Battery revisted

I decided to try messing with the charging on the bike rather than cracking into the battery box and measuring all the cells.

I decided to run an earlier version of the charger software even though is charges slightly lower than what I have been running. Since that was not working I thought not much to lose.

I loaded the software and found an issue in the motor controller software not reporting properly.

I loaded the 68 Mph motorcontroller software and the charger software, the bike now charges to 153 volts.

Since all the software in interactive, I may have found the charge problem.

I can now go 68 miles per hour and got rid of my red battery light.

I did lose the battery bar graph display, but the cycle analyst handles that information.

I will do some test trips and see if all is well.

I had a full charge and a nice day, so I decided to test the range to see how things are working.
I drove with some hard accel, I strapped on some things from the store and a 50lb bag of softener salt.
After dropping that off I drove at 50-55 mph and mixed speeds.
I ended with 108 watt hours a mile, used 33.47 AH, 43.6 miles.

 

The range seems to have dropped slightly from last year, but very close.

I couldn't charge on arrival at home, high temp and battery lights were on, showed

36C about 97 degrees F. things all good after a brief cooldown.

I wouldlike to get a fan in the battery box, I think it could help.

New addition

 While the Vectrix has a generous amount of storage under the seat, there is never enough room on a motorcycle to carry things.

I was able to find a color matched mount for a top case on Ebay and picked it up for a reasonable price.

I could have drilled holes in the original part and made something work, but I was happy to find the original Vectrix parts.

The kit contained the paint matched tail cover and sub mount for a hard case, including brackets, spacers bolts to do the job.

 It was a bit confusing at first, the instructions were impossible to read, the picture of the install allowed me to sort out the spacers and brackets.


It fit well and looked very clean when complete, better than I could have fabricated in a reasonable time frame.

I had purchased a aftermarket hard case from an ebay vendor that is removable with the flip af a key.

Quality seems fair to good, I do like that I can remove and take the box with me or use the mount as a rack to strap an item down.

While not the most stylish, I will find the space useful I am sure.

Bad Cell?

Following the cold weather and putting the charger on the bike when the voltage dropped to 139, I noticed the charged standing voltage is lower than last fall. I charged the bike and saw voltage of 144v but it dropped off to 140 shortly after the charger stopped. 

I decided to run the battery down a bit to cycle it a bit, I did notice more sag and reduced range.

It looks as if I will have to dig in to the battery and see if I have a bad cell or 2. I have a lot of spares but had hoped I would not have to take it apart so soon.

I still haven't installed the new trunk, too many projects and too little time, maybe when I have it down for the battery service it will get done.