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[Farfle]

Heya all, long time poster on the sphere, Elmoto etc...

Anywho, I just took delivery of a '15 3 brick DS, and I have a looong list of mods and fixes to do. In the interest of spreading the knowledge on how these bikes go together (as well as general reference) ill be posting up some guides here. 

Hey, there is high voltage here!
Unplug the bike from the wall, key the bike off, and leave it that way. The MBB (main bike board) seems to leave the contactors on at random leaving things live. Luckily zero runs a less-than-lethal battery pack voltage, if you lick your fingers and touch full pack voltage, its gonna let you know you did it, but your not gonna die. That being said, if you touch any of the pack positive and negative wires, you are gonna get an immense arc flash and burn the crap outta yourself, spray molten copper everywhere and generally have a bad time.


Safety rant over. This post will be about  replacing the onboard charger:


Mine had a bad one from the factory, and they were being slow to get me in to fix it, so here is how you do it:

Start by pulling the three little hex bolts (3mm?) from the side panels (BTW everything on the zero is metric thank god)

20150228_133825 by edwards8899, on Flickr

20150228_133819 by edwards8899, on Flickr

20150228_133833 by edwards8899, on Flickr


Next, pull the front body panel (I forgot to take pictures of this, its just a few small screws)

Then, pull the skidpan. The DS has an aluminum one,  I think the one on the S and SR are plastic, but not sure.

Just a handful of easy to find bolts:

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

popping the seat off also makes things easier. Its the two giant Torx bolts on the frame at the back (T-45?)

20150228_133810 by edwards8899, on Flickr

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

Next, you will want to remove the wiring from the bike side of things. There are three plugs, one on the AC end of things that's bolted to the bike, (your charge plug) the comm connector (enable signal, can comms etc...) and one plug on the DC side that goes up to the charge wiring harness.

The comms plug just has a tab, pull that one out.

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

Both of the other plugs are a major pain in the ass.

Starting with the DC plug:

The plug looks like an Anderson SBS 50, but it seems to be a narrower pin pitch with no center data pin set.

Anywho, the DC plug is located in front of the motor against the back side of the battery on the bike's right. They are tucked up between the battery and a frame member, so cut the zip ties (Including the zip tie holding the plugs together) and pull the push on zip tie mount things on the lower half of the cable going to the charger.

Pull down on the charger side of the connector from the bottom while pulling up on the top connector. Sometimes this requires a flesh donation to the motor, so covering the motor with a rag would be smart.

Pull the terminals out of the plug housing, (Google Anderson connector disassembly if you are unfamiliar) and pull it down thru the hole between the motor and frame.
photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

Next, the AC plug. It loops up under the seat and is zip tied on if a handful of places, there is two small bolts on the backside, they are a pain to get to, so get a decent set of hex drivers with handles.

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

20150228_133913 by edwards8899, on Flickr

There is a fuseholder plug thing that connects the ground to who-knows-where, you have to squeeze some tabs to get the green locking piece out, then more tabs to get the plug apart.

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

Then, once the cables are out, the charger just has six bolts on the tabs holding it up.

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

Assembly is the reverse of dis-assembly. I extended the DC wires on my replacement calex/greenwattpower charger, and put the plug set sideways, and up higher to make it easier to get at.

20150228_145637 by edwards8899, on Flickr

20150228_145626 by edwards8899, on Flickr

[Burton]

Could you host those images somewhere which allow you to set a max width of no more than 550 - 600px wide when displaying in a forum?

I use flickr for this since it is free and you simply copy and paste the code.

[Farfle]

Could you host those images somewhere which allow you to set a max width of no more than 550 - 600px wide when displaying in a forum?

I use flickr for this since it is free and you simply copy and paste the code.

Holy cow those didnt scale right. Will fix asap.

[Doctorbass]

G       L         A          D                    T       O                  S        E        E             Y            O          U               H               E                R             E                 F          A             R          F        L           E

 

Yes Burton is right! please adjust these images.. we dont all have a 4K monitor like you man!

So you are about to modify the original cahrger of your new 2015 Zero right?

I did that on my 2012 with 6.6kW that fit on a size of a box of shoes and that connect J1772.

I have a friend who just bought a 2014 S and that will add 2 x 3kW ESP 120 server power supply to get 6kW of charging power.

So Me, Burton and you seem to be the pioneer of compact fast charging Zero..

Keep us updated Farfle!

Doc

[Farfle]

My charger will be a bit more crude, but equally as powerful. . followup on that in a later post in this thread.

Anywho, the next mod will be:

Installing a cycle analyst!!

CA's are an awesome dashboard, and being able to know pack voltage/amperage etc... will be very handy for later mods.
This post will be mainly for the groundwork of installing the shunt for the CA, with the rest of the install when I get mine in the mail.

Start by pulling the seat, under there is an EMC shroud. Two small phillips screws and it lifts back. the EMC shroud should be re-installed at the end if possible. (the Sevcon is an incredibly noisy thing, and disrupts things like charger and SOC comms)

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

Next, check the controllers main positive and main negative for voltage. The MBB is sometimes forgetful of opening contactors, and seems to leave things live at random.

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

After your voltage has gone to sub-10v then pull the negative wire (13mm?)  this is where we will install the shunt.

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr


Make a short extension wire ~5". The sevcon really only needs 2AWG for this short of a run, I had to improvise and stuffed 10awg bare wires into 2awg terminals until it wouldn't take anymore:

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

Bolt your extension on behind the controller where it can tuck down under seat level, then bolt one end to your shunt, and your pack negative to the other. (The pack negative on my bike gained about 12" of free play after cutting the zip tie holding it to the cross-beam behind the battery)

After its bolted in, I gave mine a hefty wrapping of self-fusing silicone tape. Its thick, stretchy and permanently fuses into one piece after a few seconds.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Nashua-Tape-1-in-x-3-33-yd-Stretch-Seal-Self-Fusing-Silicone-Tape-Black-1208952/100206050

20150223_164607 by edwards8899, on Flickr

20150223_164637 by edwards8899, on Flickr


I got lazy and just tucked the EMC shroud back between the two bolts. no ill effects so far.

20150223_164628 by edwards8899, on Flickr

Throw the seat back on and part one is complete.

[oobflyer]

Curious - what info does the Cycle Analyst provide that the 2015 DS dash doesn't?
I installed a Cycle Analyst on my Vectrix because the original dash doesn't offer any info about voltage, kWh, etc., but my new '15 SR has all that information in the stock dash with the touch of a button.

[firepower]

Thanks for those smaller photos, big improvement.
looking forward to your charger mod / replacement.

[Burton]

I think the CA allows you to dump logs of your trip for graphing oobflyer. But I am sure Farfle will get back to you on the change

[benswing]

I love this thread!  Thanks for the clear explanations and photographs!

[CrashCash]

Then, once the cables are out, the charger just has six bolts on the tabs holding it up.

photo by edwards8899, on Flickr

So I can use a Harley style rail lift, and not crush the charger? Or not? I have an SR, do I need to worry about the plastic bottom pan?

[Farfle]

So I can use a Harley style rail lift, and not crush the charger? Or not? I have an SR, do I need to worry about the plastic bottom pan?

You should have no problem lifting it with a belly pan jack, the chargers are really tough. They have a 3mm aluminum case and are filled with a tough potting compound. The poly skidpan mak get a little chewed, but you wont hurt the charger. By the way, you can buy replecement chargers from the manufacturer here :

http://www.greenwattpower.com/1300evc.html

And thanks guys! My CA wont be in till monday, so will update the post then. Later down the road there will be a 17" wheel install, Bad-boy charger build, a monolith opening/ 4th module install and a second controller install post.

[Cortezdtv]

Nice to see a double controller bike out there soon, I'm jealous, should be wicked fast which are you going to piggyback?

[Farfle]

Nice to see a double controller bike out there soon, I'm jealous, should be wicked fast which are you going to piggyback?

Will go to dual size fours. Possobly an atf cooled motor aswell. 880 phase amps and ~90hp s pretty awesome.

[Cortezdtv]

I could imagine that sr getting up and boogieing with my fx off the line.  Impressive for a bike that has almost 100 extra lbs!!!!


I'll be watching the upgrades! I want to see the size 4s in action so I can be convinced to do it to my go cart, or the fx that I just crashed, all taken apart calling my name, I miss my race bike

[RNM]

Will go to dual size fours. Possobly an atf cooled motor aswell. 880 phase amps and ~90hp s pretty awesome.

Love the ATF idea. If you are going down that route, try this:
https://rnmentropy.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/oil-cooling-with-nanofluids/

I think this oil is even better than ATF:
http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=25&pcid=18

If you try this, tell me how it works out.