Aloha from Hawaii,
I had my 2017 Zero DS shipped here and the controller stopped working on me - thank God it didn't do some runaway type action and cause me an accident. Anyways, the old Sevcon was visibly cracked, after my buddy who is a technician for Zero helped me troubleshoot it, and I removed it. So I bought a new one on here... which apparently was for the 2016 Zero DS-R (says my friend from Zero), but should still work fine. But it has been having trouble communicating with the motherboard. Any ideas?
I had to do a little grinding on the bike's frame and buy some brackets, because the new Sevcon is a bit longer... but basically, the install went fine, just took a little time. What was really a pain was re-routing the harness wires so I could get a little more length out of them, but that worked out fine too. Then he sent me a USB tool that plugs into the Zero, so that we could configure everything. He had me check the motor for a number... just had to remove a cap on the side of it (they write this number on the backside of the cap). That was part of the programming. But basically the controller isn't talking to the motherboard properly.
Then he sent me a separate tool, so I could plug directly into the controller, to re-install the firmware on it. So I did that, and that gave him a little trouble, but eventually it worked out. He basically would take over my computer remotely and do this stuff for me. But then back to programming the motherboard to talk to the controller - still not working properly.
We checked the kickstand, throttle, and the charger (I believe), for other breakdowns in the line of communication from the harness - apparently these spots that give feedback, so are potential problems. But no problems there. Next step, he sent me a motherboard that he configured (apparently had a couple of these sitting on his desk at work) and then I installed that. Then we tried to make them talk again, but still had the same problem. He says basically if it's not the harness itself, which doesn't really ever break, from his experience, then the controller is bad. It was purchased on here, but was reported to be unused, still new.
The green light on the controller goes on, and blinks, and when we use the multimeter I can observe it charging (doing the pre-charge, he says), but then trying to communicate, which doesn't work, and then starts that process over again... does this a couple times before it stops. You can see the pre-charge voltage go up, and the flashing green light sequence re-start at the new attempt. Please help! I really don't want to buy a new controller unless I have to. .
Any ideas? Pardon my lack of specific knowledge on the subject... I can clarify the things we did and the proper language to describe it, if I didn't do a good enough job (my buddy at Zero is a good friend, was my neighbor when I lived in Santa Cruz, CA). I am competent with building computers and doing my own automotive work, but this is a new one for me. I replaced the charger on the bike and the throttle and did a couple other body modifications... but other than that the bike is still like new. Only 5k miles on it, actually. I'm happy to answer any additional questions and include some pictures. Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Soup
I had my 2017 Zero DS shipped here and the controller stopped working on me - thank God it didn't do some runaway type action and cause me an accident. Anyways, the old Sevcon was visibly cracked, after my buddy who is a technician for Zero helped me troubleshoot it, and I removed it. So I bought a new one on here... which apparently was for the 2016 Zero DS-R (says my friend from Zero), but should still work fine. But it has been having trouble communicating with the motherboard. Any ideas?
I had to do a little grinding on the bike's frame and buy some brackets, because the new Sevcon is a bit longer... but basically, the install went fine, just took a little time. What was really a pain was re-routing the harness wires so I could get a little more length out of them, but that worked out fine too. Then he sent me a USB tool that plugs into the Zero, so that we could configure everything. He had me check the motor for a number... just had to remove a cap on the side of it (they write this number on the backside of the cap). That was part of the programming. But basically the controller isn't talking to the motherboard properly.
Then he sent me a separate tool, so I could plug directly into the controller, to re-install the firmware on it. So I did that, and that gave him a little trouble, but eventually it worked out. He basically would take over my computer remotely and do this stuff for me. But then back to programming the motherboard to talk to the controller - still not working properly.
We checked the kickstand, throttle, and the charger (I believe), for other breakdowns in the line of communication from the harness - apparently these spots that give feedback, so are potential problems. But no problems there. Next step, he sent me a motherboard that he configured (apparently had a couple of these sitting on his desk at work) and then I installed that. Then we tried to make them talk again, but still had the same problem. He says basically if it's not the harness itself, which doesn't really ever break, from his experience, then the controller is bad. It was purchased on here, but was reported to be unused, still new.
The green light on the controller goes on, and blinks, and when we use the multimeter I can observe it charging (doing the pre-charge, he says), but then trying to communicate, which doesn't work, and then starts that process over again... does this a couple times before it stops. You can see the pre-charge voltage go up, and the flashing green light sequence re-start at the new attempt. Please help! I really don't want to buy a new controller unless I have to. .
Any ideas? Pardon my lack of specific knowledge on the subject... I can clarify the things we did and the proper language to describe it, if I didn't do a good enough job (my buddy at Zero is a good friend, was my neighbor when I lived in Santa Cruz, CA). I am competent with building computers and doing my own automotive work, but this is a new one for me. I replaced the charger on the bike and the throttle and did a couple other body modifications... but other than that the bike is still like new. Only 5k miles on it, actually. I'm happy to answer any additional questions and include some pictures. Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Soup
