Jump to content

V8 Charger Problem - Output Voltage Drop


z3n

Recommended Posts

I recently found out that I could not fully charge my V8 using the original factory default 84V 1.5A charger. The charger light always turns green while the battery indicator on V8 is still blinking. :blink:

Tried few different experiments using Charge Doctor Voltage output with 3 different chargers:

  • Charger A - my oldest charger, about 15 - 16 months usage, indicates 79.8V - 79.9V.
  • Charger B - about 6 months usage, indicates 80.5V - 80.6V.
  • Charger C - about 3 months usage, indicates 81V.

I have never really noticed the Voltage while they were brand new though. Are they supposed to be exact 84V showing on Charge Doctor? Could anyone with V8 and Charge Doctor confirm please?

What is wrong with these? Which components are failing/aging and need to be replaced?

Is it normal for chargers to have output voltage drops overtime like this? I believe I have always taken good care of them. :facepalm:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, z3n said:

I recently found out that I could not fully charge my V8 using the original factory default 84V 1.5A charger. The charger light always turns green while the battery indicator on V8 is still blinking. :blink:

Tried few different experiments using Charge Doctor Voltage output with 3 different chargers:

  • Charger A - my oldest charger, about 15 - 16 months usage, indicates 79.8V - 79.9V.
  • Charger B - about 6 months usage, indicates 80.5V - 80.6V.
  • Charger C - about 3 months usage, indicates 81V.

I have never really noticed the Voltage while they were brand new though. Are they supposed to be exact 84V showing on Charge Doctor? Could anyone with V8 and Charge Doctor confirm please?

What is wrong with these? Which components are failing/aging and need to be replaced?

Is it normal for chargers to have output voltage drops overtime like this? I believe I have always taken good care of them. :facepalm:

Could be that the lower voltage from the older chargers is just some strange coincidence and does not imply anything - could be that they came with more or less this voltage adjusted.

Normally the output voltage is adjusted with a little trim potentiometer. See @Cranium's topic 

Could also be, that this adjustmend needs to be redone from time to time - "misadjustments" by vibrations or "just" normal drift/aging of the components could happen.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, Chriull said:

Could be that the lower voltage from the older chargers is just some strange coincidence and does not imply anything - could be that they came with more or less this voltage adjusted.

Nope. I am quite sure that I was able to fully charge without any problem at all before. The problem only occurs recently.

20 minutes ago, Chriull said:

Normally the output voltage is adjusted with a little trim potentiometer.

Could also be, that this adjustmend needs to be redone from time to time - "misadjustments" by vibrations or "just" normal drift/aging of the components could happen.

Does it also apply to the original factory default slow chargers? I mean, are you sure it is also adjustable? :confused1:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/27/2018 at 7:49 AM, z3n said:

I have never really noticed the Voltage while they were brand new though. Are they supposed to be exact 84V showing on Charge Doctor? Could anyone with V8 and Charge Doctor confirm please?

I think they are supposed to show 84V only at the end of charging. I have two chargers. Without load, the older and the newer charger show 84.6V and 83.9V, respectively, but this is not a fully reliable figure and can vary. During charging they show in the beginning the same voltage, which is closely related to the battery voltage (charge status), and the same charge current. The shown voltage increases during charging and only the older charger delivers a final charge voltage of 84.0V, as expected, and fully charges the battery. The newer charger did in the beginning as well, but now, IIRC, never exceeds 83V in the end.

Edited by Mono
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Mono said:

I think they are supposed to show 84V only at the end of charging. I have two chargers. Without load, the older and the newer charger show 84.6V and 83.9V, respectively, but this is not a fully reliable figure and can vary. During charging they show in the beginning the same voltage, which is closely related to the battery voltage (charge status), and the same charge current. The shown voltage increases during charging and only the older charger delivers a final charge voltage of 84.0V, as expected, and fully charges the battery. The newer charger did in the beginning as well, but now, IIRC, never exceed 83V in the end.

So yours are:

  • Older charger 84.6V resulting at 84.0V (full charge achieved).
  • Newer charger 83.9V resulting at 83.0V (full charge NOT achieved).

And mine are:

  • Older charger 79.8V resulting at around 79.8V as well (full charge NOT achieved).
  • Newer charger 80.5V resulting at around 80V (full charge NOT achieved).
  • Newest charger 81V resulting at around 80.6V (full charge NOT achieved).

Are you using your newer charger more frequently than your older one? Because it seems that they degrade over usage (output voltage drop).

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, z3n said:

Are you using your newer charger more frequently than your older one?

Lately yes, but not overall.

Quote

Because it seems that they degrade over usage (output voltage drop).

Apparently not each and every charger experiences voltage drop over time. My older charger has charged estimated at least 30,000 Wh (or about 300h) with only minor or no voltage drop. Maybe some lucky outlier in reliability.

Edited by Mono
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like some bad adapters/chargers. I've ordered an extra charger for my V8 so I can try to measure them against each other later.

If they are anything like Ninebot chargers (the case is exactly the same) there should be a adjustment potentiometer...

But from things I've been reading around the V8 stock chargers are not the best... Same plastic case but different manufacturers?

 

The one thing I also noticed that there are two versions of V8 chargers - 240V and 110-240V. I ordered 240V so will try to see if there are any difference between them

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 27/02/2018 at 6:49 AM, z3n said:

I recently found out that I could not fully charge my V8 using the original factory default 84V 1.5A charger. The charger light always turns green while the battery indicator on V8 is still blinking. :blink:

Tried few different experiments using Charge Doctor Voltage output with 3 different chargers:

  • Charger A - my oldest charger, about 15 - 16 months usage, indicates 79.8V - 79.9V.
  • Charger B - about 6 months usage, indicates 80.5V - 80.6V.
  • Charger C - about 3 months usage, indicates 81V.

I have never really noticed the Voltage while they were brand new though. Are they supposed to be exact 84V showing on Charge Doctor? Could anyone with V8 and Charge Doctor confirm please?

What is wrong with these? Which components are failing/aging and need to be replaced?

Is it normal for chargers to have output voltage drops overtime like this? I believe I have always taken good care of them. :facepalm:

This could be a dumb question but.......isn't this normal?

On my V5f+, which I've had two chargers for in the past, the light always goes green on the charger brick a good 15/20mins before the battery progress animation on the wheel finally stops.

Edited by Paddylaz
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Paddylaz said:

This could be a dumb question but.......isn't this normal?

On my V5f+, which I've had two chargers for in the past, the light always goes green on the charger brick a good 15/20mins before the battery progress animation on the wheel finally stops.

From my experience, it's not normal. The charger light is supposed to go green when it delivers ≤ 400mA, which should only happen when my V8 reaches > 83V (can't remember the exact Voltage, but definitely below the full 84V). And at this time, the battery progress animation is still running. You might want to use Charge Doctor to monitor the Ampere and Voltage in real time to monitor them.

What I'm experiencing is the charger light goes green at 79.8V and the battery progress animation on my wheel doesn't stop at all even after leaving it for a whole night long. :facepalm:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Vik's said:

Sounds like some bad adapters/chargers. I've ordered an extra charger for my V8 so I can try to measure them against each other later.

If they are anything like Ninebot chargers (the case is exactly the same) there should be a adjustment potentiometer...

But from things I've been reading around the V8 stock chargers are not the best... Same plastic case but different manufacturers?

 

The one thing I also noticed that there are two versions of V8 chargers - 240V and 110-240V. I ordered 240V so will try to see if there are any difference between them

Yes, so far all of my experiments are pointing towards the chargers problem, but I can't be 100% sure. Please do share your measurement when you do.

AFAIK the 240V one is for local China market only. Some says that the quality is even worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, z3n said:

From my experience, it's not normal. The charger light is supposed to go green when it delivers ≤ 400mA, which should only happen when my V8 reaches > 83V (can't remember the exact Voltage, but definitely below the full 84V). And at this time, the battery progress animation is still running. You might want to use Charge Doctor to monitor the Ampere and Voltage in real time to monitor them.

What I'm experiencing is the charger light goes green at 79.8V and the battery progress animation on my wheel doesn't stop at all even after leaving it for a whole night long. :facepalm:

Fair enough. But have you seen any other inmotion wheels that don't do this? Could this maybe just be a software-type flaw with the v5f/v8 firmware? Because both chargers I've had have done this. Does the app show you're 100% charged when you connect it afterwards?

Edited by Paddylaz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎06‎.‎03‎.‎2018 at 8:23 PM, z3n said:

... Please do share your measurement when you do.

 

I've got my extra charger delivered today. It's a 110-240V even though I ordered an 240V one (shouldn't complain I suppose). Same charger was included with my V8 but a little bit earlier Version/batch (september 2017). Measurements shows 83.2V on both. I don't own a charge doctor...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Vik's said:

Measurements shows 83.2V on both.

Thank you for sharing.

So how did you measure them? By using multi meter?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, z3n said:

Thank you for sharing.

So how did you measure them? By using multi meter?

Yep, multimeter it is. Cannot measure while charging.

I was thinking about opening one of them up if they were different versions or if measurements would vary a lot between them but I think i'll wait with that

Edited by Vik's
mobile phone craptastic keyboard
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/7/2018 at 2:58 AM, Paddylaz said:

Fair enough. But have you seen any other inmotion wheels that don't do this? Could this maybe just be a software-type flaw with the v5f/v8 firmware? Because both chargers I've had have done this. Does the app show you're 100% charged when you connect it afterwards?

My own V8 didn't do this until around 3 weeks ago. Yes, the app still shows 100%, but it doesn't last as long as before. I used to be able to ride for about 5 km before it drops to 99%. I think any voltage above 81-82 Volt is registered as 100% in the app.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

Hi Guys,

when I plug in the charger, the green light should turn from green to red (start charging) but it doesn't. When I plug it in, the green light pretends to turn red but immediately shut off and in a second it blinks again and again, just keeps blinking. The status bar on the wheel shows charging but it doesn't.

It happened with no obvious reason. Last night, everything charged as usually, the wheel is going well but tonight when I plugged it in, this effect occured.

Any idea?

 

this is how it looks

 

Edited by Michal
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/23/2018 at 4:56 AM, Michal said:

Hi Guys,

when I plug in the charger, the green light should turn from green to red (start charging) but it doesn't. When I plug it in, the green light pretends to turn red but immediately shut off and in a second it blinks again and again, just keeps blinking. The status bar on the wheel shows charging but it doesn't.

It happened with no obvious reason. Last night, everything charged as usually, the wheel is going well but tonight when I plugged it in, this effect occured.

Any idea?

Hi @Michal, I believe you might have a defective charger there. Try to reach to your seller or just get a new replacement yourself. Hope it helps. :cheers:

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi @z3n thank you for your reply. Indeed it turned out it's been the defective charger what caused the problem. When I tried it the other day, the charger started to blink even before I plugged it to the wheel, so there was no dispute any more.

I ordered a new one. It will take 1 month for delivery. It's going to be a long month... ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Old topic but for those who are interested, the regulator is glued with red glue, opening the screw will augment voltage. On the picture that's the little blue component on the left so, which I removed the glue to be able to reach the screw.

15924110593701001906225437084187.jpg

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I've noticed my V8 "finishes" charging at under 82V, it was fine last year, got a multimeter, and the charger outputs 82.4V. I want to dismantle it to try opening the screw, but can't seem to find a way to open the plastic casing. Any pointers?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...