HELP W GIO FALCON ELECTRIC SCOOTER

HELP W GIO FALCON ELECTRIC SCOOTER

I have a Gio Falcon, brand new from dealer only 2 months old, this model ;

https://gvabrands.com/collections/electric-scooters/products/falcon

Has ben running great until yesterday, was out at a restaurant, battery was fully charged when I left
to go to restaurant, was only in place for 40 mins, when I came back out bike would not turn on.
No power, no horn, no lights, panel display did not power on

Ended up having to physically walk bike home, did not have pedals on bike at time.

On the way home, a couple of times there were hills, when I went down a hill, I could see the LED panel display with the
spedometer etc, LED battery charge visual display, signal light indicator, erratically light up - flashing on and off
but when at bottom of hill would all go dark again

When I got home tried to charge battery up, but it was close to full so it didnt charge long - tried turning it on again
and still nothing

Read manual trouble shooting section for things to try ;

opened bike seat and looked at fuse box, switch was turned to off position, I tried to turn it to the on position
and bike emitted a loud alarm sound, beeping, and then it switched it self back to the off position, fuse box will
not stay in the on position

called the dealer and they had no meaningful answers, they are a long ways away so its a real challenge for me to have to
port it back to them

any ideas as to why this is happening and how to fix?

docstar77 said:

On the way home, a couple of times there were hills, when I went down a hill, I could see the LED panel display with the
spedometer etc, LED battery charge visual display, signal light indicator, erratically light up - flashing on and off
but when at bottom of hill would all go dark again

Click to expand...

That indicates there's no power from the battery itself, but the motor is generating power when forced forward fast enough, and the system is powering up from that.

When I got home tried to charge battery up, but it was close to full so it didnt charge long - tried turning it on again
and still nothing

Click to expand...

Are you sure the battery is full, or that the battery is disconnected or so far dead that it will not allow a charge? In those cases, teh charger will appear to try to run, then when it doesn't detect current flowing, it will shut off as if the battery was full.

If the scooter was left on (or someone turned on it's lights, or something) while you were not present, long enough, it could totally drain the battery. If the battery has a BMS, it *should* prevent overdischarge...but sometimes they don't stop discharge in time, and allow a cell or cells to reach a point below safe recharge level, so the BMS refuses to allow the battery to be charged anymore (to prevent a fire).

If it does not have a BMS, then the battery could literally discharge so far the charger itself can't recharge it; it appears as a short to the charger so the charger shuts off to protect itself, and it can also look like a normal end of charge (even though it isn't).

opened bike seat and looked at fuse box, switch was turned to off position, I tried to turn it to the on position
and bike emitted a loud alarm sound, beeping, and then it switched it self back to the off position, fuse box will
not stay in the on position

Click to expand...

If there's a circuit breaker (not fuse--a fuse blows and has to be replaced) that won't stay set, then that means there is a short circuit somewhere past the point the breaker is wired. You can visually trace out and draw a diagram of exactly where the wires go from each side of the breaker, if you can see the wires, and knowing where they go you can find out what might be shorted out.

Someone could've tampered with the scooter and tried to cut a wire, and shorted them together, while you weren't at the scooter. You may want to look closely at all the wiring that can be accessed without opening up the scooter; see if any of it looks damaged.

Something could've overheated on your ride there, and then staying hot because of no airflow, it could've failed in a way that shorted things out.

What is the alarm sound from / mean? The dealer has to at least know that much.


What *exactly* was the entire sequence of events from starting the ride to the place it stopped working at, and the moment it ceased to work? If you think that thru and write it down it may help you find the issue. Anything at all might be helpful...you don't have to post it here if you don't want to, as long as it helps you figure it out.

Thanks very much for the reply, checked the battery with a voltmeter and it appears to be charged

The circuit breaker wont stay set to on - your idea of a short circuit makes sense to me, I have a diagram of circuit
and took the battery casing / seat off to look around - I wondered about tampering, I live in a small town where
according to law officials Im totally ok to ride around but unfortunately a lot of the locals are just ignorant
and obnoxious and they just plain dont like seeing me riding around - very weird to get hassled just because
Im riding an ebike, literally get yelled at by chimps driving trucks, my guess is they dont like the fact I dont get stopped
in road construction but they do, you can almost see the veins on their necks popping as I just motor by

Took your advice and tried to follow the cables / wiring, looking to see if anything was snipped by some a@@ hat,
but couldnt see anything that stood out, all connections look ok, cant see any corrosion anywhere

We've had excessive amounts of rain here locally for an abnormally long period of time, I didnt bother covering the bike
most of the time cos I thought, for a $2000.00 bike youd think it would be made rain proof? So am wondering
if something has happened from the rain, also occasionally I hit a few speed bumps going around 30 k and wondered
if something might have come unplugged but cant see anything so far. Would of course prefer to get it serviced by
a pro but the only place is way to far and I dont have any way of getting it there, would cost over the top amounts of cash to have them come out, get it, fix it then bring it back so am hoping I can fix it myself

I did not take the battery right out of the bike but only looked around it, big battery not easy to remove, and its odd cause it looks
like there are two batteries stacked on each other

you asked ; "What is the alarm sound from / mean? The dealer has to at least know that much. "

Dont know, but when I had to push the thing home as I was pushing it it kept making a whistling beeping sound which Im
guessing is some kind of anti-theft alarm, when I try to switch the breaker it makes the same sound

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS ;

Mid pm, charged battery for a couple of hours, rode about 2 km to restaurant, no issues, had headlight on

At restaurant, turned bike off, normally the headlights and all lights turn themselves off whether I do manually or not

Went in to eat, there for about 40 mins, came back, turned bike on, no power, nothing....

Have noticed tho, that when I flip breaker to on and if i hold it there and wait till beeping stops breaker will stay in
on position, then if i turn ignition on right after that the hud, control panel as shown here ( between handle bars)
https://kelownaeride.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Gio-Falcon-5.png

Will light up as if power is coming back on, but then it just dies out fades away within a second or two

After it dies, does your battery still read full? At the battery? While still connected to teh scooter?

If there's two batteries stacked up, with a single thick wire connecting the two, and a single thick wire off each of them (for a total of two) to elsewhere in the scooter, then they are probably SLA (lead acid).

These usually have slide-on connectors, so you can unplug and replug these, which might fix the dying problem, if it's corrosion or oxidation on those.

Similarly, you can unplug and replug every connector there is on the scooter, to do the same for those.

If the breaker can be set on by holding it, it's not a short. If it was, you'd get a fire (or at least melting wires), and still no lights / etc on the scooter.

If you were able to hold it and make it stay on once, it should operate normally every time after that. If it doesn't, then something else is happening, and perhaps the breaker is either not a breaker, or it is defective, and unable to hold itself on anymore (broken catch, etc).

IT could also be that the breaker is actually "popped" internally, so no longer making a connection, but staying latched anyway. It still wouldn't be a short that's causing it, because there's enough power in the controller/DC-DC capacitors to let stuff light up for a second or two.

If you can attach the wiring diagram to your post using the attachments tab, we can go thru it and suggest points to test with your meter.

Thanks very much for your reply and help, I have placed schematics and related
manual page and notes at this link ; http://soundofstars.org/gioebike.htm

When I turn ignition on after flipping breaker, panel comes on for seconds and appears
to show battery full, but the whole panel seems to be blinking so cant tell what its
actually saying for sure, but looks like a full battery indicator
am pretty sure they are lead acid batteries

the battery connectors look like they are screwed in
it has been unusually humid with crazy amounts of rain here

will try your suggestion of unplugging and plugging back in battery connectors

breaker acts weird, it wont always 'stay' when I press it to on, it defaults to off position,
if i flip to on, it alarms, and then usually flips back to off, in some cases when i flip
it to on and hold it there it will stay, the led control panel display only flickers on
for moments when i flip breaker with ignition off, then turn key after

docstar77 said:

Thanks very much for your reply and help, I have placed schematics and related
manual page and notes at this link ; http://soundofstars.org/gioebike.htm

Click to expand...

The schematic is so basic it's not really helpful (plus the labelling isn't very good English, but tha'ts common).

What is likely the "breaker" is listed as the "exigency switch", which just means it's the "urgent" switch, which makes no sense. If it were in the throttle line I could see it as meaning a speed booster (turbo), but it can't be anything like that when it's in series with the regular switch to cut power.

I didn't read any further than the first few lines below the pics, however, there are notes there that this scooter has had previous problems, such as being knocked over and having no power, etc. Knowing that there were previous problems, and exactly what they were, and exactly what was done to fix them, would have been helpful info to troubleshoot the existing problem.

If you type all of those details of all the past problems and fixes, and put htem in your next post, as well as attaching those pictures to the post itself (so they aren't lost when the external site isn't accessible), then we can continue working out what the problem(s) might be.

appears to show battery full,

Click to expand...

What does it measure with a voltmeter *at the battery terminals*?

Since it's only on a couple of seconds or less, you can't know what that display means--it would show full for capacitors that just got charged up temporarily by leftover charge. It could also show full even with no battery in the scooter, if you rode it downhill fast enough.

So that meter is not useful for troubleshooting this.

will try your suggestion of unplugging and plugging back in battery connectors

Click to expand...

If they're screw on they're probably not corroded...but they could be loose.

breaker acts weird, it wont always 'stay' when I press it to on, it defaults to off position,
if i flip to on, it alarms, and then usually flips back to off, in some cases when i flip
it to on and hold it there it will stay,

Click to expand...

You need to know what that alarm is.

The dealer has to be able to at least tell you that much, even if they have no idea how to troubleshoot.

If not, find another dealer of them and ask *them*.

Or find the manufacturer (the dealer has to know who made it) and ask *them*.

IF that alarm is "oh my god i'm catching on fire" you don't want to hold that breaker on.

If it's just "help i'm being stolen" then it doesn't matter.

But you have to know what it means before you can keep doing that.

Hi Amber Wolf, everything you said made sense - deeply appreciated.

I should clarify, in the link provided, under the first three images, all text notes
included there are not regarding my bike at all, what I had done is - went searching
for similiar entries of other people having related issues on different forums, specifically
with either the same make / model or with bikes from same manufacturer that were
close to mine - hoping for clues.

Agreed about schematic, thought the same thing, so basic - would have been way more helpful if they had shown wiring over bike drawing instead of on block style

about the breaker switch, the only thing I can see that looks like that is the switch
under the seat, visibly marked with off/on label

you asked ; "What does it measure with a voltmeter *at the battery terminals*?"

I measured 13 volts at the first battery stacked at top, couldnt easily get at second one
below as I would have to unscrew a heck of a lot and pull it apart and out, havent done this
yet

about the few seconds when display shows battery full, yes I understand what you mean
and cant trust that, I have tried attaching the charger and it will run for abt 10 mins
with a red light indicator meaning its charging but then it goes to green indicating full
will also check as per your suggestion for loose connections with screw fittings

dealer and manufacturer not available on weekend but will contact them asap monday
and will ask abt alarm