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[Electric Cowboy]

That growl is pretty much unrelated to the cutouts in my personal opinion. YOu will feel and hear the motor vibrate and "growl" under high temperatures and high stress, however, it is not related to nor the cause of the cut out. That being said, cut outs would be most likely to happen during the time the motor was under heavy stress thus making it seem as if the growling was connected.

I recommend everyone with cut out issues look up under the front of the bike at the top of the battery case and make sure your wiring harness is not rubbing or cutting on the edge of the battery box. If it is, put a pice of weather stripping in there, or plastic wire protector around the harness to make sure it stops rubbing.

[protomech]

I've had growling / motor roughness under light load (constant 40 mph) and very often the motor would cut out if it was stopped after the intermittent roughness.

[Electric Terry]

Exactly. I might have explained it wrong, but to clarify, the noise im refering to is the one in the video.  Not the belt noise.  Definitely coming from the motor, and as someone who has over 8000 miles on the bike with it cutting out 20-30 times a day for the past 5000 miles, I can safely say when I start to hear that noise, if I continue to push the motor it will cut out. 

And as protomech said often when I come to a stop it will stall after hearing that noise.  normally when slowing down when you get to 10 mph or so the bike starts to go faster and you have to squeeze the brakes a little harder to stop.  This is because the cut out has occurred and the regen stops working.

I've heard that noise literally thousands of times now, many times a day. it sounds like the motor is running out of phase and out of tune with itself, fighting against itself and it growls and vibrates and makes that audible noise and then almost always is followed by a cut out either immediately or shortly after.  Logic and reason lead me to believe there to be almost no possibility the two can not be related.

I'll see if i can borrow a Go Pro and strap it on the bike for a ride or two.  I tried to explain it the best I could but seeing it and hearing it can do more than I could ever describe with words.  I will compare the two after I record a video but I am certain it is the same exact noise from the CNBC video.

[Richard230]

Knock on wood, but I just returned from a 65-mile ride, having used only 6 bars on the fuel gauge, and not another glitch in sight.  I have gone 150 miles since my first real glitch and so far everything is running smooth.  It is a mystery to me how the glitch can just pop up a time or two and not return for a while.  It just doesn't make any sense to me.  You would think that if it is caused by a failed component, or a software problem, or electrical interference, the glitch would return more often.   

[blake]

My 2012 S-9 stalled several times today coming back from a meeting. Each time it cut out when trying to accelerate away from an intersection when the light turned green, though the last time was in my gravel driveway when I got home (I have to slow considerably in the loose gravel, but it was not a stall from stop). And yes there was the "growl" (roughness) from the motor at different speeds (highway and light throttle around town) on the way to the meeting beforehand. A few weeks ago my wife took the bike for a ride to a favourite cafe and called in a panic because she could not get the bike started to come back. I was able to start it right away when I got there and until today there was never a reoccurrence.

Is my motor or controller disintegrating? Will the bike become increasingly unreliable? What a let-down! I was so keen on this bike.

I'm up in Canada - fat chance Zero will come look at my bike here. What do I do?

[Bdavis]

My bike became unrideable due to this glitch.(less than 700 miles/1125km)  I returned it to the dealer because Zero said they can log into it and fix the problem remotely in less than an hour.  Fast forward a week and the dealer still has the bike.  Advice that I will give to you... Make sure the dealer has the computer for zero to log into before you take it to them.  Set up and email conversation with both zero and your dealer so everyone (including you)knows what is going on.  If you depend on the motorcycle for any transportation, find a new form.  I was told yesterday that i will find out tomorrow if i need a new motor or not.  I wish you luck with yours.

[JohnSki]

I feel the problem that is happening with the motor is related to the type of motor.  This would explain why the Zero XU, MX and X aren’t having the problem.  The Zero S and DS have dual stator motors.  It appears that they went with this type because they could get a lot more torque without increasing the diameter of the motor. The calibration (sincos) is an indication that they are trying to have one stator push while the other one is pulling (hence the name sin cos). It seems that the encoder is critical to keeping both stators from fighting each other (this is where I feel the growl comes from).  It is also normal for electric motors to growl under load but in this case it looks like the load is being caused by it being out of timing.

One other thought I have is that the controller cutting out is possibly its way of protecting itself from burning up.  One of the jobs of industrial controllers is also to protect the motor.

[Electric Terry]

To me that sounds like belt noise. Try tightening your belt, or applying some silicone lube, or whatever lube is recommended by the manufacturer.

-ryan

Ryan, I think you are right.  This morning was the first ride since the rain from Hurricane Issac this weekend and the thunderstorms yesterday (first since I heard the video).  And today I really listened close (usually I have headphones on in my helmet, today I left them out).  

The frequency sounds the same, but it's like a slightly different instrument is playing the tune.  The motor definitely makes more of a vibrational growl, the belt more of a vibrational stringed instrument, but it is darn close.

I happened quite a few times this morning and realized I probably could have convinced myself the glitch occurs when ever I am near a silver honda accord or shortly after, lol.  There actually was a different silver accord each of the first three times it happened today.  It's just happening so much and with seemingly no rhyme or reason I am just hoping a solution is available any day now.  It's almost not fun anymore

[blake]

Luckily my local dealer up here in Oakville Canada invested in the machine needed to do the software upgrade (said it cost him $1300). He's been great. I'll be bringing in the bike tomorrow to have them address this issue. He said the DS he sold the same week I bought mine developed the same problem. I'll let you know how it goes.

[trikester]

Since I converted my 2012 DS to chain drive I won't have any doubts about where the growl comes from if I start to hear it. So far I have not experienced this problem (fingers crossed here)(we should have an icon for that).

Trikester

[mericle]

My glitch started at 6k miles and has failed consistently over the past 1k miles. One thing that I did that makes it a bit more bearable is to wire the Sevcon logic power through the eco/sport switch. I connected J5 pin 1 and J17 pin 1 through the switch (see diagram and spreadsheet).  This allows the motor controller power to be removed without rebooting the entire bike. Now, the reset takes much less time and leaves the lights on while I am working the switch. I traced some of the wire harness and documented it in the attached spreadsheet.

[protomech]

Very clever!

Now we just need something that auto-cycles when it detects the glitch.

Latest news from Zero:

The new sevcon firmware which corrects the encoder drift  has some of the same issues Zero corrected in the earlier shipping firmware, eg cutouts or sporadic behavior when full throttle over bumps, curbs, or potholes. Sounds like an upgrade versus random encoder drift glitches to me.. but still some work to be done it seems.

[BSDThw]

I traced some of the wire harness and documented it in the attached spreadsheet.

You are too modest, many thanks for sharing information.

[trikester]

What about the emergency kill switch that is on the right handlebar? Will that accomplish the same thing (recycling the controller)? I know it does leave the lights on while disabling the motor, so it does seem like it might do the job.

It would be informative to know if anyone has tried that approach.

Trikester

[mericle]

The kill switch inhibits the motor controller but it does not remove power to its logic circuit.