First ride ended with System Fault B55

[Roan]

Today I made my first testride. The bike handles very well and suspension is Nice and firm.

So far the good things. At some moment the battery level showed 39% and on accelarating on to the highway the bike suddenly dropped dead. I saw 'Service required B40'. I powered off and started again. Had to do this 3 times on the way home.

Battery level at 39%. Service required B40 BMS Back in Idle Mode. Reset by power off/on. . Rode back, battery level went on 0%. Back home system fault B55 appeared and remains in the display.
Battery level was 0% and required charging. Strangly the battery fan kept continuously blowing on charging.

It was an abrupt end of my first day out. I wonder what went wrong and will contact Brammo Service.

Total kilometres are now 71,5 km.

I will fully charge the batteries and see if the error will disapear. Didn't expect this of a new Enertia. 

[FrankH]

That's a bad way to end your first ride Roan, especially with the weather being perfect for riding today in NL.

I've had B55 errors on a loaner Enertia (standard, not plus) when it was cold and SoC got below 40%. B55 indicates that some cells of the batteries are charged a lot lower than others: 'SOC Mismatch >30%'. After charging it that error will go away, and letting the cells balance out some (which happens after the batteries have reached 100% SoC) might prevent it from coming back again.
The B40 I've had also, but that was on that loaner Enertia classic too. (And that was the end of it then, I couldn't start it anymore so I had to wait for Brammo to return my own Plus which was being serviced at the time).

I've had my share of errors with my Plus too, but those were other ones and after the service I mentioned above from Brammo Germany, they didn't come back.
What firmware version is your bike running? Mine has 2.06 now.

Hope all this is over soon! groeten, Frank

[kingcharles]

Ai, bad news Roan.
But it could be explained by the fact that your bike has not been used for a long time. This could have caused major cell imbalance.


Once you go EV, gas is history!

[Roan]

You're both right. I charged the batteries the hole day. It's now 99% and is still balancing.
At 80% the system fault disapeared. I think the bike wasn't used fully charged, that explains the balancing.

The temperature of the motor shows -40 when I power on the 'cold' bike. Also the temperature measured outside differs from the real degrees. The display degrees are 15 degrees Celsius higher.

The firmware if my bike is v1.44.

[FrankH]

The temperature of the motor shows -40 when I power on the 'cold' bike.

That's before you actually "start" up the bike, because afterwards it will show the real value. And if I'm not mistaken, the newer firmware actually shows '--' for motor temperature then.
 

Also the temperature measured outside differs from the real degrees. The display degrees are 15 degrees Celsius higher.

I guess that was today in the sun? Because in my experience, the "outside" temperature display is not that much off. But the temp sensor is somewhere inside the bike's panels, so if the sun is heating the bike, it will be higher than the actual outside temperature.

I don't know what the newer firmware changed in the bike's charging and battery management so it may not actually solve your problems, but I think you should get Marchel to update the firmware of your bike. He did it on mine (even sent it to Germany for that) when I saw that his demo Enertia+ had newer firmware than I had (I was on 1.44 too). For me it solved some issues I had with regen not working in cold weather. That is, it still doesn't work when batteries are too cold but now the display will tell me what's going on.
Marchel also told me that he can update the firmware himself now, so it won't involve sending the bike to Brammo's German headquarters anymore.

[Shinysideup]

Also the Air Temp reading will show warmer than actual if the bike has just come off the charger as the battery heaters will affect the sensor. After riding a few km,  the reading seems to match my weather app.

[Roan]

Temperature issue is clear.

However the charging process does not finish. It is still cell balancing for 3 days now.
The SOC was on 100% for a moment, but dropped to 94%.
Brammo service told me to leave it balancing. So I'll be patient.

[Rano]

I can´t imagine that even balancing for a month will fix this problem 

[Roan]

@Rano: I agree. There is possibly something wrong with the BMS or batteries. The firmware could be updated but I'm not sure if that will solve this problem.

My choice to buy a Brammo was based on the building quality. I'm planning to use the Enertia for escorting cycling races. At these events I'm a traffic controller and reliability of the motorcycle is very important. My eight previous bikes were all BMW's. I can't afford to miss control points because I got stranded with electical problems.

These events are a great opportunity to promote electric motorcycling and particularly Brammo as premium brand. I rely on Brammo Service to fix this problem so I can go out to prove the feasibility and profit of full electic motorcycling.

Update: After almost 5 days charging the SOC finally showed 100% Complete !
What a relieve

[Rano]

Update: After almost 5 days charging the SOC finally showed 100% Complete !
Wrat a relieve

Wow! March 12th...  Definetly not April 1st... Great! Hope that the batteries will keep balanced!
I definitly did not have troubles with the battery of my Plus. Hope that your will work, too!

[kingcharles]

Good news!
Now you know that electric bikes need to driven daily in order to keep the battery in shape.
Tomorrow the weather will be nice

Once you go EV, gas is history!

[Roan]

I got a firmware update V 2.06. When I charge the batteries I can't get the detailed charging information anymore by pressing and holding the Start button for seven seconds.

The bike is riding ok now and I didn't met any errors.  It is confidence-building.

pic.twitter.com/NDhLildaF0

[FrankH]

When I charge the batteries I can't get the detailed charging information anymore by pressing and holding the Start button for seven seconds.

I noticed that too. But this weekend, when I was trying all sorts of button combo's trying to change the time because of daylight saving time, I found that holding the green and black button on the dash for a while (7 seconds?) will produce that detail view now (at least it did that for me but I was not charging).
And according to the manual, to change the time setting the bike must be in charging mode (haven't tried that yet).

[Roan]

I tried the combinatoin too and the detail information popped up immediately. Both on actvating motor controller and charging. Great to have it back! Any eastereggs hidden 

Did you already know about the rapid 'boot' method? Press and hold the On/Off switch, then turn the key. Relay clicks and the green leds are flashing right away. It performs only one test cyclus.

I'm also working on an external C20 power connector, so you don't need lift the buddy for charging. Bought a second charging cable to leave at home. I will post some pictures when it's installed.