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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: rider7 on January 26, 2017, 08:13:24 AM

Title: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: rider7 on January 26, 2017, 08:13:24 AM
Hi group,

I have had my 2017 DSR for two weeks now and already had my first plastic surgeon's appointment to discuss how we can get this permanent grin off my face again.
This thing is like a sleek cat on drugs....
Unbelievable how many of my constantly me bugging issues regarding traffic literally disappeared in thin air due to this marvel of electrical engineering.
Thank you Zero Team this vehicle is a game changer.

Now, I have a question for everybody.

I ride 5 miles to work in the morning and use 6%.
The other day, I got on the bike after 8-9 hours of work and I had 98% in it.
I chalked it off to the temperature increase that day here in TX. It got quite warm during the afternoon.
Now, today, it was the other way around, it was cooler towards the afternoon and that quite significantly.
When I got on my bike, I didn't pay attention to the SOC, I drove about 2 miles to the gym, and once I was done and rode off, I still had 98 % which I for sure didn't have in the tank when leaving work, since I cannot make it to work on 2%.

Is this the DSR prototype with self charging battery?  ;D

Anybody else noticed this?
Maybe it is because it's new, but last I checked, unless temperature is to blame, SOC doesn't go backwards.

Is it maybe how the BMS is calculating SOC new when turned on after a while?

I am curious if you guys have an explanation for this.

Rider7
Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: BrianTRice@gmail.com on January 26, 2017, 09:30:10 AM
The state of charge indication for 2016 bikes (and I assume 2017) is fuzzy above 96%. Also, the cells will indicate lower immediately after a ride than when you turn them on again later.

One factor is that the cells have internal resistance so the voltage at the terminals is lower while riding and then comes back up after stopping. The BMS is probably biased to recent measurements so takes a while to re-settle. This is one way to eek out an extra mile or two when the bike reaches low SoC, although that really applies more to earlier models.

In any case, it's a mix of measurement and chemistry.
Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: Ndm on January 26, 2017, 07:12:04 PM
I had the same thing happen , stopped at home depot about 5 kms away and when I came back out I was at 100%, my intuition tells me magic pixie ninjas charged it while I was away ;D
Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: Richard230 on January 26, 2017, 09:07:09 PM
Here is an additional off-the-wall comment:  My 2014S, when charging, stops at 98 percent, then turns back on again about 30 hours later and finishes charging (and I assume balancing) to 100%. I put the charger on my Kill-A-Watt meter the other day and noticed that last 2% pumped a pretty decent amount of power (at the wall) into the battery pack. That day I had run my pack down to 82%, and it took exactly 2 kWh to reach 98% on the battery charge meter.  Most of the time it was charging at 12 amps.  Later, when the charger turned on again, it started charging at 6 amps, and when the meter reached 100%, the K-A-W showed that an additional 0.5 kWh had been sucked out of the wall. That last 2% seems to represent a pretty substantial amount of power going into the pack.   ??? 

In any case, while the Zero's charge meter isn't 100% accurate, it sure is a lot more accurate than any IC motorcycle gas gauge that I have ever seen.   :)
Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: NEW2elec on January 26, 2017, 09:18:45 PM
I had the same thing happen , stopped at home depot about 5 kms away and when I came back out I was at 100%, my intuition tells me magic pixie ninjas charged it while I was away ;D

Are you sure you didn't install a wind turbine making a perpetual motion machine. :)
Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: Electric Cowboy on January 27, 2017, 03:31:53 AM
Check your voltage. It's always more accurate

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: Electric Cowboy on January 27, 2017, 03:32:08 AM
Full is 116v

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Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: rider7 on January 27, 2017, 07:27:51 AM
Ah, you guys are awesome with your replies, but you also took the magic out of the self charging new model that I though I was a secret beta tester for   :D

Well, it all makes sense what you are saying.

I didn't check my voltage so far.
I generally dislike using any Bluetooth connections since for some reason I never had the luck to not have them lose connection so many times that I am simply too pissed to use them.
I only set my custom settings though the phone and that's it.
And I am tired of trouble shooting connections like this, I trouble shoot all day long at work.
But sorry, I am digressing.... different topic, different time.

But, yes, I'll check my voltage just out of curiously.

Thanks again for y'all's input.

Rider7
Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: Curt on January 27, 2017, 01:44:07 PM
My 2016 FX does at least four weird things:

1) The same thing you're describing; sometimes the SoC reads reads higher after it's been off for a while.

2) Sometimes the SoC immediately drops by ~5% when I plug it in.

3) When I returned after a week's vacation and it was plugged in the whole time, it was only at 90%.

4) Sometimes when I plug it in and the charge is in the 90's, after it reaches 100% the trip meter has not been reset to 0.0.
Title: Re: My bike charges itself :) Known phenomenon?
Post by: Richard230 on January 27, 2017, 08:59:21 PM
My 2016 FX does at least four weird things:

1) The same thing you're describing; sometimes the SoC reads reads higher after it's been off for a while.

2) Sometimes the SoC immediately drops by ~5% when I plug it in.

3) When I returned after a week's vacation and it was plugged in the whole time, it was only at 90%.

4) Sometimes when I plug it in and the charge is in the 90's, after it reaches 100% the trip meter has not been reset to 0.0.

Noe of that makes any sense to me as my 2014S has none of those issues and the battery charge meter functions exactly as you would expect.  The only exception being that it will drop one or two percent when turned back on after stopping during a ride - hardly a big deal. It has never done any strange things since I put the bike in operation three years ago.  You would think that the newer models would be at least as good when calculating the battery charge level by now, not more confused.   ???