2020 Fastroad EX not "seeing" Energypak Plus

[Don T]

2020 Fastroad E+ EX Pro
Energypak Plus (battery extender)


I've ridden and enjoyed my Fastroad since early February. I purchased an Energypak Plus
a couple of weeks ago. Installation of this additional battery is described elsewhere in this forum. (It
is simple, although the manual leaves out the step of fiddling with the cable clip inside
the battery housing.) Followed instructions carefully on connecting the extra battery,
powering up the bike, but have had no success in getting the bike electronics to
acknowledge the presence of the add-on.

Rode about a half mile with Energypak connected. At that point, display showed a system
error and shut down. I disconnected the Energpak, restarted the bike, and continued without
incident.

Rode the bike to an authorized Giant dealer. A mechanic there downloaded new firmware. Together,
we duplicated the steps from the manual. Still no luck.

I downloaded updated firmware via the Giant phone app this morning; still no "awareness" of
the Energypak.

At this point my 3.3 kg Energypak is dead weight. Any guidance that anyone might offer on making
my bike wake up to its presence will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Don T]

A follow-up on this...

Short answer: latest firmware and overlooking incorrect sentence in manual corrects the
problem described in my post.

Long answer:

My main battery was running low, so I decided to attach my Energypak
Plus and run the main battery to near zero. When the main battery
got down to about 10% remaining, a switchover to the extra battery
must have occurred. My display suddenly changed from showing 6 miles of
range remaining to 40 miles remaining. [Note: prior to firmware update,
this did not work.]

I believe this is the way the two batteries are supposed to interact.
The manual says "[following plugging in of the Energypak Plus] the
battery indicator of the RideControl display/leds will show charge level
of both batteries combined."

This is incorrect.

However, later, the manual says "When the main battery is almost empty,
the system will switch to the EnergyPak Plus."

This is correct.

And still later: "When the EnergyPak Plus is empty, the system will switch
back to the main battery."

I'm guessing that this will prove true. When the switchover occurred,
the main battery still had about 10% left. So one could completely
drain the extra battery and still have some miles remaining.

 

[marcjlmd]

I just tried the EnergyPak Plus on my Fastroad E+EX Pro. What I found was no communication with the EnergyPak Plus when plugged in (main battery had plenty of juice). What was incredible to me was that frequently, like every 3 miles or so, I would lose assist nearly completely. I could turn bike off and back on, and assist would temporarily return, but invariably I would quickly lose assist. I found that if I disconnected the EnergyPak Plus, there was a return to uninterrupted assist.
I have begun a warranty claim with Giant through my LBS, but this is a pain in the ass.

Marc

 

[Don T]

The behavior that Marc describes might be corrected by a firmware update. My current software version is:

20191231000

Though I don't think it matters, my hardware version is:

20181200000

I haven't done enough testing to declare that my problem was solved, however I'm hopeful. One has to wonder
about the Giant release testing process. Clearly, at minimum, there needs to be instructions to dealers to download
the latest firmware.

As long as I'm registering complaints, let me offer another. A few days ago, I successfully downloaded a firmware
update via the Giant phone app. Now, when I check on whether there is a new update ("the Update E-Bike" option),
I get connection-failure error. Because the quality of this app is not, let's say, reassuring, I suspect that this error
message is doing double duty for connection failures and "no updates available/you're up-to-date". IOW, I can't
be sure whether it's the former condition or the latter.

Terry

 

[marcjlmd]

The behavior that Marc describes might be corrected by a firmware update. My current software version is:

20191231000

Though I don't think it matters, my hardware version is:

20181200000

I haven't done enough testing to declare that my problem was solved, however I'm hopeful. One has to wonder
about the Giant release testing process. Clearly, at minimum, there needs to be instructions to dealers to download
the latest firmware.

As long as I'm registering complaints, let me offer another. A few days ago, I successfully downloaded a firmware
update via the Giant phone app. Now, when I check on whether there is a new update ("the Update E-Bike" option),
I get connection-failure error. Because the quality of this app is not, let's say, reassuring, I suspect that this error
message is doing double duty for connection failures and "no updates available/you're up-to-date". IOW, I can't
be sure whether it's the former condition or the latter.

Terry

The firmware on my bike was "updated" by the bike shop that installed the EnergyPak Plus. That was 2 weeks ago. Now waiting word from Giant on warranty replacement.
I am not optomistic.
Marc

 

[patersont]

Hi all, I’ve just charged and connected my EnergyPak on my fastroad ex pro.

from what I have read, my display when both connected wilol just show the battery % and distance coverage, for the main battery.

a couple of issues.

The EnergyPak will not charge to 5 bars, and I’ve noticed the charger starts off charging (flashing green led) then the EnergyPak charge indictator (flashing bars) stop and o then get an orange Led on the charger. The energypack then start to lose charge.

my iphone app no longer can check for updates, prior to energypak I could check for updates and was up to date, this could just be coincidence

any help or advise appreciated, just found the guide on charging and added below, seems like my charger is charging for long term storage. Don’t think I pressed the button on the charger but then again I didn’t know it was there so will give it another go. Looks like another call back to the shop regarding updates

 

[Don T]

I had the same experience as Patersont with the smartphone app. My guess is the "Check Failed" error is doing
double-duty. It could come about either because the app couldn't connect to the update server or that there is no
update for your bike (i.e., your bike's firmware is up-to-date). If true, this is not good programming and should
be corrected.

A bike shop employee told me that Giant is about to release a higher capacity version of the EnergyPak. Certainly,
before that happens (and even if it doesn't happen), I'd hope they'd address the issues described in this thread.

Don T

 

[marcjlmd]

Follow-up to my original post: I took my bike to the LBS store (where I purchased it). They did a firmware update to the bike which corrected all the problems.
Now, the bike recognizes the EnergyPak Plus, shows the "extra" range, and functions properly from the main battery as well.
Nice work from my LBS!!
Marc

 

[patersont]

App now working and energypak recognised and working well

 

[marcjlmd]

Me as well. After this last firmware update, the app finally recognizes my bike and actually works.

 

[iskjone]

Great but I find it rather dismal that Giant struggles with such a basic plug-in feature. I swear a high school voc-tech would had that problem dialed-in and working in no time. I'm an analog guy living in a digital world.

 

[Don T]

Further comment on the integration of the EnergyPak Plus...the switch-over from the main
battery to EnergyPak Plus and, upon the depletion of the latter, back to the main battery is
smooth. However, the Ride Control Module needs an indicator to show which battery
you're drawing from. Say you're riding and you're main battery capacity dwindles to
about 15 miles. You continue riding and don't pay attention and then you look at your
screen--now it reads 40 miles. So you know you're on the auxiliary battery. But that 40 miles
applies only to the Energypak; you still have a dozen miles or so left in the main battery.

In the design of the Ride Control Module, Giant probably didn't plan adequately for
presence of EnergyPak Plus, so there's probably no space on the screen for a battery
indicator. Perhaps in a future release.

 

[iskjone]

Sound recommendation. Giant, are you listening?