Extender First still uses some Main battery?

[rochrunner]

I finally got around to trying out the range extender on my Vado SL. I fully charged both using the Y cable and at the start the TPU was showing the expected 150% charge and MC set it to use the RE first. At the end of a 30 mile ride MC showed 54% remaining on the RE, but also 92% on the Main. Is this normal for it to use some amount of the Main battery even when set to RE first?

 

[Allan47.7339]

Yes there seems to be some main battery use with Range Extender first. Make sure you have the latest RE firmware otherwise when the RE battery is "empty" it will either throw an error code or shut the bike down until you disconnect it. I normally ride in "both" mode but for a double century this summer I used the "RE first" mode. I have two RE batteries and one has older firmware.

 

[rochrunner]

Yes there seems to be some main battery use with Range Extender first. Make sure you have the latest RE firmware otherwise when the RE battery is "empty" it will either throw an error code or shut the bike down until you disconnect it. I normally ride in "both" mode but for a double century this summer I used the "RE first" mode. I have two RE batteries and one has older firmware.

How can the firmware be updated? Will MC do this?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

As Allan said, several % of the main battery will be used on a long ride, especially when the RE charge level is already low but you require some more assistance.

It is the Specialized LBS that will do your RE updates. Of my 4 RE's only one has been updated. Indeed the rest of my REs throw error codes or switch the e-bike off at very low RE charge %. I do not care very much about it as I avoid riding at the RE charge level below 10%, when the assistance is greatly reduced.

I usually set the "Discharge Range Extender First" for the week-days when I mostly use my Vado SL for short local rides. For a long ride, I discharge both batteries equally (the system indeed takes care that the Wh left in both batteries are equal). When the main battery level has dropped down to some 10% (or even only 20%), it is the time for me to insert a fresh RE.

I could ride for some 147 km on a certain day swapping the REs. The 70 miles of that ride involved pretty fast gravel group ride. Assistance of 80/80% was required to keep with the group (taking my ailing legs into account).

I also need to mention I have recently participated in two gravel/dirt group rides at a racing speed. Vado SL would barely do the job (100% Turbo would be a tad too slow!) so I had to ride the full power Vado 5.0 there.

 

[SwimBikeRun]

Noticed this as well on a few rides. Interestingly my Edge 530 tells me exactly when I will get full assist back once the extender is depleted. On my garmin if the ebike battery says 35% but the bike reports 42, then my assist will be limited until the bike reports 35%. At that point I take off like cat. I call it my secret turbo boost