It says "Low Battery"
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:31 am
So, I was away for work all last week in New Zealand (don't be jealous, it was meeting after meeting all day, every day and no spare time other than the pub in the evenings) when one afternoon my wife calls to say that the Xmax is beeping in the garage. It was 2am in the UK, so she wasn't happy.
My first thought was that I had not fully moved the main switch to OFF before I left and so some circuits might have remained open and so drained the battery. I therefore tried to direct her to check where the switch was pointing. After a while she sent me a photo of the switch which did look a little off-centre. So I said grab my bike jacket and rest it on the seat (so that the key fob in the pocket was close enough to activate), switch the scoot to on and then back to off. This was done.
It's still beeping she says, and adds that it says "low battery". I found a user manual online and could not find any reason for the scoot to continue beeping while showing a low battery warning. I advised her to smother the scoot with blankets and let it wear itself out.
A few days later I arrived home, fully expecting to find a flat battery. Only when I turned the scoot on, it was showing 12.5V, just as it should. And it started, just as it should. Bit of a head-scratching moment, but hey, it's working so I'll leave it.
That night, in the early hours I could hear beeping from the garage. I went down and stood over the scoot: what was going on? No flashing lights, no low battery warning, just a beep once a minute or so. Haaaang on.....
I looked up and above the scoot was the carbon monoxide alarm, with a tell-tale red light flashing softly and now - obviously - the source of the beeping. The alarm then said out loud "Low Battery". On the reverse of the case, it confirmed that it does speak that phrase when it has to.
If only I had thought to ask in what form the "Low Battery" was being shown: I assumed it was displayed on the LCD screen, my wife had assumed that the high-tech scooter could talk.
Lesson learned. At least I have a good story out of it.
My first thought was that I had not fully moved the main switch to OFF before I left and so some circuits might have remained open and so drained the battery. I therefore tried to direct her to check where the switch was pointing. After a while she sent me a photo of the switch which did look a little off-centre. So I said grab my bike jacket and rest it on the seat (so that the key fob in the pocket was close enough to activate), switch the scoot to on and then back to off. This was done.
It's still beeping she says, and adds that it says "low battery". I found a user manual online and could not find any reason for the scoot to continue beeping while showing a low battery warning. I advised her to smother the scoot with blankets and let it wear itself out.
A few days later I arrived home, fully expecting to find a flat battery. Only when I turned the scoot on, it was showing 12.5V, just as it should. And it started, just as it should. Bit of a head-scratching moment, but hey, it's working so I'll leave it.
That night, in the early hours I could hear beeping from the garage. I went down and stood over the scoot: what was going on? No flashing lights, no low battery warning, just a beep once a minute or so. Haaaang on.....
I looked up and above the scoot was the carbon monoxide alarm, with a tell-tale red light flashing softly and now - obviously - the source of the beeping. The alarm then said out loud "Low Battery". On the reverse of the case, it confirmed that it does speak that phrase when it has to.
If only I had thought to ask in what form the "Low Battery" was being shown: I assumed it was displayed on the LCD screen, my wife had assumed that the high-tech scooter could talk.
Lesson learned. At least I have a good story out of it.
