Flashing battery and temperature lights

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the advice - as you will see from my other listing, I have put it right after following advice from yourself and ofx210p. Very pleased to have the bike back up and running, thanks for the help - much appreciated.

Best wishes,

Drew

Glad to have been of help and good to see your total mileage of 27,000 and still going. I'm just coming up for 16,000, 15,500 on the last battery so have high hopes of adding many more miles.

Bit of an old thread revival, but I seem to be experiencing similar issues today.

After a few weeks of inactivity, I booted up my Vectrix and everything was normal. Except when I started to move, the red temperature and battery symbols started to flash simultaneously. I switched off and back on again, same boot up process with no errors. Again, when I started to move off, both symbols started to flash. I carried on moving slowly and then the orange wrench symbol started to flash too! At one point, for a few seconds, all 3 lights went out, but then came straight back on again.

It's currently on charge, which again worked OK and there are no error messages displayed. The battery gauge was showing approx. two thirds and around 132V. The last full recharge about a month ago completely successfully with all bars filled.

I don't use my Vectrix that often these days. It's stored in the garage but I do make sure I check the battery level and recharge if necessary every few weeks, regardless of use.

Mileage is currently just over 16,000 miles at 6 years old, original Ni-MH battery, up to date software and it got a clean bill of health at the last service. Other than the 125A blown fuse issue (upgraded to 200A) some years ago, I've never had any issues, aside from the occasional software bug.

OK, this is getting a bit weird now.

Sitting here watching my Vectrix charge and every few minutes, the red temperature and battery light flashes up, but only for a few seconds. They both seems to be disappearing and reappearing randomly and the temperature fluctuates between 27-31 and back again within a few minutes.

Maybe I've got a faulty temperature sensor? I've recorded a short video clip which I'll upload to YouTube shortly.

Edit: Here is the video clip
http://youtu.be/0gir0QicGlU

The problem seems to have resolved itself.

I took a trip to the MOT station, about 7.5 miles away. Whilst riding, there were no warning lights, but once stopped, both the red temperature and battery lights would randomly flash up, sometimes along with the yellow wrench. They all went out after a few seconds and did not flash up again whilst riding.

On the return journey, I had no warning lights at all, no error messages and was easily able to max. out at 110km/h.

Maybe by taking it on a 15 mile ride I blew out the cob webs!

What are the battery temps when the three lights are on? I used to get this before my old battery pack failed. Flipping the red kill switch and pulling the hand brake you will see the temp on the dash.

-Randy

Not sure, but if it happens again, I'll be sure to check.

OK, switched on my Vectrix to check the charge level and to see if everything was OK. I was going to recharge it today, but the problem I had a few weeks ago seems to have returned - sort of.

Everything boots up normally and I get both green lights. However, after a few seconds, the red battery symbol flashes. Sometimes this is accompanied with the 'bathot' message. It has been sat in the garage and the temperature was around 20 degrees. I'd only just switched it on and hadn't ridden anywhere. I flicked the kill switch to check the temperature which said 47 degrees. I then switched off and on about 1 minute later and it said 42 degrees.

Example of this happening in the Youtube link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k59RSPHhdo0&list=UU_XrFnW_8ZRS1sW7HmK9yKw

Do I have a faulty temperature sensor, or other problems? I haven't tried to recharge yet, but the last time it recharged fully, even with random flashing battery and temperature symbols.

Plugged in just now to recharge and I think the temperature sensor(s) are giving false readings.

After switching on, I moved my Vectrix out of the garage (ambient temperatures around 19° or 20°) then both the temperature and battery lights started to flash randomly, just like a few weeks ago.

Switched off, plugged in and initially got the 'bathot' message, followed by these temperature readings within a space of 30 seconds... 46°, 42°, 45°, 41°.

Do you have ScooterDiag to see if just one of the sensors is giving these readings?

Also, you can check the resistance of each sensor without taking the batteries apart. You can measure at the wires at the temp. boards with ohm meter. That would quickly tell you if one or more thermistors are bad. If all thermistors read the same resistance, then you got other issues. Make sure you measure the resistance at stable temperature, so that all thermistors are about the same actual temp. - their value varies quite a bit with change in temp, so the actual values are not that important but they should be within maybe 10% of each other.

I have one of the sensors a bit out of spec (damaged due to heat) and it measures different vs. the rest. It is close to the rest at a given ambient temp. so I can charge at that temp., any warmer or colder and I get the batt hot lamp and it stops the charge.

The thermistors cost something like $2 for a dozen - very cheap. I just received some and will try to replace my bad one today if I get the chance.

No, unfortunately I don't have any kind of diagnostic equipment. I know very little about the workings of the Vectrix, or electronics in general. I'm one of those "Unplug and play" people.

I have of course read and followed many of the precautions mentioned on this forum over the years, such as the occasional discharge to the red light to keep the gauge in sync, using regenerative braking sparely when at high ambient temperatures or low voltage/red battery light on, setting a pre-charge delay as to not recharge straight after a run, etc. I've never allowed the battery voltage to drop below 120V at rest.

I let my Vectrix do a full 17 bar recharge today to the point where it switches off, which took around 4 hrs. 20 mins. Started at around 124V-125V, peaked at around 149V-150V, and finally finished at 148V. During the first hour or so, the red battery light flashed at random intervals, but during the next few hours it behaved normally and went through all the usual charging stages. It was only in the last half hour or so did the random red flashing battery light issue return. During the whole time, I noted the temperature which started at around 39°-40° and slow went down to around 35°-36°.

Fully charged, boot up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adMGaG73b04&feature=youtu.be

Strangely a very short ride back to my garage brought on both red flashing temperature and battery lights, but only the battery light flashed randomly when stationery.

I'm not really quite sure what to make of it all. The last time I went for a ride to renew my MOT, it rode flawlessly once out on the open road right up to the maximum limited 110km/h. It was only when stationery did any lights appear.

Unfortunately, it seems this is one of these things that some equipment and knowledge is needed to figure out what is going on.

Before one of my cells overheated, I noticed that the bank it is in was heating-up more than the rest (there are 12 banks of batteries, each bank with its own heat sensor). My range dropped significantly, then that cell blew and I had to replace it. Without diagnostics software, all I would notice was that temp. reported by the bike was higher than it should have been when riding. As the cell blew, it damaged the temp sensor attached to it, so after I replaced the cell I was getting false readings. I new my battery was good, so that error was due to a temp sensor or board or a bad wire somewhere. The only way to check was to measure the resistance of each temp sensor. This requires to open the bike to see the battery. You don't need to take the battery apart - can measure where the wires from the sensors connect to the temp boards.

Still, while it is a fairly easy task once you have done it, it can be intimidating to do the first time around (and is potentially dangerous). Requires only basic tools: screwdriver, 10mm hex socket, and an ohm meter.

By using the bike, you are risking further damage to your battery if you already have a cell or two that are overheating. If it is just false reading, you risk getting stranded or not recognizing a real problem if it appears...

Just FYI, replaced my faulty thermistor today. Now readings are all as they should be (before, the bad one was off by 1-2kOhm, depending on temperature, which is what the Vectrix considers a significant number, resulting in about 5 degree or so false reading, which was enough to light-up the red lights and stop charging).

Pocs attached. To do this repair the battery needs to be disassembled, unfortunately, unless your faulty one is on the top of the three layers of cells, in which case you don't even need to take the battery out. Mine, of course, was at the bottom layer of the front half of the battery, so I had to take everything out and apart...

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Damaged thermistor. The little dark dot:

A strip with new replacement thermistors. Just one of these is needed, I ordered more as they are cheap (in case I damage or lose them - they are tiny!):

The part number and model of the replacement thermistors (from Digi-key). These are a bit smaller than the original ones, but should have a similar thermo-resistance curve. Need food eyesight and a steady hand to remove the old one and solder a new one: