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[mdjak1]

Today my wife and I took my 2017 FXS modular 6.5 out for a ride.   I wanted to test its range.   We are in Florida.   We started at 100% and ended at 12%.  Our loop was along a beach road, then inland to a state road and home.   The total loop was 22 miles.   Our average speed was about 30 mph.  At no time did we exceed 50 mph.  We were in ECO mode the entire time.   Two up we are about 320 lbs.   And it was a very windy day today. 

When we got home I plugged in and the bike showed it would be fully charged in 3-1/2 hours.   This is using a charging cable modified to plug into a 220 volt outlet to supply the onboard charger.   Last time I tried to charge my bike on a 110 volt outlet with a different cable the onboard charger actually stopped charging after a minute and the bike never gave me any report on time to charge. 

Frankly, I was expecting more range.   It makes me wonder if one of the two packs are bad.    I suppose I could remove one pack and see what range I get with just a single pack. 

Beyond the range test, is there any way for an owner to see if the battery is bad or failing?   When I charge, I have a relatively small cell balance number (usually 3 to 10 MV).

The bike is new to me.    I have no relationship with the local dealer.   I do have a new onboard charger on order from AF1. 

In general, I don't really need much more range anyway as my rides are usually local.   The bike isn't particularly comfortable for my wife twoup either at this point.   But as it is still within the battery warranty, if the battery is out of spec, then I think it should get replaced. 


EDIT:   And after charging on 220 volts to about 70%, I plugged in the 110 volt cable and of course, it is charging on that cable now too.   Still reports the same time to full charge as when plugged in to 220 volts.

[MVetter]

It definitely sounds like one of the packs could have de-synched and not been active the entire time. Doing a capacity test on a Zero is actually fairly easy. Buy or borrow a Kill-A-Watt meter. Drain the bike all the way empty. Put the meter between the outlet and the bike and do a full charge. Report back here with how many kWh it added.

[victor6.7y]

It would also be possible to drive the bike until it does not go. and afterwhich check the BMS log. It will state the amount of AH that the ride will have used and with that a battery capacity.

thats how zero checked my battery healt

[mdjak1]

It definitely sounds like one of the packs could have de-synched and not been active the entire time. Doing a capacity test on a Zero is actually fairly easy. Buy or borrow a Kill-A-Watt meter. Drain the bike all the way empty. Put the meter between the outlet and the bike and do a full charge. Report back here with how many kWh it added.

I went out to get a Kill-A-Watt from my local Harbor Freight.  The bike was already over 70%.   Once I bought the Kill-A-Watt I figured why not run it to 0% by taking the long way home.   Part of that route was on a highway.   While on the highway I got the yellow temperature light.  Got home with 2%.   And of course, the bike doesn't want to charge on 110 or 220.   Probably due to the high temperature. 

While checking it, I noticed the front battery is quite warm.   But the rear battery is stone cold.   (remember it is modular 2 battery bike)   So either the rear pack is dead or de-synced???   If de-synced, is there anything I can do to fix it?

Further, I removed the rear battery and plugged in the little box to allow the bike to run on just the single battery.   There was no change in the display.  Still 2%.   I removed the front battery and put the rear battery in its place.   The display showed nothing when I turned the key.   It also wouldn't charge when I plugged it in. But it no longer had the yellow temperature light flashing.

So I put the front battery back in place.   Display then showed the 2% again.

Next up I will pull the BMS log and see how much power was used on the two rides.

[Crissa]

Sounds like that second battery pack is not happy.  Definitely take it in!

Wind is a bigger problem for the bike than weight, unless you're going up hills

-Crissa

[mdjak1]

Last time I checked it the bike was 68% charged and the Kill-A-Watt showed only 1.34 kWh applied.   At this rate the bike will only take about 2 kWh to get to 100%.   It does seem like the rear battery isn't recognized or being charged.  Even the battery that is recognized isn't putting out anywhere near the 3.25 kWh that it is supposed to have.

I did download the logs prior to charging but I'm not really sure what I should be looking for. 

[mdjak1]

Clearly one battery isn't working.   Bike is now 100%.  Kill-A-Watt shows 2.45 kWh fed into bike.   Front battery is warm.  Rear battery is stone cold. 

[Crissa]

The bike will not try to use or charge packs that have different voltages.

-Crissa

[mdjak1]

The bike will not try to use or charge packs that have different voltages.

-Crissa

Say the battery is still good but the issue is the different voltages.   Can this be fixed?  If so, how is this fixed?

[MVetter]

The BMS is supposed to take care of this. Basically it will try to re-synch during the charge process. What is SUPPOSED to happen is the charger will engage the lower of the two packs first. When that 'lower' pack is close enough to the other pack it will close the contactor on the second battery and charge them together.

It's possible that a freak accident happened and the rear pack is now too low to actually accept a charge, so the charger isn't even engaging it. Definitely sounds like something the dealer will need to take a look at.

Additionally, just for your own info, realistically expect to see ~2.65kWh from each single brick. They are 26Ah. To find Watt hours you multiply Amp hours by the nominal voltage. In this case, Zero's nominal voltage is 102vdc. 26Ah x 102V = 2652Wh = 2.65kWh

[mdjak1]

So another thing came to my mind on this.   Try to just charge the rear battery alone.   I removed the good front battery.  Put the "bad" rear battery in front.  Put the battery jumper box in the rear socket.  Then plugged in the charge cable.  I am getting 2 red flashes followed by 3 red flashes on the dash.   According to the manual, this is "Controller Area Network (CAN) Error", contact dealer. 

It doesn't seem to be drawing any significant wattage on the Kill-A-Watt, so I suspect there is a battery issue.  I'll leave it on the charger overnight and see.

[MVetter]

There's also those little lights on the BMS and the reset button. You might investigate those as well: https://zeromanual.com/wiki/BMS_Reset_Procedure

[mdjak1]

There's also those little lights on the BMS and the reset button. You might investigate those as well: https://zeromanual.com/wiki/BMS_Reset_Procedure

No lights on the rear battery.    Tried all the reset procedures.  Nothing.  Will contact the dealer this coming week to see when they can take it in.

[DonTom]

When the battery was crapping out on my 2017 DS under warranty, the most obvious symptom was the MUCH faster charging to full. Less than half the time. Also less than half the range. But charging has less variables, no wind, no hills, unlike when riding, so when a six KWH battery only has 3KWH capacity, it's a lot more obvious and consistent with the charging than by  the riding.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[mdjak1]

There's also those little lights on the BMS and the reset button. You might investigate those as well: https://zeromanual.com/wiki/BMS_Reset_Procedure

So this post is interesting because:

The dealer finally got around to looking at my FXS in conjunction with a tech at Zero (I guess they can look at the bike logs remotely) and they have come to the conclusion that the BMS board on my bike is bad and needs to be replaced.   

Do you know if the BMS is in the battery module itself on the modular FX/FXS?    The link above would lead me to believe that it is in the battery module.  Is the board that is in the battery a secondary BMS and there is a main BMS on the bike?