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[PhreaK]

So the SR is offline. Again.

Went for a night twisties run with a few others yesterday. Pulled over for a rest but when we jumped back on the bikes the SR refused to go. Everything boots up normally, error codes 25 then 49 flash up (which looks to be ok). It's not an issue with the kill switch or kick stand contacts as the bike correctly switches between stopped and running mode when either is toggled. Just no response from the throttle. The diagnostic LED's on the monolith also weren't showing any out of normal.

After spending 30 minutes power cycling and checking anything I could without tools / a laptop I admitted defeat and organised a stupidly expensive middle of the night tow from the middle of nowhere. To make things even better, this was about when the police showed up and offered to do a run to a servo to get me a new set of AA batteries (to great delight of the other guys I was with).

After getting home I've decoded the logs. All temps looked to be ok, I've got a few entries with some issues with pre-charge on the Sevcon but nothing fatal (from my limited knowledge) - everything seems to recover. What I did notice though is that when I keyed off and the contactors opened module 00 was showing 103.333V and module 01 at 107.973V. This was the point the bike decided to put an early end to my night. From here on in when things init both modules continue to register (with similar voltages) but the contactor only appears to close on module 01. Log entries continue to appear with both contactors registering on boot and opening on key off, but startup only appears to open the PT contactor.

Has anyone else seen issues similar to this?

[oobflyer]

Just happened on my 2015 SR. I stopped for dinner on the way home, but got no throttle response when I returned to the bike.
Luckilly I was not out in the middle of nowhere ;-)
And even more lucky - there was a 120V outlet in the parking lot where I was stranded. I plugged the bike in and left it there overnight. Upon returning the next morning the charge had reached 100% and everything started working again.
The local dealership checked the logs, did some test-rides, but could not reproduce the problem, so the bike went back to the factory.
Zero found a combination of problems with the onboard charger and the BMS module - and replaced both.
I just got my bike back yesterday - seems OK - I'll check in again after putting some miles on the new parts.

[gborgan]

My 2015 SR has done this once...yesterday...but after moving the kickstand a couple of times and flipping the cutoff switch a few times it just seemed to work normally again.  I have replaced the charger twice in four weeks.  When it works it's GREAT.


George in San Diego

[PhreaK]

Hmm... getting the bike back to the factory could be a problem. Its around 12,825km from here, if you go direct. Already had the MBB replaced a couple of months ago and was out if action for 3 months while that took place. Let's hope it's not the same this time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PhreaK]

Dropped back in and picked the bike up today (had been ready for a week or so, but I've been away). They couldn't get it to fault there and couldn't find any issues. When they got round too looking at it, it worked for them. I pulled the MBB + BMS logs when I got it back and can see while the power tank was working properly, the monolith contactor was never closing.

From what I can see the correct sequence of events is...
System Turned On
DEBUG: Entered Running State
DEBUG: CAN Link Is Up
Discharge level      [stats etc here]
DEBUG: CAN Receiving Syncs
Contactor drive turned on      [stats here]
Contactor was Closed      [stats here]
Discharge level      [stats here]

When the bike was in the fault condition no entries show indicating that contactor drive was activated (and also not closing, as you would expect). Definitely glad it's working again, but a little worrying that neither I, nor the local dealer have any idea why it stopped.

[Electric Terry]

Oobflyer, I remember when something like that happened on the way to the Vetter challenge and Jeff Jolin from Zero called me asking if I could help you.  I figured that is the same thing PhreaK experienced.   If that ever happens, and I have no idea why, but plug it in. 

With the PT being higher voltage than the monolith, meaning the PT somehow lost connection and opened up while riding and didn't discharge, but the monolith did.  Now on startup, it sees the PT higher so cant close the contactors on both.  And although it can run on the monolith only it can't run on the PT only I think is the problem.  If you are key cycling, it must mean you stopped somewhere originally for a reason.  And hopefully almost everywhere has electricity, I would say plug in and let the monolith charge. 

If for some reason wherever you stopped has no electricity and you can't even push the bike to a spot with an outlet, use a 3 mm allen and a small ratchet 90 degree phillips screw driver and remove the tank plastics and just unplug the giant Anderson connector to the powertank.  then key cycle, and you should be fine as it will now see only one BMS not 2, and so will run off the lower voltage monolith until you can get home to charge them both to full.  This is not an official Zero procedure, just my recommendation on what I would do. 

Just like when a computer locks up, or your wifi router can't connect to the internet, or anything.  First thing you do is reboot, which many of you try I can tell.  I seem to remember another thread where someone towed their bike just to have it work fine after getting it home.  First start with a key cycle on the Zero to see if it fixes it.  If not, plug it in and come back to it later.  Especially if you have a powertank.   Letting it sit and charging to full somehow magically fixes things I can't explain.  Just like there's no explanation why every week I have to unplug my router in my house for a minute and then replug it in and wait 5 minutes for it to reconnect.  I can't explain it, but it works.

 

[Burton]

When I had my firmware updated recently I also had issues with the contactor saying it was open when it was closed or visa versa. Also my BMS was reading +8amps throwing my charging off ...

I "fixed" this by keeping it plugged in over the weekend. It is relevant in your case as my bike was flashed with firmware where it only recognized 3 of 4 bricks in my bike ... I had to reflash it to have it see all 4 and it was then the problems started.

Get the latest firmware if you haven't already, plug the bike in, and just wait a couple days. It took me a week to trust my bike again after it failed on me.

[Emtkopan]

I'm entertaining the thought of getting one but it sounds like there are several bugs that still need to be worked out in the bike itself. I wouldn't want to buy one wondering when something like this would happen leaving me stranded. With it being all electric just a small issue could mess up the whole bike. Granted a power draw on a regular bike could kill the battery. I'm curious if you guys are still happy with your purchase overall?

[Burton]

I'm entertaining the thought of getting one but it sounds like there are several bugs that still need to be worked out in the bike itself. I wouldn't want to buy one wondering when something like this would happen leaving me stranded. With it being all electric just a small issue could mess up the whole bike. Granted a power draw on a regular bike could kill the battery. I'm curious if you guys are still happy with your purchase overall?

Go ride one .... then you will understand

Given the amount of bikes sold a year and the ones reported with issues you are likely not going to run into a problem. If you are worried get a later year model with current firmware instead of the latest model.

My bike has given me a lot of troubles, largely due to the level of modifications I and the previous owner have done, but I still love it over any gas bike I have ridden. There is simply no comparison.

[NEW2elec]

I'm entertaining the thought of getting one but it sounds like there are several bugs that still need to be worked out in the bike itself. I wouldn't want to buy one wondering when something like this would happen leaving me stranded. With it being all electric just a small issue could mess up the whole bike. Granted a power draw on a regular bike could kill the battery. I'm curious if you guys are still happy with your purchase overall?

Yep
Ok there are a few things that I would like to see a bit stronger on the bikes but Zero has been good about improvements on high problem areas.  They have pretty great warranty service but you have to keep in mind that it is a small company and that fact has its' pros and cons.  Time will tell on 2016 models but as long as you go 2013+ you should be ok maybe not perfect but good.  If you ride one and are open minded to the differences to ICE bikes I think you would really want one.  There a a lot of You Tube videos and very very few people that don't simply smile and laugh and say how much fun they are to ride.  Do some homework and go for a test ride.

[PhreaK]

With it being all electric just a small issue could mess up the whole bike. Granted a power draw on a regular bike could kill the battery. I'm curious if you guys are still happy with your purchase overall?

Well put it this way, your other option is something that fires of a few thousand explosions every minute and turns this into wheel rotation through one of the most mechanically complex processes known to man. There's quite a few potential failure points there. At least with a Zero, if something does go screwy you can pull the logs and find out what's going on without much effort.

Even though I've had issues, they haven't cost me a cent to have looked at / repaired, and I'm a second hand owner. There is no way in he'll I could ever go back to an ICE bike.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mrwilsn]

I'm entertaining the thought of getting one but it sounds like there are several bugs that still need to be worked out in the bike itself. I wouldn't want to buy one wondering when something like this would happen leaving me stranded. With it being all electric just a small issue could mess up the whole bike. Granted a power draw on a regular bike could kill the battery. I'm curious if you guys are still happy with your purchase overall?

In 14 months I have put over 10k miles on a 2014 S.  I love the bike and don't regret the purchase one bit.  I am seriously considering upgrading to a 2016 SR after winter.  I have had only minor issues and none have prevented me from being able to get where I needed to go.  One of the main functions of this forum is for people to get help with their bikes so of course you will see plenty of examples of issues that people have run into.  Don't let this skew your perspective.  There are many satisfied customers and you can find lots of examples of people that have upgraded one or more times and examples of people that own more than one Zero at one time.  And out of all the people that are owners you will find very few that wouldn't recommend one to a friend.

If you ride one and you like it then you should get it.  They are great bikes and they get better each year.