Hello out there. Does anyone know where I can borrow or buy a Vectrix trickle charger? My VX-1 battery pack was allowed to go below 80 volts when I was in the hospital and the on-board charger will no longer charge the bike. I don't feel competent enough to try to disassemble the bike and try to charge the batteries individually. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Support V is for Voltage
Hi Rob,
The charged voltage of a Vectrix Battery can be more than enough to cause severe injury or even result in death...
If you are not 100% sure of what you are doing, please don't try any of the following suggestions involving mains AC voltages or high DC battery voltages!
If you have the ESD charger it should be possible to use a pair of 13-21x1W 450mA LED power supplies to charge your dead battery without having to gain direct access the battery itself:
Check out this post for more details on accessing the ESD Battery supply connector.
Check out this thread for more information on the LED power supply setup shown above.
Alan
EDIT: URLs updated
I have one if you want
Thank you, Alan, for the quick response and the very helpful information. It looks like I might have access to a Vectrix trickle charger through Jim which will be my preferred method of rectifying my situation. If it doesn't work out, I might try your solution. Thanks again.
Steve
Thanks to everyone who responded to my request for help. Jim Lowder was a lifesaver. He and his charger helped me bring my VX-1 back to life and now I'm riding again.
Happy to help Sir.
Hi,
I think it could be much easier to resurrect any low-voltage VX1.
Simply plugin a 12V cigarette lighter socket in the glovebox, attach a 12V car battery and turn on the VX ignition key...
This would provide 12V voltage for all can-bus parts and systems to start operating and hence the charger should be working again when plugging in mains.
WARNING: I havent tried this yet but im pretty convinced it would work because attaching a 12V source directly to the motor controller at the output points of the DCDDC converter did provide me 12V on the socket so i assume it would work the other way around too.
===================================
My contribution to EV in The Netherlands
- Novox C20
- Vectrix VX-1 Li+ my2009 #2791
- Vectrix VX-1 Li my2011 #3228
- CityEl Fact4 / Mini El Cabrio
- Th!nk PIV4 A266
- Th!nk City A306
- Tesla Model3 AWD
I have tried this, unfortunately it does not work
The 12v socket is connected to the MC 12v powersupply, which is isolated from the chargers 12v
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
Hey Jim...
Looks like I've got a similar problem as RoverRob.
I'm wondering if I could borrow your trickle charger as RoverRob did? Of course, I'd be willing to pay for shipping to and from.
Thanks for considering... I'm hoping to get mine working again! And would love to get this done while it's still cool in colorado before the summer rolls along.
Warmest Regards... Thanks for being so helpful!!
Sure can sir
Just want to chime in and say that I finally built one of these and resurrected my VX-1!
My bike was sitting for approximately 5 years, unattended. When I measured the battery voltage, it was at 1.4V. I built the charger exactly as above from similar parts found on Amazon, which were about $7 each. To connect with the battery plug, I used some heavy gauge stranded copper wire that I had onhand, and was almost the same diameter as the plug needed. I tinned the end to make sure it didn't fray, and it then fit snugly, which was great.
I was very nervous about overheating/overcharging, so I checked the battery voltage frequently during charging. Upon connecting to the Vectrix, the voltage was seen to already be quickly rising, and after a few hours was at ~4.5V. I checked after about 12h and it was at ~137V so I disconnected the trickle charger and plugged in the mains power to kick in the builtin charger and she came back to life! I was very surprised that the voltage had risen so quickly.
After a quick top-off charge, I rode a bit but the red battery light came on quickly after about a mile and a half at top speed (~55mph). Upon reconnecting to mains charger, the onboard charger showed about 137V again.
I'm going to try cycling a few times to see if I can get the range back. If it doesn't come back, is battery replacement the only option?
Gentlemen, I had the same issue with my vx1. But after getting batteries up to 127 volts, main charger still would not engage. I removed my EDS charger and opened it and have a few burnt up components inside. What are my options from here. Thanks.
Hi all the pioneers,
Can someone help me to know, how high the Voltage can let trickle charger to charge the battery?
wait about two years now, finally got my hand on my 1st electric scooter, too much to learn.
cheers