Service, upgrade and musings

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Wotnopetrol
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Service, upgrade and musings

Hi Guys,

Just an update and a bit of V info that may be useful/entertaining.

I posted a while back that my Vectrix died a few months ago.

It started to surge, brake and make some horrid noises while on my way to work. I limped it there by rebooting every 30 metres or so (before the regen came on again and stopped me) and had to have it recovered to my home after work.
I contacted Steve Scott who did send a technician to sort it out. It took a some time and was 5 months off the road, but I understand Steve has a lot of things going on so no complaints, but very glad to get the bike back on the road and in daily use again.

Unfortunately I was at work when the technician came so was not really able to talk much about the bike to him, only a brief conversation on the phone while he was finishing up.
I was informed that I now have the 68mph software installed and that the fault was caused by a trapped encoder wire wearing through and of course that would really upset the whole encoder thing from working properly. The throttle was recalibrated, as was the encoder.

So the instructions were to run it down to the red light twice and fully recharge for the range-O-meter to recalibrate itself.

This I did, though did get dumped at the side of the road, almost.

I rode into London from the suburbs, about 8 miles, and then to run the pack down to the red light as required, I took a detour on the way home. I was 8 miles away when the red light came on! This was after just 12 miles. Yes I know (now) that I should have gone gingerly at first, but my battery pack has always been brilliant. 50 miles max range from the original firmware, 40 from the next release, so I thought I'd got plenty of range despite the range-O-meter not being callibrated yet.
What I didn't take into consideration was the lazy battpack syndrome after a storage time of 5 months, even though I maintenance charged once a month.

My trip home was interesting. The V, bless it's heart carried me on for about 5 miles slowly further on until I got to the start of the (420 foot over 2 miles) climb to the top of the hill I had to get over.
Thinking, "If I can just get it up the hill, I can roll the mile or so down the other side and coast home."
No chance, the V wouldn’t climb at all. A two hour (on average) wait for tow truck recovery was contemplated until I decided to see if it would pull it's sorry discharged @rse up and over the hill.

To my utter amazement it kept me at a jog all the way up the hill, and due to the silence of operation at that speed, people were looking at me in amazement probably thinking I was Bionic or something!!

Of course the huge "ELECTRIC" lettering on the sides with the bike presumably out of power did bring a lot of jeering and smart @rse comments like, "Need some new Duracells mate?" and other such witty outbursts had me removing my jacket and securing it over the telltale and usually oh so smug decals. The witticisms stopped as now I was merely an idiot on an ICE scoot who forgot to fill up. Much easier for the EV sceptics to cope with.

I eventually got to the top of the hill and with immense relief started to coast down the other side. The V even had enough power to get me started on my descent and soon was regenning happily. A quick left turn and crawl for a few hundred yards had me home and within reach of a friendly power socket. Made it!

The total miles run was just 24, but now after a few recharges has now risen to a range of 30 miles and is still rising very gradually, as is the end of charge voltage. It seems to be taking a while to chase away the lazy battery syndrome, but it is increasing all the time.

I’m still not sure if the 68mph software restricts us further in range or performance as the batteries are still improving, and of course 5 months of deterioration by time alone may have affected their capacity somewhat.
The red light certainly comes on earlier with loads of range and bars left than it ever did before. The red light used to come on at 2 bars left, now it’s on at around 5 bars left.

Still enjoying the V!!!

Cell Propelled
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Re: Service, upgrade and musings

Well done, and yes, we love them so,.........an electric spark at first site!

anyway,..refresh me on the reboot, why, and how. I live in Nebraska, USA, so storage went from Nov.1st, to April., that's 5 months for me too. What is this lazy-Eyed scoundreled battery syndrome that you speak of.

Stu

AndY1
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Re: Service, upgrade and musings
Wotnopetrol
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Re: Service, upgrade and musings

Simon

R
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Re: Service, upgrade and musings

This part is interesting:


Permanent loss of capacity
Deep discharge

Some rechargeable batteries can be damaged by repeated deep discharge. Batteries are composed of multiple similar, but not identical, cells. Each cell has its own charge capacity. As the battery as a whole is being deeply discharged, the cell with the smallest capacity may reach zero charge and will "reverse charge" as the other cells continue to force current through it.

Deep discharges are recommended to prevent memory effect, but every time you do a deep discharge, the cell with the smallest capacity may get permanent damage.

myvectrix2008
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Re: Service, upgrade and musings

I had the 110km/h upgrade towards the end of last year.

As always, my Vectrix has been fantastic and (apart from a blown 125A fuse at 6 months old) it has never let me down. With the new software and 12,400 miles currently on the clock, my red battery light now illuminates at 1-2 bars, meaning I have limited range and power remaining. It probably helps that my daily commute uses anywhere between 12-16 bars depending on the weather, temperature and how hard I ride. This is followed by a set delay of 3.5 hours before a full recharge until switch off.

I'm hoping to get my money's worth out of this battery and may look at upgrading to LiFePo4 at some point in the future.

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