Hi,
A new development in the ongoing saga of early-adopter-hood. Ok, that may be a bit over the top, but hey! I'm seeing a string of niggles here.
Oh, and by early adopter, I mean it in both senses - EV, and brand new model year. I know I wouldn't have much cred going on the EV claim alone...
This last Friday I got caught in rain slightly worse than usual. How much worse? My clothes got a bit wet. Even through my Aerostich.
The bike seemed to handle it fine at the time.
However, the next day (about 18 hours later, roughly) it had only picked up about a 10% charge (from ~35% to ~45%). That was odd. Never had that happen before. Glad I didn't have to go to work that morning. I'da had to ride the BMW instead! Even odder, when I unplugged it, it dropped from showing ~45% to about ~35%. Hm... Ok. Maybe I didn't plug it in fully. Or some moisture was in the plug. Or in the bike's brain. Or something.
I moved the bike to the other side of my garage so I could get on with the steering head bearing adjustment I wanted to do. Bike turned on Ok, powered up the drive ok, etc.
...wrench wrench, jack jack, screw screw...
When I went to move the bike back, it wouldn't fully power on. Was throwing codes 25 & 49 (Contactor Open Warning, and Contactor Open Disable). Great.
Rolled it back the hard way, and plugged it in. (Dunno if I posted it, but about a month or so ago, I had a similar problem. More below.) Maybe tomorrow (i.e., Sunday) will be a better day.
Sunday, it was fully charged, and ready to play again. No codes.
Monday it was fine all day - I rode to work and back.
Tuesday (today) I rode it to work as usual, but...
When it came time to come home, the bike worked fine, but THE INSTRUMENT PANEL WAS NON-INFORMATIVE. It lit up (nice blue backlight) but no information was being displayed. The little indicators just below the LCD were fine, but the LCD? Zip, squat, nada. Just a painted-on icon resembling a battery (an empty one at that), an empty box, and a flat line... I hope THAT's not a clue... It was working this AM... I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing you guys and gals ALSO compulsively check your state-of-charge before you even grab your helmet... And it's not just the bike's fault - twice I've forgotten to plug it in, once I plugged it in, but it wasn't fully seated, or I kicked the cord out. Or something.
Anyway, I'd have noticed right away if the panel didn't work. As I did tonight. Crap. Well, let's see... 12v system appears to be good. Yep. Lights, blinkers. Let's try traction.. Yep, it's rideable.
So, I rode home with NO idea how much power I had left, and no idea how fast I was going. The former was actually kinda liberating. I was confident I could make it home with no issues (as long as nothing new went wrong), and I didn't spend the whole trip calculating how many miles per 1% of batter charge I was getting (always less than 1 on the highway). C'mon, you do it too... At least if you're decent at math, you do! The latter (speed) was really no big deal - traffic always decides that for me anyway.
Well, now, how to fix it - I don't think any of the fuses control that. I know that panel isn't powered by 12V (except the backlight) because when my DC-DC converter when kaput, that panel still worked (minus the backlight). So, those fuses are ruled out. And the other fuses on the bike... None seem likely.
Some folks make a connection between water and panel failure, but that doesn't strike me as likely in this case, only slightly more likely than some random 'MTBF exceeded.' I mean, yes, I got a good rain Friday, and possibly some fallout from it, but the panel seemed fine, right up until it didn't. Not the normal sequence of panel failure (sometimes being unique isn't a good thing!)
Any ideas? So far turning off and back on hasn't done any good. Resetting the monolith didn't do any good (not that I expected it to). Sadly coming to suspect that I may have to haul it back to Austin. I hope it doesn't mean doing without for another three weeks.
Oh. Here's "below" from above:
About a month or so ago - I need to dig up an actual date or mileage - I got stranded at work when the bike decided to throw the Monolith Not Connected code.
After getting a ride home, letting the bike charge in work's garage overnight, several calls with Zero customer support, and several attempts at resetting the monolith (the big battery pack), it finally came back to life. Since then the problem hasn't come up. The last thing I tried was simultaneously pushing and holding both buttons on the monolith for about five or ten seconds (bike must be switched off and unplugged, if you ever try it, per customer support - though they only had me try one. The design apparently changed recently, and the guy I spoke with didn't even know there were two buttons accessible. That's what I mean by early adopter, yo!)
(Oh, and the friend who gave me the ride home? He had the misfortune to do $1,800 in damage to his car by backing into a pole in the parking garage while helping me. Doh and double-Doh!)
Haven't seen the 56 (monolith not connected) code since then, but my 25&49 codes may be cousins to it.
Feeling a bit sad about the bike at the moment.
Author
Topic: 2015 SR Instrument Panel, wherefore art thou? (Read 1549 times)