Hi all, here is my experience (also posted under new thread); the firmware update completely trashed my 2014 DS, its been at the dealer since nov 2017 as they are trying (slowly) to replace every board on the bike! They even shipped a new battery, still not working, waiting for new main board now! Anyway, I am sick and tired of it, have contact the after sales service manager josef morat and the new CEO sam paschel and told them to buy this rubbish motorcycle back from me! Zero is going to fail spectacularly, sorry to disappoint you all but one of the past directors told me that zero had to buy back all their 2012 bikes because they became impossible to maintain! They keep boasting that these bikes have lower maintenance than an ICE bike but that is a blatant lie! If an electronic board fails, one cant fix it, one has to buy a new one, and then its firmware is not compatible with the rest of the bike! Compare that to buying and replacing a failed spark plug!? It is a no-brainer! Farewell EVs, they are doomed.
It continues to be a mystery to me how the same vehicle can be so different over time. My daughter's 2014 S (that I used to own) still runs great and only has a problem which started about a year ago, where it will no longer charge the battery pack to 100%. Now it stops at 92% unless you leave the charger connected for about a week. Otherwise no other problems. I just don't understand how the same vehicle, with the same design and the same components can be so different after time. With so many parts being replaced by gorw's dealer, you would think that some improvement would have resulted. All I can imagine is that there was some sort of assembly problem in the wiring hidden away in the innards of the bike that is causing his problem. It certainly would be interesting to find out what would cause such a terrible situation for both gorw, his dealer and Zero. If I was Zero I would buy back the bike, give it to their engineers and let them play with it in their spare time until they found the problem(s) so that something like this could be avoided in the future.
This is quality (quality assurance coupled with quality control) in a nutshell, and why I'm not inherently enthusiastic about Energica or other boutique manufacturers necessarily seeming like better bikes right now just because they have better components. Quality is a process with an intentional feedback loop.
I'm pretty sure those engineers don't have spare time. Or they need to reprioritize engineering time to get ahead of this, and delay revising the bike design another year.
I might add that when my 2014 S Power Tank was installed by my retail dealer when the bike was originally sold to me, they couldn't get the main board to recognize that the PT had been installed. A Zero technician visited the shop and, after a couple of hours, discovered that the original PT was defective. Installing a new PT still didn't solve the problem, however he eventually discovered (a twofer) that a couple of pins in a large wiring connector had been bent when the bike was assembled at the factory. Once he straightened out those connecting pins the PT came on line and has worked well ever since. Sometimes a single damaged connector can cause all sorts of problems. One or more wiring connectors could certainly have been damaged by the shop during the process of removing and replacing parts over and over again and that might be causing all of these issues. 
This is what a robust set of troubleshooting procedures is supposed to surface.
Anyone involved with an electric motorcycle necessarily must be able to perform basic fault isolation, but be able to certify through testing what definitely is working right up to that component so that the component swap leads to a predictable result.
I think some of this might require dealership tooling where they can mock out any part of the major system components to check connectivity and interactions. Complicated wiring harnesses are valid subjects of scrutiny
[/size]during troubleshooting[/size][size=78%].[/size]Fair comment Richard, but I wonder how many people know that Zero's electronic boards come with conventional PCB edge connectors which they try to seal with silicon grease 
. If you look at any other vehicle (ICE or EV), the reputable ones have proper robust IP66 or better casings with air, dust and water proof connectors! Zero will have to complete redesign and manufacture (or get their suppliers to) proper electronic systems to increase their integrity and reliability!
Yeah, Zero's connectors are sometimes underbuilt or underguarded, for their cost and weight.
If you're thinking of the BMS on 2013-2014, that was revised after that with a more robust connector.
If you're thinking of the DC-DC connector, it's what Sevcon makes (I know there are other vendors but have no idea about their suitability) and definitely deserves a baffle or guard to keep dirt from accumulating in the connector. Sevcon seems kind of lethargic when you consider how many of their products haven't changed in 5 years.
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Topic: Firmware versions and issues. #firmwaregate (Read 8732 times)