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[BamBam]

Well I was really bummed out the other day when suddenly my 2017 DSR had no power and was completely dead when I turned on the key.  I had just had the 600 mile motor commissioning performed the day before and rode the bike to work like I normally do.  The battery was very low so I plugged it into the 120V outlet in the parking garage next to where I park my bike.  The outlet has a timer on it since it's also used to recharge a couple of electric bicycles my department has.

To make a long story short, I went down to check the progress later that day after about 6-hours of charging (the max amount on the timer) and bike was at 96%.  I decide to turn the timer back on for a few more minutes to top it off, but you have to turn the dial past 1-hour and then back again and in doing so I think I turned it completely off and then back on very quickly.  I heard a strange noise that didn't sound normal and when I looked at the instrument panel it was completely blank and the ready light was blinking rapidly and flashing on and off every couple of seconds.  When I turned the key to on there was no change.  Everything was dead.  The flashing ready light was the only sign of life.  It was as if the contactor was stuck open.  I suspected that one of the high voltage fuses may have blown and cut power to the contactor.

The next day I contacted Tim with Electronic Art in Cincinnati (where I purchased the bike) and he was kind enough to come out to where I work and take a look.  We took the seat off and checked a couple of the 12V fuses, but they were all okay.  We then began to check the high voltage fuses starting with the easiest one which is identified as #1 on page 6.30 of the owner’s manual and controls the Low Power B+ circuit.  Tim unscrewed the cap and pulled out the ceramic fuse.  We didn’t have a continuity tester, but it look okay in that there weren’t any visible signs that it had blown.  Tim reinserted the fuse and when he did we heard the contractor click as if it had reset.  Sure enough, when I turned the key on, the bike powered up normally and was working fine again.

So there you have it.  If you ever get into a situation similar to mine where the contactor appears to be stuck open and the bike has no power at all, try removing and reinserting the high voltage fuse #1 to reset the contractor.  I've attached a snippet from the BMM log that shows what happened.

BTW, when I tried to print out the log file the line numbers were all jumbled up and didn’t look anything like the log parser preview screen.  Does anyone know of a way to fix that?  I'd also appreciate if someone could point me to some instructions for how to embed an image into a post.

Edit:  Sorry I attached the wrong snippet from the log and the actual log that covers the time period in question is too long and I don't know how to attach it.

[Burton]

BTW, when I tried to print out the log file the line numbers were all jumbled up and didn’t look anything like the log parser preview screen. 

Sounds like you had the hard return tab problem? Where every line does a return (enter key) followed by a tab. If you open the file in a proper editor (not notepad) it should be viewable but can't tell less I see what you are talking about.

Edit:  Sorry I attached the wrong snippet from the log and the actual log that covers the time period in question is too long and I don't know how to attach it.

Is your file greater than 600KB?

[BamBam]

I saved the .txt document as an Open Office file, but I'm not sure you will be able to open it.  This version looks much better in terms of the line spacing.  I deleted the serial number.  Let me know how it looks.

[Keith]

There was a series of bad errors on 05/05/2018 11:46 where the motor controller was upset and the MBB said "Contactor Welded". This "Bmvolts: 102125, Cmvolts: 132687" might indicate more voltage after the contactor than the battery had, but I've never seen that message before and I've looked at a lot of logs (I wrote the parser). But maybe something caused a voltage spike to remain on the controller while the contactor should have been open. That could freak out the MBB and cause it to shut things down. But there was no charging around that date. The charging on 5/10 might be what you describe but the log ends without any sign of trouble. Maybe something was lost in editing or due to the commissioning.

Anyway a BMS reset might have fixed the problem too, possibly easier than removing the fuse.

[Burton]

Anyway a BMS reset might have fixed the problem too, possibly easier than removing the fuse.

The fuse on the MY17 DS/S series he is talking about is really easy to access with the seat off

On my MY13 bike I had issues where the contactor would stay shut post charging. I would start the bike, get odd display errors, and try again to no avail. I learned when this happened I had to let the bike sit 1 minute, then plug it in to charge again, wait 10 seconds then unplug it and the contactor would open.

[Richard230]

Anyway a BMS reset might have fixed the problem too, possibly easier than removing the fuse.

The fuse on the MY17 DS/S series he is talking about is really easy to access with the seat off

On my MY13 bike I had issues where the contactor would stay shut post charging. I would start the bike, get odd display errors, and try again to no avail. I learned when this happened I had to let the bike sit 1 minute, then plug it in to charge again, wait 10 seconds then unplug it and the contactor would open.

Things haven't changed all that much in MY2018.    My new bike does about the same thing, with the contactor switch not opening upon pulling the charging plug (the charging display and green charging light stays on, even though the charger is disconnected from electrical power) unless the bike's ignition switch is first switched on.  Then the contactor switch will click on and when I turn off the ignition switch, it will click off, the display will go blank and the bike will go dormant as it should have done when the power cord was disconnected. 

[Keith]

fuse on the MY17 DS/S series he is talking about is really easy to access

Ah, not so easy on the FX, it's buried in the wiring harness. But if I want to disconnect MBB power, I can just push out my modular packs. That and a BMS reset gives all the processors a clean reboot.

[nevetsyad]

Bambam,

I had the same problem this morning and was about to start pulling my hair out trying to fix it. Thank you for sharing this - it fixed my problem too!

Steven

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I am really not sure what the smartest takeaway is for this thread or condition.

Can anyone try summarizing this with some circumspection?

[BamBam]

Hi Brian............I think the takeaway is if you find yourself in a situation where the bike will not power up when you turn on the key (no lights, no dash display, no contractor click, etc,) try removing and reinstalling the main fuse identified as #1 on page 6.30 of the owner’s manual that controls the Low Power B+ circuit as a way to reboot the power.  Maybe someone more experienced will chime in with a more "technical" explanation.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

That's certainly valid. I guess I'm trying to figure out when this is worth trying or what to try first.

Maybe the problem is we just don't have a troubleshooting workflow yet for this kind of thing.

[nevetsyad]

Green armed light flashes six times quickly. Dash and bike don’t respond in any way when keyed on.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Okay. I guess I'll figure out how to start a troubleshooting guide - the thing is, this guide has to be in a place where you're going to find it when the time comes.

And it's always a surprise! So you'll be stressed, frustrated, and using your phone or whatever.

If I just shove this into even an appropriate section of the manual, the likelihood of finding it is basically nil.

[BamBam]

Green armed light flashes six times quickly. Dash and bike don’t respond in any way when keyed on.

Yep, that's it.  Maybe this should go under the Common Problems Wiki although thankfully I don't think this condition is all that common.  Also as an FYI, my issue had nothing to do with wet conditions.

PS - I googled "Zero Motorcycle No Power" and this thread did not come up, but when I goggled "Zero Motorcycle Stuck Contactor" it did.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Green armed light flashes six times quickly. Dash and bike don’t respond in any way when keyed on.

Yep, that's it.  Maybe this should go under the Common Problems Wiki although thankfully I don't think this condition is all that common.  Also as an FYI, my issue had nothing to do with wet conditions.

PS - I googled "Zero Motorcycle No Power" and this thread did not come up, but when I goggled "Zero Motorcycle Stuck Contactor" it did.

Common Problems will probably turn into a troubleshooting page. With a lot of symptoms being "this is often not a big deal if it's like <blah>" say for belt noise.

Good point about google keyword SEO.