Power Limit blinking after battery drain (?) Problem solved

[Poppe]

Arriving home Wednesday evening  from a mini vacation I was going to move the Think to its normal charging position in the garden.
I left it last Friday with an SOC of about 40-50% some 5 days ago. It was still saying around 40 % charge. I started it as usual but when I put it in D instead of driving forwards it was rolling backwards.
I checked the dials and saw that the Power Limit was blinking. I restarted it and the SOC went to fully charged and then started dropping at a slow speed ending up at around 15% charge. Power Limit still blinking.

Is this what normally happens when the Zebra battery is (almost) completely discharged ? Or is there some other fault that started while the Think was resting ?

What should I do next ? Just plug in and charge as usual ? What will happen then ? Having to wait until the battery is hot again and how long will that take ?

[Poppe]

Just connected the charger cord.
The "Ladekabel tillkoblet"-light is on.
The "Lading pågår"-light is blinkning. Can't find anything about what this means in the user manual.
The "Låseindikator"-light is blinking with a ration of 1 to 5 (estimated). According to the. manual this means  the car is locked, but it is not.

[Poppe]

Still the same status on in car lights. Also noted that the "car link" light is blinkning. This, according to the manual, says the car is charging but should I not see this on the econometer ?

[Poppe]

Before bedtime last night I went to have a look and everything was exactly the same.
I then plugged out the charger and plugged it in again. To my surprise I hear the ding-ding-ding sounds from inside.

Checking again this morning the "Lading pågår"-light steady on, no blinking. I unplug the car, put it in D and feel the force from the engine. Yipee !

SOC was only about 20% so it will be plugged in for the day.

[BauDemo]

Your car may have frozen the battery when you were away. Then when you came back and connected it, the battery has started the long process of heating the battery, and when it was ready had continued on to charging it.
It is hard to say though if you have no way to measure current coming in or temperatures. How is you new nikometer build going?

[Poppe]

Still waiting for the display (they have sent a new one). I have some initial problems with the Duinomite. When starting with only computer and display, no sd-card and no CAN signal. I get the message "can not read from sd card". When starting with instaled card with your SW I get the message "Exception code 7 at 0x9D03D114  Are you using the PEEK or POOK commands?"

I have never seen the weicome screen.
Keyboard works fine.

[BauDemo]

You need to follow the installation guide in the other thread to the letter to make sure you get the new firmware with CAN commands, then reconfigure video, and then start the program.
From what you write it maybe that you were not successful in updating the firmware.

[Poppe]

I'll make another try during the weekend.

Even without a successfull FW download, should I not get the welcome message ?
According to the manual it should be:

STAND ALONE USE:
If you use PS2 Keyboard and VGA just plug them to the board and power it.
You will see on the VGA monitor this message:
"MaxiMite BASIC Version x.xx
Copyright 2011, Geoff Graham
Olimex Port By kenseglerdesigns.com
>"

This meaasge, I think, is flashing for maybe 1/10 of a second before going to "can not read from sd card".

[hma]

Before bedtime last night I went to have a look and everything was exactly the same.
I then plugged out the charger and plugged it in again. To my surprise I hear the ding-ding-ding sounds from inside.

Checking again this morning the "Lading pågår"-light steady on, no blinking. I unplug the car, put it in D and feel the force from the engine. Yipee !

SOC was only about 20% so it will be plugged in for the day.

On the dash you have two green lamps, one with a battery symbol and the other with the connector symbol.
When the battery-symbol is flashing, you know your battery temp is bellow 255C and its wither freezing or heating up. The battery DC-heater shuts of at 5% SOC.
The battery symbol should light steady when battery is operational

The connector symbol flashes during charging. But shuts off during SOC-calibration at 80%. When EndOfCharge is reached it lights steady.

So I think it's like BauDemo suggest; your battery had started to freeze. If the battery did not go bellow 177C it's not considered at one thermal cycle.

Best regards.
Håkon
When the

[Poppe]

Thanks Håkon
Thats some interresting info. Can't recall I ever read that. Definatly not in the manual or service manual.

[hma]

It is described in the Zebra_batteri_håndbok_v2.pdf which was printed and attached to the cars.
I assume you don't have it.

The pdf used to be available from this address, but I see it's not there anymore:
http://www.stighenningjohansen.priv.no/dl/Zebra%20v2.pdf

Edit: I hope I don't violate copyrights by uploading the Zebra user manual. I think it's for public interest.

[Poppe]

Thanks Håkon

Haven't seen that one before. Its now safe with me 

Went out to the car and it had stopped charging at about 20%.
Moved it a bit and plugged it in again.
Both green lights are on (no blink) but I wonder why it had stopped at 20%. Forgot to check lights before unplugging.

[Poppe]

I just realized that the reason for stopping at 20% was a blown fuse in the extensioncord 

[hma]

I just realized that the reason for stopping at 20% was a blown fuse in the extensioncord 

Ok. I strongly recommend not using extention cords. Specially the drum-types where the cable is coiled. Usually those are of poor quality and rated for 10A max.
If using extension cord, use the best quality possible and keep the charging process in sight regurarly.

[Poppe]

Normally I never use an extension cord but since the car was out of charge and som 20 meters away from the nearest socket I didn't have much of a choice. I also never charge with more than 10 A.