What does battery % mean when under load?

When not triggered, this number seems to accurately indicate the remaining stored power., but when riding, this number bounces all over the place.

I ride in hills, mostly 5-15degrees. This indicator drops when powering up a hill. If in fast mode on a small slope, it may drop down to 50% (red/<10% in GT mode), then return to 90% seconds later. The harder I push it, the faster it drops. When I release the trigger, and either stop or ride level/down, the power returns to 90% after a few seconds.

I realize that there is a limit to the steepness/speed/weight that the board can handle and I ride accordingly. I just want to understand what it means.

Is this normal?
Is this "the amount of power that the battery/controllers can deliver to the motors?"?
Is it an indicator of strain?
Is there a problem delivering the power to the motors?
Do boards "burn up" because of riding them when the indicator is yellow/red?

on a related note, can someone please explain how the "auto downshift to ECO" is expected to work? and what I should do when it happens?

Thanks!!

 

Don't pay attention to that. Evolve for whatever reason did the unthinkable with an electric powered vehicle, relied solely on the voltage as a pure state of the battery or battery indicator to the user. This is normal that it drops like that under load, its called voltage lag or sag. However due to Evolve doing the battery state of charge / battery meter wrong, you don't get to use your GT to the full range as you'd expect. It begins forcing you into ECO mode when you're 20% or 30% of the battery left. My other boards don't use the voltage to meter the battery and I can get down pretty low in charge before it starts throttling down the motor.

Evolve use to show the raw voltage in the main screen in the upper toolbar with their early beta boards. For some reason they took that out. You can get to the raw battery voltage, but you have to do lots of digging and pocking around. Something you don't want to do on the GT with that overly sensitive remote trigger. Since they / Evolve is using raw voltage as the sole / only gauge of the battery level, knwoing what value it begins cutting out would be key to the user, since it would be that same voltage threshold if you were on a hill or on flats.

As you may notice, the battery level will rise significantly after a dip or lag, hence why reading the voltage to gauge the battery level is a bad idea.

 

Thanks. So is there any indication that its "redlining" or being over driven... or will it cut out on its own? Does ECO shift occur when the battery is actually at 20% or 30% or when the indicator displays that?

 

There's no way of gauging when its going to drop into eco mode if your on a hill. Its really in controlled flat environment can you predict exactly when its going to do that. I think people just know its going to happen and learn where it happens and in what environment. Then next time you drop into ECO before it does. What people don't like is the surprise when your power is all of sudden reduced in a significant way without notice.

If you wanted to you could ride with the raw voltage screen and that will give you a better prediction when the boards going into ECO / power reduction mode than any battery % which as I mentioned is interpreted from the raw battery voltage.

 

I came across a post Andy had, he believes its 20% or under heavy load (which makes the battery drop below the same voltage threshold as the 20% level) that the board drops into ECO. So what I feel people do is they drop into ECO at 30% to eliminate surprises.

 

I can confirm 20% is the mark when my Carbon GT forces ECO mode. But I'd like to know what voltage 20% is - any way to find out?

 

Go into the main menu by double clicking on the left button, goto "More Info". You then can see the raw battery voltage at the top. Ride your board down to 20% and record that number. Do a few tests to see if it hovers in the same area, it should, when ECO kicks in.

Also do the same when the battery is around 40% or so, hit a hill in FAST or GT, watch the voltage drop and see if its the same or even lower as the above test when ECO is dropped in.

 

I'm in the middle of winter so I can't ride it lol. But I won't be able to see the mode change when I'm on the voltage screen. Do we know what voltage the battery is at when it's drained? Because I know 42v is fully charged.

 

You can feel ECO kick in or you can ride looking at the main screen for the ECO drop and then enter the battery voltage screen. I don't know at what voltage the board stops working, would be good to note.

 

Found the earlier remote pic that showed Evolve displaying the raw pack voltage at the top toolbar of the remote. I wish Evolve would monitor the pack correctly or at minimum, bring back the raw voltage reading like this on back to the remote.

 

LMAO that's the picture I posted to the eSk8 builder forum after writing on it. Small world.

 

Too funny. Thanks for posting it, I never knew they had such a screen. Wish that feature didn't disappear, would be sweet if there was some ez way to bring it back. Here's your original post to give you credit:

LiFePO4 Batteries in Evolve GT?

 

Haha thanks. Maybe if we ask Evolve, they could probably send out a firmware update over email or something and we can connect the remote to our computers to install it ourselves. If there is demand, there would be no reason for Evolve not to do so - it seems like a simple feature to add.

 

That would be great! But currently Evolve is the only one who can perform remote updates.

 

Please visit the Ideas and Suggestions forum and vote for ideas that you support: just "like" the initial post. This is the best way to help the Evolve team prioritize bug fixes and new features. Your vote matters!

I just posted the suggestion for volt-meter. please click on this link and like it, if you want this feature. Thanks.
Evolve Suggestion - Display raw pack voltage on remote

 

So I've been gathering data to translate the indicator from percentage to voltage in the mean time Evolve decides not to change the indicator to raw voltage. I'll just place a graph here so you don't have to switch just to check your battery voltage.

 

Downshifts make hill walking

 

yeah the USB port on the GT remote is only connected to power, not data, so no way for customers to upgrade without sending it in.

 

When Is it safe to upshift after an ECO downshift?

I had about 55% and needed to get up a few hills. While accelerating in GT mode, the display changes from GT to ECO (displaying under 20% while under load). It continues at GT speed when this happened even though ECO is displayed, as long as i kept the trigger depressed

If I release the trigger, it resumes at ECO mode. But, after a few seconds, the battery is back up to 55%, and I can shift right back up to GT and take off.

So, is it safe to shift back up when the remote lets me? Is the downshift a sign for "cool down needed", or just "hey, we don't want you to run out of power on your ride"?

thanks

 

Bingo. As you know, this board never gives up its torque - its relentless. So the feeling of hard acceleration in GT to a coast can be quite jarring if its not anticipated. They don't want anyone eating asphalt like in the first batch, so they decided to make the board switch to ECO early. In fact, they could've waited even more before downshifting, but they decided to do so 2v early for your safety.