So anyway

[duncan]

I ran out of charge 130m from home.

I left Hornsby (18klm) with 9klm on the GOM and 32 GIDs which I thought was plenty. By the time I was 300m from home I was --- on the GOM but still 7 (of about 281, or 2.5%) so, disappointed, I went the long way around the block.

At 5 GIDs I got the turtle, 250m from home. At 150m from home with 2 GIDs, the car "failed to proceed" as Rolls would say.

I guess I'm pushing it home after peak hour.

Knowing me, I was going to push it to far sooner or later....just didn't know I'd be doing it today

[gabzimiev]

so you pulled out a 150m extension cable ?

[Feng]

Good to do it in the cover of darkness so it won't make EVs look bad! Have you got enough help to push it? Do you leave anywhere near Bexley and need an extra pair of hands?

[duncan]

lol no all good, just pushed it back then.

don't be misled....small car but big weight!

[gabzimiev]

well when you put it into neutral it doesn't mechanically disconnect the electric motor. so as you started to push it would of started to regen right ? why my manual states you can't tow with the rear wheels on the ground (front wheels for a leaf obviously)

[duncan]

lol interesting...pushing the motor as well would not have helped make it lighter! it was in neutral which I assumed disconnected the motor but it may well be incorrect in a leaf.

btw it also misbehaved like crazy when the batteries died. wouldn't turn off, wouldn't turn on, wouldn't take handbrake off etc etc. real PITA. worst of all once we got it back to the charger and plugged it in we could not start charging because it didn't have enough power to turn off. yes Alanis, that IS ironic.

[Feng]

What happens if you hold the power button down for three seconds, does it force it to turn off like a computer? How did you end up disengaging the handbrake?

[duncan]

no it didn't work; and I just checked the manual, either pressing off 3x in 1.5seconds or holding it for 2sec should have done so.

in the end it just worked one time when it hadn't worked other times. annoying.

also the manual confirmed what we saw; when the car decided it had no power any more it goes into neutral and won't turn off. which of course makes it very likely you would also quickly flatten the 12v battery if you left it.

[duncan]

actually just got to the bottom of the bad behaviour...because the car stay on when the main battery is flat it also flattened the 12v battery so much that it didn't have power to turn off

all worked properly once I put a jump pack on it (ie I could turn it off OK to start main battery charging)

for the weirdos like me that like to learn from problem, here is what leaf spy shows (yes Jim, Android)

[Feng]

Thanks Duncan, that's interesting to compare with my figures. Last weekend when I returned from the Central Coast I made it back with less than 5% (took my chances and skipped the QC along the way). So nice to wake up the next morning with a charged battery!

[gabzimiev]

Jun 5, 2014 22:05:37 GMT 11 duncan said:

lol interesting...pushing the motor as well would not have helped make it lighter! it was in neutral which I assumed disconnected the motor but it may well be incorrect in a leaf.

looks like nissian is the same as the i-miev motor is always connected. you could of just keep on pushing and it would of charged up see video for the experiment. youtu.be/5Sujv90PLLY if you want to know what they are saying youtube has closed captions

[duncan]

lol no I couldn't. It was hard

[riddick]

Jun 5, 2014 23:58:40 GMT 11 gabzimiev said:

 youtu.be/5Sujv90PLLY if you want to know what they are saying youtube has closed captions

I love this!!!  Thanks gabzi for the link!  At least I know what to do when in real trouble!