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Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: grandpa on October 05, 2017, 04:32:35 PM

Title: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: grandpa on October 05, 2017, 04:32:35 PM
Hello,

Since my last trackday, my battery charge indicator is mad.

During the trackday, everything was fine (except battery temp of course which raise to the "no more charging" limit, as it does for every previous track session).
At end of trackday, took a little time to charge, until 52% (i needed 35 to 50% to go to home).
So, i unpluged and gone to home. Did the 60km until home... check the battery => 48% left !
4% used for 60km ??? I checked with the android app => same result with more than 8000W of capacity.
I pluged the onboard charger, and 1 hour latter, battery charge indicator was a 30%(more realist)

I noticed that the bluetooth of the bike was active during all the travel, so, i had think that was a one time bug.

But it was not ! :(
Since this day, my battery % is going wrong almost all the time.

Each morning, I unplug onboard charger at 100%, go to work (60km again, usually drain 35% to 50% battery, depend of the traffic) and i can see a variable % left, sometime 75%, sometimes more than 80%.

I took a screenshot of the app : after 60km of highway, display 80% left, with 14.7 kW of left capacity ! (see bellow)

Does it appened to anyone else ? Is it a new bug since last zero firmware update ? (i did it this summer) Is it possible i broke something with my external fast charger ?

(https://snag.gy/Bnefvl.jpg)
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: grandpa on October 05, 2017, 05:04:35 PM
100% charged => 16kW  8)

Someone have mounted a power tank without telling me ?  :o

bike display and android app display same results (at least for the false % left)

(https://snag.gy/Lxvbh7.jpg)
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: Richard230 on October 05, 2017, 07:50:22 PM
I wish my 2014S, with its power tank, had that much kWh capacity.   :)  When fully charged it shows 13.32 kWh, but now my charger is acting up a bit and will only charge to 92% @ 115 volts, before shutting down for the day.  Then it wakes up every day afterward and charges another 2% until it finally reaches 100% charge 4 days later.  ??? The app agrees with the display.  So I don't have the same issue that you do, but there does appear to be a random bug floating around during the charging operation with some of our chargers.    ::)
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: jnef on October 05, 2017, 09:15:54 PM
Hi,

This seems very similar to my recent problem in this thread: http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=7390.0.  Similarly started with a partial charge, and then getting stuck at ~50%.  In my case, the SOC gauge still shows significant charge even though the pack is fully drained, so be careful.

I owe the bike to the dealer for debugging, but haven't gotten it over to them yet.

Jon
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: grandpa on October 05, 2017, 09:25:01 PM
wow, bad news. This firmware version seem very bugged, but I hope i will not have to upgrade again the firmware, there is one bug i love ;)
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: Richard230 on October 06, 2017, 03:52:30 AM
wow, bad news. This firmware version seem very bugged, but I hope i will not have to upgrade again the firmware, there is one bug i love ;)

My firmware is 3.5 years out of date. It has never been updated. ;)
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: Electric Terry on October 06, 2017, 11:23:22 AM
I tell everyone over and over, don't even bother looking at the SOC % on the dash if you don't want to, just use the battery voltage.  That will never lie, and never be incorrect.  It's the only metric you need once you learn how the discharge curve works which you understand pretty quick.  Everyone's life will be easier once the battery voltage is displayed on the dash or on the app which I hope will be coming soon.   If not many people use a hack.  Exit out of the run screen while riding.  Press the Zero app again, app will say "connection to bike restored" click ok, press the battery screen, scroll to the bottom and you get real time voltage through the app.  Resting voltage under 97 volts and you are getting close.  93 volts should be considered empty.  88 is as low as you can get but that means many miles under 20 mph.  there is less than 1% between 93 and 88.  116 is full and 102-103 is 50%.  You'll figure it out quick.  Once you do you'll wonder why you haven't been using this all along.
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: Doug S on October 06, 2017, 08:07:11 PM
I tell everyone over and over, don't even bother looking at the SOC % on the dash if you don't want to, just use the battery voltage.  That will never lie, and never be incorrect.  It's the only metric you need once you learn how the discharge curve works which you understand pretty quick.

Terry, you know I agree with you on that point, but that very fact implies that a far more reasonable SoC indication should be available based solely on cell voltage. Somehow, the firmware on the bike takes a pretty reliable indication of SoC (cell voltage) and makes it worse. If they went only by battery voltage with first-order corrections based on battery temperature and instantaneous charge/discharge current, that should result in a very reasonably accurate and useful number. Instead, their number is so bad our only realistic option is to ignore it.

Buggy/bad firmware is a fact of life in the modern world, but there are levels of defects, and the severity of the bugs is supposed to IMPROVE as revisions are made. It seems like Zero's firmware and app upgrades often just make things worse. Their firmware is shoddy almost to the point of being negligent, and improving it doesn't seem to be much of a priority. You'd think with their proximity to "silicone" valley they'd have access to better firmware engineers than they seem to.
Title: Re: Battery % indicator completelly wrong
Post by: grandpa on October 06, 2017, 09:13:32 PM
just use the battery voltage.
So easy when i'm riding :-p

Resting voltage under 97 volts and you are getting close.  93 volts should be considered empty.  88 is as low as you can get but that means many miles under 20 mph.  there is less than 1% between 93 and 88.  116 is full and 102-103 is 50%.

Very user friendly and so easy to remember  :o

But i will use your indications next time i travel, to check if the voltage is correct  ;)