ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: adaviel on November 15, 2017, 01:34:11 PM
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Last week I'd been getting my FXS muddy and getting a bit low on charge, so proceeded to ride it home conservatively (about a steady 50kph). I started back on the road at something like 17% charge and it was steadily dropping the further I went. I'd done the math in my head to figure I'd just about make it when the bike suddenly died and went straight to 0% from 7%. It was quicker to push it the rest of the way home (3km) than beg a charge with the built-in charger.
What is other's experience ?
A few days later I made it home with 5%. Does the Zero normally drop smoothly to 0%, or fall off a cliff at some point? My Leaf starts beeping "charge now" and later the charge indicator starts flashing with about 15km to go out of 200, with according to others even more flashing when it's really low for a final chance to limp to a charger. Of course, that's harder to push...
Update: here's a plot (attached) from the bike logs. 15:00 I rode down the highway, 15:50 I rode back up, 16:10 I played in the mud and 16:20 I rode home.
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Well, so far I have been mostly lucky. I only very rarely went under 10%, and then the Zero worked as expected.
But there are other people who experienced similar problems like you and there is some argumentation that the % calculation is not very reliable. Some experts tend to recommend to use an additional volt meter to get a better understandung on what the charge left really is. however, the interpretation needs a lot of experience.
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2015 SR - last few percent go much faster than first few percent.
Outbound home @ 100% to intersection "A" is 84%
Inbound 16% at intersection "A" means gonna be dead before home.
Full SOC outbound figures do not match low SOC inbound.
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I was pondering the way Zero calculates the SOC whilst commuting, and thought the following: Unless they count coulombs (Actual number of electrons in/out) the SOC is a guesstimate based on cell voltage because that's the only variable that's easy available. But here's the catch, using theoretical numbers for ease-of-use: At 100% the voltage is 116V @ 100Ah, meaning ~11.6kWh capacity. But at 50%, the voltage is like 103V@50Ah = 5.15kWh which is not 50% but more like 45%. The bike runs on kWh, not V but V is used to guesstimate SOC... So if you use 6kW/100km you'd see the first 100km at around 55% SOC, and the other 100km from 55%-0%.
Just a brainfart, could be TOTALLY wrong ofcourse but hey, when the commute is boring you have to do something ;)
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My experience with my FXS is the charge percentage on the instrument panel goes from 2% straight to 0%. It skips 1% for some reason. I have had a couple of really close calls, but what I've discovered is that on my bike I still have some reserve power even when it reads 0%. I have been able to get a few extra miles out of it to make it home without completely running out of power. I've never run it down completely where it has died on me.
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The one time I took my 2014 S down to 0%, it did so 1% at a time. It ran about 25 mph at 1% and then came to a complete stop when it hit 0%.
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Last year my battery read out hit 0% three miles from home. I actually made it into my garage without issue but I can guarantee I was sweating all the way. Longest three miles of my life.
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Best plan, is to not get close to 0%, says a guy who used up his AAA tow budget, the extra RV version, a couple years in a row, and finally learned better.
Best plan is to get a rapid charging system, learn where the chargers are, especially the ones with cafes and libraries and shops and hiking nearby, and just plug in early and often. All the chargers charge faster in the upper range anyway (they limit by DC amps, and as the battery voltage goes up, P=IV means the watts go up too.)
IMHO