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[TonyHelms]

I purchased a 2013 DS demo bike from Life Cycle in Kalamazoo MI back in November of 2014. The weather finally broke and I was able to take it out for a ride today. Suddenly the mechanical motor RPM gauge stopped working while riding and the LCD screen was showing “0” for a speed when while moving. The green LED turn signal indicators still worked, as well as the hi-beam indicator, back-lighting, Mileage, and battery SOC.

I pulled over to just reset the key and see if the gauge would reset, but to my surprise the whole bike wouldn’t re-start.  I then pushed to a parking spot and called tech support where I spoke with someone.  Right as he’s answering the phone the bike re-started and gave me a green light. 

I was then driving home and suddenly the gauge cluster freaked out and gave very erratic readings, Then a few seconds later  the same symptoms described above occurred again.  I reset  the bike and let it sit for about 30 seconds and the gauge worked again.  I will be un-plugging the gauge thinking perhaps this will remove all power and do a “hard reset”.  Also It feels like I may be losing regen when this occurs (perhaps a speed sensor?) I’m not sure where the speed sensor is, does it read off the motor hall sensor?  I am not sure if I am losing regen, I have very little experience on the ZERO so this may be un-true.

Any Ideas or help welcomed.

[MotoRyder]

Unless the process in the micro-controller got "lost in the weeds", resetting it (either a hard-reset or a soft-reset) is not going to be of much help.

From the description you provided that things suddenly behave erratically, it sounds to me to be an intermittent connectivity issue; i.e. 'shorts' and/or 'opens', and in this case more likely a 'short' occurring.

If it operated properly before, then after sitting for some time in a cold and/or humid environment it is now 'acting up' (being operated for the first time after the down time), I'd suspect either bad power (meaning voltage is out of the specified range for vehicle operation), or some form of shorting of internal electrical signals due to moisture condensation on the circuits.

Sometimes condensation of moisture can form on circuit boards if they aren't well packaged (like in an enclosed waterproof case) and short the signals that are physically close by each other in proximity either on the circuit board or the components soldered to the board.  If it's easily accessible, you could try warming up and blowing out the Instrument Cluster if it looks to not be well sealed.  Or storing the bike in a warm/dry environment for some time to allow it to dry out naturally (again assuming water condensation might have infiltrated the electronic assembly).

–> Keep us informed as to what you check and amend that solves the problem.

[TonyHelms]

Thanks for the reply. 

Zero told me to un-plug it and blow the connector out with compressed air, then apply dielectric grease in the connector. I rode another 26 miles today with no issues. I am also told I am on the software version 60, and evidently now there is a version 67 and this could possibly be a software bug.

I'll keep ya posted it it flakes out on me again.

[firepower]

Zero should list there latest softare Versions and change logs.
I want to know if a major bug fix or feature was added.
Ideally they would download latest version to usb stick and just plug it in to update.

[Justin Andrews]

That would be useful, maybe some sort of customer portal on their website perhaps?

[TonyHelms]

Funny you say that,  I am a Tesla tech and that is how we did software updates, and vehicle log data on the Tesla Roadster.  Now the Model-S is over the air or this funky little 5 pin plug for our computer.

But Yes, I totally agree. Most Zero owners aren't idiots, and we'd enjoy keeping our bike up to date by doing a thumb-drive update.   

[m0t0-ryder]

Thanks for the reply. 

Zero told me to un-plug it and blow the connector out with compressed air, then apply dielectric grease in the connector. I rode another 26 miles today with no issues. I am also told I am on the software version 60, and evidently now there is a version 67 and this could possibly be a software bug.

I'll keep ya posted it it flakes out on me again.

This is exactly what I would have recommended.
Additionally... it's always a good idea to examine your connector pins when any connector is opened.
Look for bent pins or pins that may have been pushed into the connector.

Hope it was just a poor connection problem. (most likely)
Time will tell.

[Ron Sindric]

DIELECTRIC GREASE !!  When I asked ZERO tech support about d-grease they gave me only silence.  My issues are with a defective ( from Day One ) dashboard, defective BMS and range that is mediocre at best.