Battery readout!!

[Chrisxr2]

so I didn't a good few hours at the park on my xtreme, battery died after I ignored two lots off I'm flat vibrations, because my battery readout stool showed three out of 5 segments, only the second time I have used all the battery first time vibration was one segment left and I stopped riding straight away. Hopefully it's a one of.

[edwin_rm]

I'm also trying to figure out how to read the SW Xtreme's battery led lights. Mine appears to have like 18 bars, but the uc vibrates/needs recharge after using like half of them. 

[Chrisxr2]

so apparently its only meant to go down to 3 bars so you still have aheadlight at night, which is fine except for the first time i used mine it went all the way down to one bar, which is a bit odd.

[Chrisxr2]

No scratch that, the manual says it should go down to 1 segment.

[Daan]

Ah, right. The current Xtreme's go down to about 3 bars and then the battery vibration warning starts. This might be fixed in a future firmware version but I heard it is difficult as it requires a hardware change. For now, that means it is currently very hard to see how far you are in your battery since it also drops non-linearly; i.e. once it is no longer full, it drops quite quickly to the 3 bars.  This is of course no good if you need to know your battery level!  For now there are 2 solutions:

1. The Solowheel App for android shows the battery level -- it is still in beta stage but you can find it on the app store. It doesn't work for me reliably though at this point in the development
2. I installed an odo-meter on my wheel -- it is great! This way I can keep track of how far I have been going on a battery and have a pretty good indication how much longer I can ride. (see http://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/801-solowheel-xtreme-partial-take-down-disassembly/?do=findComment&comment=7784) Not entirely easy to install though and may void your warranty... but if you put it on the outside with tape that would work too  -- somewhere esaj has a post on this for his firewheel

[esaj]

Ah, right. The current Xtreme's go down to about 3 bars and then the battery vibration warning starts. This might be fixed in a future firmware version but I heard it is difficult as it requires a hardware change. For now, that means it is currently very hard to see how far you are in your battery since it also drops non-linearly; i.e. once it is no longer full, it drops quite quickly to the 3 bars.  This is of course no good if you need to know your battery level!  For now there are 2 solutions:

1. The Solowheel App for android shows the battery level -- it is still in beta stage but you can find it on the app store. It doesn't work for me reliably though at this point in the development
2. I installed an odo-meter on my wheel -- it is great! This way I can keep track of how far I have been going on a battery and have a pretty good indication how much longer I can ride. (see http://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/801-solowheel-xtreme-partial-take-down-disassembly/?do=findComment&comment=7784) Not entirely easy to install though and may void your warranty... but if you put it on the outside with tape that would work too  -- somewhere esaj has a post on this for his firewheel

As far as I know, all wheels measure the battery level based on voltage. The voltage changes a lot during riding, so the meters can go up and down depending on the situation and remaining charge.

At least with the Firewheel, the battery display was more looks than function, showing values between 0 and 99%. It showed 99% all the time for the first few kilometers, then dropped rapidly towards 0%, and even while it was showing 0%, I could still ride something like up to 5km with hills   Also, it goes up and down wildly during strong braking and and acceleration/hill climbing/hill descending (between 0% and up to 60%). The bike odometer was much more reliable, after I knew how much kilometers I get out of full packs (on good weather 23-25km, on a very strong head wind down to 18km). This was with the original batteries (264Wh), currently it's fitted with 3 * 192Wh packs (576Wh), with the fourth pack currently sitting on my desk (so 768Wh after I've put them all in).

Currently I'm using battery voltage meter, which is fairly precise, after you "learn" the voltages where the warnings come and how the voltage drops at different phases, ie. when the voltage at standstill is above 60V, the sag/voltage rise during braking usually isn't more than +- 1...2V compared to it during riding, but once it's down to 55V, it can drop 6...7V on steep rises, and go up about the same on stronger braking and long downhills. The drop also isn't linear, getting it from something like 63 to 60V can take 20-30km, but from about 57.5V to "empty" (52...53V) takes only about 10km. After it momentarily hits below 47V (during voltage sag on climbs or accelerating), the battery warning will trigger. After it drops to around 52V on standstill, it's no more possible to ride (but it will recover back up to about 54V over a few hours). This on Firewheel with custom battery packs made out of LG MH1's, the voltages are probably different on Solowheels.

[Chrisxr2]

Ah, right. The current Xtreme's go down to about 3 bars and then the battery vibration warning starts. This might be fixed in a future firmware version but I heard it is difficult as it requires a hardware change. For now, that means it is currently very hard to see how far you are in your battery since it also drops non-linearly; i.e. once it is no longer full, it drops quite quickly to the 3 bars.  This is of course no good if you need to know your battery level!  For now there are 2 solutions:

1. The Solowheel App for android shows the battery level -- it is still in beta stage but you can find it on the app store. It doesn't work for me reliably though at this point in the development
2. I installed an odo-meter on my wheel -- it is great! This way I can keep track of how far I have been going on a battery and have a pretty good indication how much longer I can ride. (see http://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/801-solowheel-xtreme-partial-take-down-disassembly/?do=findComment&comment=7784) Not entirely easy to install though and may void your warranty... but if you put it on the outside with tape that would work too  -- somewhere esaj has a post on this for his firewheel

okay, the firmware update in November will have it go down to one bar, hot of the press from Solowheel Eu. I will be getting one add that's when stock is in to replace my wobbly one. I did not know the beta version off the app was available, off to have a look now.

[Chrisxr2]

That's two firmware updates since release, I wonder if the chance to update is possible through app or other means for existing customers.

[Jason McNeil]

The two methods that are infinitely superior to a simple voltage monitor are CEDV & Impedance Track. As you can see from the formula, it's a bit complicated. I'd predict in the next six months we can see a few of the more innovative manufacturers implementing into their code.

[edwin_rm]

So how many bars does Solowheel Xtreme have? I'm having trouble counting them due to brightness, but it seems to be about 18. Is that correct? I don't get where the 5 segments mentioned above comes from.

Mine starts to vibrate after spending about 7 bars (see attached photo with empty spent bars on the left, and remaining bars on the right). I'm guessing it needs to cool down for a while after that and then I can keep going? I haven't tried yet.

[Chrisxr2]

18!!!! !here are 6 bars total, though they are not very easy to photograph as you say.

 

Your photo shows 4 illuminated.

[Chrisxr2]

So i left the house with one bar this morning which should mean i have 33.3 percent battery left, i carried up two big hills to err on the side of caution, it is very frustrating that once it goes down to three bars you still have quite a lot of distance left, about 2 miles in my case, but that means you have if the readout is correct, verry little battery left. The solowheel website alludes tho the battery display being numerical like you can have on a phone which would be way cooler and more useful.

[edwin_rm]

It sucks that it starts vibrating when there are still 3 bars left. Vibration is not suppossed to start until there is only one bar left (according to the manual), but that is not the case. I hope this can be tweaked with the upcoming bluetooth app! 

[Chrisxr2]

Next firmware update will have it go to one bar, starting to think we will never see a flu finished app with the functionality we would like.

[Sam Clegg]

Have you had your firmware updated already?   Where do you send it to get it updated?  What changes have they made since the first release?

[Chrisxr2]

I am awaiting the slow boat from China with my xtreme replacement as no air travel freight allowed to France, was due in December still waiting.

[steve454]

On 9/22/2015 at 1:30 PM, esaj said:

As far as I know, all wheels measure the battery level based on voltage. The voltage changes a lot during riding, so the meters can go up and down depending on the situation and remaining charge.

At least with the Firewheel, the battery display was more looks than function, showing values between 0 and 99%. It showed 99% all the time for the first few kilometers, then dropped rapidly towards 0%, and even while it was showing 0%, I could still ride something like up to 5km with hills   Also, it goes up and down wildly during strong braking and and acceleration/hill climbing/hill descending (between 0% and up to 60%). The bike odometer was much more reliable, after I knew how much kilometers I get out of full packs (on good weather 23-25km, on a very strong head wind down to 18km). This was with the original batteries (264Wh), currently it's fitted with 3 * 192Wh packs (576Wh), with the fourth pack currently sitting on my desk (so 768Wh after I've put them all in).

Currently I'm using battery voltage meter, which is fairly precise, after you "learn" the voltages where the warnings come and how the voltage drops at different phases, ie. when the voltage at standstill is above 60V, the sag/voltage rise during braking usually isn't more than +- 1...2V compared to it during riding, but once it's down to 55V, it can drop 6...7V on steep rises, and go up about the same on stronger braking and long downhills. The drop also isn't linear, getting it from something like 63 to 60V can take 20-30km, but from about 57.5V to "empty" (52...53V) takes only about 10km. After it momentarily hits below 47V (during voltage sag on climbs or accelerating), the battery warning will trigger. After it drops to around 52V on standstill, it's no more possible to ride (but it will recover back up to about 54V over a few hours). This on Firewheel with custom battery packs made out of LG MH1's, the voltages are probably different on Solowheels.

@esaj that make sense, if the battery is almost full then there is much less variation.  This is why I don't like to go below 75% battery level.

[steve454]

On 6/9/2016 at 6:03 PM, steve454 said:

@esaj that make sense, if the battery is almost full then there is much less variation.  This is why I don't like to go below 75% battery level.

Do you think a charge doctor could be taped on top of the wheel to show battery fluctuations or is it only useable when charging?

[esaj]

3 minutes ago, steve454 said:

Do you think a charge doctor could be taped on top of the wheel to show battery fluctuations or is it only useable when charging?

It should get a voltage reading if the BMS has no protection diode on charging side.

[steve454]

@esaj then logically, I could ride with the app on,on my phone, and see the voltage fluctuations.  Thanks Esaj.

 

Beginning to think EUC's were invented to make phones more useful

 

I tried riding with the app on for a minute or two and saw no instant change in the battery voltage, also it was very hard to see the small display.  So I changed it back to the speedometer, that is easy to see and is almost instantaneous.

[Fast]

My SOLOWHEEL XTREME now broken,... Theres a shortcut in electricity inside,.. I need an electronic component which is handling the electric supllied into th batery,.. I can not charger those things properly. 

If anyone can help me, how i can fix it or i can buy the component PCB, power supply which is can chrger the batery as well.

 

Thx, fajr-Jakarta, Indonesia

[Keith]

@Fast, you got no reply to this because nobody can help you with "broken", and "I need an electronic component". 

Your post reminds me of the old joke about the Air Force fault logs and fixes such as:

• Pilot writes: "Something loose in cockpit.
• Engineer: Something tightened in cockpit!

 

• Pilot: One engine is missing.
• Engineer: A quick count revealed all 4 engines are there.

 

• Pilot:.The radar is humming 
• engineer: reprogrammed radar with the words

if you want our help you need to explain in detail exactly what it or is not happening what symptoms you are seeing, etc.