Nostris Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 So, a question for the experts. I live at the top of a hill. The road from my house to the bottom of the hill is about 1 kilometre and drops about 100 meters in height. I have heard that you shouldn’t ride downhill with a fully charged battery as the wheel will try to over charge the batteries during the decent. Is this true? What would happen.? Would it damage the wheel or cause a cutout? The wheel is a V8f ......your thoughts would be appreciated. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 The wheel would beep at you, tilt the pedals, and in the worst case (if you ignore the warnings and keep riding downhill) shut off before overcharging the battery. Just charge to 90% or 95% or whatever instead of 100% if you start on the top of a hill. And you can always ride back up to lose more energy than you'll get back coming down. So worst case, if it complains, you ride back up a few meters before continuing downhill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebees Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 You might get away with riding down a hill depending on the wheel and manufacturer. I occasionally ride my 16x full charge downhill slowly. I would not do it on my MSX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gasmantle Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 Like you I live at the top of a hill (although not as long or as steep), when I got my first wheel a couple of years ago (a V5F) I wondered the same thing and would ride 200yds or so on level ground first thinking that ought to just take a bit of charge from the battery. A few times I forgot to do it and noticed no side effects so I just stopped altogether, I'm on my 3rd wheel now and never experienced any problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbikes Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 3 hours ago, Nostris said: So, a question for the experts. I live at the top of a hill. The road from my house to the bottom of the hill is about 1 kilometre and drops about 100 meters in height. I have heard that you shouldn’t ride downhill with a fully charged battery as the wheel will try to over charge the batteries during the decent. Is this true? What would happen.? Would it damage the wheel or cause a cutout? You will most likely not have an issue if you ride downhill very briefly. The wheel can cutoff if you do so for long enough distances to prevent overcharging and there is no way around it, even with a Onewheel. You can charge to full so cell balancing can take place, then ride off some charge before your desend. Or you can charge to say 95 percent and just start your desend immediately. I'd still charge to 100 percent occasionally so you can balance the cells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawpie Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 100 meters isn’t very far “down”, just go slowly and don’t brake hard. Or, after your wheel finishes the balance portion of its charge cycle, unplug the charger, turn it on, lights on, and let it sit there for a half hour or so to burn off a little bit of charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nostris Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 12 hours ago, Tawpie said: 100 meters isn’t very far “down”, just go slowly and don’t brake hard. Or, after your wheel finishes the balance portion of its charge cycle, unplug the charger, turn it on, lights on, and let it sit there for a half hour or so to burn off a little bit of charge. The road is 1000 Mts long and has a change in height of 100 meters from top to bottom….the steepest parts are probably a 20%/25% incline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nostris Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 Thanks for all your replies, I’ll probably go with the 95% charge idea and see what happens. if it was a short distance I’d just chance it, but IMO a continuous decent for 1km is quite a time to be using regenerative braking. ..Better safe than sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meepmeepmayer Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 Just start with a full battery and try and see when the wheel complains. Then ride back up a bit, and continue downwards. Then you'll now more. From then on you'll have a better idea with what battery % to start so you end up with 100% at the bottom of the hill. Nothing bad will happen if you don't ignore any warnings. No need to be afraid. You can just try things 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 1 hour ago, Nostris said: Thanks for all your replies, I’ll probably go with the 95% charge idea and see what happens. if it was a short distance I’d just chance it, but IMO a continuous decent for 1km is quite a time to be using regenerative braking. ..Better safe than sorry! Whats at the bottom? You could always just go faster and faster and faster and faster and ... well, you know! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiiijojjo Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 (edited) I have a very similar situation to @Nostris in the sense that i too live on a mountain with approximately 700 meters of road and it drops down about 150m from my house to the bottom of the mountain. If i charge my wheel overnight and disconnect the charging cable as i exit the house my gotway rs will start beeping and tilting back for the last 100-200 meters so my solution is just to continue to charge to 100% and before i mount the euc i lift and free spin it until i hear the 80% alarm, decelerate and mount it. Doing that will remove enough charge that i can go down the mountain at any speed doing any amount of braking. Edited February 24, 2021 by xiiijojjo 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post RagingGrandpa Posted February 24, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 24, 2021 Popular topic this month... On 2/19/2021 at 10:06 AM, RagingGrandpa said: Assuming rider+EUC = 100kg, consistent grade, 32km/h riding (20mph), and no prevailing wind: net energy becomes zero on a 15% grade. It means: if you are dropping 1500m over a 10km ride distance, you use no energy from the battery pack. Ride steeper than 15%, and you're charging the pack. 15% is really steep for a roadway. Public roads in the US are generally limited to 12% grade. There are some notable exceptions, such as 23% in the city of San Francisco, but they are not sustained for long distances. So overall, I think it is a very tiny percentage of EUC riders that live on top of a ride route with a 15% grade. Most of us don't need to worry. Respect the beeps! Thankfully, there is an audible alert for pack overvoltage. If you hit the alarm, turn around and ride uphill for 1km, then continue back down. 19 hours ago, Nostris said: 1 kilometre and drops about 100 meters in height 10% grade. No concern, just ride. Respect the beeps! 2 hours ago, xiiijojjo said: 700 meters of road and it drops down about 150m 21% grade. Howbout fully charge, then do a little pendulum practice in the driveway before descending? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcatraz Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 Charge with a timer (fully charge once every month). Walk the hill or play a bit before riding down on a full charge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 (edited) 12 hours ago, RagingGrandpa said: Popular topic this month... 10% grade. No concern, just ride. Respect the beeps! 21% grade. Howbout fully charge, then do a little pendulum practice in the driveway before descending? We need a 'mic drop' emoticon. THIS is about as perfect an answer as one would hope to find. Aint like 2-3 minutes of pendulum aint good warmup for the muscles/reflexes anyhow... take a bow sir, and thanks for the information. Learn something new everyday! Edited February 25, 2021 by ShanesPlanet 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandoCycle Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 I basically live on a giant hill, and to get into town is about 500' of elevation downhill. Usually, I leave my house on full-charge and have had 0 issues on any of my other wheels (V10F, S18, 18XL, V8F). Every time I try it on the V11 I get tilt-back and a "please repair" voice which I assume is an overheat protection; it cools down in about 30 seconds and I can keep riding. But it's super annoying, does this happen to anyone else? Just wondering if I have a bad voltage calibration or something... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post meepmeepmayer Posted March 22, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2022 7 minutes ago, LandoCycle said: which I assume is an overheat protection Not sure about the V11 in particular, but in general downhill beeps on full battery is an overcharging protection. Your battery is full, and any more recharging would force the wheel to switch off. Do you use the same charger for the V11 and the others? Try this: when you get that alarm, go back up the hill a bit, and see if you can go further down after that. This way you can see if it's indeed overcharging. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercurio Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 Hi @LandoCycle! What is happening is over-voltage / over-charging protection, and it is a common occurrence for riders going downhill. When you're braking downhill, some amount of energy is recovered via regen braking, charging your battery in the process, despite its cells are already at their maximum voltage. This is why it's making you stop. It is possible that the V11 is a bit more strict and careful than the others wheels, or more effective at regen in this case. It is not a defect however. To circumvent the issue, you can burn some energy before going down like by making a little detour, or not always charge to full. What would be the most convenient for you? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Chriull Posted March 22, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2022 5 minutes ago, LandoCycle said: But it's super annoying, does this happen to anyone else? Just wondering if I have a bad voltage calibration or something... All wheels afaik hav overvoltage alarm/tiltback and as normal breaking mode is regenerative going downhill with full batteries will raise the alarm/tiltback. Some wheels maybe have higher thresholds and/or one could be "lucky" to have a wheel/charger combination where the charger output voltage is on the low side and the wheels voltage measurement calibration is on the right tolerance too. Beat solution is to drive a bit uphill as regenwrative breaking is imho "quite inefficient". 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandoCycle Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 (edited) Yeah, if I ride hard for 5 minutes or so before going downhill I don't have the issue. I'm aware the board needs to dissipate the power into heat if the batteries are fully-charged. The odd thing is that NONE of my other wheels are bothered, just the V11. Glad it's not specifically my V11 though, and it's something I can work around. Edited March 22, 2022 by LandoCycle 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techyiam Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 Just wondering, would the V11 still complain on a full charge, if you were to ride down slowly? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandoCycle Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 3 minutes ago, techyiam said: Just wondering, would the V11 still complain on a full charge, if you were to ride down slowly? Yeah, I tried it and same issue. I'm 180lbs with gear. My Gf on the other hand can go downhill on it just fine at 130lbs. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercurio Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 @techyiam might be into something with the speed Have you tried faster? Higher speed means more energy will be dissipated in aero drag (mostly) and rolling resistance, so there won't be as much - if any to regen into the packs. The catch is that if you have to brake hard in emergency from this higher speed, the wheel might not like that at all and throw you off or even cut-out to protect the cells by disconnecting the packs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techyiam Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 (edited) This symptom is quite intriguing, at least for me. If the cause is due to overheating, how does riding for 5 minutes prior to going down make a difference? If it is overcharging or over-voltage, why it is OK for the lighter rider? Also, the "please repair " warning message is worrisome. 1 hour ago, LandoCycle said: Every time I try it on the V11 I get tilt-back and a "please repair" voice which I assume is an overheat protection; it cools down in about 30 seconds and I can keep riding. 1 hour ago, LandoCycle said: Yeah, if I ride hard for 5 minutes or so before going downhill I don't have the issue. 49 minutes ago, LandoCycle said: Yeah, I tried it and same issue. I'm 180lbs with gear. My Gf on the other hand can go downhill on it just fine at 130lbs. Edited March 22, 2022 by techyiam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandoCycle Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 (edited) 3 minutes ago, techyiam said: This symptom is quite intriguing, at least for me. If the cause is due to overheating, how does riding for 5 minutes prior to going down make a difference? If it is overcharging or over-voltage, why it is OK for the lighter rider? Also, the "please repair " warning message is worrisome. I think because riding hard for 5 minutes drains the battery low enough that it can put some juice back into the battery during regen instead of dissipating as heat when going down-hill. Edited March 22, 2022 by LandoCycle 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawpie Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 (edited) 6 minutes ago, techyiam said: why it is OK for the lighter rider? It must be on the edge of over voltage... the higher mass of the heavier rider has more potential energy at the top of the hill than does the lighter rider. A (small) amount of that energy is converted to regen power but I suspect that because the lighter rider has less potential energy, they're actually power neutral or slightly using power on the way down. I may be wrong, but I don't think there's a shunt to a resistor that'll convert regenerated power to heat—it's either sent to the battery or there isn't 'braking' power. Seems silly not to have a resistor though, maybe it just wouldn't be used enough to justify the cost. An EUCWorld tour recording should be quite helpful... Edited March 22, 2022 by Tawpie 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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