Hi all,
The MC fan on my VX-1 is blowing full speed from the moment i switch on the bike. I bought this bike with this property. Is there any progressive insight on this issue? I find it annoying, much noise. I checked and cleaned the encoder. Battery fans are removed. (Leaf conversion)
Thanks,
Hans
Others will have other views....have you reinstalled the charger or MC software?
Thanks. I'll give that a try. You never know.
Does anyone has the circuit diagram of the motor controller board?
Re-flash MC + charger. Nothing changed :-(
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I tried a variable DC-DC regulator between the MC fan wires. I measure 12V. When lowering the voltage the fan is nicely decreasing it's speed. At about 5 Volts it's blowing gently.
I recently developed the same problem--MC fans running full tilt when charging or bike on. The problem appeared at the same time that my battery temp sensors became a random-number-generator, so I was assuming it had something to do with bad temp sensors sending bad info to the MC. I have had temp sensor problems before when my bike sits in a damp environment for a week or so. Not in the rain, mind you. Just damp. Doesn't inspire much confidence.
In the damp past, the temp readings would go crazy, and I would get the red light of death. I would wait for dryer weather, and all would return to normal.
I am still using lousy NiMh batteries, with the Lairds software. I have not attempted to address the problem, and have not attempted to ride the bike in its current condition.
CamasMatt
I recently developed the same problem--MC fans running full tilt when charging or bike on. The problem appeared at the same time that my battery temp sensors became a random-number-generator, so I was assuming it had something to do with bad temp sensors sending bad info to the MC. I have had temp sensor problems before when my bike sits in a damp environment for a week or so. Not in the rain, mind you. Just damp. Doesn't inspire much confidence.
In the damp past, the temp readings would go crazy, and I would get the red light of death. I would wait for dryer weather, and all would return to normal.
I am still using lousy NiMh batteries, with the Lairds software. I have not attempted to address the problem, and have not attempted to ride the bike in its current condition.
CamasMatt
I had a different problem, more dangerous.
My MC fan was idling, under fast accelerations or overtemp it did not speed up. That could destroy the MC board.
I was about to test a FanAmp to increase fan speed with temp sensor regulation, but solved the issue.
The problem was linked with a faulty encoder ( never undertood why, but), replacing that little board resurrected MC fan's variable speed.
The MC running at full speed may be annoying, but it will never destroy anything at all, you can ride the Vectrix.
Carefull if you lower the voltage with a dc-dc, if you mantain hi-way speeds for some minutes you may overheat the board!
Can you run scooterdiag program? The problem may be located on the MC board's temp sensor... It would be interesting to have a look at the canbus temps readings...
At the moment it's about 5 degrees Celsius here outside. I'll tried driving without MC fan and measured Temp on the cooling body below the fan. I drove full speed a short while and cooling body temperature raised slowly to about 45 degrees. I stopped and noticed that the MC allready was in it's protection mode. Acceleration was slower. Possibly the thermal paste isn't optimal anymore? I am going to check that. Are there any experiences with the thermal paste?
I checked the encoder print and it looks like new. Is there a known place where to get a new encoder board to test?
To my knowledge there are 3 places, Fuelfree motors, jesnar 2011, And the Vectrix Poland, which bought all vectrix USA parts and their owners they're trying to build a reliable battery for the Vectrix (good luck!).
before bying encoder board, buy the canbus cable,and check canbus temps readings. You can also check the encoder by recalibrating it with scooterdiag command. If the wheel does not spin and cannot be calibrated, then it is faulty (this is how I discovered my problem).
Checked heatsink temperature in the diagnostic software. 16 degrees. ok. Connected all Battery sensors. Non of the temp's in diagnose where higher as 15 degrees. Flashed software over again. I cleaned the encoder pcb and encoder warnings came up! oeps. I shifted the Encoder PCB a bit and this took away the messages/warnings luckily. Calibrating encoder done, ok. Wheel turned with little step's to a position.
No luck yet with the MC fan. It's blowing like a helicopter..
Next step is disassemble the MC (also to add new thermal paste) and try to diagnose the hardware. Maybe a FET has short circuit? The MC Fan logic HW can't be that difficult i suppose.
to be continued..
More tips are welcome!
Took out the MC board and found the driver for the MC fan. As far i could measure it's not short circuit. I can't find the device on the internet. Strange numbers. I was a bit shocked how bad the thermal paste was on the heatsink! Still no solution for the MC fan.
Device is right on the board in the middle:
Hi all,
The MC Fan is regulating again. What i did is replace 3 components on the MC board, U4 (PS2801), R22 (1K) and Q2 (FDS5670).
U4 is an opto-coupler which receives FAN-PMW signal from the processor and controls the fet Q2. This fet drives the MC fan.
Components can be find on Ebay. Special thanks goes to David, who explained the logic.
For replacing the components, SMD soldering skills is recommended.
U4 and Q2 removed:
"The problem was linked with a faulty encoder ( never undertood why, but), replacing that little board resurrected MC fan's variable speed."
In order to minimize the fan noise when the scoot is not moving, the fan speed was varied according to bike speed. Under 3 mph or so the fan was slowed down, then above 3mph it was regulated according to heatsink temperature. (within reason...is heatsink was too hot fan would stay on even under 3mph)
So if the incremental portion of encoder was not working correctly it could affect the fan speed. It is possible to run the motor on the hall signals only and never transition to the incremental encoder, which is what is used for speed calculation.