Hi all,
my charger (Runke) started playing up a few days ago: during a ride the Est Range indicator suddenly went to 0 (but the bars on rh display are still showing charge).
Then when I plug it in, the bike starts up, the lights turn on(!) but there is no indication of charging. Charger fan won't start either. Generally, the bike acts like it had the key in and turned on. I can even get it running without the key in, just by plugging in and pulling the brake levers to see "GO". And there is some charging because the voltage goes up and the number of bars are increasing while plugged in. Obviously I don't want to charge it this way, not knowing what's happening....
Any ideas?
My guess. Canbus wire broken, or partial damage inside charger's CANBUS circuit board. Internally the charger works, it can wake up the motorcontroller, but it is unable to communicate its real status trough canbus to the MC. The gauge bars displayed come from MC, they act as a simple voltmeter.
If I were you, I'd swap chargers to test if it is the EVPS circuit or a broken canbus wire. Remember, chargers need ICL before reconnecting to motorcontroller, or sparks will damage them.
If you don't have access to a spare chargers, I suggest you ride it normally until this low quality EVPS charger definitely brokes down, while you save money for the good 3,3 TC charger replacement:
http://www.shop.vectrixparts.com/3-3kw-pfc-battery-charger.html
Yeah, that's what I thought (Canbus comms problem)... I'll try to find out where the root cause is - hopefully just a wire :) Thanks for the input and for the link. Is that a decent charger from vectrixparts?
Tamas
Check out this thread regarding an identical charging problem I had on my Vectrix, which was caused by faulty temperature boards.
Alan
Now that you mention tempboards, I remember: Turok experienced similar problems:
Thanks guys, I'll try to disconnect the tempboards tomorrow and see what happens.
Tamas
Had a look at the temp sensors and found the root cause: the 2 top temp sensors are burnt - probably shorted by moist in the cold weather. Disconnected both of the boards + unplugged the batteries for a while, then plugged back in (using ICL) -> no joy, same thing happening: no communications from/to charger... :(
I think I should try finding the fault on the MC board as the tempboard may have killed something there, right?
Tamas
Te rain usually enters inside the battery compartment, between the joint of the impelers heavy plastic cover and the front aluminium part of the frame. What have you found burnt? tempboards, or tempsensors? Front or rear?
If there was a problem in the MC can system, the bike would not start. The problem may hang around the charger
The answer is both & both: front and rear top level all (no time now to check the others below), rear board as well, possibly front too but did not take it out to see, just disconnected everything.
Got the charger out, hopefully will have some time later tonight to have a look inside if I manage to open it up....
Tamas
Charger looks nice, can't really find any obvious sign of damage... now I don't really know what to look for...
Some pictures of the disaster victims:
Tamas
wow Piece of disaster!
maybe you can rework the charger to add a canbus wire. This extre wire clears out CAN noise:
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/14293-vectrix-charger-evps-cpu-childboard-rework.
Yeah I've seen your post earlier, wasn't sure about the purpose of the extra wire. Can you tell me exactly which pins are connected? Not really clear on the pictures. Is it 'B5' in the connector and 2nd pin from the top right on the board?
Tamas
Check out new pictures..
Thanks for that. I'm a bit more confused now: that pin is B5 according to my connector - the numbers start from the left side (inside view, as per your picture).
This is from the other side (outside) of the connector:
Tamas
You're right, check again...