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[MVetter]

I would never assume that just because you ordered the model listed that Energica didn't source an IP67 version and the company put the same sticker on. Can you see if the fan you pulled out is potted?

edit- and water WILL find a way if the electronics are exposed. Being under the seat doesn't guarantee anything.

[DonTom]

I would never assume that just because you ordered the model listed that Energica didn't source an IP67 version and the company put the same sticker on. Can you see if the fan you pulled out is potted?

edit- and water WILL find a way if the electronics are exposed. Being under the seat doesn't guarantee anything.

The fan I removed doesn't look a bit waterproofed in any way at all.

Besides the fact, I almost never ride in the rain. However, come to think about it,  I was on the freeway about a week before this happened when I was poured on while on the bike for around 15 minutes of very heavy rain.  Perhaps it could be related. But that was with the fan the bike came with.

That was one of those bright sunny very hot early summer days in Reno where the sky fills with rain clouds in about five minutes and pours rain to cool me and everything else off. It felt good to cool off, but the rain was hard enough to be a bit dangerous to be stuck on a freeway on a motorcycle.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[DonTom]

I just rode up to my other house 20 miles north of Reno. The bike is now acting perfectly normal in every way (other than no fan).

I figure the fan issue is really no issue at all. I can normally fast charge and I can also charge at home using 120 VAC so I don't create all that much heat. I also have portable fans I can use. I can probably even normally charge at 240 VAC with the help of the portable fan, but to be safe, I will use 120 VAC charging at home, so I will only be operating the AC charger at half capacity. And will still use the portable fan.

So I will still be riding the bike. In fact, I will ride it back to Auburn tomorrow.

-Don-  Cold Springs Valley, NV

[Demoni]

Sorry I missed this thread until just now.

Good work on the diagnostic and repair of the bike. Feel free to reach out to me via email if these sorts of issues come up.

Fan use - Fan will only come on during AC charging as it's intended purpose is to cool the AC to DC unit in the tail section. It will spin for a second or two on startup as a self test. The bike knows how much current that specific circuit should pull when you see the open circuit fault that is a notification that it is pulling more or less than the specified range.

AC charging without the fan is fine however, please use the key on function to set the max charging current to ~4 amps. This will limit the charge rate to ~1kWh, the charge unit under the seat can use it's heat sink to dissipate the heat generated by that lower charge rate without needing the fan. The charge unit has built in protection that will reduce the charge rate to maintain that temp.

Rivets - The large faced rivets are there to distribute the load over a larger surface. Smaller rivets can pull through the mounting holes of the fan or the shroud it's mounted to. Normal procedure for a fan failure is to replace the shroud fan combo as one unit.

SOC error - I have not seen the bottom information of the dash freeze like you mentioned. It appears that a key off and on cycle and a charge has corrected this issue. To add an extra tool to your arsenal you can try to reset the VCU; with the bike on press and hold the center mode button and the set button on the back of the left control. Hold these till the screen goes black and the bike will restart. Not something that I would suggest doing regularly but I have seen a restart clear up strange behavior previously. Please let us or the dealer know if you encounter this problem again.

[DonTom]

I just went to a hardware store and purchased this USB fan. It only draws 5 watts, so it's about 1 amp at 5VDC.  I am now charging at 240 VAC with the help of this fan. I am charging at the full 3 KW. I am not sure of the capacity of the USB outlet  on the Esse Esse 9, but it is working fine with this fan, so far.

The USB port on the SS9 comes on automatically while charging.  I checked to see how warm  the heatsink on the AC charger is getting, and it is staying reasonably cool after 20 minutes of  240 VAC operation and  the bike is still charging at 3.0 KW.

The brackets this portable fan comes with helps position it right on the heat sink. The USB cable is the exact length needed. I really lucked out on guessing this fan would work.

If anybody wants a small portable backup fan in case the stock one craps out, I recommend the one above. Mine has the name "Homepointe" on it, but it appears to be the exact same "4 inch personal fan" (says on my box) as in the Amazon link under a different brand name.

It seems to be the perfect portable backup fan for this bike. For now, I will carry it with me so I can charge the bike anywhere with any AC voltage available, such as  J1772 or Tesla (I carry all the stuff with the bike so I can charge from 120 VAC as well as 240 VAC, including Tesla destination chargers). Some of my cables are very modified to be small enough to all fit in one side bag.

I also recommend checking for errors under diagnostics often.  I didn't know I had an open fan until I did check, after the unrelated problems with the computer glitch.

BTW, my Tesla has a way for me to reboot the screen for common glitches. Is there a way to do the same on the Energica?

The other question I have is when the bike is stuck at a high SOC and the BMS believes the reading and so charging stops at 30% or so charged, saying 100%, what is the best way to deal with it?

I can tell you what fixed in in my case and that was turning the bike back on about an hour later when the 100% charge then went to 40% or whatever it was, so it would then charge again. Turning the bike off for only a minute or so did nothing useful.

-Don-  Cold Springs Valley,  NV

[DonTom]

Sorry I missed this thread until just now.

Good work on the diagnostic and repair of the bike. Feel free to reach out to me via email if these sorts of issues come up.

Fan use - Fan will only come on during AC charging as it's intended purpose is to cool the AC to DC unit in the tail section. It will spin for a second or two on startup as a self test. The bike knows how much current that specific circuit should pull when you see the open circuit fault that is a notification that it is pulling more or less than the specified range.

AC charging without the fan is fine however, please use the key on function to set the max charging current to ~4 amps. This will limit the charge rate to ~1kWh, the charge unit under the seat can use it's heat sink to dissipate the heat generated by that lower charge rate without needing the fan. The charge unit has built in protection that will reduce the charge rate to maintain that temp.

Rivets - The large faced rivets are there to distribute the load over a larger surface. Smaller rivets can pull through the mounting holes of the fan or the shroud it's mounted to. Normal procedure for a fan failure is to replace the shroud fan combo as one unit.

SOC error - I have not seen the bottom information of the dash freeze like you mentioned. It appears that a key off and on cycle and a charge has corrected this issue. To add an extra tool to your arsenal you can try to reset the VCU; with the bike on press and hold the center mode button and the set button on the back of the left control. Hold these till the screen goes black and the bike will restart. Not something that I would suggest doing regularly but I have seen a restart clear up strange behavior previously. Please let us or the dealer know if you encounter this problem again.

We were typing our last messages at the same time, so I may have a question or two that you already answered, such as how to do a reboot.

I was hoping you would jump in this thread!

I am now charging at a full 3.0 KW with my portable fan. I figure as long as I can keep my hand on the heat sink for more than a half minute without  my hand getting  too hot, it is cool enough. I hope you agree with that.

BTW, without the fan at all, would you say the 120 VAC charge  (~1.5 KW) is still a bit high?  Just curious. TBH, I totally forgot I could lower the charge rate from the menus. I have never used it, so I never thought about it.

I did the VCU reset, just to see it work and after that weird bug, I figure it wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure I know how to do the reboot. All came back up normally.

-Don-  Cold Springs Valley, NV

[DonTom]

I received and installed my new fan. The new one had no connector, so I removed the old one by cutting the leads and putting it on the new fan. Soldered and with heat shrink tubing.

Then I found all the necessary screws, nuts, washers and lock-tight in my garage and put it all back together.

Other than the lack of a connector, the new fan is 100% identical to the older fan  in every way.

Now all is fine. The code P1040 is now replaced with "Status OK" in diagnostics.

I have the bike charging right now with 240 VAC so the fan would come on. I turned the fan down to 80%, in case that will help the new fan  last a bit longer.  It sounds fast enough to me at 80%.

The new fan is very quiet, so was the old one until I put a couple of thousand miles on my SS9 and then it started to make some noise and then crapped out a couple of  AC charges later.

Lately, the bike has been behaving normally. I rode it back from Auburn, CA today.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[MoneyFor]

Good to hear you got it solved, I will keep this information if I ever need it, I know what to do and what to buy 

[MVetter]

I absolutely do not recommend soldering in a vibration environment. Please crimp.

[DonTom]

I absolutely do not recommend soldering in a vibration environment. Please crimp.

I expect this solder job to outlive me. It's just wires. Very thin wires, not the type I would even consider crimping.

And  since it's not a cold solder joint it  should  hold almost forever. Soldering on PC boards often comes loose in motor vehicles, yet it is still very commonly done.

And BTW,  I sure have seen a lot of crimps break loose in motor vehicles. I don't ever recall seeing two wires soldered together breaking.

I normally try to avoid crimping anything. I usually use European Connectors and screw the wires down. But these were too thin for even that.

BMW used such in my 1971 R75/5.  New from the factory. I have yet to see one fail and they are very easy to deal with for troubleshooting or changes and such.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[MoneyFor]

I build bikes, now as a hobby, soldering such wires will give no problem at all. I solder all the wires for more then 30 years now and never had a problem of them
breaking. Now those European connecters as you call them are "lusterklemmetjes" and that is not done on a motorcyle or car.   They are for household electricity
like a chandelier and stuff, we already get chills that we find that in a car or motorcycle, it is usually a sign that an amateur has been working on it. So please keep
on soldering your stuff and trow those lusterklemmetjes away  .

[DonTom]

Now those European connecters as you call them are "lusterklemmetjes" and that is not done on a motorcyle or car.

The the BMW factory didn't know that back in 1971!

That's when I started using them, and they are my favorite way to put wires together  in most cases. They come in different sizes and it only takes screwdriver and it is easy to measure voltages on them and stuff like that. 

But to each their own.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[MoneyFor]

Indeed everyone does what they think is good and easy to do but keep in mind that they are not water resistant at all and oxidize easily.
That is also the reason that you will never find it in a newer bike or car installed from the manufacturer, and the plus points you quote are
indeed so, easy to assemble-reasemble and measure.

I myself prefer soldering with a glued heat shrink tubing if it is a permanent connection, otherwise I use waterproof connectors like these.




Take care and stay healty.

[DonTom]

Indeed everyone does what they think is good and easy to do but keep in mind that they are not water resistant at all and oxidize easily.

And are extremely easy to replace if/when any such problems are noticed.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[DonTom]

I am fairly certain I have had my fan come on during a CCS charge, but the next time I DC fast charge, I will post here if it does or doesn't, after the fan is replaced.

I almost forgot to post here about that.

The bike's fan does NOT come on during a CCS charge. I think I was remembering hearing the fan that is  inside the CCS charge station!

Anyway, I have ridden & charged the bike countless times since the fan and the other issues. All has been perfect lately, no issues at all.

And the new fan works fine with L1 and L2, and makes less noise than the old fan did before it crapped out.

-Don-  Reno, NV