I have two Vectrix's one 2007 and 2008. The 2007 was recently updated with the Oct 2008 software and now reads 30Ah battery capacity and indeed uses about 5.6kW for a full charge. The 2008 bike was updated when I first got it over a year ago. Its battery capacity reads 22.9Ah and pretty much tops out at 4.7Kw for a full charge. Accordingly, the range on the 2007 is about 25% better. I would like to reevaluate the battery on the newer bike. Has anyone used the "force capacity to 30Ah" or the "Restart Battery Cacaity Measurement" features in the software?
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No! not me...but if you elaborate on detail I will certainly give it a go
Hi,
Of course I have used the Force 30Ah and reset functions numerous times. Looking at the numbers you present I would begin to suspect a problem with a cell or two in the battery packs. 22.9Ah is quite low on a full recharge. Anything over 27Ah is acceptable but 28 to 30Ah is desirable. I would start by doing a memory dump and saving it for reference after having a look through it to see if any faults are identified. By the way the information is displayed as oldest first - newest last. This information can only be obtained through the laterst software version.
First, take the Bus Current Offset. It should be plus/minus 1.0 of 0 (zero).
Be sure to let the full charging process take place. It could take up to 8 hours to complete. After it is all done do a nother memory dump to see the numbers and if they have improved. Ride the bike for a few discharges and check the memory dump again. It should sort everything out. The 'fuel gauge' may be out of sync for the first recharge or two. Not to panic, it will recalibrate itself.
Cheers!
Doug Townley
info.DTES [at] gmail.com
(Formerly Vectrix Europe Technical Supervisor)
One door closes, another door opens
I did as you suggested. Bike went through an 11h charge cycle using 6.5KW. Range seems to have increased and the battery capacity shoes 30Ah. However, the bike does take longer for each charge and spends more time on the CC 3Ah part of the charging, I suppose having a hard time to actually achive the set capacity. The question is as to whether the "force 30Ah" remains in effect after this cycle or will the charger-battery gradually adjust to the actual capacity of the battery?
Three full discharges later and the Ah now read 19Ah and my range is down to 20 miles. So clearly my battery is failing. 15 months and 5000 miles, what a bummer!
One question, when you do a deep discharge and the battery is almost empty, is there a sharp increase in the internal temperature of the battery?
I drove it to empty yesterday. Started at 21C, midway through the ride about 25C ended at 28C with battery telltale on red. Ambient was about 21C. I have not checked the last couple miles in detail but could do so.
BTW, I reran the battery capacity measurement without force 30Ah. It now reads 21Ah, still a far cry from the 30Ah it should have. Certainly explains the limited range. I should also mention that the voltage overall runs a bit low. It starts at 134V but at 1/3 empty it already dropped to 130V, by the end the bike reads about 121V.
DELETED. I read it to fast.
Looks like a damaged cell. With the program can you check the internal vectrix voltage by groups of cells?
The program does not read the voltage of each bank but does read the temperature which I belive correspond to the position.
Mod Temp 1 4D….front top left?
Mod Temp 2 4D….front top right
Mod Temp 3 4D….front middle left
Mod Temp 4 4D….front middle right
Mod Temp 5 4D….front lower left
Mod Temp 6 4D….front lower right
Mod Temp 1 4E…..rear top left
Mod Temp 2 4E…..rear top right
Mod Temp 3 4E…..rear middle left
Mod Temp 4 4E…..rear middle right
Mod Temp 5 4E…..rear lower left
Mod Temp 6 4E…..rear lower right
I did notice two banks always reading higher namely 3 4D and 6 4D which both reached up to 41C on an equalization charge while all others topped out at 36C.