Hi, my 2007 vectrix stopped charging two bars shy of full and after a ride I plugged it in and it now will not charge at all (it has about 1/3 charge remaining.) I ride it year round (Bay Area, CA) so it hasn't been dormant and it has over 11K miles on it. What are my options these days for getting this fixed?
thanks!
jack
Jack,
My charger went. I called and emailed everyone I could, including the factory in Poland. Finally Vectrix's Service manager contacted me, drove 6 hours to my house and fixed the scooter. He's busy travelling all over the country so responses could be erratic. It's best to try his email, then his cell phone:
Dana A DeCosta
Manager of Field Service & Logistics
Vectrix Corporation
55 Barnet Blvd
New Bedford, MA 02745
508-717-6510 508-717-6510
774-209-9503-cell
ddecosta [at] vectrix.com
Good Luck
You might wanna encrypt that email address or above gentleman's email inbox will be exposed to spam bots.
Jack, I'm experiencing a similar problem.
During next charge check if the voltage of your battery reaches the same voltage of the charging program (cc-151, cc-153 etc)
The number of the charging program shows the safe voltage limit, if it is reached the systems halts the charge for 15 minutes, and it will try to charge 2 times more. If the safe limit is reached again, the charge stops and it is not completed.
check also if the battery temperature rises very quickly during a full discharge, or during the end of the charging program (CC)
If your vectrix behaves like that, your battery may be damaged.
Why the safe voltage is reached so quickly? Some cells of your battery could have collapsed-got some damage, unbalancing the voltage of the pack, and reducing useful capacity of the battery.
Because the system tries the insert the same Ah capacity that the battery had before the cell's damage, the battery gets full before expected and safe limit is reached. With a BMS, this kind of problems would never have happened.
After some charges the vectrix's system may get used to new capacity, the only thing yo'll have to keep in mind is that your battery is probably damaged, so yo'll have less range. If you don't expect a warranty battery replacement avoid full discharges, your battery will be stable, but if you need full discharges, your battery will collapse quickly.
I'm waiting for any news about a probable/possible vectrix's lithium BMS upgrading pack...
R:
I've made a small graph to show how unbalanced cells affect the rest of the cells:
When de battery is new, all cells are equally levelled, with the same capacity.
When a damaged battery is discharged, the damaged cells go into low voltage and get more damage. The bad cells heat up.
When it is charged, the good cells are overcharged and also got damage. the good cells heat up.
The equalization tries to level all cells into equal voltage. But after one discharge, the cells with reduced capacity get unbalanced again, because they get empty before. Without BMS, there's no way to save the battery.
Sorry, I'm not a native english speaker.
Does it mean that the battery will not charge to "all" capacity?
I think that the problem here is that the charger does not even start.
Once you go EV, Gas is history!
Yes, the bike is not charging or even attempting to do anything at all including the fan. Also the last time it charged was at home (when it didn't quite fill) and then I rode it to work where it does nothing when plugged in so I don't believe it is related to the electrical outlet as the strange behavior has happened with both.
jack
Again, sounds like the problem I had when my charger went.
Using a meter, I did a continuity check from the tips of the AC plug to the connector on the charger in the front wheel well. This verified the AC power cable was fine and power was getting to the charger. The bike would run fine, but plugging the bike into the wall yielded no response. Swapping out the charger fixed the problem.
Someone has also suggested that this could be a fuse issue. Does this sound possible and how could I check on that? (I'm still trying to get a hold of Dana..)
If it were the fuse, your bike wouldn't turn on at all.
I have experienced this aswell,
it happened after riding through heavy rain.
though my charger started working again after a few hours.
I too think your charger has failed.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km