanks very much. I'm eager to get this wonderful machine back on the road.
The easiest solution is to get your hands on a Vectrix trickle charger, which plugs right into an open socket under the charger. I borrowed one of these from Dana at Vectrix, and it made recovering a dead battery trivially easy. You don't even have to open up the battery compartment.
Short of that, I'd suggest recharging by module using an RC charger, which you could also use to recondition the packs (if you want to take extra the time).
Does this charger only connect to the battery, or is it connected to and does it communicate with the Canbus somehow?
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
Steve,
I am going through the same process right now. Bike had been sitting for over a year, pack was at 2V. I was able to get it over 100V to run the Vectrix charger and check the status of the batteries. Battery came back to 7 bars( Lairds firmware ) with a range of 10 miles after several cycles.
I broke down the pack and am using an RC charger to test/recondition the sub-packs.
After looking around I bought an iCharger 306B. It had everything I wanted to test/condition the packs. It will Charge and Discharge the sub-packs at high rates(if you use the regen 70+ amps) and measure the capacity. I am charging at 5 amps and discharging at 10 amps to 1.2V/cell. Sub-packs are coming up around 27 - 28 amps and cell variances seem pretty good after some conditioning. I check the individual cells during the discharge process towards the end looking for ones with lower voltage.
So far I have yet to find any abnormally low capacity sub-packs or cells so I'm thinking the conditioning may be all that was needed to bring the pack back to a more usable state.
Yes, it connects directly to the battery. There are actually 2 lower battery charger connectors accessible from the front wheel well, and the trickle charger just clipped into the lower one. Mine were square with metal retaining clips, but I understand that the newer ones are round and twist off.
And here are the pinouts:
Thank you very much, Magendanz!
I've asked several times and had been unable to get an answer so far. Finally!
I had measured the voltages in the Pins of the charger connectors, but could not be certain if charging through them would be safe.
It's a worry that the VX-1 is designed with a constantly "hot" direct battery connection running along the frame. I think it would be much safer if a contactor would need to be activated before any current can leave the battery. If I remember correctly, the cable is not even Orange, but Grey.
Great fun for rescue workers trying to dis-entangle vehicles after accidents....
However, it's useful for re-charging a Vectrix VX-1 when the charger is unwilling or unable to work.
Would someone with a broken charger be willing to sell me the connectors with a bit of cable left on them?
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
Hi Steeve, welcome to the forum!
Have a look at the posts following this one: http://visforvoltage.org/forum/13325-winter-advice-vectrix#comment-69819
and then http://visforvoltage.org/forum/13565-new-vectrix-bikes-road
Knowing the info from Magendanz above, you don't even need to open the battery compartment for charging. However, to do a diagnostic assessment, you'd be better off with the battery exposed so you can compare if three equal segments of the battery have equal voltages. It will tell you if there are totally dead cells in your pack. However, it's worth a try charging through the connector under the front fairing, because your battery is probably in good order.
Get a canbus cable and install The Lairds firmware once you have re-awakened the battery.
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!
Thanks Todd. I see this is your second Vectrix. I just ordered the iCharger and will follow your lead, reconditioning at the sub-pack level. Any further details on the process you ended up using would be appreciated.
Also, can I ask what you used to bring the pack up over 100V initially?
SteveS. 2008 MG Midget lithium conversion => 2011 Think City => 2007 Vectrix => 2015 Tesla 90D
I used an RC charger like the iCharger to bring the battery voltage up above 100V.
Once you remove the battery cover you can access the subpacs in groups. The RC charger will bring the groups of 8 - 32 cells to life to get you above 100V. The charger is only designed to do up to 25 cells but for this process it does not matter. It does not take much. I tested different charge rates and lower amps seems to work better giving weaker cells time to wake up. I found 1 amp for about 30 min each group was all it took.
Regarding the direct battery connectors under the front cowling, Mik wrote:
> Would someone with a broken charger be willing to sell me the connectors with a bit of cable left on them?
I'd like to get one too.
I think I found them here or here.
For a trickle charger, would we need the male or female? Looks like we can only order them in batches of 10... anyone else want one?
Pictures:
SteveS. 2008 MG Midget lithium conversion => 2011 Think City => 2007 Vectrix => 2015 Tesla 90D
Hi Steve,
You can charge the battery using a simple charger while still in the bike. The battery has not been affected by leaving flat for several years. Only Lithium battery chemistry is damaged by allowing cell voltages to fall below minimun values. The cells would not have reverse polarised during storage as there was no load on the cells as the battery was left to go flat. I have bought 2 bikes back to life and ridden them home using this method. Both bikes had poor batteries as their range had dropped to an unexceptable amount and then been left in the garage. These bikes suit conversion to Li-Ion or LiFePO4.
She lives!!! And what a fun machine to drive!
My detailed steps for the archive:
Thanks for all the help getting started!
SteveS. 2008 MG Midget lithium conversion => 2011 Think City => 2007 Vectrix => 2015 Tesla 90D
I love reading stories like that. Congratulations.
When I tried to charge my Vectrix after sitting for a few months, I got no response.
I assumed that the voltage in the pack had become too low for the onboard charger to kick in.
I disassembled the bike to access the battery and got a measurement of 128 V.
I was hoping the reading would be low so I could trickle charge to bring it up over 100 v where the onboard could
then takeover.
I live in Los Angeles and there is nobody here to help.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Scott