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[Patrick Truchon]

Does anyone know of it's possible to change the timeout value so the bike can stay on longer?

Right now the contractor opens after about 30 minutes of idle time, which stops the Super Charger.  The alternative is to stay close and "rev" the motor slightly before the timeout to reset the clock but it would be nice to park it and have lunch across the street while it charges.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Yes, there's a setting in the MBB in with a unit of seconds. Changing it works.

The easy way to "keepalive" the bike is to blip the throttle. Now that I have a throttle lock, I just keep the cutout switch off and use the lock to hold the throttle just slightly off of neutral, if I want to go take a long break. (I also keep timers on my smart watch).

It's the one MBB setting I've changed other than to toggle regen on below 12mph (or whatever the threshold is).

I need to remember to document these settings...

[MajorMajor]

What is this all about?

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

What is this all about?

The Zero if left on but not in charging mode will open the contactor after a timeout unless there is some user input.

Any charger but the onboard charger or the Charge Tank is subject to this timeout unless they send an electrical signal to the Zero that it interprets as triggering charging mode. Simply charging isn't enough.

If the contactor opens, the controller and accessory charging port become disconnected and you can't charge without resetting the contactor (which requires turning off charging before closing the contactor to avoid dangerous current spikes).

[MajorMajor]

Got it, thanks.

Basically if I have a 3rd party charger, it will stop charging after 30 min unless I also plug in the on board charger?
Also, if I'm charging my phone it will stop charging after 30 min.

[Patrick Truchon]

Thanks Brian, it's good to know that it's somewhere in the MBB.

The easy way to "keepalive" the bike is to blip the throttle. Now that I have a throttle lock, I just keep the cutout switch off and use the lock to hold the throttle just slightly off of neutral, if I want to go take a long break.

Do you mean that the motor doesn't have to actually be spinning to reset the timer?  That simply locking the throttle open a bit (with the switch off) keeps the bike awake?  I can't believe I didn't try that.  That would solve it really easily.  Thanks!

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Doug S]

I wonder if just cycling the kill switch would reset the 30-minute timer.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I've thought about cycling the kill switch but haven't tried it. Honestly I'm confused about how the throttle blip succeeds, because the throttle bypasses the MBB, so I'm assuming the Sevcon sends a CAN bus message and maybe any CAN bus message that is user-derived resets the timeout.

I'd really just prefer to arrange a signal to get the bike into charge mode, which I keep getting hints about but no one's delivering yet. :/

[Ndm]

With my setup (3200 watt power supply homebuilt charger) I have a cord for the onboard charger, it's in parallel with the j1772 AC supply, plug in the onboard cord then plug in the j1772 and wait for the onboard to start before you flip the switch for the accessory charger, I leave the bike and the onboard does the contactor control, the accessory charger shuts off at 116v and the bike finishes the last few percent with the onboard charger, so far no problems

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

With my setup (3200 watt power supply homebuilt charger) I have a cord for the onboard charger, it's in parallel with the j1772 AC supply, plug in the onboard cord then plug in the j1772 and wait for the onboard to start before you flip the switch for the accessory charger, I leave the bike and the onboard does the contactor control, the accessory charger shuts off at 116v and the bike finishes the last few percent with the onboard charger, so far no problems

Yes, that's the arrangement that Hollywood Electrics makes for its Elcon products. So my Elcon gets around this... if I actually carry it.

[Patrick Truchon]

I got a chance to test locking the throttle open while charging (with the kickstand down and the kill switch off) and it seems to work: I left the bike alone for more than an hour and the contactor stayed closed the whole time.  This simple trick will make a huge difference next time I need to charge for more than half-an-hour.  Thanks Brian!

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Glad it worked! Just make sure to close that throttle when you're done...

(And of course it'd be much nicer if someone had an electronic solution for this...)