My vectrix died today. Main fuse?

Others, that reported, that their main fuse blew, said that when it did, the lost all the power, not just moving power, but everything and that their speedometer remained that the speed when it blew.

R, it isn't possible for anything electrical on your entire bike to be functioning, if the main fuse is blown. You'll just have to wait until Mik or one of the other EE types come along and tell you the possibilities of what your problem might be. I can tell you that it isn't the main fuse, though. You also could try reading through the Vectrix "handbook" on this site that Mik has been putting together for a couple of years now. Good luck.

Maybe a 'hard' reset (disconnecting and reconnecting the battery) is all it needs. But you should let a professional do that.

Maybe a 'hard' reset (disconnecting and reconnecting the battery) is all it needs. But you should let a professional do that.

Especially since not reconnecting it properly sometimes blows the main fuse!

Yeah, reconnecting main power without an inrush current limiter will likely blow your fuse. Unless you're up for building your own to untested specs, I'd not do it yourself.

Yeah, reconnecting main power without an inrush current limiter will likely blow your fuse. Unless you're up for building your own to untested specs, I'd not do it yourself.

Well, rather we should discuss further the ones with some testing already done.

Like the ones which can be found here: http://visforvoltage.org/book/ev-collaborative-hand-books/6739 ,

especially the light globe design shown here: http://visforvoltage.org/book/ev-collaborative-hand-books/6155

I hope we will get much comments about this now that we have insiders posting, because I heard it on the grape-wine that such a device has been used by VUK routinely, but they were not allowed to tell anyone else!

thanks for the answers. Can it be possible that when the bike started to fail the fuse was almost blown but still enabled a pretty small and intermitent contact before defenitive melting??

I don't think the fuse opens like that.

But there might be some charge in capacitors which could possibly be enough to fool the electronics into the false impression that the battery is connected. But it is unusual that it tries to boot several times.

When the fuse in my first Vectrix blew the display looked as if it was booting up for a second or a few, then the needle froze during going up.

But when the second and third fuse opened, everything just stopped without any further signs of life.

I'm somewhat confused on this. The bike doesn't go when the throttle is twisted although the go light is steady on. But I am need to better understand about the LCD tilt (flash?) and the 50, 80, 120... is this the speedometer needle doing this? Finally, when you say it died, do you mean there is now nothing happening? No dashboard at all? If you plug the bike in to charge, does the light in the trunk come on or the bike start to charge? Let me knnow and I'll do what I can to help diagnose this problem.

Cheers,
Doug

My vectrix died today!
I was riding troght balmes street, and suddently I lost power.
Cheked with a glance all displays, and everything looked normal, with the go on. BUt get no power when twisting.
After a while all lcd display started to tilt furiously, and 3-4 secons after started a check up and stoped to 50, then started againand stopped to 80, and restarted to reach 120 and definetively died...
In my opinion, the problem can be the main fuse. What do you think?

I am sorry to hear that...

Occasionally, when a fuse fails, instead of failing completely (open circuit) it becomes a high resistance connection. It can conduct enough current to slowly charge up the MC caps. When the voltage on the caps reaches the lower threshold of the 12V DC/DC converter the 12V comes on, powers all the 12V stuff (dash) which quickly discharges the caps to the lower threshold again and the 12V turns off. Depending on the state of the fuse this can happen once or several times and may happen each time you cycle the key. Other times it opens completely when it fails and thats the end of it (speedo stuck at the last speed).

As X Vectrix has explained so well (thanks Dave!) the problem is the fuse and hopefully the dealer has some in stock to get you back on your Vectrix quickly.

The reason I asked all the questions was to eliminate the possibility of the throttle coming out of alignment which will cause the bike not to go but you would have constant power to the dash, etc.

And please don't take any offence to my questions. I know we have people on this forum from all over the world and language translation will always cause some problems. So it is always best to ask rather than guess!

R, as you now the best thing you can do is take it to repair, as your warranty is still valid, but i recomend : Que vayas a SUZUKA en Badalona, segun los de Madrid estan mas preparado para trabajar en mantenimiento de motos y no como Oriol que sabe mas de coches, esto es lo que me dijeron por telefono.
Transalation = go to the other dealer in Barcelona, which are better prepared, i was told this by the head office in Madrid.
Raj

Occasionally, when a fuse fails, instead of failing completely (open circuit) it becomes a high resistance connection. It can conduct enough current to slowly charge up the MC caps. When the voltage on the caps reaches the lower threshold of the 12V DC/DC converter the 12V comes on, powers all the 12V stuff (dash) which quickly discharges the caps to the lower threshold again and the 12V turns off. Depending on the state of the fuse this can happen once or several times and may happen each time you cycle the key. Other times it opens completely when it fails and thats the end of it (speedo stuck at the last speed).

Thanks for that! It makes a lot of sense (much more than my usual half-truths...)!

...

"The latest versions now have a 200ah fuse fitted instead of a 125ah and this is what we have been fitting if we do get a failure".

Is that true? In case my vectrix needs to get a new fuse, the spanish warranty should upgrade my dead 125Ah fuse to 200Ah one, or I'll have to get used at getting my fuse replaced every year;-)? ( by the way, if the problem is the fuse, this would be the second one that melts in my motorbike!!)
...

The 200A versions of these fuses might be a lot easier to get than the 125A ones!

At least the 100A and the 150A versions are standard items in many fuse shops. The 125A version does not seem to get used a lot, they had to actually make one for me at the factory. That took several weeks, so I ordered a 150A fuse and had it the next day. That was 18 months ago, and even when the 125A fuse finally arrived I left the 150A fuse in there.

I wish I knew if I had a 200 amp fuse fitted when mine failed at 2000 miles.

As I'm approaching 4000 miles, it would really give me some peace of mind. I'm expecting to be dumped at the side of the road each time I go out these days.

Yes R, i agree Oriol is good at his work but he is simply overloaded, the thing is that everyone is recomneding me to go to Suzuka, although its not very convenient for me, too far but possible. I still have to take it to Oriol at least once more for him to have a look at the new gearbox after 1.000kms, and that will be tomorrow!!!
About the next meeting , yes i have seen the poster and it looks very good, lets see if we get some new owners.
My Vec is working fine. Ill give you a call tomorrow and we can talk all these matters, Fuse,Suzuka,my gearbox revision and the meeting.
RaDy

It was cool that we spoke on the phone to get updated. i just wanted to mention here that my gearbox got an oil replacement and that everything seems to work fine.
Unfortunately i am going to Madrid for work and i wont be able to attend the meeting.
One thing i will try to do in Madrid is find some spare time to go over to the Dealer there and ask him for a replacement of the throttle!!

Had I known that earlier, I would have told my dealer to replace the fuse with the 200A one , when I had the bike for repair, at my own cost. At my next visit, I will do that along with other checkups and stuff.

When my battery was replaced I paid 70 EUR for checkup and stuff. I didn't understand him, what he did, 'cos I don't speak Italian. Is it possible, that he replaced the fuse by himself? I noticed that the two holes in the frame, above the front wheel, got duct taped. Maybe he also replaced the fuse?

I will. In other thread people (Mik and a Vectrix tech) were talking about it. It's in the alu frame, above the front wheel, if you look up. There are 2 large holes. Through these, splashes of water can come into a battery compartment. Mik asked if the holes could be duct taped and the tech said that he has it duct taped on his. Then I checked my bike and noticed duct tape over these two holes. I guess my repair engineer did that as a part of checkup.

Edit: I found it: http://visforvoltage.org/forum/7213-battery-light-flashing#comment-41386