Battery Life Test

[Ginsterdrz]

Still learning about battery life and longevity on the VR.
I intentionally went out with 4 bars today to see if I could get round my local circuit.
Interested to see my display drop from 2 bars straight to one red bar towards the end.
I checked the actual battery and that maintained 2 bars for most of the remaining five miles home, dropping to 1 bar after a final blast on boost.
So it appears the display on the bars bottles it to red well before the battery actually drops below 2 bars.

 

[RocketMagnet]

It's predicting based on what you've done and what your currently doing. So lots of Eco followed by hard steep Boost causes it to recalculate.... Basically at your new power usage you're in the red and you've not got much left doing what your doing.
Battery display isn't linear, so each bar is not 20% IME so 2 bars left isn't really 40% left at a guess it anywhere from 10-30% in reality. Whereas you first 2 bars are roughly worth 40-60%.

Ultimately the bars are a very rough guide and you know best with some experience of how much you've been asking of the assist IMO.

 

[Stuart569]

I treat 4 bars as 75%, 3 bars as 50%, 2 bars as 30% then 1 bar as 10%. Its a rough guide but it works better when you look at like that. My first few rides I thought I had much more left than I actually did. As RocketMagnet said it's non-linear and depends on how hard you're working the motor.

 

[helipilottim]

Keeping in Eco I managed to get 64km and 4500ft of climb on one battery.....tyres at 40 psi though!

 

[jerry]

there's no lessons to be learned from anyone elses' riding.... even in Eco, the added power is dynamic ("up to x% assistance" doesn't mean "always x% assistance").

 

[Gary]

after 18months (and around 5000miles) on Shimano motored Emtbs I would agree entirely with everything @RocketMagnet has said above.
Treating the battery display as anything other than a rough guide is a big mistake. You definitely can't split each displayed bar as a percentage of overall battery. and as you get towards the last two bars the motor labours far more in higher output modes (and steeper/softer terrain)
Over time you learn just how far/high your battery will manage to assist you.
I now just intuitively know fairly accurately how much riding I'm likely to get from a fully charged battery depending on speed, distance, elevation and terrain over the ride and which modes are used.
That can be as little as 10miles/3000ft riding somewhere steep and in soft conditions or as much as 40+miles and 6000ft if riding somewhere more mellow with dry/harder surfaces and taking my time on the climbs.
To me. The assistance power bar along the bottom of the E8000 display is the most useful feature. and secondly cadence function.
You'd probably be surprised which cadences are most efficient battery usage wise and where.

 

[Dave_h34]

Which cadences are most efficient then? I'd like to know that!!

 

[helipilottim]

there's no lessons to be learned from anyone elses' riding.... even in Eco, the added power is dynamic ("up to x% assistance" doesn't mean "always x% assistance").

Actually I respectfully disagree.....a lot can be learned from other people use of the battery/tyre pressure use on rides...the difference in range of pumping the tyres up to 40 psi is huge... ow it’s finding the right balance of range/tyre pressures on long rides

 

[Gary]

Which cadences are most efficient then? I'd like to know that!!

depends what you're doing, how you're doing it and where.
The Shimano motor uses a combination of wheel speed, cadence and torque to calibrate it's assistance output. the most efficient cadence with regards to motor output/battery saving is not the same RPM everywhere.
a lot of folk assume a faster cadence is more efficient and saves battery but this is simply not the case.
Pay attention to that output bar on the display. for battery saving info it is your greatest gauge

 

[Gary]

Range information can still helpful without it being directly comparible or all of us being the same person riding exactly the same bike

Take tyre advice for example. loads of folk don't even realise how much difference pressures, compounds and casings make to range on the same tyre tread nevermind the huge difference in battery range between running something like a minion DHRII DD Maxterra @ 23psi Vs a Minion SS Dual compound Exo @ 40psi on the rear of an Emtb.

As for the dynamic nature of the motor reading what i said in my previous post is probably quite helpful too.

 

[Lawson]

I've posted this in the other group, but do you think I have cause for concern with my reading from Steps unlocker?
It's only done 3 cycles according to that, but I'm really not understanding the 32% health part. Can anybody lend some advice on this please? Thanks, Mike

 

[Gary]

I've posted this in the other group, but do you think I have cause for concern with my reading from Steps unlocker?
It's only done 3 cycles according to that, but I'm really not understanding the 32% health part. Can anybody lend some advice on this please? Thanks, Mike

View attachment 18657

it's a bug in the software when used with E7000 motors
Mine was the same. took the battery out and tested it with the App on my other bike (E8000) and the battery health was 100%
I raised this fault with @vadII at the time in the unlocker thread but it seems he's not fixed it yet.

 

[Lawson]

Ah amazing ! I hope this is the case ?

 

[Tuplis]

Yes it is

 

[vadII]

it's a bug in the software when used with E7000 motors

It's not a software bug. The App shows data that DCU output to specific command. Command is the same for all Shimano units.

 

[Lawson]

So I have a duff battery then?

 

[Gary]

No. @Lawson you probably don't have a duff battery at all.

I don't know what @Vadll said above even means but if you take your battery out and put it in another E8000 bike I'd @vadll bet the price of an unlock licence it'll read 100% health. And if you take the E8000 bike's battery out and put it in your E7000 bike it'll read 32%
That was the outcome doing exactly the above procedure with 2 perfectly healthy batteries between my own 2 bikes.
I'm not sure how that is NOT a software issue with the App.

 

[Tuplis]

My battery health in e7000 is -62% 13cycles. Yes its a minus.

 

[vadII]

I see that for many peoples it's so hard to understand. Ok. I'll remove this feature in a new version for all motors, except E8000 with non-integrated battery

 

[Lawson]

I see that for many peoples it's so hard to understand. Ok. I'll remove this feature in a new version for all motors, except E8000 with non-integrated battery

I don't think people are not understanding, it just doesn't appear to be correct mate.
It seems as though somehow the app isn't quite taking to the e7000 properly?

 

[vadII]

And another proof of my previous post...
Look, I have only one bike, it's E8000 with external battery. I don't have access to any other bikes, sorry for that! Command for reading battery cycles and health (one command for both info) is the same for all Shimano motors (as well as other commands), but according to statistics it doesn't work on E7000 and probably on other motors. You can try to use ETube Windows App with PCE interface for non-E8000 motors and check will it retrieve Battery Health or not. I can't do this, because I don't have other bikes and don't have access to them!

I don't think people are not understanding, it just doesn't appear to be correct mate.
It seems as though somehow the app isn't quite taking to the e7000 properly?

 

[Lawson]

And another proof of my previous post...
Look, I have only one bike, it's E8000 with external battery. I don't have access to any other bikes, sorry for that! Command for reading battery cycles and health (one command for both info) is the same for all Shimano motors (as well as other commands), but according to statistics it doesn't work on E7000 and probably on other motors. You can try to use ETube Windows App with PCE interface for non-E8000 motors and check will it retrieve Battery Health or not. I can't do this, because I don't have other bikes and don't have access to them!

It isn't a complaint mate, it was more an observation and to express my concern over me worrying about my nearly new battery. It sounds as if I don't have a problem.

More importantly, thank you for the app and your hard work ?

 

[vadII]

I've posted a new version to AppStore/Google Play. Changed logic and BT6000, BT6010 batteries are supported.

 

[Tuplis]

I've posted a new version to AppStore/Google Play. Changed logic and BT6000, BT6010 batteries are supported.

For my E7000, it shows 99% / 23cycles as battery health @ 1400km

 

[Lawson]

For my E7000, it shows 99% / 23cycles as battery health @ 1400km

Did you update the app then? Android? Silly question but how do you do it, and would I lose access to the licence I paid?