Signature Series

[ricschug]

Here are three pictures I took the other night.  First I covered up the new headlights to show just the Amber lights that replaced the original headlights.  They throw out an ample amount of light.  More than I thought they would. (great for cutting through our coastal fog) The second pic is with the addition of low beam headlight and finally with the high beam added.  Cheers,

Thanks pictures are always worth a thousand words. I assume the yellow light turn off when the high beam is on? I hope the final design is a bright as what you have.

[Rickb]

Excellent photos! I ass.u.me the amber running lights stay on for greater visibility (to be seen) as a motorcycle safety requirement.

[AnimalCage]

I'd have to experience them at night, but it looks like they are pointed low, and very easily overdriven. Could just be the perspective of the photos?

[CreativeGuy]

Excellent photos!  I ass.u.me the amber running lights stay on for greater visibility (to be seen) as a motorcycle safety requirement.

I just checked, The amber lights stay on together with both low and high beams.

Cheers

[PAX]

AC - on RED  our  SS FUV the lights are great- drove home last night in dark and looked closely at light pattern. The lows picked up stop signs quit a ways away. i played a bit in my tree lined drive with my truck75-80' away - great lights. The only interesting  part was a very slightly darker area out from vehicle 30 to 50' (quess) on road way. very slight difference, not an issue as far as I am concerned. The add on lights are easy to adjust but with a quick look  I did not see anything on the original lights for adjustment but there has to be something.

Some info on our vehicle which may not be applicable to the true production FUV. Things that happened this week:
Last Sat we went to the local EV week event- Charged Sat. night -  on Sunday we did not use the vehicle  and Monday Susan had several places she wanted to go to - the Y for exercise and swim and then to a hospice client appointment. She had things to carry and leave in vehicle. Because the FUV had no secure storage are she decided to take our beater EV- truck and not RED. The lack of secure storage was the issue. RED did not get driven until she went to singing in the evening- about 7 miles total and then we charged it. So the vehicle went from Sat. night to Monday evening going only 7 miles.  The miles per KWH was 2.6.   OUCH.  this was due to the fact that RED loses more than .75 KWH per day due to telementary connections.  My point is that our daily usage is skewed quite a bit and is hard to get an accurate reading on. I assume that the production will not have this issue.

My overall impression is that AM has the FUN factor down but needs to work on the UTILITY factor.

I am repeating a post that I made in "enclosures": should have posted it here

Its been raining here in Olympia, nothing compared to Florence but still some rain. At the moment I will accept any door set up. It is a bit of an issue to have a wet seat to plop on. Rain is not much of an issue while moving - at least in front seat. Back seat  may be an issue but my wife is gone for ten days and i get the SS FUV to myself.  and don't get to test the back seat.

Three wheel Motorcycle endorsement test on Tues. - should be easy with the awesome attributes of the arcimoto.  I videoed the test for filthy gas powered three wheelers last month and have a good idea of what to expect. It starts with a three cone zig zag and then a left hand 90' curve and normal stop inside a box, Followed with a right hand 90' curve  Then an obstacle swerve and then a panic stop.   Set up a practice course the other day and will do it again tomorrow, Biggest problem will be to take it easy and not blast through the course like the FUV can. Damn thing is fast and agile and brakes on a dime. If I pass it I get to spend a couple of hours at licensing to get my endorsed driver license.

[SparkE]

{...} RED did not get driven until she went to singing in the evening- about 7 miles total and then we charged it. So the vehicle went from Sat. night to Monday evening going only 7 miles.  The miles per KWH was 2.6.   OUCH.  this was due to the fact that RED loses more than .75 KWH per day due to telementary connections.  My point is that our daily usage is skewed quite a bit and is hard to get an accurate reading on. I assume that the production will not have this issue.

Am I correct in my assumption that "due to telemetry connections" means the stuff that Arcimoto has added to your specific FUV because you are 'a guinea pig' ("friendly beta tester") and they are closely monitoring usage, etc., to be able to detect problems early enough to be able to tweak/fix issues before the "production" vehicles are finalized?

[AnimalCage]

AC - on RED  our  SS FUV the lights are great- drove home last night in dark and looked closely at light pattern. The lows picked up stop signs quit a ways away. i played a bit in my tree lined drive with my truck75-80' away - great lights. The only interesting  part was a very slightly darker area out from vehicle 30 to 50' (quess) on road way. very slight difference, not an issue as far as I am concerned. The add on lights are easy to adjust but with a quick look  I did not see anything on the original lights for adjustment but there has to be something.

Thanks, Pax. I do trust that AM would not make such elementary blunders, but the pics were a little disconcerting. I wouldn't trust a vehicle, especially a motorcycle (and I've had a few) that didn't have great lighting.
Glad to hear your experience proves otherwise.

Secure storage is an issue, maybe not for everyday usage, but there will definitely be times when a cargo box is necessary.

And thanks for being a guinea pig, even if it means we can't get real world range numbers right now. I'm sure those numbers will come soon enough.

[PAX]

Am I correct in my assumption that "due to telemetry connections" means the stuff that Arcimoto has added to your specific FUV because you are 'a guinea pig' ("friendly beta tester") and they are closely monitoring usage, etc., to be able to detect problems early enough to be able to tweak/fix issues before the "production" vehicles are finalized?

I believe that is correct. It runs full time- not sure why they can't turn it on and off- would need a data storage system unless that is what is using juice. I was told when we picked it up that it would use .75KWH per day due to the telemetry.   I would suspect that the production model will have a monitoring set up similar to what cars have. Just a guess.

They did find one issue with power steering cutting out occasionally and are redesigning the cause. Happened to RED when my wife drove by one particular spot on one street. There were high voltage lines with a spur line off of it. Happened 5 or 6 times. After the first two times AM put in a board that reset it automatically instead of my having to pull a fuse to reset. They jump right on any issues ASAP.

I also did a test of turning the vehicle on with charged battery and let it sit for 3 hours. I was curious what the lights and other "on" things would draw.   My methodology was not super scientific but it appears to draw around 0.15 KWH  per hour after taking out the telemetry factor which is a little unknown because I charged it over night and don't know what time charging finished.  Some day I might refine my technique unless AM comes up with some data.

[SparkE]

Do you have a 12V battery tester? (a voltmeter)

If so, I would highly suggest regularly testing the voltage on the 12V battery (every evening - at least until you have a feel of drain on the 12V use/non-use, drive/sitting, etc.).

A 12V lead-acid battery (even AGM) should have a 'full' resting voltage around 12.6V. If it gets down to 12.2V it is over 50% 'empty'. Sitting (and having juice pulled) from a low 12V, lead-acid battery causes sulfation, which slowly kills the battery. If the battery is not usually above 12.45V, invest in an inexpensive, "smart" trickle charger. (I really, really like C-TEK, but there are others that are good.) A good trickle charger will cost much less than a new 12V battery (and you can use it on ALL your vehicles - just give each car an overnight charge once a month).

[PAX]

Do you have a 12V battery tester? (a voltmeter)

If so, I would highly suggest regularly testing the voltage on the 12V battery (every evening - at least until you have a feel of drain on the 12V use/non-use, drive/sitting, etc.).

A 12V lead-acid battery (even AGM) should have a 'full' resting voltage around 12.6V. If it gets down to 12.2V it is over 50% 'empty'. Sitting (and having juice pulled) from a low 12V, lead-acid battery causes sulfation, which slowly kills the battery. If the battery is not usually above 12.45V, invest in an inexpensive, "smart" trickle charger. (I really, really like C-TEK, but there are others that are good.) A good trickle charger will cost much less than a new 12V battery (and you can use it on ALL your vehicles - just give each car an overnight charge once a month).

There is no easy way to get to 12v battery - it is in back end of main battery box, under the rear seat.   No lighter socket either.  I am not sure how AM set up the telemetry stuff as it runs on 12V but it drains the big battery (can watch charge % drop) so the DC-DC unit has to keep the 12V battery charged - not sure what the parameters are though.