Vectrix VX1 - New Toy!

[sacko]

Hi all, first thread for me over here. I am usually on Endless Sphere building bikes, but have taken the step into motorcycles; the Vectrix being the start.
I picked this up in Oxford, a couple of hours away from me in the UK.



The owner said he left the bike for a while, plugged it in to charge and nothing happened. Dead.
I have since stripped the batteries out to charge each series group (12 series cells), using the Imax.



I have charge the group of cells, left them to sit for 24hours, and checked which cells have dropped in voltage. To my surprise on 2 cells have dropped. Since charging them cells individually, they have remained at 1.22v.






I may look at testing these under a small load to check capacity and voltage drop off.
I am yet to put the pack back together and see if the Vectrix runs or not.

 

[sacko]

All plugged back in and tested out.

I have the Vectrix switched off.

Once I switched the power on at the wall, the following happens.

The fans on the charger are going, but only for 20seconds or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmWiK-85YGY

 

[Punx0r]

Nice project I had no idea these were available in the UK.

I hope you can get it work. I would be tempted to check all the cells for capacity and self-discharge.

 

[sacko]

Cheers. There aren't many it would seem in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter.

I was told that it had de-restricted software installed, what ever that means. I am going to buy the CAN USB cable circa £200, but to be honest i'm not looking to sink to much money into this...

..he says.

 

[Nobuo]

that was after charged all the cells with your imax?

 

[sacko]

Yes.

The cells were not fully charged, just given a few mah to pick them up to 1.2v per cell.

 

[Nobuo]

you finally exchanged the two bad cells before charging on the VX1?

Did you imax detected some high internal resistance in any cell?

 

[sacko]

The imax doesn't measure internal resistance unfortunately.

I kept cycling the cells, which seemed to do the trick.

Ideally I need to put the whole pack on charge and find the cells which are charging too quickly with a meter.

 

[BLUESTREAK]

HI SACKO,glad you set up the VECTRIX here now this makes (2) of us here. the restricted software means it will only go (63) mph unrestricted software it will do (68) mph.

 

[sacko]

Ended up purchasing this PCAN USB from PEAK.

http://www.peak-system.com/PCAN-USB.199.0.html?&L=1

..and this extension

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310970957927?clk_rvr_id=869053041328&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true

I have also bought 20metres of 22awg silicone wire and some ring terminals.

I am going to add a length of wire to both the positive and negative terminal of each of the 12 ni-mh blocks.

When I charge the bike, I can check for which group of cells are going high; if any.

Something is definitely amiss as the voltage climbs from 141V to 149V in ~10 seconds, and I suspect this is just the charger voltage increasing much higher than the actual battery voltage.

What I do not get is that if there were a few bad cells, would the pack show an increase in 8v? I cannot work out the logic. That would be about 26 cells have failed.

 

[amberwolf]

You only need one bad cell (or a really bad connection) with high resistance for any amount of voltage increase.

But to find the failure point(s) you have to measure across each cell while the charge current is flowing, while the voltage shows too high, to find which one(s) is (are) actually causing the problem.

And if you don't find enough to add up to the total discrepancy, you'd have to measure voltage (while charge curretn is flowing, while voltage shows too high) across each connection point, as well (meaning, between each cell, and anywhere else there's a connection point).

 

[BLUESTREAK]

View attachment 172133HI SACKO,glad you set up the VECTRIX here now this makes (2) of us here. the restricted software means it will only go (63) mph unrestricted software it will do (68) mph.

Hello, I’m looking for someone to help with my Dad’s bikes. We have 4 Vectrix including this one pictured.

 

[oatnet]

I am sorry for your loss. I remember your Dad fondly, and we chatted about Vectrix a lot. How can I help?